Falcon Tour In Drummondville This Weekend!

Billiard Heriot in Drummondville Québec located about an hour outside of Montreal on route to Quebec City, will host a Falcon Tour stop this weekend. A few weeks back Dooly's Neufchatel hosted the most recent stop and 47 players came to participate, this tied Terminus in Gatineau for the second highest number of players this season.

With this pool hall being located between Montreal and Québec City were most of the elite players AAA and above live, this has the potential to be another record turnout. The field in Neufchatel featured 12 Pro's, and many other top players. The Falcon Tour now in its 3rd season has seen professional participation increase a fair bit as well as seeing a lot of players in the AAA and Semi-Pro range come out of long hibernation now that there is an elite circuit to play on.

Dooly's Neufchatel is a beautiful venue with a great staff. Marco Sanchargrin a well known promoter in the province is the owner and for a chain it really feels like a mom and pop place that caters to the players. In the Finals it was a couple familiar foes facing off as Alain Martel and Danny Hewitt. In the winners side final they also met, with Danny Hewitt winning 9-5. In the third place match Martel played Joey Cicero who has been close a few times to winning his first Falcon Tour stop. He already had a finals appearance at La Patriote in December and a few other top finishes. However the seasoned "Dancing Bear" was once again too much for the young upstart Cicero as he fell 9-4.

In the final Martel revenged his earlier loss to Hewitt 11-8 to win his third event of the season. I am accepting sponsorship as always to help cover expenses to go and cover the event this weekend. It is a great and cheap way to advertise your business as no contribution is to small. Also if you are a frequent reader of Cue Sport Nation it is a great way to support us and to make sure the updates keep on coming. Email transfer and receipts are available! Hope to see many new faces this weekend! 

Once again I would like the thank my main sponsor for this event, Rack-M-Up Billiards in Cornwall Ontario!

Rack-M-Up Billiards: Gauthier Wins AAA Tournament

Runner-up Marc "Jesus" Malette and Do Gauthier 

By: Markus Noé

Saturday February 24th Rack-M-Up Billiards held a rare event these days in Ontario, a AAA and under non-handicap 9 Ball tournament. With only about two weeks notice players from Ottawa/Gatineau and Montreal came to participate. Originally the field was slated to be filled at 24 however do to overwhelming interest owner of the room and tournament director Doug Disotell opened the field to 32. The entry was $40 it was races to 7 on the winners side and 6 on the losers, as well as alternative break.

When player registration ended at 9:45 there was 31 participants and shortly after the player auction began. This is better known as a "Calcutta," and it is where the players are auctioned off with the winners getting an extra prize fund. Each player that is auctioned off has the option to buy 50% of themselves back in order to be eligible for the side pot. The players who all tied for the highest bids which is a good indicator of who the favourites are were, Marc Malette, Jean-Francois Dorais, Jody Roy. The overall side pot was $1720

Two of the betting favourites met up right away as Roy sent Dorais over to the one loss side in the first match. Marc Malette also found himself on the losers side at the hands of Do Gauthier a newly ranked AAA in the Québec Federation who has been playing well as of late. Most of this field was was fairly evenly matched despite no handicap which made for an entertaining day. That being said some lower ranked players such as Daniel Sumon, Josh Levac, Cullen Arihote and J.R Cook stepped up for chance at gaining some experience and potentially as we like to say around here, "ruin someone's day." Levac and Arihote both were able to accomplish this feat both beating players ranked multiple levels above their own.

Third place finisher Mehdi Harraq with director Doug Disotell

Local favourite Jody Roy was on an impressive run beating two of the stronger players in the field, Luc Comptois and Dorais before meeting up with Mehdi Harraq in the winners side final 4. Harraq knocked Roy over to the losers side in this bracket and met up with Do Gauthier in the winners side final. Gauthier was down 3-0 to myself and kicked it up a gear to beat me 7-3. He carried this momentum into the hot-seat match making quick work of Harraq 7-3.

In the final Gauthier met up with local player Malette who worked hard winning 8 matches on the losers side to have his chance at redemption. It was looking good early for Malette as he lead 4-1 in this race to 7. However as he was doing all day Gauthier came all the way back to win 7-5 and win his second tournament in as many months. It should be noted that Malette has taken several years off playing and has recently come back to competitive play, this is his second time finishing in the top 2 in the last two events here.

Congratulations to all the winners! Also a big thank you to all the Québec players who came down, many of whom have been big supporters of Cue Sport Nation. It was a pleasure to see the same people support a great tournament in my home room. Doug Disotell did a fantastic job running the event smoothly as well as being the referee. There was not a single complaint all day and from what I heard from the players I know these tournaments can be a regular success.


Payouts Calcutta included

1. Do Gauthier $930

2. Marc Mallet $610

3. Mehdi Harraq $430

4. JF Dorais $290

5/6  Jody Roy/Markus Noé $190

7/8 Luc Comptois, Justin Miller $40

Falcon Tour Stop #7 Tailgators: Hewitt edges out Aupin to Claim 4th Win of the Season

Danny Hewitt photo courtesy of Shelley Anne-Marie Doran

By: Markus Noé

January 27-28th, Tailgators located in the Meriviale Mall in Neapean Ontario hosted the 7th stop of the Falcon Québec Pro Tour. 36 players came to participate with again the majority of players being from Québec. Chris Dempsey and Jason Robichaud two of the best players from the East Coast made the trek from New Brunswick , while Andy Aupin, Alain and Johnathan Lessard were the furthest traveling players from Ontario coming from Sudbury. My small homeroom of Rack-M-Up Billiards which only has 10, nine foot tables and one snooker table showed up in numbers as we had 7 who made the hour trip to Ottawa. Out of those 7 we had every class represented from C through to Pro.

Going into this weekend we knew that some regulars on the tour such as Joey Cicero, Alain Martel and Martin Daigle would be missing due to prior engagements. Also there was a semi pro tournament just outside of Montreal that kept regulars such as Marco Caron and Eric Cloutier away. However with so many players within reasonable driving distance to Ottawa, Ontario 36 players was a disappointing turnout for organizers. 

Perhaps that the Ottawa Barbox Championships which is historically well attended and filled again this year was only a few weeks before played a factor, it should be noted that Tailgators main focus and most popular game is Barbox 8 Ball. However it was a bit baffling to myself that there was  significant amount of good amateurs to high ranking players who frequent and play the weekly leagues at Tailgators that did not attend.

In contrast the Falcon Tour as been averaging just over 40 players in each event this year. This includes pool rooms outside the densely populated cities of Montreal, Ottawa or Québec. The most disappointing part for people looking to grow this tour and promote pool overall, is that Tailgator's has such a big and beautiful venue in a prime location. It is basically directly between Québec City and Toronto and a few hours from Montreal. Between this area lies a huge percentage of  Canada's top players. If you factor all of this in, the potential for successful Pro Tournament is staggering.  I am mentioning this not to be critical, however to point out the importance of the Falcon Tour and a room like Tailgators is to the potential growth of pool. Ottawa/Gatineau has three great venue's in the region, Tailgators, Terminus, and Dooly's Ottawa. 

The Falcon Tour is the only Pro Tour in the country, it has been successful in Québec and New Brunswick in its first 3 years. If it takes off in the Ottawa/Gatineau region then it can potentially use this momentum to spring board itself into the Greater Toronto Area and then who knows. The issues for professional non handicap tournaments in Ontario is well documented and here is a solution. A common complaint in all tournaments and tours is there is not enough money to be won. However it is near impossible to grow and attract more sponsors that can help with added money if players do not show an interest. In cities like Ottawa/Gatineau, Montreal, Québec and Toronto fields of  64 to 128 are very possible especially with a staggered entry fee. The first move however needs to be made by player participation so organizers of the Falcon Tour Danny Hewitt and Luc Paquette have a strong product to show to potential sponsors. The saying "If you build it, they will come" comes to mind here.

Now that my little rant is over lets get to business. At the end of the first day there was not much report in the way of upsets because outside of Dany Nguyen and Danny Hewitt it was a fairly evenly matched field. Of course they met in the first round with Nguyen coming out on the short end of a 9-2 loss. The Falcon Tour plays down to the final 8 on day one. One of the final 4 matches on the winners side on day 2 included Pierre Normand vs Roger Miller which Normand won 9-8. The other was Hewitt vs new pro Seb Laramée, Hewitt won this one 9-5.

Andy Aupin photo courtesy of Shelley Anne-Marie Doran

On the losers side Andy Aupin a very capable but lesser known pro was charging through the bracket. After suffering his first lost to Hewitt he won his four next matches as follows;

Aupin 9 vs Alain Lessard 5

Aupin 9 vs Roger Miller 3

Aupin 9 vs Dany Nguyen 6

Aupin 9 vs Normand 4

This run on the losers allowed Aupin a second crack at the most dominate player on the Falcon Tour, Danny Hewitt. The final was a tightly contested match as Aupin fought back from an early deficit to tie this extended race to 11 at 10-10. Hewitt ended up taking the last game winning his 4th event out of 7 total tournaments this season. Congratulations to the winners of this event and thank you to Curtis Houlden and Morgan Bristow for providing an ideal venue for the tour. Finally thank you to Shelley Anne-Marie Doran for the great photo's her entire album of the event can be found at the Tailgators Facebook Page. 

The next event will be held near Québec City at Marco Sanschargin's pool room a well known local promoter. It is called Dooly's Neufchatel.  I will be in attendance to play and cover the event in detail, if you are interested in being a sponsor please feel free to contact me through Facebook either on the Cue Sport Nation Facebook page or my personal one. Look forward to seeing everyone in a few weeks!

Big Read Breaks Down Pool Across Canada in 2017

By: Erik Hjorleifson 

Greetings and Happy New Year from Markus Noé and I at Cue Sport Nation. 2017 eventful year on the Canadian pool scene lets take a look back at some of the highlights from 2017.

From east to west:

The Maritimes

2017 marked the second year of the Atlantic 9 ball tour. The ten event tour takes place throughout the Maritimes and features non handicapped play staggered entry 9 ball. These tournaments drew an average of over 100 players! the brainchild of promoter TJ Martin who I will unofficially deem the savior of pool in the Maritimes. This tour has been a huge success and has filled a void in competitive pool out east. The most consistent winner on this tour was Chris Dempsey who also won the finale event. Tom Theriault was competitive winning a few events and names like Jeff Kennedy, Rick Leon and Gilles Leblanc were often seen at the high end of the placings. This year marked the first installment of the East Coast Canadian 9 ball championships promoter TJ Martin managed to pull off the biggest event possibly in Canadian history drawing 240 players. The $10 000 first prize was the highest first prize payout in Canada in over ten years. Mika Immonen ended up being the winner and John Morra runner up, the tournament  drew names like Alex Pagulayan and Imran Majid. Rail birds pool room opened in Halifax this year and looks like it will be the center of competitive pool in the Maritimes.

Quebec

Pool in Quebec is still alive and well, the Falcon Pro tour continued in its third year of operation and once again as has been the case for the past several years Dany Hewitt was the most consistent winner. Alain Martel, Francis Crevier, Martin Daigle, Joey Cicero and Dany Nguyen also had many strong finishes throughout the year. Quebec continues to operate their A, AA, AAA, Semi Pro and Pro divisions in which players are able to play in their own class or higher. Handicap tournaments are a rarity in Quebec and the overall system is something that any pool community should strive for. Notably Alain Martel has continued his junior program that has been integrated into the school system. He now has over 200 juniors enrolled in his programs, the sky seems to be the limit now for Martel as he has built the foundation to something monumental. Huge kudos goes out to him for exposing youth to our game.  Youth is the future and it would be great to see more programs like this pop up nationwide. Marco Sanschagrin owner of Doolys in Quebec city continues to promote major tournaments including hosting the Canadian Championships and Archer Cup, his efforts do not go unnoticed.

Ontario

The scene in Ontario continues to be plagued with handicap tournaments. There are plenty of tournaments and lots of people playing but the odd thing is that the lower handicap players are playing for more money than the open players. The one upside as I said is that there are a lot of people playing, there were probably 75 tournaments in Ontario that were $1000 first prize or more. Only about 15 of those tournaments were open to pros and I think the problem with that is self explanatory especially considering almost all of the tournaments are handicapped. On the bright side The Corner Bank continues to try and turn the tide hosting several good events throughout the year most notably the Vince McIntyre memorial won by Jason Klatt. John White and Jim Wych have been putting in a lot of hard work at the Corner Bank including building a 3000 square foot patio that will be open next summer. Every weekend there is a waiting list for tables and it is not uncommon to walk in the afternoon and see 15 tables going, the weekly tournaments draw over 30 players regularly. Don Broos fulfilled his dream of owning a pool room this year. Don and his team renovated Formac billiards  in Burlington Ontario re naming it Shooterville , it has quickly become the place to be west of Toronto. Someone to watch out for in the future will be Waleed Hashem who has improved from a AAA player to a strong semi pro player this past year.

Saskatchewan and Manitoba

Manitoba is in a bit of a downswing from a time when I grew up there and there was 20 pool rooms in the city to now only four or five. Cornell McClean jr. is active in promoting tournaments at Sonix billiards running a few weekly tournaments and recently had a 64 player field out for a bigger event that Johhny Baptiste won. The best players in Manitoba are Shannon Ducharme, Felix Beardy, Berry McClean, Cornell McClean, Ryan Solleveld, Jeff Clare, Randy Bagot among many others. These players play a lot in Minnesota and North Dakota and do well.

Saskatchewan has been a little quiet believe it or not there is not one pool room in Regina. A city that has a CFL team but no pool room, seems like an opportunity to me.Jane Gordon and Roy Munns however have two tournament quality tables in one of their storage facilities. They have three tournaments a year that draw all the best players from Saskatchewan and a few from Alberta and Manitoba. These are the results from the 2017 tournaments

2017 8ball 
1.Brad Poorman
2.Jerrod  Spence
3.Pat Marcia

9ball
1.Erik Vargas
2.Randy Bagot
3. Albert

10 Ball
1.Elwin Cameron
2.Danny Gilbert
3.Fabian Louison
........................

Alberta and B.C.

The Hidden Spot in Calgary continues to run many good size tournaments including the Ashton classic which is scheduled again this year in June. Stephen Holem from B.C. has been the most consistent winner out west including a third place finish in a tournament in Oregon that had many U.S. pros. He will definitely be someone to watch for in the future. There has been a push to promote Chinese 8 ball in B.C. and players such as Kevin Beskal, Paul Potier, Simon Pickering, Mike Vidas and Stephen Holem have gone to China to take a shot at the big prize money on offer.

On the international front John Morra took a five month hiatus. After a little break in which he gained some experience as a DJ, he is now back playing full time. He remains without a doubt Canada's strongest hope on the international stage and we will all be watching and cheering him on. Jason Klatt had a quarter final finish at the world pool series and continues to play in most major events. Martin Daigle traveled actively beating many big names such as Early Strickland, Tommy Kennedy and John Morra. Brittany Bryant had a third place finish at one of only two W.P.B.A events in 2017. Naomi Williams had 3 third place finishes on the N.A.P.T tour which looks to possibly one day replace the W.P.B.A tour. It is really unfortunate for these girls as women's professional pool is at a historic low point in North America.

That's all for this year, hopefully next year will bring bigger and better things!

Falcon Pro Tour :"The Dancing Bear" Returns to his Winning Ways at Le Patriote

Finalist Alain Martel and Joey Cicero 

By: Markus Noé

Over the weekend of December 2-3 Le Patriote situated in St.Eustache, Québec hosted the fifth stop of the Falcon Québec Pro Tour.  It was another healthy field of 40 players that showed up despite  competing with several other tournaments within driving distance. As usual the rules were call every shot, rack your own break from the box and alternate break.

All the usual favourites were in attendance such as Alain Martel, Danny Hewitt, Dany Nguyen, Martin Daigle and more. Francis Crevier was really the only regular professional in the area that did not make it due to a Snooker tournament. There was a few new additions to the field this time such as Mike Petrowitcz from Barrie, Ontario and Stephen Scobie from Newmarket Ontario. Along with myself filling out the Ontario contingent there was Wayne Tate from Oshawa and Mike Black from Lindsay.

Throughout day 1 there was no real upsets to report as all the favourites made it through.  A notable match however took place against Alain Martel and Danny Hewitt which saw Hewitt being sent to the one loss side 9-6.

Final 8 who returned Sunday

Winner Side

5 Mike Patrowicz vs 9 Joey Cicero
6 Luc Salvas vs 9 Alain Martel

One loss side

9 Martin Daigle vs  5 Daniel Gagne
7 Jeff blais vs 9 Dany Nguyen

In the 5/6 match up's it was Nguyen vs Patrowicz and Daigle vs Salvas. Nguyen winner of the last stop at Terminus in Gatineau who earlier on in the tournament eliminated Hewitt did the same to Patrowicz 9-7. Patrowicz is virtually unknown around these parts but I am told he is a very solid player and well known in Southern Ontario. That being said he held is own against some of the best players in Québec and fell just short against Nguyen. Daigle who has been easily one of the most consistent players recently eliminated Nguyen 9-5. He then went on to face Joey Cicero for the second time and lost another close match 9-7.  Cicero who lost 9-7 to Martel in the winners side final  earned his second chance at the "Dancing Bear."


It takes more than one arrow to kill the "Dancing Bear."

Less then a week after publicly questioning whether or not his game was slipping, and realizing he was no longer a top 5 ranked player in Quebec Alain Martel wins!The young gun Joey Cicero lead several times to start this race to 11. 4-0, 6-1 and 9-5 however it was not enough as Alain "The Dancing Bear" won 11-9! Great shooting to both players. Incredible performance by both players.

I would like to thank Danny Hewitt and Luc Paquette for running a great tournament. The next stop will be January 13-14 a Dooly's Levis. Go to www.falconcuesquebectour.com for full detailsl.

Payouts: 

1 Alain Martel 1000 $ 
2 Joey Cicero 800 $ 
3 Martin Daigle 625 $ 
4 Dany Nguyen 460 $ 
5 - 6 Mike Patrowitcz330 $ 
5 - 6 Luc Salvas 330 $ 
7 - 8 Daniel Gagné 200 $ 
7 - 8 Jeff Blais 200 $ 
9 - 12 Martin Sears 70 $ 
9 - 12 Danny Hewitt 70 $ 
9 - 12 David Deschênes 70 $ 
9 - 12 Mehdi Bahloul 70 $

Second Chance

1-Vincent Beauregard 200 $
2-Dominic Byrne 150 $
3-David Lanthier 100 $

4-Martin Bouthotte 50 $

Gatineau: Nguyen Dominates Falcon Québec Pro Tour Stop at Terminus

Photo Courtesy of Guy Simard www.billardquebec.com

 By: Markus Noé

Terminus Bar-Billard in Gatineau, Québec hosted the most recent Falcon Québec Pro Tour this past weekend November  18-19. In the 3 year history of the tour, Terminus has always been one of their best results in terms of player participation. This season was no different as 49 players came to partake, some came as far from Montreal, New York State and the Greater Toronto Area.

Danny Hewitt current number one player in Québec and one of the most accomplished players in the country is a co-founders of the tour. The rules are similar to Mike Zuglan's Joss Tour as it is break from the box, which makes the break shot more unpredictable. The difference in the Falcon Tour compared to the Joss Tour is that every shot is call shot, you are permitted to rack your own balls and it is alternate break.

Despite the high participation the tournaments favourites remained virtually the same. As per usual Danny Hewitt was a clear favourite as I believe he has won nearly half of all the events over the 3 year existence of the tour. Then Alain Martel, Francis Crevier and Martin Daigle were all in the mix. However not to be forgotten is the up and coming young pro's in Québec who are beginning to make names for themselves, Dany Nguyen, Joey Cicero and Maxime Villneuve to name a few.

As a mid range amateur I have been a big supporter of this tour, which to my knowledge is the only Pro Tour in Canada. Whenever the tour stops are within reach I enjoy throwing my hat in the ring and testing my skills against some of the best players in the country. Quickly for me this was my best performance in a pro level field as I was able to cash in the 13-16th place. On route to doing so I had the luxury of playing two legends.

In my first round I matched up against Alain "The Dancing Bear" Martel, who over the years I have been doing Cue Sport Nation as become a friend. Before our match he must of noticed I was a little nervous as this was my first time playing him. In classic Martel humour he says to me after we shake hands, "this is the first time we play right? I have been waiting for this moment all my life." I could not help but laugh out loud. Martel went on to beat me 9-2, then on the losers side I was able to dispatch some good players before I ran into Luc "Machine Gun" Salvas who ended my run 9-3. With the staggered entry these tournaments are great learning experiences for players at my level and I highly recommend participating whenever possible.

In Martel's next match he paired up against a strong Semi-Pro from my home room of Rack-M-Up Billiards Jean Therriault. In what is considered a major upset, Therriault notched his first ever win against Martel in a thrilling 9-8 victory. The other day 1 upset was Andy Aupin a strong pro from Sudbury who just had a good tournament at the East Coast Challenge in Halifax the week before defeated Hewitt 9-7. Otherwise all the favourites made it through the winners side on day 1.

It should be noted that Dany Nguyen who already had one previous final appearance in Trois-Riviere this season was on fire. He won his first round 9-2, then in what on paper would seem to be a fantastic match of two of Québec's young pro's ended up being a white of Nguyen over Joey Cicero 9-0. On Saturday no one was able to get past 5 on the day, which shows just how dominate Nguyen was. In his last matche of the day against Jean Therriault he won with ease 9-2.

 Sunday the final 4 on the winners side were Nguyen vs Daigle and Crevier vs Aupin. Nguyen continued his torrid pace winning 9-2 and Crevier was able to edge out Aupin 9-8. On the losers side Hewitt began to find his form as he beat Pierre Normand 9-1, then Martin Daigle 9-1 and followed this up with a 9-3 win over John Leblanc. In the losers side match Crevier ended his run 9-6 setting up a winners side final rematch.

Francis Crevier and Dany Nguyen

Crevier made it close, however no one was going to stop Nguyen from winning this tournament as he went on to win 11-7 to capture his first Falcon Tour victory of his short professional career. Nguyen was clearly playing the best all weekend and deserved the win, Cue Sport Nation would like to congratulate him on this landmark moment.

I would like to thank Danny Hewitt for the sponsorship so I could cover this event. Also Luc Paquette long time director of the Falcon Tour despite having a significant personal health issue and a week outside of a surgery came and did a great job as always. Francis Farley was also vital for keeping the tournament running smoothly throughout the weekend and acted as a referee, both these guys did a great job this weekend. Finally I would like to thank Patrick De Repentigny and Daniel Samson and the entire Terminus Staff. Before this tournament they invested a significant amount of money to re-cloth and level all the tables so the conditions were nearly flawless for this event.

The next Falcon Tour Stop will be at La Patriote in St.Eustache December 2-3 hope to see you all there!


Falcon Tour Pay Out 

1-Dany Nguyen 1125$
2-Francis Crevier 900$
3-Danny Hewitt 680$
4-John Leblanc 500$
5-6 Martin Daigle 340$
5-6Andy Aupin 340$
7-8 Luc Salvas 200$
7-8 Pierre Normand 200$
9-12Jean Thériault 90$
9-12Eric Hamel 90$
9-12Maxime Villeneuve 90$
9-12Alain Martel 90$
13-16Markus Noe 40$
13-16Andre Goyette 40$
13-16Mehdi Bahloul 40$
13-16Nicolas Charette 40$

Amateur Only Second Chance Pay Out

1-Dave Simard 200$
2-Dominic Gauthier 150$
3-Alex Lalanne 100$
4-Neil Ayotte 50$

Moscow: Canadian Results from the Junior World Championships

Dean Cuillerier and Brenden Croft 

Submitted Article 

At this years Junior World Championships Canada was lucky enough to have 2 boys representing in Moscow Russia. 15 year old Brenden Croft from Peterborough Ontario has been playing pool since he was about 4 years old coming from a pool playing family and has been mentored recently by Mario and John Morra.

Croft 

Then there is 16 year old Dean Cuillerier from Montreal Quebec. Canadian Junior Champion 2017 and multiple junior event winner of the ADBQ junior tour in Quebec. Dean has been mentored by Alain Martel and his dad Rodney (2016 Canadien snooker champ) who made the trip to Russia with them.

 Dean Cuillerier

Dean won his first match vs. Seo from South Korea and then lost 7-6 vs Roberts from the U.S. On the losers side he won his match vs. Smithers (USA) and then lost hill hill vs. Kalyaev (Ukraine). Brenden lost his first match 7-5 vs. Peterson (South Africa) and on the B side lost a heart-breaker 7-6 vs. Schultz (USA).

The trip was a huge learning experience and both kids are looking forward to more major events in the future. Brenden will be playing at the junior event at the Super Billiards expo in Philadelphia and also at the junior BCA nationals in Vegas.