John Morra Takes Care of Business in Shooters’ 404 9-Ball Event #6

Erik Hjorleifson, Peter Chin, John Morra 

On February 13 and 14, Shooters Snooker Club in Toronto hosted Event #6 of its 404 9-Ball Tour. The 404 Tour is host to many players and is open to all skill levels, including amateurs, semi-pros, and pros. This time out, the general consensus among the players was that the field was extremely tough. This Valentine’s weekend tournament had 51 players registered, including strong players like John Morra, Erik Hjorleifson, Mario Morra, Alan Logan, Andy Aupin, and Jeremy Bolahood competing for a prize pool of $2,600 and a $1,920 Calcutta.

This one came down to the very wire between the pros Erik Hjorleifson and John Morra. In a very exciting finals that came down to a double-hill game, John Morra came out on top 10-8. Congratulations John Morra on his first win in the 404 tour as an SL 13, and to all of our finalists. Shooters would like to thank everyone for making this a successful, competitive, and action-filled tournament.

After some early upsets that sent players like Naomi Williams, Sumon Sarkar, Erik Hjorleifson, and Tom Hogan to the B-Side, day 1 had come to an end with 13 players set to return on Sunday:

A-Side 

Mike Leigh. vs John Timmermans 

John Morra. vs Kyle Barker 

B-Side 

Froland Magsanoc vs Sumon Sarkar/Naomi Williams 

Eric Hjorleifson vs Andy Aupin 

Ian Argue vs Rob Hall 

Rob Johnson vs Mario Morra 

After a few matches on day 2 Mike Leigh and John Morra would do battle in the hot-seat match. On the B-Side, Erik Hjorleifson and Rob Hall would remain in the B-Side semifinals. Erik H outshot Rob H, winning 11-4. Erik’s next opponent would be the loser of the hot-seat match. In that match, John M would remain undefeated, beating Mike L 13-3.

Erik H cruised past Mike L in the B-Side finals 12-2 and would finally return to the A-Side after winning 8 consecutive matches since being sent to the B-Side early on in the tournament. The finals of this 404 event would come down to two professionals who have faced off many times, Erik Hjorleifson and John Morra. In a shortened race where Erik would have to get to 9 before John gets to 10, all eyes were on the two pros. In one of the most exciting finals in Shooters’ 404 series thus far, John Morra came out on top in the final game of this hill-hill finals, beating Erik H 10-8. Congratulations to John Morra on his first win in the 404 Tour as an SL 13, Erik Hjorleifson on a hard-earned second place, and to all of our finalists.

Shooters would like to thank all the players that came out, and also those who came to watch both days of the tournament.

Shooters would also like to remind everyone of its upcoming events:
Feb 20: 9-Ball Amateur Elites (SL 9 and under, straight race to 8)
Feb 27: Shooters' Amateur 9-Ball
March 5: '36' 9-Ball + 6 Reds Snooker

Please check the Shooters Snookerclub Facebook page and www.thepoolscene.com for dates and details for all upcoming tournaments.

Event: Shooters 404 9-Ball Tour Event #6 
Date: February 13/14 2016 
Field: 51 
Prize Pool: $2,600
Calcutta: $1,920 

1. John Morra - $900
2. Erik Hjorleifson - $540
3. Mike Leigh - $330
4. Rob Hall - $210
5. John Timmermans - $130
6. Kyle Barger - $130
7. Sumon Sarkar - $80
8. Rob Johnson - $80
9. Froland Magsanoc - $50
10. Andy Aupin - $50
11. Ian Argue - $50
12. Mario Morra - $50
*Calcutta not included*

Dooly's Levis: Villeneuve Wins $500 Entry Semi-Pro Event

Winner Maxime Villeneuve

By: Markus Noé

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 

www.cuesportnation.com

 

Corner Bank: Morra Wins Inaugural Ontario Falcon Cues Tour Stop

John Morra and Al Logan. 

By: Erik Hjorleifson 

This past weekend at the Corner Bank in Scarborough, Ontario the first event of the newly formed Falcon Cues tour was held. The event featured $2000 in added prize money consisting of a cue donated by Falcon cues. Steam Whistle Breweries, Simonis cloth, Aramith balls and Diamond billiard where also contributing sponsors. This is the first tour in Ontario in a number of years that has added money from outside companies and promises to bring higher prize funds with players competing for more than just each others entry fees. 

Within a year of opening, the Corner Bank has quickly become the premier place for competitive pool in Toronto.  The tournament was played on 12 pro cut 9 foot diamonds, the room also has 16 7 foot Diamond bar tables and 8 Schender snooker tables.

This weekends event saw players grouped in levels ranging from A, AA, AAA, semi pro, and pro divisions in an attempt to unify the rankings between Ontario and Quebec.

A players race to 5

AA race to 6

AAA race to 7

Semi pros race to 8

Pros race to 10

The format was 9 ball alternate break, rack your own, $65 entry fee and $20 tour membership fee which will be put towards the season ending finale.

24 players showed up for the first event including many of the top payers in the province. John Morra headed up the list of favorites along with myself(Erik Hjorleifson) and Mario Morra. Al Logan, Rob Hall, Naomi Willams and Carlin Sanderson were also in the mix in this very strong field.

Saturday play began with a match up between Mario Morra and myself in round two, this one went down to the wire and Mario came out on top with a 10-8 victory. John Morra had his hands full with the newly promoted semi pro Carlin Sanderson in a 10-8 race match. Morra came out on top in this one with a 10-6 victory, next up for John was multiple time Canadian women's champion Naomi Williams, in a 10-7 race John won a close one with a 10-5 final score line. Al Logan and newcomer Jun Briones advanced undefeated on the other half of the draw and Mario Morra would play his son John rounding up the final four on the winners side coming back on Sunday. On the losers side I would return after defeating Naomi Williams in the 7th place match and Carlin Sanderson defeated Stefane Godhino to return to Sunday play.

The first match of play on Sunday was a classic seeing John Morra slide past his father almost 40 years his senior after Mario was kicked in on the break in the hill hill game. Al Logan also bested Jun Briones to move on to the hot seat match with Morra. In the 5th place match I would get my revenge on Mario after losing to him in the first round and Sanderson defeated Briones. I went on to defeat Sanderson in the fourth place match ending a strong run for the steadily improving young gun. Morra ran over Logan playing nearly flawless setting up a losers side final match between me and Al. 

Logan started out this match on fire breaking and running 3 of his first four breaks and maintained a high level throughout the match. He has been a top player for years in Ontario and has experience on the international scene, it was nice to see him in form this weekend. In the finals Morra proved once again to be to strong finishing off a great performance in style with a 10-2 victory, becoming the first ever Falcon Cues Ontario Tour champion. Morra is also sponsors by Falcon Cues and if you are interested in purchasing a cue or have any questions about their products feel free to contact him through Facebook.

Special thanks to room owners Jim Wych and John White for running the tournament this weekend and to everyone at the Corner Bank for orchestrating this new tour. It promises to be an excellent addition to the Toronto pool scene.

Payouts

1st John Morra $1000

2nd Al Logan      $650

3rd Erik Hjorleifson $500

4th Carlin Sanderson $350

5th/6th Jun Briones   $200

                Mario Morra $200

7th/8th Naomi Williams $150

               Stefane Godhino $150

Year in Review: Academie De Billard Sylvain Grenier

2015 has been a year with plenty of novelties for billiards in Québec which among these, two new circuits had emerged. Additionally to the already existing circuits from the Fédération Québécoise des Sports de Billard (FQSB), we witnessed the birth of a Junior circuit from the ADBQ and also a Professional circuit, the Falcon Cues Québec Tour. Still, the novelty which everyone is talking about this year is, of course, the Académie de Billard Sylvain Grenier (ABSG).

Sylvain Grenier started playing pool at 10 years old with his brother and friends and became a passionate of the sport. He quickly became the best in his circle and at 15, his brother brought him to Mauricie's pool hall. He then started to practice with people more experienced with whom he learned a lot. Both his dedication and his determination brought him results towards the game, indeed, he dominated each and every classes he went through throughout the years. Within less than four years, he ultimately reached the Pro status. He participated in many majors events, among these, he won the World Speed Pool in 2000 and, in 2001, he played in the prestigious US Open event and in the Molson Cup, which he finished 2nd behind the legendary Alain "The Dancing Bear" Martel.

With the reality of life, he chose to put away billiards for more than 12 years in order to take care of his family by starting a brilliant career in motoring.

In november 2014, he made a flawless comeback in tournaments and he seemed to be at the exact same level when he left the game 12 years back then. He attended and cashed in major events such as the Turning Stone Classic (this event gathered the best players around the world) and the Eastern USA Championship, which he finished 3rd. In 2015, he earned himself two 2nd places in 9-ball and 10-ball at the Québec Provincial Championships and won the Falcon Cues Québec Tour stop in Sept-Îles.

His love for the sport does not only show in competition, he also want to teach it. In 2015, he fulfills his dream by opening the first and yet only Québec's billiards academy in Trois-Rivières. Sylvain Grenier can now share his knowledge and his great experience towards the game for amateurs and lovers of the sport. The academy, with 6 tables in it, gives to the people many features. People may take lessons and classes as well in individual, in groups or with friends. Age does not matter, you can be a junior, an adult or a senior. Players can also practice by themselves with non-supervised training.

The academy also gives people the opportunity to measure your skills by competing with other players during tournaments and leagues, especially for juniors
and for different levels. Last Thursday, I (Luc Paquette) went to the academy to play a "Life Tournament". Anyone from any age can play in it. The youngest competitor was a girl, she was about 7. How joyful was it to watch those little youngsters playing pool and walking around the table with a small bench to step on to be able to be tall enough to reach the table! I enjoyed to see how the young ones appreciated to receive advice from the older ones. The most impressive thing was how the youngsters were taught to behave themselves and have sportsmanship during competitions. Everyone remained silent and stood still while their opponent was shooting and even when someone has lost, everybody shook hands with his opponent to congratulate the winner and they smiled at each other, the main reason to play pool is the fun everyone gets out of it, especially when you are a kid.

Billiards can be a great way for children and teens to either discover a passion, to develop logical and mathematical thinking, to fix goals, to surpass themselves
and to strenghten their perseverance.

Billiards is getting is nobility back and is turning back to a sport which can be practiced in family, from 7 to 77 years old, thanks to the academy. The reasons why anyone from any age can go over there are that there are no gambling machines and no alcohols. In order to have your acces granted, membership is required because the academy is not a pool hall, it is a training center.

The academy is a new hope for billiards in Québec and prospective champions may emerge from it. This center may give back and increase both exposure and credibility for the sport which were lacking for the past years.

With the holidays coming, it would be a great opportunity for you to make your relatives and friends discover this great sport which is described as "Anticipation is an art itself in billiards! It is not a game but a complete and artistic sport which requires good physical conditions, a logical reasoning of a chess player and the accurate touch of a pianist."

For further information on the Académie de Billard Sylvain Grenier, please visit: www.academiedebillard.com

Original text by: Luc Paquette, Josiane Larocque and Pascal Guimond

Translated by: Dany Nguyen

Thanks to Guy Simard from billardquebec.com for the photo

Falcon Tour: Grenier downs Hewitt in Sept-Iles

By: Luc Paquette & Tino Barbieri

This past weekend in Sept-îles Falcon Tour stop #5 took place. 29 players participated, including 21 amateurs, since only 4 professionals have dared to venture the long road which separated them from the event and 4 Semi Pros, 3 of which were from the region of Sept - îles, responded to the challenge. Only Danny Hewitt, Alain Parent, Sylvain Grenier and Francis Crevier, as well as the semi-professional Eric Hamel, were the representatives outside the region for this event. The opening draw gave the top guns a run for their money while Alain Parent the only pro in the top half of the draw won his matches with ease. Sylvain Grenier and Junior Hervieux, a former provincial champion, clashed in the first round. Francis Crevier and the winner of the last three stops, Danny Hewitt, clashed in the second round. At the end the cream always rises to the top and the 4 professional players finished in the top four positions. Now let’s take a look at how it all went down for the “Fab Four’s”.

The first round gave us some very good matches. Danny Hewitt vs Claude Caron, a AAA player and former AA Provincial Champion. Hewitt won the match by a score of 9-3 and awaited the winner of the match between Francis Crevier and Eddie-Eric Fontaine. Crevier won 9-4. Sylvain Grenier beat Junior Hervieux 9-4 then faced off against Eric Fontaine (not to be confused with Eddie), who had received a bye in the first round. Alain Parent, who seemed to be favoured at the top of the draw, cruised by his opponents by a score of 9-2 against Edgar Mercier. Parent’s domination continued with a white wash (9-0) against John Guanish, and two 9-4s against Guy Leblanc and Jean-François Lapierre which got him a spot in the Hot Seat Match. The long-awaited second round match was undoubtedly between, the winner of the first stop Francis Crevier and the winner of the last three, Danny Hewitt. Hewitt got this one with a 9-4 victory and a third round match, waiting for the winner of the Grenier vs Fontaine match-up. Grenier took this one by a score of 9-6 which sent him for battle against Hewitt in the third round. Grenier who came 2nd in Jonquière (FT Stop #2) vs Hewitt, failed to defeat Hewitt in the last 3 consecutive times they matched up this season, this time by the score of 9-4. Hewitt continued his momentum with a 9-1 victory over Nelson Santerre to reach the A side finals against Alain Parent.

Crevier and Grenier had not said their last word and made their trek on the B side. Crevier put it into overdrive and defeated Joe Shacanadish 9-1, Denis Bouchard 9-3, Guy Leblanc 9-1, Yvon Hervieux 9-0 and Nelson Santerre 9 - 5, to finally meet his match and played for the 4th spot vs Sylvain Grenier, who on his end was all business with wins over Dave Simon 9-2, Junior Hervieux 9-5 and Jean-François Lapierre 9-3. In the match vs Crevier , Grenier appeared to be heading for the finish line with a lead of 8-4, but Francis Crevier methodically marched back by winning 4 consecutive games to make it a “Hill-Hill” battle. Crevier who had a hard time making balls off the break, finally gets one in the decisive game, but a positional error on the 2 allowed Grenier back to the table. Grenier was facing a difficult shot on the 2, he went all offense missed it and pulled a rabbit out of his cue by placing the cue ball behind the 5. Crevier was not able to get out of this mess and Grenier thanked the pool gods for his victory to reach the B side finals. Now playing for 3rd against Parent who got steamrolled by Hewit 9-3. Grenier, who was in fine form this Sunday, sent Parent to the showers with a 9-4 win to reach “LA GRANDE FINALE” against Hewitt. Will this match put an end to a sequence of three consecutive defeats against Hewitt in tournament? Would he end Hewitt’s sequence of 3 consecutive wins on the tour?

With a race to 11, the score was 2-2 in which Grenier made the first move in winning 3 straight to take the lead 5-2. While everything seemed to indicate that Hewitt would win the next game, he missed an easy 7 in which Grenier took full advantage of this opportunity to take a 4 game lead. A combo on the 9 in the following game gave him a 7-2 lead. Hewitt was not done and turned it around to take 3 straight. At 7-5 a bad kiss on a ball caused a scratch for Hewitt and in return Grenier ran the table and took a 3 game lead. A 4-9 combo by Grenier took him to 9-5. Grenier, who seemed to be playing with confidence was two games away from winning his first stop of the season. At the 15th game, Hewitt played a safety that forced Grenier to play by the rails. He managed to kick the 4 in by one rail which lead him to run the table and now on the hill. Hewitt had his back against the wall at had to win the next 6 games to keep his winning streak alive. He came up short and Grenier; who is the founder of the Academie de Billard Sylvain Grenier, won his first Quebec Falcon Tour stop of the season by a score of 11-6.

In the second chance tournament, 16 players (a tour record) participated in the event and it's Dave Simon who defeated Éric Fontaine. The winner of the Falcon Cue valued at $1,000 was Gaston Ouellet, while Mario Thibault won the $ 50 gift certificate curtesy of The Winning Stroke. The Falcon Tour wishes to thank Isabelle, Annick and the entire staff at the Tuxedo Bar, as well as all the players and spectators who participated in the event. The next Rendez-Vous will be January 16-17, 2016 for the Falcon Tour Levis Nile Guay Memorial in which there will be 2000$ added. The Falcon Tour team wishes you a Happy Holiday Season. For more information about the Falcon Tour, please visit our website at www.Falconcuesquebectour.com. For information on the Academy of Billiards Sylvain Grenier, please go to www.academiedebillard.com.

Payouts

1st Sylvain Grenier $1,000
2nd   Danny Hewitt $700
3rd  Alain Parent $475
4th Francis Crevier $300
5-6th  Jean-francois Lapierre $160
Nelson Santerre $160
7-8th Yvon Hervieux $100
Junior Hervieux $100

2nd chance tournament
1st Dave Simon $300
2nd  Eric Fontaine $200
3rd  Eddie-Éric Fontaine $140
4th  Gilles Giasson 90$
5-6th Alain Michaud $45
Magloire McKenzie $45

ADBQ Presents First Québec Junior Championship

Photo provided by Martin Laverdure and Guy Simard of Billard Québec http://www.billardquebec.com/junior2015.html

By: Tino Barbieri

This past weekend was a busy one for pool in Quebec. The F.Q.S.B held their regular season tournament by hosting six different tournaments ranging from C to AAA skill levels. There was a Scotch Doubles tournament that my buddy Markus Noé from Cue Sport Nation attended. The 5th stop of the Falcon Tour held at the Toxedo Pool Hall in Sept-Iles (10hrs North East from Montreal) which was won by Sylvain Grenier beating Danny Hewit 11-6. However the most important of them all was the Provincial Juniors Championship which was held at La Bande a Coin in St Lambert Quebec. This is one of the few places that players under the age of18 can walk in and play because the hall does not have any Lottery Machines.

There were six Players in the 13-under and 18 in the 14 over categories who participated. The main force behind this championship is one of the best French-Canadian players of all time Alain Martel. He is the founder of the ADBQ (The Quebec Association Development for Billards). With the help of other supporters from across the province they encouraged people into sponsoring a player for a cost of $52.

This money would allow the players to enter 12 tournaments with a chance to qualify for the Championship. This weekend was a special one for the kids because everyone who participant received a $50 gift certificate from Canada Billiards and Bowling. The winners from each category (13-under and 14-17) would each receive a cue. But the most important was the fact that the winner of the 14-17 would receive paid entry and all expenses paid to play the Canadian Juniors in June 2016 in New Brunswick. Honors went to Tommy Cayer in the 14-17. This kid can play like a strong AA player. I was there this past weekend and saw him run 2 beautiful racks. Other players that were fun to watch was Maxime Rouleau. He plays in the 13 and under, Alain made the decision during the season to put him in 14-17 category because he was simply too good and crushing everyone with a perfect record. He ended up finishing 3rd. In the 13-U category Jordan Cayer (Tommy’s brother) won the event by beating Olivier Tougas.

What I enjoyed the most about this event was the faces on all the junior participants. It was priceless because none of them ever experienced playing this sport with a chance to go to the World Juniors Championship. There was one kid that finished second in the 13-U that was so upset he did not want to have his picture taken. His mom tried to talk to him as well as the owner of the room and myself. Finally a funny thing happened. After talking to him and explaining that losing is part of becoming a champion in life not only sports, the owner points to Alain Robidoux who was sitting about 5 feet away from us and tells the kid “do you know who that guy is sitting there?” the kid replies with a sad face “ NO”. The owner replies “ that’s Alain Robidoux!! He was once top 8 in the world in Snooker and is the best Snooker player in Canada”. This kids response was priceless “I Don’t Care”…need I say more. Not to knock Robidoux but just goes to show the competitive nature of this particular individual which leaves me optimistic for the future of our sport. For more pictures and to see the stream from this weekend please visit http://www.billardquebec.com/junior2015.html

Photo provided by Martin Laverdure and Guy Simard  Billard Québec http://www.billardquebec.com/junior2015.html

Alain Martel would like to thank the following that helped him in the 2015 Junior Development Program.

Reginal Directors :
André Pelletier
Daniel Gagné
Sylvain Grenier
Nicolas Van de Velde
The Sponsors :
Chantal Marceau ( Graphic Designer)
Eric Levesque  (Styllaweb)
Martin Deschamps  (Rezotek)
Eric Gaudreault (President of FQSB)
Veronique Menard
Le Bar-billard Sel & poivre
Elvis Joubert  (Dooly's  St-Hyacinthe)
Marco Sanschagrin (Dooly's Neuchâtel)
Karine et Nicolas du Salon de billard de Loretteville
Mario Paradis (Chalk Cube)
François Frappier (Wood Woorker) gave away 6 Small Beautiful wooden Bird Houses
Michel Lemyre (Canada Billard & Bowling)
Everyone that accompanied me in the Youth Centers and Schools :
Nicolas van de Velde
Dany Nguyen
Tino Barbieri
André Pelletier
Daniel Gagné
Maxime Deblois
Jonathan Hébert
Farla Salmanovitch

Thank-you to Guy Simard and Tino Barbieri from billardquebec.com  for the live coverage and his photographer Martin Laverdure.

Falcon Tour Stop #3: Hewitt Makes Impressive Comeback to Defeat Morra in Final.

Danny Hewitt, Luc Paquette and Alain Parent photo by Markus Noé.

By: Markus Noé

This past weekend Terminus Billiards & Bar located in Gatineau, Quebec hosted the third stop of the newly formed Falcon Cues Québec Pro Tour. This tour has been received with open arms by not only Québec players but from the entire Canadian pool community as this is currently the only professional tour in the country.

The first two stops have been played in Rimouski and Jonquiere, Québec averaging 32 players.  Last weekend saw 47 players show up to participate. I credit this increase in the field size due to several factors. Gatineau borders Ottawa, Ontario and is only a few hours away from Montreal, Québec while the last two tournaments have been several hours away from Montreal which is home to hundreds of players. Also the announcement that the 8th ranked player in the world, John Morra along with his father and solid professional Mario Morra added some extra buzz.

Day 1 featured a few shocking results and a couple big matches early on. Winner of the last stop Danny Hewitt paired up with Luc "The Machine Gun" Salvas in the first round. Salvas a multiple World Speed Pool Champion, is always a crowd favorite as his speed and obvious love of the game makes him very entertaining. However he was in tough against the current #1 player in Québec Hewitt and lost his first match 9-6. Despite this early loss Salvas went on to win 7 matches before losing to Alain Martel in the 4th place match. Below is a video of Martel making the last few balls to beat Salvas to give people an idea of the atmosphere.

The biggest upset of the day was Sylvain Grenier who has had a solid year in his return to pool, failing to make it to Sunday. He suffered a 9-6 loss to Dany Nguyen a young professional from Montreal. On the losers side he won one match before being eliminated by strong local semi-pro Sébastien Cousineau 9-5. Another upset of note is Karl Petrin a newly ranked "A" player from Montreal beating Lelsie Cookie a "AAA" 9-8.

Overall as in most cases in talent packed tournaments such as this the creme floated to the top. Going into Day 2 the final eight were John Morra vs Andre Goyette, Danny Hewitt vs Yannick Bedard, Alain Martel vs Sébastien Cousineau, Luc Salvas vs Patrick De Repentigny. A feel good story going into the final was the success a few local players had been having. There was of course Cousineau who was mentioned earlier. However not to be undone is Canadian legend Andre Goyette at 75yrs who old fought right till the final 4 winners side. House pro at Terminus Repentigny also had a great deal of success only losing to Goyette and Salvas finishing tied for 8th with Cousineau.

The pool hall really became electric when there were 4 remaining. On one table there was Martel vs Salvas while Morra and Hewitt did battle on the next table. Morra defeated Hewitt 9-7 and waited in the hot-seat while Martel and Hewitt went to war to decided who would get the last shot at the tournament favorite. Martel looked a bit fatigued and perhaps was distracted by a waitress who came to bring me a coffee at aninappropriate time in the match and appeared to inadvertently "Shark" him out of a key shot. In the end Hewitt won easily 9-4 and earned a rematch.

The final began with a flurry from Morra who was breaking well and mounted a 6-1 lead in this extended race to 11. A dry break for Morra and accidentally hooking himself on a wide open was all Hewitt needed to mount a comeback, and in a blink it was 6-6. Hewitt even went on to take the lead 8-6 before Morra had a chance. Hewitt finally missed a shot and even got a good roll to not leave it easy. However Morra a former Derby City 9 Ball Banks Champion, stepped up and fired a full table cross corner on the 5 ball and ran out to get within a game. In the video below I captured the bank shot.

In the end Hewitt was just playing too well and Morra a was just a bit unlucky as Hewitt went on to win 11-7.  This was a phenomenal tournament all around and perhaps the most entertaining one I have seen in Canada outside the Archer Cup in Thetford Mines, Québec. Once again it was proven that Québec is the current "Mecca" for pool in Canada as it is one of the best places for the Pro's to come to be respected and watched. The local crowd was absolutely thrilled with the talent that was on display in their pool hall. I would also like to commend the amateur level players who came out to participate, because in reality there were only 12 ranked Professionals. The rest were high level Semi-Pro's and Amateurs. This to me is very important as currently in Toronto we see professional's are being left out of many tournaments, while in Québec they use staggered entry fee's and not handicaps to encourage lesser players to improve alongside some of the best in the country. Below is the video of Hewitt putting on the finishing touches of his big win.

I would like to thank the Falcon team which consists of Danny Hewitt, Alain Parent and David Deschenes as well as Patrick De Repentigny and the entire Terminus staff. Combined they not only gave me everything I needed to cover this event but embraced me with open arms understanding the importance of promoting the Tour and the Sport of Pool. There will be a quick turn around for the Falcon Tour as the next stop is this weekend November 21-22 in Trois-Riviere, Québec. We will update the tournament early next week as my partner Erik Hjorleifson and myself will be playing in the Eastern Canada Barbox Championships at Tailgators in Ottawa, Ontario. I invite everyone to come and join the Nation on our Facebook page, you can also catch up with all the other videos I took at this event.

Main Tournament Results.

1. Danny Hewitt $1,100 + $1160 Calcutta

2.John Morra $800 +$790 Calcutta

3. Alain Martel $595+$530 Calcutta

4. Luc Salval $450+$260 Calcutta

5-6. Yanick Bedard $325,André Goyette $325

7-8. Sébastien Cousineau $200,Patrick De Repentigny $200

9-12. Mario Morra $110,Eric Marcoux-Levesque $110,Alain Parent $110,Maxime Villeneuve $110

Second Chance Tournament: No Pro's or Semi-Pro's. 

1. Pierre Paul $300

2. position Jean Vaillancourt $200

3. position Mike Young $150

4. position Marc Plamondon $110