What a difference a week can make. At the New England 9-Ball Series’ 2019-2020 season opener last week (Sept. 22), Tyler Boudreau chalked up his third 2019 victory on the tour, meeting and defeating in the event finals, Buddy Oldham, who’d won nine on the loss side for the right to face him.  Boudreau and Oldham were back this past Saturday (Sept. 28) for the second stop on the ’19-’20 tour; Boudreau looking to chalk up his fourth win, and Oldham still looking for his first major win. Boudreau went two and out, while for the second week in a row, Oldham settled for a runner-up finish. Both were defeated by Brett Cavazos, who went undefeated at the $500-added, Dave Marcus Memorial Tournament that drew 43 entrants to Buster’s Billiards in Somersworth, NH.

 

Boudreau was awarded an opening round bye and then lost his first match to Cavazos. Separated by only six Fargo Rate points (Boudreau, 550 & Cavazos, 544) they played a straight-up race to 6, which sent Boudreau to the loss side 6-3, where he lost his first match. Demonstrating that it wasn’t a fluke, Cavazos advanced to shut out Yenik Nazarian and then, in another straight-up race to 6, defeat last week’s third-place finisher Mourad Idrais 6-4. This moved Cavazos into a winners’ side semifinal match against Brett Chansky. Oldham, in the meantime, apparently not enamored of the extra matches needed to be played with an early loss, downed Dana Hussey, Greg Andrecyk, survived a double hill fight against Aundria Reynolds and defeated Phil Walton to draw Kyle King in the other winners’ side semifinal (King had been the only opponent he’d defeated on the winners’ side of the bracket in last week’s event).

 

Cavazos sent Chansky to the loss side 6-2. Oldham joined him in the hot seat match after shutting out King. Cavazos claimed the hot seat 6-3 (Oldham racing to 5).

 

On the loss side, Chansky picked up Idrais, who, after his defeat at the hands of Cavazos in a winners’ side quarterfinal, downed Tony Albair 5-2 and shut out TJ Marshall. King drew Phil Walton, who followed his defeat at the hands of Oldham with victories over Richard Comeau 4-1 and Jamie Dube in a shutout.

 

Chansky advanced to the quarterfinals with a double hill win over Idrais. King joined him when Walton forfeited. Chansky and King battled to double hill before Chansky closed it out to face Oldham in the semifinals.

 

Oldham started the semifinal with two on the wire in a race to 6. He and Chansky both chalked up four racks, but the handicap advantage advanced Oldham to the finals. Cavazos and Oldham opted out of those finals and split the top two prizes. As the undefeated occupant of the hot seat, Cavazos went on record as the official winner of the Dave Marcus Memorial Tournament.

 

Tour director Marc Dionne thanked the ownership and staff at Buster’s Billiards, as well as sponsors Predator Cues, USAPL New England, BCA Pool League, Fargo Rate, Bert Kinister, AZBilliards, Inside English, Professor Q-ball’s National Pool and 3-Cushion News, Delta 13 Racks, MJS Construction, Bob Campbell with Lease Fundings, Master Billiards and OTLVISE Billiard Mechanics of America.  The next stop on the NE 9-Ball Series (#3), scheduled for the weekend of October 12-13, will be the $2,000-added Bangor Bash, to be hosted by Rack City in Bangor, ME. Pre-registration is required for this event, with a deadline of 5 p.m. on Friday, October 11.

He finished the NE 9-Ball Series’ 2018-2019 season by winning its tour championships on the weekend of September 7-8 and on Sunday, September 22 he won the tour’s 2019-2020 season opener. Tyler Boudreau has recorded five cash payouts in his first year on record with the NE 9-Ball Series and three of them have been victories. He finished 3rd at the Players Championship in March and shared 4th place with his Scotch Doubles Partner, Tom D’Alfonso, in August. The September 22nd event drew 43 entrants to Crow’s Nest in Plaistow, NH.

 

To claim the title, though, Boudreau had to contend with a competitor who was looking for his first major win, and like Boudreau, was making his first appearance on a regional tour payout list in 2019 – Buddy Oldham. Oldham had chalked up a victory over Kyle King in the lower (FargoRate) bracket in the opening round of the event, and then, defeated by John Mills in the second round, embarked on a nine-match, loss-side winning streak that would take him all the way to the finals against Boudreau.

 

Boudreau, in the meantime, advanced to a winners’ side semifinal against Chris Richard. Mourad Idrais and Roger Vivier squared off in the other one. In a straight-up race to 5, Boudreau moved into the hot seat match with a 5-3 victory over Richard. Idrais joined him after sending Vivier to the loss side 5-2 (Vivier was racing to 6). In a straight-up race to 6 (Idrais with a 512 Fargo Rate and Boudreau with a 468), Boudreau claimed the hot seat 6-4 and waited for Oldham to complete his loss-side run.

 

Oldham was six matches into his nine-match run. He’d chalked up wins #4 and #5 against Bob Campbell 4-1 and survived his only double hill battle against Julio Xhiu to draw Chris Richard, coming over from the winners’ side semifinal. Vivier picked up Tom D’Alfonso, whom he’d sent to the loss side in the event’s fourth round. D’Alfonso was working on a modest, loss-side streak of his own, having defeated Dominic Souza, double hill and Ricardo Diaz 8-2.

 

Oldham would advance through to the finals with three wins in which he gave up only one rack to his three opponents. He gave up none at all to Chris Richard to get into the quarterfinals against Vivier, who’d eliminated D’Alfonso with a surprising 4-3 second win. Oldham then blanked Vivier in the quarterfinals.

 

In a straight-up race to 4 in the semifinals, Oldham allowed Idrais a single rack and earned a shot at Boudreau in the finals. The two relative newcomers to the sport, with a 3-point differential in their Fargo rate (Oldham, 471 and Boudreau, 468) squared off in a straight-up race to 5 in the finals. Oldham gave up as many racks to Boudreau as he’d given up to his previous five opponents. Boudreau claimed his third 2019 NE 9-Ball Series title 5-2.

 

Tour director Marc Dionne thanked the ownership and staff at Crow’s Nest, as well as sponsors Predator Cues, USAPL New England, BCA Pool League, Fargo Rate, Bert Kinister, AZBilliards, Inside English, Professor Q-ball’s National Pool and 3-Cushion News, Delta 13 Racks, MJS Construction, Bob Campbell with Lease Fundings, Master Billiards and OTLVISE Billiard Mechanics of America.  The next stop on the NE 9-Ball Series, scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 28, will be the $500-added Dave Marcus Memorial, hosted by Buster’s Billiards in Somersworth, NH.

For stop #21 on the New England 9-Ball Series, the ‘training wheels,’ known as handicaps, were removed. The 24 entrants who signed on for the Saturday, March 31 event, hosted by Straight Shooters in Fall River, MA, were, as usual, split into upper and lower brackets at the start; B or higher players in an upper bracket, racing to 6, and C+ or lower players, in a lower bracket, racing to 5. The brackets came together in the hot seat match and quarterfinals. Dennis Levesque, working in the upper bracket, went undefeated through the field to claim the event title.

 

Levesque faced separate opponents in the hot seat and finals of this event. He won three straight 6-4 victories to advance to a winners’ side semifinal against Mike Cote, as Charlie Matarazzo and Derek Oliveira squared off in the other winners’ side semifinal. Levesque downed Cote 6-3, and in the hot seat match, faced Matarazzo, who’d sent Oliveira to the loss side 5-3. Levesque gave up only a single rack to Matarazzo in the race-to-5 battle for the hot seat.

 

On the loss side, Levesque’s opponent in the finals, Lukas Fracasso-Verner, was working on a seven-match, loss-side winning streak that started when John Ferreira sent him to the loss side 6-4 in the event’s opening round. Fracasso-Verner was awarded a bye in his first loss-side round, and after his first two loss-side wins, he ran into Ferreira for a re-match. He eliminated Ferreira 6-4, and survived a double hill battle against Rich Senna to draw Cote, coming over from the winners’ side semifinal. Oliveira drew David Melancon, who’d defeated Anthony Petruzelli 5-2 and Buddy Oldham 5-3 to reach him.

 

Fracasso-Verner and Melancon handed Cote and Oliveira their second straight losses, both by shutout. In the now-joined brackets in the quarterfinals, Fracasso-Verner downed Melancon 5-2, and then, defeated Matarazzo 5-1 in the semifinals. In what would have been a straight-up race to 5 in any event, the two A players, Fracasso-Verner and Levesque squared off in the finals. Levesque won the first, and only set necessary 5-2 to claim the event title.

 

Tour director Marc Dionne thanked the ownership and staff at Straight Shooters, as well as sponsors Ozone Billiards, Molinari, Bert Kinister, AZBilliards, Inside English, Professor Q-Ball’s National and 3-Cushion News, Delta 13 Racks, MJS Construction, Bob Campbell, Championship Cloth, and OTLVISE Billiard Mechanics of America. The next stop on the New England 9-Ball Series (#22), scheduled for April 8, will be a Partners Tournament, hosted by Snookers in Providence, RI.

 

Thanks, in part, to the absence of a number of B (and above) players who opted to compete in Turning Stone XXIX, scheduled on the same weekend, Jodie Thompson (C+) began the 12th Annual Robert Dionne Memorial Tournament by competing in the upper bracket, normally reserved for the B (and above) players. He was one of six C/C+ players among the 22 to compete in the upper bracket. None of the B or above competitors made it as far as the winners’ side semifinals, while on the loss side, only two B/B+ players made it to the money rounds. Thompson worked his way, undefeated, through the field of 43, on-hand for the $1,500-added Dionne Memorial, held under the auspices of the New England 9-Ball Series and hosted by Crow’s Nest in Plaistow, NH on the weekend of January 6-7.

 

Victories over one fellow C+ player, a B and a B+ player put Thompson into the winners’ side semifinal against another C+ player, Buddy Oldham. Tom Schroeder (C), in the meantime, squared off against D+ player, Richard Comeau. Thompson got into the hot seat match with a 5-2 win over Oldham. He was joined by Schroeder, who’d downed Comeau in a double hill match. Thompson claimed the hot seat 6-2 over Schroeder and waited on the return of what turned out to be the last B player, Eric Lim.

 

Having been sent to the loss side by Xavier Libby in a winners’ side quarterfinal, Lim was in the midst of a seven-match, loss-side winning streak that would take him as far as the finals. He’d defeated Tyler Campbell 6-1 to move into the money rounds, and then shut out Thomas Hood to draw Oldham. Comeau picked up Dan Martis, who’d defeated Ambriory Minyety 5-2 and Matt Eline 5-1 to reach him.

 

Lim advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-1 victory over Oldham. He was joined by Comeau, who’d eliminated Martis 4-2 (Martis, as a C+, was racing to 6). As the last D+ representative in the event, Comeau put up a double hill fight, but it wasn’t enough. Lim advanced to the semifinals, where a 7-2 win over Schroeder gave him a shot at Thompson in the hot seat.

 

Lim had to win one extra game in the finals that followed (a 6-5 race) and he almost made it. They battled to 5-4, before Thompson closed out his undefeated run to win it 5-5 and claim the 12th Annual Robert Dionne Memorial title.

 

Tour director Marc Dionne thanked the ownership and staff at Crow’s Nest for their hospitality, along with sponsors Ozone Billiards, Molinari, Bert Kinister, AZBilliards, Inside English, Professor Q-ball’s National Pool and 3-Cushion News, Delta 13 Racks, MJS Construction, Bob Campbell, Championship Cloth, and OTLVISE Billiard Mechanics of America. The next stop (#12) on the New England 9-Ball Series, scheduled for January 13, will be a $500-added event, hosted by Legends Sports Bar in Auburn, ME.