Rack-M-Up Players Sweep Senior Games

From left to right Winner Réne Laurin, organizer Marie Beckstand, Darwin Bird and Robert Labelle.

 By: Markus Noé

For the second year in a row my homeroom Rack-M-Up Billards in Cornwall, Ontario hosted the 55+ Senoir Disctrict (8) Games. Defending champion Maurice Hearn was able to attend this years event however 12 others showed up to take part.

The game was 8 ball best 3 out of 5 single elimination format. There were 3 "regulars" from Rack-M-Up who chose to participate with the nine others that the organizers of the District Games had brought in. Though this was a competive format, sportsmanship and fun were definetively the main priorities today. On more than one occasion laughter and playfull jabbing back and forth between players could be heard throughout the pool hall. In between racks or as a consolation prize for those who suffered an early exit, there was a buffet of sorts set up featuring cheese, sandwiches and donuts.

Robert Labelle elated immediately his Bronze finish.

 When it was all said and done the experience of the regulars Réne Laurin, Darwin Bird, and Robert Labelle was too much. Labelle took the bronze position while Bird took the Silver leaving Laurin this years District 8 Champion. A thank you goes out to the owners of Rack-M-Up Billiards Doug Disotell and Amanda Collins who hosted this tournament. Next year they are hoping to host both the District and Regional Championships as the popularity of these types of events continuous to grow.

District 8 organizer Marie Beckstand with winner Réne Laurin

 Results:

Gold- Réne Laurin

Silver-Darwin Bird

Bronze-Robert Labelle

Amatuer Results from "Shooters Bar & Billards"

Winner Ben Chang with owner of Shooters Peter Chin

 "Submitted Article"

This past weekend (November 22 & 23) saw the 3rd tournament in the Shooters Amateur Event series take place. From an initial cap of 32 players the tournament has expanded to 64 players to accommodate the strong interest. A waiting list for entry to the tournament has also become standard which suggests that full fields will be common for the future. And similar to past Amateurs the player Calcutta was again active with the no heavy favourites in the tournament field.


After play concluded on Saturday, Ben Chang, Marius Nakas, Kevin Oliveira and Tom Polsinelli were undefeated on the ‘A’ side of the draw. On the one loss side, John Everekian, K C Nguyen, Richard Murray, Brittany Bryant, Desmond Cysani, Raphael Balverde, Carlin Sanderson and Ronald Giron managed to survive to return for Sunday play.


In the ‘A’ side final Polsinelli prevailed over Chang sending Chang to the ‘B’ side and Polsinelli to the hot seat. Over on the ‘B’ side, Chang was able to defeat the plucky Oliveira in the ‘B’ side final. In the tournament final Ben Chang got his revenge by defeating Tom Polsinelli in a closely contested match.Congratulations to Ben Chang on his tournament win. Ben’s steady consistent play over the past several months has earned him top finishes in several tournaments.


Many thanks again to those who participated and apologies to those who were unable to play due to the high demand for entry into this event. It should also be noted that all pool tables at Shooters (including the bar boxes) have been recently re-clothed with championship Simonis 860 billiard cloth to enhance the tournament experience.The next Shooters Amateur 9 Ball Event will be held December 27 and 28th.


** If you have pre-registered for the event you must be present and your entry fee paid by 11:00 a.m. on the day of the tournament. Failure to do so may result in your place being forfeited to an individual on the waiting list.**




Player Prize Money Calcutta


1st Ben Chang 7 $900 $940

2nd Tom Polsinelli 7 $500 $520

3rd Kevin Oliveira 5 $340 $310

4th Marius Nakas 7 $220 $210

5-6th Carlin Sanderson 7 $120 $55

5-6th John Everekian 9 $120 $55

7th -8th Desmond Cysani 8 $80

7th-8th Richard Murray 7 $80

9th -12th Raphael Balverde 7 $50

9th -12th Ronald Giron 7 $50

9th -12th Brittany Bryant 7 $50

9th -12th K C Nguyen 6 $50

Preregistration Available for $1000 Added Snooker Tournament

Steve Roy Wins Semi-Pro in Longueuil

Steve Roy, photo courtesy of Poolsteamtv 

By: Markus Noé

This past Saturday Dooly's Longueuil was host to the Québec Federation's second Semi-Pro Tournament of the season. 49 players showed up to take part in this $1000 guaranteed for first place event, including a few players who took part in the $500 tournament in Dolbeau the previous weekend.

In bit of a surprise, tournament favourite  and winner of the event in Dolbeau which paid $4000 Stephane Adam, had an early exit from this weekends tournament. Once again this demonstrates the depth of talent in Québec. Outside of other tournament favourites such as Danny Normandin, Pat Dery and Richard Francoeur not making the money, the story was Anas Abrouq.

He is a strong AAA who looks to be making a case for being bumped up to Semi-Pro as of late. In this tournament he lost to Francoeur in the second round 9-2. However Abrouq then went on to win 8 matches on the losers side, earning a chance to play in the losers side final. On his march though the"b" side side he beat notable names such as Johnny Laprise, Eric Claude, Pat Desbiens and Carol Audet just to name a few.

In the end he met up with Steve Roy who just suffered a loss to Yves Gaudreault 9-8. This was a tightly contested affair with Roy winning 7-5 to book a rematch with Gaudreault. The final was a different story for Roy as he was able to win 9-6, avenging his earlier loss and taking home the $1000 first prize. The next Semi-Pro will be held at Le Skratch Laval January 10th.

Payouts:

1. Steve Roy $1000

2. Yves Gaudreault $600

3. Anas Abrouq $380

4. Carol Audet $180

Info for Upcoming Snooker Tournament at Shooters

THE KOREAN ASSASSIN RETURNS WITH A VENGEANCE

Submitted article

The amateur Canadian Women’s Tour had their 3rd stop of the season at the ever-active Petrina’s Billiards in Ajax, ON. Despite a lot of ladies being in Ohio for the Sleepless in Sandusky tournament, 8 women had braved the cold to come out and compete.

To start, we had newcomer to the tour Angela Carrigan have a strong performance against Guelph native Leslie Pappas. Despite stating that 8-ball is more of her forte, Carrigan had pulled off a victory against Pappas to continue onto the A-side.

Tournament veteran Marina Linguerri from Ottawa had made the trip with the goal to win her second tour event. Her first opponent was tour producer Suzanne Peters. After some unlucky shots made by Peters and Linguerri capitalizing on some key errors, she pulled a convincing 8-3 victory over Peters, knocking her to the B-side.

Anne Beattie and Jennifer Shaw

Jennifer Shaw of Mississauga, a CPA 2, with a desire to learn and to become a more competitive player, had a tough draw matching up with consistent player Sylvia Hadaway from Guelph. After making some great shots but missing out on some critical potting, including a couple of 9 balls, she had fallen to the more experienced playing of Hadaway with a score of 8-1.

Hanna “The Korean Assassin” Kwon, who has been struggling with the tour and not even placing in the last event, was determined to walk away with the 1st place trophy. After placing in 2 events in Montreal in the AA division, she had more confidence coming into this tournament. Her first opponent, Anne Beattie from Guelph, had played stellar pool and at one point, was only behind Kwon by one game in a race where Kwon needs to win 9 games to Beattie’s 7. After missing a key 8-ball by Beattie, Kwon was able to pull off the next two racks to win, in a close final score of 9-5.
On the B-side, Shaw is now against tournament and league vet Beattie in a do or die match to stay in the tournament. Shaw was determined to gain her first victory in the tour and she did just that with solid potting and calm, steady nerves with a final score of 5-4.

The other B-side match between Peters and Pappas was to be a great one as well. Both player having been around the sport for years, it was definitely going to be a situation of the better player for that match will turn victorious and in this instance it was Peters. Despite having made only a few errors that would usually frazzle even the best players, Peters kept her composure to glide to the next stage of the tournament with a final score of 8-2.

In the winner’s brackets, there was Carrigan vs. Linguerri and Kwon vs. Hadaway. A phenomenal match-up between Carrigan and Linguerri was set. Both players were racing to 8 and the scores went back and forth for most of the match in this alternate break format. After a shocking miss by Carrigan on the 7, that put Linguerri on the hill. Linguerri then proceeded to complete the final rack that eventually pushed Carrigan to the B-side.

Kwon still had nightmares about playing Hadaway leading into this tournament after a convincing loss to Hadaway at the tour opener in Stoney Creek. Focused on the prize and some very unfortunate luck on Hadaways part had Kwon heading into the A-side finals with a score of 9-1.
Shaw vs. Carrigan and Hadaway vs. Peters made for some very interesting matches. The experience of Carrigan overwhelmed Shaw to beat her out of the tournament 8-1. Hadaway and Peters traded rack after rack, with Hadaway pulling it off in the end to win hill 8-7.

Linguerri and Kwon 

It is no surprise to see Linguerri and Kwon in the A-side finals vying to be in the hot-seat. A rocky start had Linguerri down 5-1 at which time she started clawing her way back to tie it at 5-5. After some missed opportunities and some unlucky rolls, Kwon was able to secure her spot in the hot-seat with a score of 9-5.

After squeaking by Peters, Hadaway had another tough match against Carrigan to head into the money rounds. Again, it was another match of trading racks and it was anybody’s game. Hadaway managed again to squeak by another opponent hill-hill. She then had to face the menacing Linguerri to work her way back to the finals but this time, there was no squeaking by. The superior play of Linguerri stopped Hadaway’s journey to the finals with a score of 8-5.Linguerri meets Kwon again and was more focused in the final match then in the previous match-up.

In this true double elimination format, Linguerri needed to beat Kwon twice in order to win the tournament. It was by far a much better match to watch, with break and runs, run outs, and great safety play. It was with the safety play that kept Kwon from being defeated by Linguerri and earned her the 1st place spot for the 3rd tour stop of the CWT.

A special thanks to Frank Kakouros, owner of Petrina’s for hosting the CWT’s 3rd stop and for volunteering to host another event in the New Year, Wayne Dwyer for streaming the event as well as for being referee alongside Tino Barbieri.


Hanna Kwon - $235 + Trophy
Marina Linguerri - $140 + Trophy
Sylivia Hadaway - $95

The Corner Pocket Remembrance Day 8 Ball Tournament

Champion Billy Thompson, photo by Wenda Pepin

 By: Paul Potier

Remembrance Day weekend, Nov 7-9, 2015 was when this tournament took place. It was also the real start of winter for us Albertans as lots of snow and very cold weather hit us hard on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday in balmy Red Deer Alberta. A large field of 71 men and 8 women bar box 8 Ball players from Alberta, BC, and Saskatchewan showed up to display their expertise on the green felt. The Corner Pocket Billiards hosted this event on twelve 7' Diamond bar tables.

They started play on Friday night and finished the tournament early Sunday night. It was a great field consisting of most of the best Bar Box pool players in Western Canada. Some of the big names were: Stan Tourangeau (BC), Brian Butler (AB), Rob Phillips (AB), The Twins Joanne and Bev Ashton (AB), Edwin Montal (AB), Dave Martin (AB), Cathy Metzinger (AB), Alain Boutin (Frenchie) (BC), Bill Thompson (AB), Paul Potier (AB), Russ Whittle (AB), Nick Kruger (BC), Bernie Mikkelsen (AB), to name a few. It was really a star studded cast of players, including some players I haven’t mentioned.

There was no seeding and many of the favourites met right away. Some of the crowd pleasing early match ups were: Stan T vs. Brian B, Dave M vs. Paul P, Joanne A vs. Garry H, Mike R vs. Barry H, and Edwin M vs. Jody T. A brave Dwayne Bjornstad vowed that he would play the entire tournament using only his jump cue. He was true to his word and even ended up cashing in the money tied for 13th place.

The Diamond tables played great and spectators were blessed with exciting matches for the entire 3 days of play. The final 4 on the A side came down to Leslie T., Bill T., myself and Jerry Y. Paul and Bill ended up in the A finals. Bill’s good solid play earned him the point as he beat me 6-2 and could relax while waiting for the outcome of my matchup with Stan to see who would have the chance beat him twice to win the event. Stan’s road to the finals of the B side was long and hard.

Paul Potier

 He lost to Jerry Y in the second round of the A side. Stan showed everyone how dangerous he is by winning 9 straight B side matches to get to the B side finals. In fact after losing on the A side Stan’s first B side match was against the great Edwin Montal, so he had a very hard road to the finals indeed. The B side finals saw Stan quickly get in the lead 3-0 but I made a comeback making it a double hill match at 4-4. Stan broke but wasn’t able to run the table out as it posed a few problems for both solids and stripe balls. It was a very long safety battle that finally saw Stan as the victor.

In the finals against Bill, Stan continued his great play and beat Bill 6-4 in the first set. However Bill won the A side so Stan had to beat him twice. Bill was having a great tournament and wasn’t about to be denied his goal so he beat Stan 5-1 in the second match. Congratulations to Bill Thompson for his great 8 Ball play and for winning this wonderful event.

Many thanks to Lorne Brooks and his entire team at The Corner Pocket for hosting this event and for his continued support of pool in Alberta. With twelve 7’ Diamond Bar Box pool tables, ten 9’ Diamond tables and three 12’ BCE Snooker tables the Corner Pocket is definitely one of the best places to play Pool or Snooker in Western Canada.

Champion – Bill Thompson - $2,000

2nd Place – Stan Tourangeau - $1,200

3rd Place – Paul Potier - $900

4th Place – Nick Kuger - $750

5/6th Place – Leslie T, Jerry Y - $550

7/8th Place – Mike Robinson, Rob Phillips - $450

9/12th Place – Brian Butler, Larry W, Dan L, Jody Thornton, Dan L - $300

13/16th Place – Sean M, Dwayne B, Eric V, Dan W. - $200

Top lady – Joanne Ashton - $150

By Paul Potier

Sumon Sarkar Undefeated in 2nd RCC Event!

Submitted article:

Another amazing weekend of pool to play in and to watch!  31 players came out to participate and there was no lack of talent in this group.  After the draw was done, play began and saw some extremely tough 1st Round Match Ups.  Some of the rooms favorites, and past winners, Paul Duel vs Kenny Chen, Brittany Bryant vs Wayne Tate, Ray Jansen vs Rod Arsenault, Carlin Sanderson vs Jason Montgomery, but it was Sumon Sarkar and Greg Johnson who would pull ahead of the field to play each other in the Finals.

Sumon went undefeated, drawing Paul Koeuth in the 1st Round, and successfully defeated Paul Dual, Justin Zammit, Wayne Tate and Shawn Miller, to await Greg Johnson for the final round up.

Greg’s path was longer, but no less difficult, drawing Mike Patay in the first round.  Mike sent Greg on the scenic side of the board, where he had to battle through some amazing competition..Jeremy Isard, Stuart MacTaggart, Brittany Bryant, Justin Zammit, Neil Mills, Alex Bartlett, Wayne Tate and Shawn Miller..

Congratulations to Sumon Sarkar on his 1st Place Finish and to Greg Johnson for coming in 2nd Place!  Amazing shooting by everyone!  We look forward to another fantastic field of players on December 6th.

The Results:

1st Place: Sumon Sarkar $495 – $810 (C)

2nd Place: Greg Johnson $260 – $425 (C)

3rd Place: Shawn Miller $175 – $285 (C)

4th Place: Wayne Tate $100 – $160 (C)

Vaillaincourt Wins in Gatineau & Valleyfield

Photo taken from Webillard.com

By: Markus Noé

Jean Vaillaincourt has had his second monster performance in the past month, as he won both the A.B.O tour stop in Gatineau along with a AA event in Valleyfield the following day. This comes just a few weeks after his impressive showing at the Quebéc Provincials held at Le Skratch Laval, where he finished runner up in both the AA and AAA divisions.

The weekend started for Vaillaincourt at Terminus Billiards in Gatineau, where 30 players showed up to take part in the third tour stop of the season.  Here he went undefeated to the finals where he met up with one of my practice partners out of Rack-M-Up Billiards, Platon Liolios. Until the conclusion of this tournament Liolios was ranked a B player meaning that in this handicap format he would get some games from Vaillaincourt who is ranked AAA on this circuit.

Platon Liolios

Liolios has been in fine form this season going deep in each of the three tournaments and is the current points leader. However Vaillaincourt, who has been supremely confident this season and has been virtually unbeatable won this match in a landslide. On a positive note for Liolios, he has another final appearance under his belt and has achieved his goal of being bumped up to A caliber player.

Payouts
1. Jean Vaillancourt $400
2. Platon Liolios $200
3. Christine Gauthier $105
4. Neil Ayotte $105

Dooly's Valleyfield 

The following day Justin "Killer" Miller and myself drove up to Valleyfield, QC to take a shot at the AA event. Here we ran into Vaillancourt who was fresh off his victory from the day before. Once again he chugged along going undefeated all the way until the A side final. There he met up with Christian Isabelle who has been one of the players to beat as of late on the AA circuit in order to win. Vaillancourt finally suffered his first lost of weekend 9-3 forcing him the the B side final.

In the losers side final he played Patrice Brunelle where he won 7-5. This set up the rematch of the winners side final and Vaillancourt returned the favour, beating Isabelle 9-3 to win the title. Despite the final loss for Isabelle, a congratulations is still in order because with this performance he has been bumped up to AAA.

Hanna Kwon 

On a side note the "Korean Assassin" has the AA division abuzz in the Québec Federation with two successful 5/6 finishes in back to back weeks. For many, seeing a women play at this high caliber is something they have never witnessed before and both this weekend and last at El Jumelgi  she has drawn a crowd and gained fans. The exposure that she has gotten these past few weeks has been enough for talks to have begun on an exhibition match to take place. The word is that her opponent would be one of the greatest female players to ever come out of Québec, Veronique Menard. If this match happens we will have all the details here at Cue Sport Nation


Payouts

Vaillancourt, Jean #948	1	380 $
Isabelle, Christian #3122	2	275 $
Brunelle, Patrice #975	3	200 $
Filiatrault, Sylvain #3642	4	140 $
Kwon, Hanna #3990	5 - 6	85 $
Pasquier, Laurent #3799	5 - 6	85 $

China Bound: Team London Blows Past Fundraising Goal

Nicholas Taylor Ridley, Stuart Mactaggart, Kayla Roloson

By: Markus Noé

For frequent readers of Cue Sport Nation you are already familiar with "Team London." These are the three junior players who earned the right to represent Canada at the World Junior Championships November 15-18 by winning their spots at this years Canadian Championships.

 Stuart Mactaggart 17 , Nicholas Ridley 15, and Kayla Roloson 17, were all guaranteed spots at the World Championships however they had to find away to get themselves all the way to China in order to take advantage of this opportunity. Thus they banded  together this summer and formed a fundraising organization named "Team London". They were off to a great start as they were able to get a segment on their local CTV London news station to help  kick off the fundraiser on gofundme.com.

I remember checking their progress online about a month into their campaign in mid August and feeling concerned as only $360 had been raised to date. With the Tailgators Summer Shootout  coming up at the time we at Cue Sport Nation wanted to figure out a way that we could help. Thankfully my homeroom of Rack-M-Up Billiards donated a cue and Steve Gelinas from the Winning Stroke donated a Delta Rack which we raffled off.

The $260 we raised was barely a fraction of the $7,000 needed for the trip but we sent the money in with the hopes that people would come together and do the right thing. To my surprise and joy, people did more than step up as Team London in the last few months have raised $10,000, a whopping $3000 more than the initial goal.

Here is how they did it:

$2,451

Raffle Tickets for TV , Cue package , Windsor Casino package

5 days ago (Offline Donation)

TV donated by Strokers / Ronda Clement , OB cue donated by OB/CBSA , Players Jump Break Cue - donated by Heath Manning / Manning Cues , Cue case donated by Sanders Recreation & Fitness , Windsor Casino Package - donated by Strokers/Ronda Clement

$1,000

VNEA Junior League / Larry Heywood (Junior League Co-ordinator)

7 days ago (Offline Donation)

To be used for a nice meal for the kids and their parents/chaperones in Shanghai and whats left to be donated back to a Junior Fund.

$1,561

Strokers Tournament raffle and food sales

7 days ago (Offline Donation)

$185

Strokers Billiards from entry fees to tournament

7 days ago (Offline Donation)

$220

Artwork Auction - Art from Chad Kroetsch and Taylor Daley

8 days ago (Offline Donation)

$1,500

Canadian Billiards and Snooker Association

8 days ago (Offline Donation)

$425

Hustler Billiards,Ernie Valente and Larry heywood - cue case raffle

8 days ago (Offline Donation)

$1,944

Hustler Billiards Fundraiser Tournament

18 days ago (Offline Donation)

$62

Canadian Women's Tour

18 days ago (Offline Donation)

$500

Kinsmen of St. Thomas

18 days ago (Offline Donation)

It should also be mentioned that the Canadian Billiard and Snooker Association stepped up here in a big way. With the help of OB Cues, one of their sponsors, they were able to donate a cue which was raffled off and also gave $500 to each of the team members to help with expenses.

Check back in with Cue Sport Nation later this week for updates on their progress. They leave tomorrow and the tournament starts on the 15th; we will have updates posted as soon as we get them. On behalf of Team London I would like to thank and congratulate all who helped in raising the money necessary for this trip to be possible. Also as Cue Sport Nation gains more advertising support and becomes viable as a business, we plan on giving back as much as we can in these situations in the future.

Good luck Team London!

Godhino Captures Eastern Canadian Bar Box Title

By: Markus Noé

The second annual Eastern Canadian Bar Box Championships hosted by Tailgators in Ottawa is now in the books. With this being a handicap event ranging from 4 to 8 with each of the 66 players playing to their number, this truly was anyone's tournament to win.  Even with this knowledge it still came as a surprise to see how many tournament favourites found themselves on the wrong side of the bracket early on.

Sam Huang Vs Terry Gulliver 

Ottawa native Sam Huang (6), who now hails in Toronto for schooling purposes, provided the first upset of the tournament. He did so by beating Steve Bourada (7)  by a 6-2 scoreline. Bourada is well known in the Ottawa area as one of the top players and is a legend of sorts. In his younger days he was known for being a notoriously good gambler.

Dave Casselman

This loss combined with a second round loss by Erik Hjorleifson (8), set up an early losers side match between two tournament favourites. Hjorleifson ended up winning this match however he did not win another losing next to a strong local player. Going into the final day the only one of the predicted tournament favourites remained was Dave Cassleman (7), who ended up finishing in 4th.

Stefane Godhino 

Stefane Godhino (6) from Toronto, who was relativity unknown before this tournament, cruised to the final undefeated. There he met up with well known and long time player Ying Yang from Montreal, who was surprisingly the only player from Québec in attendance. The final was more of the same for Godhino as he continued his dominating performance winning 6-2 and becoming the second annual Eastern Canadian Championships. The next big event being held at Tailgators will be the Ottawa Bar Box Championships which is always a well attended event, we will post the details as they come.

Top 5 Payouts

1. Stefane Godhino-$1800

2. Ying Yang- $860

3. Brad Gutherie-$500

4. Dave Casselman-$300

5. Sam Huang - $200

The "Dancing Bear" Wins Second Stop on FQSB Circuit

By: Markus Noé

Last Saturday November 1st 44 players came to  Le Skratch Laval for the second stop of Quebec Federation Pro Circuit. Alain "The Dancing Bear" Martel, who finished third in the first event held at Dooly's Valleyfield  then followed that up by winning the Quebec Provincials  a few weeks later, continued his winning ways in Laval.

Martel playing Hewitt

 I left Dorion after being defeated in an "A" class tournament, and decided to drive another 30 minutes east to watch the Pro event. By this time it was about 5 pm and I was able to watch the end of the Sylvain Grenier / Alain Martel match-up deep on the winners side bracket.  This was my first time getting a glimpse of Grenier as he like many players have done, has taken a few years off from competition.

After talking to some of the players who are familiar with Grenier, he was often described as a "monster." As I squeezed in between fellow railbirds  to get a glimpse of this match-up I could immediately understand what people meant. Grenier has a break that when people hear it, automatically turn to their head to see what just happened. And he does so with enough precision to have a reasonable opening shot each rack.

It was his break and running percentages that kept this match close with the wiley veteran Martel. Grenier eventually  was able to overtake Martel in a thrilling  9-8 victory. Grenier continued on to do what few have been able to do since Martel and Salvas came on the scene which was to beat them both in the same tournament. He did so with a scoreline of 9-7 with his break once again being the difference in the match.

Luc "the Machine Gun" Salvas

Both Martel and Salvas then went on to win their matches on the losers side until they met up to figure out who would finish in 4th position. This was by far the most entertaining match I have seen so far this season. Being that these two are virtual hero's in the Quebéc pool scene,  this match had the interest of everyone who was not playing at the time.

 Combined with the 50 plus fans watching the match with the history and friendship of these two this was truly an epic set. There was a moment at 5-5 where a bad break left the 1 ball on the top rail nearly frozen to two other balls. With no shot, available a six shot safety battle ensued with Martel continuously kicking one rail and just thinning the ball enough for it to be a legal hit and leaving no shot.

This thrilled the very educated crowd in attendance as they watched both players skillfully executing their safeties. Eventually an opportunity came for Martel and he took advantage running out to go ahead 6-5. Salvas then won the next rack, then at double hill another safety battle began with once again Martel barely getting the best of Salvas winning 7-6.

In his next match in the losers side final Martel had a chance at redemption as Martin Daigle beat Grenier in the winners side final. This match was not as close as before as Martel won 7-4. The final also turned out to be very entertaining with Martel getting a substantial lead at 9-3 in a race to eleven. Then Daigle began stringing racks together and made it a very close affair, but in the end Martel went on to win 11-9.

On a side note the hot streak for both Danny Hewitt and Martin Daigle continued on this week. In the last three weeks these two have each won a Joss Tour event and have both finished in the top 5 in the Joss event they did not win. This was followed up with them both securing a top 5 position in this tournament. The next Québec Federation tournament will be held at Dooly's Neufchatel on December 6th.

Results From Second 404 Tournament at Shooters

Submitted Article

The 2nd leg of the 2014/15 404 season wrapped up this past weekend (November 1 &2) at Shooters Snooker and Sports Club. The 404 has been operating this year exclusively at Shooters and is using a somewhat controversial change to the handicap system designed to increase the pool of potential winners. The change to the handicap system attempts to make it more challenging for the professionals to win as consistently as they were able to in the past.


Perhaps as a result of the handicap change, the tournament drew a number of players who seldom play in the 404 event. It was two of these infrequent 404 participants who faced off in the final on Sunday. 44 players took part in the event with many of the pre-tournament favourites including Carlin Sanderson, Isaac Ramos, and Ed Reyes failing to make it to Sunday play.

In the player Calcutta that preceded the tournament, buyers were so unimpressed with the winning chances of the eventual two finalists that these players were forced to buy themselves for the minimum $20. So major commendations go out to Steve McAllister and Gene Chipongian for bringing their A game and playing consistently well throughout the tournament.


When play concluded on Saturday, Gene Chipongian, Marius Nakas, Bobby Drowns and Stefane Godinho were left standing on the undefeated ‘A’ side of the draw while Ben Chang, Ronald Giron, Steve McAllister and Kevin Oliveira survived the challenges of the one loss ‘B’ side of the draw. All returned for Sunday play.


When play resumed on Sunday, Gene Chipongian defeated Marius Nakas while Bobby Drowns downed Stefane Godinho setting up an ‘A’ side final match pitting Chipongian against Drowns. The ‘B’ side action saw McAllister send Chang home and Giron top his friend Oliveira. This set up ‘B’ side matches of McAllister versus Nakas and Giron taking on Godinho. McAllister and Giron prevailed in their matches to reach the ‘B’ side semi-final. The unheralded McAllister emerged the winner of a hard fought ‘B’ side semi-final.


In the ‘A’ side final Chipongian sent Drowns to the one loss side setting up a ‘B’ side final where Drowns would face off against McAllister. McAllister again continued his march through the ‘B’ side by outplaying Drowns in the final.

This would set up an historic event final for the tournament win where not only had McAllister lost his first match of the tournament and persevered to the event final all the way through the very difficult ‘B’ side but the final match featured two players with handicaps of 5 and 6 –-- the 2 lowest handicaps to ever face off in the tournament final. Continuing his weekend of solid play McAllister defeated Chipongian 5-4 in the championship final.


Congratulations to both Steve McAllister and Gene Chipongian for their excellent play over the weekend. Notwithstanding the absence of the professionals; more than anything, the tournament results demonstrate that anybody can win the tournament by putting together consistently good performances at their assigned handicap level.


Thanks to all the tournament participants and a hope that the tournament results will encourage more players to attend in the future.The next Shooters 404 Event will be held December 1 & 2.



Player Prize /Money Calcutta


1st Steve McAllister $900/ $570

2nd Gene Chipongian $500 /$355

3rd Bobby Drowns $350 /$220

4th Ronald Giron $240/ $145

5-6th Stephan Godinho $130/ $70

5-6th Marius Nakas $130 /$70

7th -8th Ben Chang $90

7th-8th Kevin Oliveira $90

5th Edition of the Wildrose Tournament Nov 21-23 .

It is that time of the year again for the one of the most popular tournaments out west called the Wildrose Handicap. This is a tournament for everyone as the handicaps start at 4 and goes through to 13, in past years 80-100 players have showed up for this event. In the preliminary rounds players are put into divisions A-D meaning that these closely rated players have to fight through one another guaranteeing a fair mix of players advancing. If interested in playing all the contact information is in the poster above.