While most fans in attendance felt that Jayson Shaw was the odds on favorite, it was Billy Thorpe who earned the title at the Turning Stone Resort & Casino on January 5th – 8th, with an undefeated run through a field of 128 players.
Thorpe fought his way to the hot seat match with wins over Jon McConnell, John Morra, Brandon Shuff, Canadian Adam Monture and Albania’s Besar Spahiu. His opponent for the hot-seat was another Canadian, Joey Cicero. In Cicero’s final eight match, he upset Shaw with a 9-5 match that saw Cicero controlling the table with a soft, controlled break. Shaw held an early lead at 4-0, but Cicero won 9 of the next 10 racks for the win.
After Cicero sent Zion Zvi to the one loss side, he came up one rack short of the hot-seat as Thorpe came back from 8-7 down to win the match 9-8.
On the one loss side, Cicero found Dennis Hatch on a roll. Hatch had lost an early match to Shaw, but put together a six match winning streak that included notable wins over Mika Immonen, Zvi and Spahiu. Hatch kept his dreams of a Turning Stone title alive with a dominating 9-2 win over Cicero in the semi-final match.
The final race to 13 looked as if it would be a quick one, with Thorpe racing to an early 10-2 lead. That was when Hatch took control of the match and what was an 8 rack Thorpe lead was only a 3 rack lead when Thorpe next won a rack at 11-8. Hatch wasn’t done though, as he won the next 3 racks to tie things at 11-11. In the next rack, Hatch looked to be running out for his first lead at 12-11, but bad shape on a 4-ball spelled his doom as Thorpe ran out that rack for a 12-11 lead of his own. Hatch would get back to the table in the 24th rack, but a missed 5-ball in the side from Hatch and a bank on that same 5-ball from Thorpe was all that Thorpe needed for the win.
Thorpe collected $8000 for the win, with Hatch settling for $5000 in second place prize money.
From July 6th-9th, The Corner Bank in Toronto celebrated Canada’s 150th birthday with a $5,000 added 8-Ball event. The event was dedicated to the late Vince MacIntyre who we lost in 2013. There is no doubt that Vince would have played in this event if he was still with us, he was a warrior on the bar tables.
The talented field of 68 players included some of Canada’s best bar box players including Louis Fazekas, John Morra, Andy Aupin, Adam Monture and Al Porter. Fans in attendance witnessed some excellent pool. On route to the finals, John Morra defeated Rob Hall, Jonathon Lessard, Brad Guthrie before facing the current Canadian 8-Ball Champion Adam Monture. Adam and John traded games right down to the wire before Morra clinched the last rack. John continued his journey with wins over Erik Hjorleifson and Jason Klatt to earn the hot seat.
Jason Klatt had wins over Bruce Hickey, Ben Crawley, Jeet Khandi, Tyler Styer and Andy Aupin before losing to John Morra in the A-Side finals. In the b-side finals, Jason Klatt eliminated the young gun from Wisconsin, Tyler Styer. I’m sure we will be seeing more of this sharpshooter as he has recently been spending some time here in Canada.
Klatt now faced John Morra again in the finals. This was a “true double knock-out” event with Jason needing to win two sets for the title. Klatt wasted no time jumping out to a 5-0 lead before Morra could get a game on the board at 5-1. John missed the 8-Ball in the next rack put Jason in front 6-1. Jason held it together to win the first set 8-2 and the players quickly lagged again to start the last set of the tournament.
Jason Klatt came out of the gate strong once again. This set was played at a slower pace as both players could now see the finish line. Morra stayed within reach eventually tying the score at 5-5. A foul on the 8-Ball in the 11th rack put Jason ahead 6-5. Jason broke dry in the next rack and Morra carefully cleared the stripes to tie the score at 6-6. Now it was Morra’s turn to break dry, Klatt took his time and ran the table to reach the hill 7-6. Jason followed it up in style with a break-and-run to win the event.
