Greg Lamb, Kevin Guimond, Mike Dechaine and room owner, Tyson Trepanier
It’s been almost four years (April 2021) since Mike Dechaine, aka Fireball, has recorded an event victory here on AZBilliards. It’s been almost a decade since he had his best recorded earnings year (2015), when he climbed to #13 on the AZBilliards Money Leaderboard. It’s been a few days since he went undefeated to claim the State of Maine’s inaugural, $3,000-added Open 9-Ball Tournament, which drew 95 entrants to Forest City Billiards in Portland, ME this past weekend (Nov. 30-Dec. 1). So, being only the third cash payout he’s recorded over the past two years, we wondered whether this appearance may have marked the beginning of a ‘comeback’ thing for him.
“No!” he said; quick, sure and with a touch of ‘are you kidding?’ surprise that the question had even been asked. “I have no interest, no drive to compete or pursue it again. I just don’t think the value is there. It’s still a money pit and just not lucrative enough to want to pursue it as a career.”
“I’ll occasionally go to a tournament; no motive, really, probably more of a vacation,” he added. “It’s usually on a whim and the results aren’t important.”
His real job(s), in the HVAC and real estate industry, don’t afford him a lot of time for maintaining his skills and we wondered how he’d managed to just ‘jump back into the pool,’ literally and figuratively.
“I don’t know,” he said. “During the time I put in before, I was able to learn, understand and do. I think some of that has carried over, but I’m not really all that good right now. I’m mediocre at best.”
Well, if going undefeated through eight matches of the State of Maine’s first Open 9-Ball event is an indication of ‘mediocre,’ one has to wonder what a little more practice and an injection of his former ‘drive to compete’ might do.
“It’s always available,” he said. “I just have to see value!!”
Dechaine was the highest FargoRated competitor (798) in the 9-Ball Open’s field of 95 and of the eight players in the ‘700’ range of rates, seven of them were among the top eight to finish. Dechaine did meet and defeat three of his fellow ‘700’ competitors in his final four matches (facing runner-up Kevin Guimond, at 720, twice) and a ‘655’ (Mike Henderson), who finished in the tie for 12th.
He defeated his first three opponents, with an average FargoRate of 562, by an aggregate score of 27-6. He then defeated Mike Henderson 9-2, downed Tommy Cayer (709) in a winners’ side quarterfinal 9-7 (closest match to that point) and drew Thomas Haas (713) in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Guimond, in the meantime, started out facing four opponents with an average FargoRate of 655 by an aggregate score of 36-8. He then defeated David Hall (709) in one of the winners’ side quarterfinals 9-1 and drew Nick Charette (736) in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Dechaine gave up a single rack to Haas and advanced to the hot seat match. Guimond joined him, following a 9-7 win over Charette. Dechaine claimed the hot seat 9-5 over Guimond.
On the loss side, where any number of potential ‘spoilers’ were still at work, Charette drew one of them, Lukas Fracasso-Verner, a familiar New England face, who’d travelled to Maine after competing in events at the International Open in St. Augustine, FL, a week earlier. Fracasso-Verner had lost a winners’ side quarterfinal to Thomas Haas 9-3 and then, eliminated Ivaylo Petrov and Tommy Cayer, both 7-2, to draw Charette. David Hall, in the meantime, who’d followed his loss to Guimond with victories over Henderson 7-1 and Denys Zbikowski 7-5, picked up Haas.
Both matches for advancement to the quarterfinal finished 7-3; Haas over Hall and Fracasso-Verner over Charette. The quarterfinal rematch between Fracasso-Verner and Haas turned into a double-hill fight, with Haas advancing to meet Guimond in the semifinals.
Guimond dropped Haas 7-4 to earn a second shot against Dechaine in the finals. Guimond crept a little closer to Dechaine in their second meetup. He came within a game of forcing double hill, but Dechaine edged out in front 9-7 to claim the Inaugural State of Maine 9-Ball Open title.
“(Room owner) Tyson Trepanier and tour director Greg Lamb did a wonderful job,” noted Dechaine. “They did (run) local state tournaments before, but they wanted to draw outside players.”
They did just that, drawing them from states all the way down to Pennsylvania and what Trepanier called “a solid group representing Canada.” It is an event that he plans to repeat.
“Forest City Billliards is an almost 11,000 sq. ft. pool hall with 22 total, 9 ft. tables, two 8ft. Valleys, and a 12 ft. Snooker table,” said Trepanier, “with all but the 8 ft. Valley tables with new Perimeter Lights.”
“We also have ping-pong tables, darts, as well as a full kitchen and bar,” he added.
“It was a successful event,” said Dechaine, “and yeah, hopefully, it’ll carry into next year as well.”
Trepanier thanked his staff for their efforts at making such a successful event, Lamb for directing the event, Mike DeMarco from Ship the Cash for the live streaming and sponsors Iwan Simonis Cloth, Brunswick and digitalpool.com.
we all have our weak moments, but some players seem to relish the touring, the life- especially lately, with matchroom helping the sport grow in so many ways.
cool to hear fireball's still firin' em in tho. may happiness find us all!