How Great is the Joss Tour?

Another great Joss Tour season is over. I hate this time of year, seeing pool go into a summer hiatus.

It's been another great year with the Joss Tour visiting our local pool rooms here in the Northeast. Mike Zuglan, Joe Tucker and all their related promoters do an unsurpassed job at bringing quality pool events for all involved - the rooms, the fans and the players.

We had a great year watching top level players like Bustamante, Corr, Strickland, Pagulayan, Immonen, Stalev, "Ginky" San Souci, Parica, Zuglan and Sambjon. How awesome was it to see Ronnie Alcano dominate the tour for the first half of the season. Or seeing great players from the past like Keith McCready play pool and trash talk at top form.

Witnessing top regional players coming into their own like Jarrod Clowery, Tom D'Alfonso and Darren Belliveau. I have really enjoyed watching these guys go from "C" players to great contenders over the years.

How about the job that Joe Tucker has done all year? Every weekend driving to the next Joss event and being a true professional at directing the events and keeping the players in line. He is the backbone of this tour.

Of course, we have to give Zuglan a huge round of applause. He has made the Joss Tour what it is today. This tour has grown every year, more money added every year and his events attracts world class players. He produces a quality tour for all of us to enjoy.

The Joss Tour is supported by a great list of sponsors. I feel bad, because I know I'll miss someone and I apologize ahead of time. Start with the title sponsor, Danny Janes of Joss Cues. He's been there from the beginning backing Zuglan and his idea. Mike Webb of Webb Custom Cues, Barry Cameron and Simonis are other great sponsors who are generous to the tour. Thanks to all of you this tour exists.

Give a hand to all the rooms that hosted these events. All the rooms put up the added money and donate their venue for the events. These rooms understand how important it is to support such tours not only for their own business, but also for the billiard industry in general

Last, but not least, all the fans that attend the events. The fans are who support the venues, the sponors and the tour itself. They attend the events to help defray the room’s expenses for putting on the event; they buy the sponsor’s products. The fans are what helps the Joss Tour attract additional sponsors.

I feel very luck to be able to attend and sometimes play in these events. What other sport can an amateur player play their favorite sport against a world-class player? When will you ever be able to shoot a round with Tiger Woods and play one-on-one against Michael Jordan? This tour brings the players to the fans.

During the Joss Tour Final's player's meeting, Joe Tucker posed a question, "What if this tour didn't exist?" Think about that question for a moment. This tour means a lot to me and I know it does to countless others.

Take a moment and show your appreciation to everyone who makes this tour happen.

Harry...

Once again, it looks like Harry has gone on a completely unnecessary rant. It amazes me to have read some of your more interesting and relevant posts in the past and then to have now just read you current post. What is your problem???
You have got to be the most anal, annoying person on the face of the planet. What is the big f---ing deal with the scores!?!?! Is it really that important to you to know the scores of every single match? How trivial can you get? Ya, I'll admit it, it's nice to know the scores of the matches with prominant players, but to actually write a negative post in reference to Mike H. or just in general. I mean come on, grow up already and stop being such an idiot on this site. You'd think you'd learn from all the resposes posted here in the past with regards to some of your mundane posts.
Also, you mentioned that the players would just play on another tour if the Joss were to end, ya, obviously they would play on other tours...No shit sherlock... The point is...that the Joss is the best tour out there, the Joss is the closest thing to a pro tour!! Nuff said...Give me a break!!!!!

Gremlin,
What the heck are you on? I'll willing to bet "your champion" wouldn't have a hissyfit just because her scores weren't posted. Mike is doing a great job and the Joss tour sounds like the best thing going.

Jake, I think I recall that Joe was writing down the scores. If not he could have done so quite easily. He should do it as it is easy and would raise the coverage to a more professional level. It should be remembered that media coverage is rare for pool tournaments and it would be one more little thing for him to require from the players.

Many tables are used and it would be near impossible for someone to observe all the scores but the chart is in public view and it would be easy to report scores. It's probably something they should start doing even if only one person is concerned about it.

It's easy to check the chart since there's no place to sit so you won't lose your seat. I had to go out regularly for fresh air breaks and was so wiped out after 9 hours in the gas chamber that I didn't get out of bed until after noon on Sunday. There's no way I could have gone back Sunday.

The Joss is great for players who can stand the smoke but it is not spectator friendly. Of course, it wouldn't work anywhere but in pool rooms and it's just getting too popular and having growing pains.

Fortunately they don't need many spectators as long as the room owners are willing to put up the money to host the events. If the room owners want to make money they need to find a way to make the fans more comfortable. Standing three deep in the aisle with cigarettes burning next to me is not my idea of a fun day.
Ken in CT

I'm rather disappointed with this thread. I started this post to try something new and be positive about this game that we all love.

I guess it's a lot easier to complain about petty things than to step up and compliment where compliments are due. It's really unfortunate that we can't be more positive and help the sport grow.

I was the tournament promoter for the George Joblon Memorial Joss Tour Finals. I was there and saw what a great job Joe & Mike did. I have held (6) Joss tour events 1 each year it has been in existence. Each year the tour has gotten bigger & tougher. Joe was so busy, there was 69 players that played in the event and over a third of the field were world class players. A lot of the players that came up to the chart to tell Joe who won didn't know the score themself. The not posting the scores in the beging of the tournament was not all the Joss Tour's fault. The Second day Joe did post scores.
If the Joss tour was not in existence I do not think the northeast would of had the chance to see Karen Corr win a Open Event, Karen Corr vs. Francisco Bustamante match or Alan Hopkins, Mika Immonen, Earl Strickland, Johnny Archer, Alex Pagulayan, Jose Parica, Efren Rays, Corey Duel, Julie Kelly, Danny Hewitt, Santos Sambajon Jr., Rodney Morris, to name a few that have played regularly on the Joss Tour.
So again what if the Joss Tour never Existed? I am glad and about 100,000 others pool players are glad, that we don't have to worry about that. I am sure Zug has more tricks up his sleeve and that next years tour will be bigger & better then this year, If that is hard to believe. The Joss Tour is going to miss Joe as tournament Director, but it still has Joe as a player. Thank God & Mike Zugland for the best tour in America!!!!!!!!!!!

Mike,
I couldn't agree more. I think this tour is the best of them all. My biggest problem is that I couldn't decide which match to watch!! Though AccuBilliards is set up so well that you could actually watch several at once.

I had the opportunity to see all the best players in the world. I mean, the very first round was like a who's who of pro pool. Tables 1-4 had Rodney, Bustamante, Archer, and one table over was Strickland. Any tour that draws that kind of field is obviously doing something right. Perhaps most importantly, the *players* seem to like it too, because the big names keep showing up and the field is always strong.

Thanks Mike for running a great show, thanks to all the Joss tour people (Mike, Joe, etc.), and thanks Mario for starting what can still be a positive thread here.

KerryM