NAPT: Menard Battles Back to Double Dip Williams in Sacramento

Menard & Williams 

By: Farla Samanovitch

Hard Times billiards in Sacramento California hosted an amazing 9 ball tournament with 54 women. They battled it out for $10,400 in prize fund and invites to all NAPT ( North American Pool Tour) division 1 pro events for next year.

7 Quebecois made the trip to play. It started with a round robin format from which 32 would emerge and play a double elimination main event. Of the 7, Veronique Menard, Venus Belanger & Farla Salmanovitch made it out of their brackets to the last 32 with Veronique going undefeated in her bracket.

Menard made it all the way to the hot seat match only to be defeated in a hill hill thriller versus Susan Williams.  Unfortunately the match was lost because Menard mistakenly touched the cue ball with her cue while stroking to shot on the 8 ball at 6-6 for the match. She then beat Liz Lovely in the B-side final to get another chance at Williams.

In the final Veronique would have to double dip her to claim the title and she did so in fine fashion 7-4 both sets. The venue was one of the best pool room set ups I have ever seen with a separate tournament room filled with Brunswick gold crowns that were well maintained and a wall of comfortable bleachers for the spectators. This event was extremely well run by the NAPT organization and look forward to the next one.

Top 3 Payouts:

1st Veronique Menard $1,500

2. Susan Williams $1,200

3. Liz Lovely $900

Pawis Comes Back From One Loss Side to Win Rack-M-Up Non Handicapped Event.

Pawis eyeing up the game winning shot. 

By: Markus Noé

Sunday February 19th Rack-M-Up Billiards held its first non-handicap tournament in sometime. Most tournaments as of late have been handicapped. In this format the stronger players have to give "weight"by spotting a game or more at times in a race to a predetermined amount of games. This encourages players of all levels to participate as not always the favourites win.

However with these types of tournaments gaining in popularity, it leaves a gap for the highly competitive players who crave straight up races and a chance to prove themselves. In light of this Doug Disotell owner of Rack-M-Up Billiards and a competitive player himself decided to host this type of event.

The format was a $40 entry races to 7 games on the winners and losers side of the bracket. The field was open to 32 players and 24 were able to show up. Which is phenomenal on less than a weeks notice and a testament to the amount of competitive players in the area. Going into this tournament the top favourites included Jody Roy, Justin Miller, Jacques Sauve and Kirk Pawis.

Early on in the tournament there was not much to report in upsets as 3 of the top 4  mentioned above cruised to the final 4 of the winners side. In the winners side final Miller and Pawis battled to be the first to book their spot in the final. Miller was able to get the job done and had time to wait to see he would face of against in the final.

Pawis who is known for his loser side charges beat Menke in the losers side final. With this momentum he earned his revenge in the final over Miller to win the tournament.

Payouts:

1st Kirk Pawis $275

2nd Justin Miller $190

3rd Andy Menke $125

4th Jody Roy $80

5th/6th Joe Hearn Mike Mitchell $50 


Upcoming Event! 

When: March 18th and 19th if Necessary

What: AAA and Under HANDICAPPED Charity Event. The Charity of choice is "EPILEPSY ONTARIO." 

Payson Boucher who suffers from epilepsy is the niece of Doug Disotell Owner of Rack-M-Up Billiards. Because he has seen and heard of her daily struggles he has decided to hold a charity event to help raise money for an important cause. 

Where: Rack-M-Up Billiards 

More details will be made available shortly. There will be a Facebook event made so please make sure to "like" this page https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=rack-m-up%20billiards so keep up with all the details. You can also call and speak to Doug Disotell at 1-613-933-9362

Mallet Wins Rack-M-Up "6" and Under 9 ball Tournament

Winner Eric Mallet

By: Markus Noé


Saturday January 28th Rack-M-Up Billiards in Cornwall, Ontario hosted their first 6 and under $30 entry tournament. For those not familiar with the number handicap this is the beginner group with 4 being the lowest rank. Each player receives a ranking 4, 5 or 6 and with players racing to their ranking. So a 4 would need to win four games in each round to continue. If a 6 plays a 4, the lower rank player can win the round 4-5

The idea behind this is to give beginners and players who do not get to practice as much a chance to win a tournament without the "top dogs" being involved. Favourites going into this tournament were Kevin Tebo and Eric Mallet both ranked 6. 15 players came to participate with the tournament favourites being Joe Herne, Eric Mallet and Kevin Tebo all ranked as a 6.

Kevin Tebo 

In a shocking result Herne made an early exit losing two straight to Toby Back and Chase Sunday, which opened up the brackets. On the winners side the two other favourites cruised to the winners side final. Tebo ended up losing to Mallet in the hotseat match. In the losers side final Tebo met up with Matt Cook and edged him out to book a rematch in the grand finale against Mallet. In this match Mallet sealed his first tournament win in a few years 6-3.

Thank you to Doug Disotell and Amanada Collins for hosting this tournament. For more information about these tournaments contact Doug by phone 1-613-933-9362.

The dates have not yet been finalized but our local top player from Rack-M-Up Billiards professional Jared Amyot will be playing Oscar Dominguez in a challenge match the first week of March.

Dominguez is a top 5 American player and currently ranked 126th in the world. He will be travelling through Quebec to play all the best players, some matches will be for as much as $5,000. It is in talks for him to come to Cornwall to challenge our best player a race to 21 for an undetermined amount. It will be streamed and everyone who lives close by is welcome to come and watch top level 9 ball pool in person. The details will be finalized soon please refer to the Rack-M-Up Facebook page for confirmation.


Payouts:

Eric Mallet $165 

Kevin Tebo $110

Matt Cook $70

Chase Sunday $30

Falcon Tour Stop #9: Hewitt Edges out Daigle to Win in Nations Capital

Martin Dagile, Alain "The Director" Parent, Danny Hewitt. 

By: Markus Noé

This past weekend February 4th and 5th Tailgators in Ottawa, Ontario played host to the Falcon Cues Pro Tour. As many people know, tour founders Danny Hewitt and Alain Parent recognized the need for a Professional tour and in the fall of 2015 with the help of Falcon Cues they begun the Falcon Cues Quebec Tour.

39 players came to participate in the first tour stop in Ontario. Most of the top local talent such as Steve Bourrada and Roger Miller who do not travel much made a stand to defend home turf. Considering the field was stacked with Canadian and Quebec legends such as Danny Hewitt, Alain Martel, Andre Goyette, Francis Crevier and Martin Daigle to name a few, the hometown boys held their own.

Sébastien Laramée

Throughout day one most of the top contenders cruised through the first few matches. In a bit of a surprise Luc Salvas did not make it to the second day. Salvas was sent to the losers side by Martin Daigle in the third round 9-6. Sébastien Laramée an up and coming semi-pro from Québec City, who lost his first match to Pierre Normand of Gatineau and survived a 9-8 thriller from Karim Attia was next up for Salvas. Laramée was able to edge out another 9-8 win eliminating one of the tournament favourites. Laramée played Jean Theriault from Maxville, Ontario who has been hot as of late, winning a Semi-Pro in Laval the previous week. I was personally watching this match around 9:00 p.m. and it was noticeable that both players were fatigued and making mistakes. It was Theriault who was able to find his game first and eliminated Laramée 9-6.

Jean Theriault 

Theriault had to wait a while for his next opponent as Bourrada and Normand, top local players who are not known for their blistering pace, hammered out a double hill match. This match took a reported 2hr 45min, and was won by Bourrada who went on to win 9-7, qualifying him for day 2 which would only bring back 6 players. Before getting into day two it should be noted that one A class player Marie France-Blanchette was tied for the highest finish of the amateur caliber player finishing tied for 13-16 with Mike Young. Blanchette followed up this performance with a second place finish in the second chance tournament. 

Alain Martel 

 Coming back for Sunday were top Ottawa players Bourrada and Miller joined by Martel, Daigle, Hewitt and Crevier. The day kicked off with some drama on the losers side. Daigle matched up against Bourrada and established a healthy 7-0 lead. To the amazement of the local fans Bourrada finally won one rack which turned into two racks before you know it the scoreline was 8-8. Hat's off to Daigle who managed the last rack with grace under pressure running out a tough rack fighting his opponents momentum.  In the other losers side match Martel dispatched Roger Miller 9-4. Both Ottawa hopefuls did well finishing tied for the 5th/6th position. 

Francis Crevier 

Daigle continued on his winning ways eliminating Martel 9-6 setting up the much anticipated rematch against Crevier. It is well known throughout the circuit there is a rivalry between these two players, as with any good rivalry spectators took special notice to this match. It was Crevier who knocked Daigle to the losers side with ease 9-2 and also beat him in the final of the Pro tournament they played the previous weekend. This match went a different way as Daigle was able to avenge his previous loss booking his spot in the final 9-3.

Martin Daigle

Hewitt once again is the man to beat if you want to take top spot. I believe his winning ratio on this circuit is near 70% as he has been almost unbeatable on the Falcon Tour for 2 years. This was a tightly contested match at 9-9 race to 11, in the end Hewitt pulled away to get the 11-9 win. 

The Falcon Tour would like to thank Curtis Houlden and Morgan Bristow as well the entire Tailgators staff for being welcoming and make this stop a success. The next Falcon Tour Stop will be at Dooly's Neufchatel February 25-26. Make sure to visit http://www.falconcuesquebectour.com/ for all tournament information.  Remember to go to www.cuesportnation.com to get all your Falcon Tour Results! 

Payouts:

1-Danny Hewitt 1000$

2-Martin Daigle 755$

3-Francis Crevier 580$

4-Alain Martel 420$

5-6 Steve Bourrada et Roger Miller 280$

7-8 Jean Thériault et Jean Vaillancourt 170$

9-12 Sébastien Laramée, Pierre Normand, Marc Godin et Jeff Blais 75$

Second Chance 

1-Glen Facun 200$

2-Marie-France Blanchette 150$

3-Kenny Donald 100$

4-David Boivin 50$

OBSA Results: Non Handicap Pool Returns to GTA!

Erik Hjorleifson, Raymond Cruz, Barry Hetherington,Eric Hildebrand 

By: Erik Hjorleifson 

This past weekend marked the first event of the newly formed OBSA (Ontario Billiard & Snooker Association) open tour. A non handicapped open tour has been a long time coming for the pool scene in Ontario. In year one five rooms have banded together hosting one event each from all regions of Ontario. Stop number one was at Petrinas, The Corner Bank, Tony's, Strokers and On the Snap will also be holding events over the next few months. The tour is full dress code, winner breaks, 9 ball on the spot, race to 9 on the winners side and race to 7 on the losers side with a one set final race to 11. 

20 players showed up for the first event which was 500 added. A couple faces that we haven't seen in years were in attendance such as Raymond Cruz and Eric Hildebrand along with strong semi pro players Ben Crawley and Barry Hetherington. Staggered entry fees encouraging participation from lower ranks were offered as well as prizes for the highest finishing A and AA players.

Jamie McKeen a much improved player in recent months made his presence felt with a win over semi pro Ben Crawley in the second round and forced a hill hill battle in the third round before falling to Eric Hildebrand. Jay Goyer a strong and experienced player from Kingston made his way through to the winners side semi final where he had a close match with Raymond Cruz losing  9-6. In the other winners side semi final I played Eric Hildebrand who showed that his game is still sharp despite not playing much in recent years, I was able to slide by with a 9-6 win. In the winners side  final the match was tied at 4 all and from there I got a good break going in this winner breaks format going on to win the match 9-4. As the B side progressed Hildebrand came back to play Cruz in the losers side final, these two old foes had a close match with Cruz edging out Hildebrand by a 7-5 scoreline. In the final I started with more good offensive play breaking and running most of the racks on my way to a 6-0 lead from there Cruz wasn't able to mount any offensive charge and I took the match 11-5.

I would like to stress that events like these are vital to promoting player development in Ontario. The amount that handicap play has become prevalent in Ontario and the recent exclusion of top players is something that will severely hurt the quality of players coming out of Toronto in the future. Congrats to the OBSA for making an effort to turn things back in the right direction and congrats to the 20 players that showed up to measure their game against the best. I can guarantee that players participating in this series will see an overall long term improvement in their game.

1st Erik Hjorleifson $700

2nd Raymond Cruz $400

3rd Eric Hildebrand $250

4th Barry Hetherington $195

Top A player Che Lemmon

Top AA player Jamie Mckeen

Hewitt Avenges Loss to Gingras to Win Falcon Tour Stop #8

Danny Hewitt, Patrick Guay, Sylvain Gingras

By: Markus Noé

This past weekend January 14-15 Dooly's Levis hosted the 8th stop of the 2016-2017 Falcon Cue Quebec Pro Tour. Since its debut last year this tour has been well attended by players all over Eastern Canada has it has stops in Quebec, Ontario, and New Brunswick.

A strong field of 40 players participated in this event. Most of the top players from Québec were in attendance with the exception of Alain Martel who did not make the trip from Montreal and Martin Daigle was in New York City playing in the World Pool Series.

There was only one big name that did not make it through to day 2 as Luc Salvas suffered a first round loss to Andre Pelletier 9-7. After winning a few matches on the losers side Jeff Blais eliminated him 9-6.

Sylvain Gingras was the talk of this tournament as he marched his way through the winners side of the bracket. Along the way he beat some of Canada's best players Danny Hewitt 9-4 and Sylvain Grenier 9-4. Gingras is a good pro from Quebec City, perhaps a little bit less known than the top players in the province however very capable.

Once on the losers side Hewitt matched up with Francis Crevier and ended his tournament in the 5/6 position 9-7. From there Hewitt went on to win 9-6 against Patrick Adam and Grenier. This earned him a rematch with Gingras. Once in the final Hewitt once again showed his class and won in dominate fashion 11-4.

In the picture above the person in the middle is Patrick Guay. This tournament that he hosted was in honour of his late father Neil Guay who was a well known promoter in the province of Québec.

The next Falcon Tour stop will be held February 4th &5th at Tailgators located in Ottawa Ontario! 

Payouts 

1- Danny Hewitt 1000$

2-Sylvain Gingras $ 750

3-Sylvain Grenier $ 575

4-Patrick Adam $ 400

5-6 Francis Crevier and Michael Bernier $ 300

7-8 Andre Pelletier and Eric Cloutier $ 200

9-12 Jacques Cyr, Jeff Blais, richer francoeur, Pierre Theriault $ 100

13-16 Jean-Francois Bérubé, Louis Martin Pratte, Sébastien Hoe, yanick bedard $ 50

John Morra Announces Hiatus

"Feels great to be home "

Proud of myself for finishing 5th-6th at Turning Stone yesterday. It was exactly 10 years ago when I finished 2nd place to Johnny Archer at Turning Stone at just 17 years old. That was a huge breakthrough for me and that's when I knew for sure I could compete professionally at the highest level.

Nothing in this world ever made me feel as good as this game has, growing up in my early years I faced a lot of challenges in life like everyone and playing pool was the one thing that made me feel like everything was going to be okay. I'm taking a long break from this game possibly permanent and pursuing something different in life.

I want to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart for all of the love and support that you gave me throughout the years whether I was home in Canada, America or thousands of miles away overseas. I've learned so much about myself and life in general that I cannot express how grateful I am to each and everyone of you that I've gotten to know in this great pool world.

I appreciate and embraced all the challenges my opponents and this game has faced me with. Although I didn't accomplish some feats that I think I could have I still made a name for myself, won major events and made myself and my loved ones very proud. Mom and Dad showed me and let me play this game from a young age and sacrificed so much so that I could make the best of it. They are responsible for all of my success. Where this new life takes me I don't know, but I'm going to find out. New person with a fresh outlook on life. Not going to sleep on it this time. I wish you all nothing but the best. Time to make it happen and go further and harder than I ever have before. Love & Peace

John Morra