Dooly's Valleyfield: The Dancing Bear Wins Second Falcon Tour Stop of the Season

From left to right Winner Alain Martel, Runner-Up Danny Normandin and third place Yves Gaudreault 

By: Markus Noé

This past weekend September 15-16 the newly renovated Dooly's Valleyfield hosted the second tour stop for the Falcon Cues Quebec Pro Tour. 48 players of all different calibers came out to participate in Canada's most popular non-handicapped Pro Tour. The usual tournament favourites were all in attendance such as; Alain Martel, Danny Hewitt, Francis Crevier, Martin Daigle, Joey Cicero to name a few.

There was a few rule changes from last year that founder of the tour Hewitt had to go over before play begun. The main one that stuck out was the new breaking rule. As is the case in general for 9 ball the soft cut break became an issue of contention last season. For those unfamiliar with this it just makes, making the wing ball and getting position on the 1 ball in the top corner almost automatic. Over the past decade break arguments have become much more frequent and perhaps one of the biggest things holding pool back from being considered a sport.

Therefore tournament organizers have come up with a new way to break, which they call breaking from the "small box," see picture below for reference.

In between these two chalk lines was the only place you were able to place the cueball. This combined with racking the 9 ball on the spot with a magic rack as well as 3 balls needing to pass the "headstring," completely changed the game. In my first match against last seasons Grand Final winner Nicolas Charette, I found it a big struggle as I scratched off the break 3 times while trying to hit the balls hard enough to have a legal break. The main thing I noticed with this new break is it virtually gives amateurs no chance against top players because it is simply too hard to control the break and forces us to play every rack with more experienced players. When before if you could figure out a cut break there was always a chance for a break and run.

Charette ended up besting me 9-1, it was a pleasure to play with him. He takes no shots off and makes it very difficult for you to find your way into the match once he takes control, he will give you nothing, you must earn every inch, not only did I appreciate his style I learned a lot from this match on shot selection and percentage play.

Next up for me was well known Canadian player Andre Goyette, a Canadian legend of sorts and one of the best players ever out of the Ottawa/Gatineau region. I have had the pleasure of playing him several times and have had some success in handicap events however to this day I have never beaten him straight up despite him being in his mid 70's! After knocking me out of the tournament he was gracious enough to sit me down and give me some much needed guidance on the mental side of the game, something I admit has been an ongoing struggle for me. I took this advice very seriously and look forward to implementing in the future. For amateurs like myself this is another benefit of playing these Pro events, literally every time I play I learn something of value, thank you Andre!

Getting back to the tournament Martel looked to be in form early as he cut through a tough early draw beating both Danny Hewitt and Luc Salvas. On the other side of the winners bracket Danny Normandin was the other player in top form beating top players such as Yan Lalande and Francis Crevier on route to the winners side final against Martel. Normandin was able to get the big win 9-6 earning is spot in the final.

On the losers side Martel waited for the 4th place match to finish between Yves Gaudreault and Danny Hewitt. Gaudreault who is consistently in the top 5 in these tournaments was able to break through and get a huge win against Hewitt 9-5 earning him a shot to play his pal and fellow UPS co-worker Normandin in the final.

First he had to get through the always tough "Dancing Bear" who despite his earlier loss was not ready to hibernate just yet. Martel got the victory 9-5 and earned his rematch in the final. Normandin started off well getting up 2-0 but in a blink it was 4-2 for Martel and he never looked back earning the 11-7 victory.

Thank you to the Falcon Tour for sponsoring me for this event. I would have liked to stay longer but I had death in the family late Friday night and I showed up with zero sleep and under an unusual amount of stress to be honest. I look forward to seeing everyone in two weeks at Dooly's St. Hyacinthe Sept 29-30 for the next edition of the Falcon Tour!

 

Payouts:

1- Alain Martel 1225$
2- Dany Normandin 920$
3- Yves Gaudreault 720$
4- Danny Hewitt 560$
5/6 - Marco Caron et Joey Cicero 380$
7/8 - Nicolas Charette et Francis Crevier 220$
9/12 - Yan Lalande, Sylvain Gingras, Martin Daigle et Dominic Legault 120$

A special congratulations goes out to my frequent road partner and one of my closest pal Jason Hall for winning the second chance tournament! Well done in a tough field! Also to Marc Malette for coming in 3rd, that is two players from my home Rack-M-Up Billiards in Cornwall, Ontario who took the cash! 

Jason Hall 

Second Chance Winners 

1- Jason Hall 200$
2- Denis Duteau 150$
3- Marc Mallette 100$
4- Dannick Duchaines 50$