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| Winner Maxime Villeneuve |
Last weekend at Dooly's Levis located in Levis, Québec a $500 entry, 16 player max Semi-Pro tournament took place. There was also $1000 in added money. These higher entry tournaments that produce bigger payouts have been very popular in this region as we have seen several in the last year throughout Québec and Ontario.
These types of tournaments are very entertaining from a fans standpoint for many reasons. Usually only the best players show up for these events meaning there will be a high level of play. Also we get to see them play for more money than usual which ups the ante and adds more pressure and results in more excitement.
A testament to the strength of this field was that Joey Cicero who finished 9-12 at the most recent Turning Stone Classic, was not guaranteed to win this tournament. In fact Cicero who knocked off a win against the 6th ranked player in the world Ko Pin Chung 9-5 during his run last month, finished 4th.
In Cicero's final match apparently there was some controversy that aroused between him and Sebastian Laramée. While Laramée was up 9-7 in this race to 11, Cicero called a foul as he saw his cue touch another ball after contacting the cue ball. There was no referee at the table and once the ref came over after the fact he had to rule that it goes to the shooter as he was unable to see the shot. Whenever scenarios like this happen you always hope the accused player is being honest and not taking advantage of the rule. Usually when you foul after contact it is apparent to the shooter as well This is no means a condemnation of Laramée as I have never met him personally, rather it is merely an observation of a reoccurring problem. It is actually a flaw in our sport, the more gaps like this in rulings the less marketable it is. The only way to fix it is to have a referee at every table. In the end Cicero ended up losing 11-7.
Both founding members of Hustlingstream.tv David Deschenes and Maxime Villeneuve were in this field. Deschenes did not fair as well as his partner, losing his first match to Laramée then defeating Eric Claude before eventually losing to Cicero. Villeneuve ended up fairing much better going undefeated going into the final. Along the way he defeated Stephane Bolduc 13-6, Marco Rodier 13-10, Jeff Bérubé 13-6 and Steve Barette13-7. In the final against Laramée, Villeneuve capped off his undefeated run at 13-7 to claim the $4000 top prize. Congratulations to Villeneuve and it sounds as if Dooly's Levis put on a great event, I look forward to reporting on their next.
You can watch the entire final here thanks to Billard Québec.
Payouts:
Maxime Villeneuve - $4000
Sebastien Laramée - $2500
Steve Barette - $1500
Joey Cicero -$1000
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