Johnny Archer Takes On Québec's Best This Weekend in Valleyfield.

Photo taken from Johnny Archer Facebook Page. 

By: Markus Noé

For pool fans in Western Québec and Eastern Ontario who have been waiting in anticipation, the day is almost upon us. Of course I am talking about 4 time World Champion Johnny Archer coming to Dooly's Valleyfield  this Saturday February 28th. Local pool halls are a buzz with curiosity on what brings such a big name to the local circuit.

The organizers of the Classique des Appalaches are the ones to thank for this as it has been recently announced that this event will continue for another year. Originally there was word that the funding was no longer in place. However it looks like everything has been worked out and there will be an  announcement that the "Classique" will happen sometime in mid May and that is why Johnny Archer has come to help promote this event. He will also be playing in a series of challenge matches Thursday night in Thetford Mines.

Last year they had two divisions max 32 players, one 9 ball and one 10 ball, both having $5,000 added. It attracted names such as Mike Dechaine, Jeremy Sossei, Johnny Archer, Thorsten Hohmann, John Morra, Jason Klatt, Erik Hjorleifson and many more of the Worlds top players. From a fans point of view it was such a success it was a disappointment to hear of its earlier cancellation.

To my recollection the entire event takes about 4 days to play out. There is also amateur divisions C-AAA to participate in which attracts hundreds of players to the small town of Thetford Mines for those few days. For amateur players and fans it is a real treat to have all these world class players at your disposal.The way the venue is set up and because outside of playing pool there is not much to do, you can get rare access to the players who are all very approachable. I recommend to anyone who is able to book time off work to reserve your hotel room now.

Cue Sport Nation will have all the news of Archers visit to Québec as well as all the info from the this weeks announcement. Winning on Saturday will be far from a walk in the park for Archer. Dooly's Valleyfield is owned by multiple World Speed Pool Champion and one of Canada's best 9 ball players Luc Salvas. Archer will also have to beat the likes of Alain Martel, Danny Hewitt, Martin Daigle and many more great players as the stable of talent in Québec is deep.  I expect this to be one of the best attended tournaments of the season for the Québec Federation.

Roy Wins Heart & Stroke Fundraiser Tournament at Rack-Em-Up Billiards

Jody Roy 

By: Markus Noé

On Saturday February 21 the 3rd annual Heart & Stroke Foundation tournament was held at Rack-Em-Billards in Cornwall, Ontario. This was a handicap event with no Pro or Semi-Pro's allowed, the entry was $60 with $45 returning to the prize pool for the players. This tournament was originally scheduled based on a full field of 32 to go two days. However due to some bad weather only 24 players were able to play allowing for this tournament to be done in one day.

Tournament favorite Jody Roy cruised through the winners side bracket going undefeated to the final, which included a win over myself in the first round. The only player to threaten Roy was Mehdi Harraq a notable AA player from Montreal, who lost a double hill match with Roy breaking the 9 ball in off the break.

On the other side of the bracket Justin "Killer" Miller who suffered a first round loss fought his way back to meet Roy in the final. Despite some inspired play by Miller which saw him avenge his early loss against Mike Severson, Roy was too much for him in the final besting him 9-4.

In the end $553.00 was raised for the Heart and Stroke Foundation. A big thank you goes out to Doug Disotell and Amanda Collins for donating the use of their pool hall for this event.

1. Jody Roy  $375+ $490 Calcutta
2. Justin Miller   $250 + $385 Calcutta
3. Eric Mallet  $180 + $240 Calcutta

Local Weekly Tournament Announcement at 37 West Lounge

By: Markus Noé

37 West Lounge located just 10 minutes away from Downtown Cornwall on the American side, is pleased to announce a series of 10 Tournaments.  Tomorrow Wednesday February 18 will be the second edition of this newly formed Barbox 8 ball tournament format. Each week a max of 16 players are eligible to play. The winner of each tournament will be rewarded with a ticket into the $600 added Grande Finale. 

This is the only weekly tournament in the area and for Barbox 8 Ball players I recommend this place. There are 3 brand new tables, for those who smoke this is one of the last places where you can still have smoke and a drink indoors.  For more information see the poster above. 

16 Player 500$ Entry Semi-Pro This Weekend.

By: Markus Noé

This weekend the guys at Pool Stream TV are at it again. This time for the bargain price of 10$ they will be streaming the action live from Dooly's Lévis. The format this weekend will be double elimination $500 entry and I believe it to be races to 11 on both sides. All the top Québec semi-pro players will be in attendance such as Alain Parent, Stéphane Adam, Jonathan Hébert, and many more.

Top AAA players such as David Deschenes and Pat Desbiens will also be in attendance. This will be a two day event which will take place this weekend Feb 21-22 don't forget to go to Pool Stream TV website to order the weekend pass so you don't miss out on the action this weekend.

Thank you to Daniel Robichaud and Fred Lapointe for all the information and for the cross promotion opportunity.

Chang & Ramos Come Out on Top!

Submitted Article 

The 5th RCC of the season was opened up and 46 players came out to try their skill against some of the best in Southern Ontario.

Congratulations to Ben Chang and Isaac Ramos, who split the finals, opting out of coming back for day 2 to finalize a champion.

Chang went through the A side undefeated, while Ramos came back from the B Side, with his only defeat to Chang in the A Side hot seat.

Results: 1st/2nd Place: Ben Chang

1st/2nd Place: Isaac Ramos

3rd Place: Terry Martin

4th Place: Rick Hutchings

5th/6th Place: Justin Zammit & Bernie Fulford

"Drillbit" Strikes Again!

By: Markus Noé

This past Saturday Feb 7 many of the top AA and AAA players from Montreal traveled a few hours east to clash with the top players in the same divisions from Québec City. The pool hall for this event was Tapis-Vert in Saint-Foy just west of Quebec City. David"Drillbit" Deschenes a AAA on his way to Semi-Pro ranking was fresh off his win a few weeks back in Valleyfield QC, and was looking for a repeat performance.

Deschenes has been known in the Quebec region for some time now for his fearless style of play and willingness to gamble anyone. In fact recently he has taking his love for "action" and created Hustlinstream.TV where he streams money matches from B class players right through to the top players in Quebec.

The last few times that I have run into Drillbit he has been playing with a bit of a chip on his shoulder. He has been a victim of his own success, as he has a history of gambling players with higher ranking than him and he has come out on top more often then not. In the pool world compliments are hard to come by, so instead of celebrating his success many "railbirds" have suggested that he has been purposely losing tournaments in order to keep his ranking down and to get better gambling odds.

Insulted by this, Drillbit has played with a new found purpose and has dominated the last three AAA tournaments. Once again he went undefeated in Sainte-Foy to claim the 1,500 top prize. The payouts for this event were a lot stronger then most tournaments we see. This is because the pool hall added 500$ themselves and they are not taking green fees,paying into a federation or adding money to a final, all the money from the $100 entries went directly to the players.

The next gambling match that Deschenes will be apart of is coming up soon against Marc Dumoulin, who just won the first 4 Points Tour stop at the Corner Bank in Toronto. The feature match on this card will be later in the day as Martin "The Grinder" Daigle will face off against Alain "The Dancing Bear" Martel.

Payouts:

1- David Deschênes 1200$
2- Jeff Tremblay 900$
3- Pat Desbiens 600$
4- Joey Cicero 400$
5/6- Pierre Thériault 250$
5/6- Serge Therrien 250$
7/8- Germain Roussin 150$
7/8- Eric Tremblay 150$