The tournament never made it past the quarterfinals. Following the winners’ side semifinals of the September 5 stop on the New England 9-Ball Series, two competitors moved to the loss side and played one match each. When those two matches that determined the two-way tie for 5th place were over, it was 2 a.m. on Sunday, September 6. The four remaining competitors opted out of further play and made arrangements to split the top four cash prizes. As the undefeated occupant of the hot seat at the time, Tony Albair took the official event title. The $500-added, 8-ball event drew 69 entrants, who played on Legends Sports Bar in Auburn, ME’s 10 Diamond tables for as long as they could.

 

Albair came out of the event’s lower bracket and opened his campaign by shutting out three female opponents – Dorie Oakes, Patricia Stevens and Dorothy Gauvin. He defeated Tyler 3-2 and then sent a third woman, Noreen Moy, to the loss side 3-1 to face Barret Ridley in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Kyle Pepin, in the meantime, emerged from the upper bracket, defeating (after an opening round bye) Scott Bower 5-1, Gabriel Kirshnitz 5-2, Ross Webster 4-1, and Steve Smith 3-2 to face Jason Barnies in the other winners’ side semifinal.

 

Pepin and Albair advanced to the hot seat match with identical 3-2, double hill wins over Barnies and Ridley. With two on the wire at the start in a race to 4, Albair claimed the hot seat 2-2.

 

On the loss side, Barnies picked up Dillon Nickerson, who had picked up a forfeit win over Xavier Libby, and downed Steve Smith 3-1 to reach him. Ridley drew Noreen Moy, who, after being sent to the loss side with a shutout, chalked up two of her own, against Carlton Gagnon and Dave Morrison, to face Ridley.

 

In what proved to be the final matches of the event, Nickerson defeated Barnies 3-1, while Moy went out the way she’d come in, via shutout at the hands of Ridley. The decision was made to end the proceedings, granting Albair and Pepin 1st and 2nd place, respectively. Nickerson and Ridley split the 3rd and 4th place prizes.

 

Tour director Marc Dionne thanked the ownership and staff for their hospitality, as well as sponsors Predator Cues, USAPL New England, Fargo Rate, Bert Kinister, AZBilliards, Inside English, Professor Q Ball’s National Pool and 3-Cushion News, Delta 13 Racks, MJS Construction, Bob Campbell, Bourgeois Farms and OTLVISE Billiard Mechanics of America. The next stop on the New England 9-Ball Series (Stop #11) will be the $750-added annual Robert Dionne Memorial Tournament, scheduled for January 12-13, at Crow’s Nest in Plaistow, NH.

Capping what’s been a pretty good year for him that included his second victory at the annual New England Pool & Billiards Hall of Fame Open 9-Ball event in March, Joe Dupuis went undefeated at the New England 9-Ball Series invitational Tour Championships on the weekend of September 8-9. The $10,000-added event drew 111 entrants to Bo’s Billiards in Warwick, RI.

 

In the earlier rounds of the upper bracket, Dupuis, competing as an Open player, won three matches in which, on average, he’d given up between three and four racks per match. In his fourth match, against Rich Howard, Dupuis picked up the pace a bit and gave up only a single rack in a 10-1 victory that advanced him to an overall winners’ side quarterfinal match against Sam Samoth. He sent Samoth to the loss side 8-5 to draw Dillon Nickerson in one of the winners’ side semifinals. From the lower bracket, Ryan Urso and Kevin Rodrigues had worked their way through a separate set of lower-ranked opponents giving up, on average, between two and three racks per match, to arrive and face each other in the other winners’ side semifinal.

 

In a straight-up race to 6, Urso downed Rodrigues 6-3 and advanced to the hot seat match. Dupuis stepped up the pace a second time, and though Nickerson had three games on the wire, in a race to 9, Dupuis made that point moot by shutting him out to join Urso in the hot seat match. Urso started the hot seat match with five games on the wire in a race to 10, and though he chalked up three on his own, Dupuis chalked up his 10 and sat in the hot seat, waiting for Urso to get back from the semifinals.

 

On the loss side, A player Ryan Cullen, who’d been defeated by Nickerson in a winners’ side quarterfinal, defeated Ben Savoie, double hill (7-4) and Roy Morgridge 7-5 to draw a re-match versus Nickerson. Rodrigues drew Ben Benson (B), who’d eliminated C+ players Lindsey Monto 6-2 and Anthony Petruzelli, double hill.

 

In their re-match, the two A players, Cullen and Nickerson battled to double hill, before Cullen finished it, advancing to the quarterfinals. Rodrigues joined him, downing fellow B player Benson 6-3.

 

Cullen gave up only a single rack in his quarterfinal match against Rodrigues and faced Urso in the semifinals. With two games on the wire at the start, Urso downed Cullen, double hill (5-6).

 

Joe Dupuis took his ‘foot off the gas’ a bit in the opening set of the true double elimination final against Urso. As in the hot seat match, Urso started with five games on the wire in a race to 10, and earned his requisite five more, before Dupuis had reached his third (5-2). The two battled to double hill in the second set, with Dupuis winning the deciding 14th game to claim the Tour Championship title.

 

Tour director Marc Dionne thanked the ownership and staff at Bo’s Billiards, as well as 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 New England 9-Ball Series will open its 2018-2019 season on Sunday, September 23, with an event to be hosted by Crow’s Nest in Plaistow, NH.

At Stop #27 on the New England 9-Ball Series, Peter Copland and Rob Rogan played two double hill matches against each other. In the first, Copland sent Rob Rogan to the loss side. In the second, playing in the opening set of a true double elimination final, Rogan forced a second, deciding set, which never happened. With a single win each, Copland and Rogan opted out of a second set, making Copland, in the hot seat, the event’s official winner. The event, which employed a ‘shortened race chart’ due to the combination of 64 players and only 11 tables, was hosted by Crow’s Nest in Plaistow, NH on Sunday, July 15.

Their first meeting took place in the third round of the event’s lower bracket. With Copland (a C+) racing to 5, and Rogan (a C), racing to 4, Copland advanced 5-3. Rogan moved west on the bracket and embarked on a seven-match, loss-side winning streak that would culminate in their re-match. Copland, in the meantime, moved on to another double hill match against Tyler Dunbar, which he won, advancing to a winners’ side semifinal against fellow C+ competitor Mike Galinat, Sr. (Galinat’s son, Mike, Jr., was shut out by Copland in the opening round of play, and won two on the loss side before being eliminated). Playing in the other winners’ side semifinal, from the event’s upper bracket were Mike Minichello (Open) and Matt Treglia (B+).

Copland sent Galinat, Sr. to the loss side 4-1, and in the hot seat match, faced Minichello, who’d survived a double hill match (7-3) against Treglia. Copland shut Minichello out in the battle for the hot seat and waited on what proved to be his re-match against Rogan.

Of the seven matches Rogan won for the right to face Copland a second time, three of them went double hill, including wins over Jenn Brown 4-2 (Brown racing to 3) and Tyler Dunbar, which set Rogan up to face Galinat, Sr. coming over from the winners’ side semifinal. Treglia picked up fellow B+ player Xavier Libby, who’d defeated Justin Fournier, double hill, and Dillon Nickerson (an A player, racing to 5) 4-1 to reach him.

In their straight-up race to 5, Libby got by Treglia 5-1, as Rogan chalked up his third, loss-side double hill win over Galinat, Sr. With Libby racing to 6 in the quarterfinals that followed, Rogan eliminated him 4-3 and then, due to a forfeiture by Mike Minichello in the semifinals, leap-frogged right into the double elimination final re-match against Copland.

In the 5-4 match (Copland to 5), Rogan took the opening set 4-4. There was no second set, and as the hot seat occupant, Copland took the event title when he and Rogan split the top two prizes.

Tour director Marc Dionne thanked the ownership and staff at Crow’s Nest, as well as 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 on the New England 9-Ball Series (#28), scheduled for July 29, will be hosted by Stix and Stones in Abington, MA.

Recognition as a contender in the world of pool usually begins with a player’s first finish ‘in the money,’ from which it will proceed (hopefully) to higher and higher finishes and larger amounts of money to show for the efforts. To have that first (recorded) payout occur on the Joss Northeast 9-Ball Tour isn’t unheard of, but it’s a significant radar blip on a pool career screen that suggests the player might be someone to watch. Dillon Nickerson finished 7th in the Joss NE 9-Ball’s season opener last month (The Maine Event XI in September) and the radar blip of that finish put his name into the AZBilliards database for the first time. A month later, on the weekend of October 14-15, a slightly stronger blip appeared on Nickerson’s career screen when he navigated his way through a field of 52, on-hand for the third stop on the New England 9-Ball Series, and chalked up his first event title. It should be noted that occasionally, a player’s victory or a number of them might not, for a variety of reasons, show up in the extensive AZBilliards database, because that one or those victories might not have been reported to the site’s administrators. That said, as the blip on the career screen is recorded for posterity, Nickerson has now won a regional tour title, and the money that it represents. The $1,500-added event was hosted by Legends Sports Bar & Grill in Auburn, ME.

 

At the start of an event, players on The New England 9-Ball Series are divided into two brackets that initially separate higher and lower-ranked players. Without delving too deeply into the minute details, this creates two hot seat matches (winners’ side finals), one each for the initially separate upper and lower brackets. In a single bracket, these two separate hot seat matches would be identified as the two winners’ side semifinals, leading to one hot seat match. So it was, that Nickerson, after being awarded an opening round bye and defeating three opponents faced Al McGuane in this recent event’s upper bracket hot seat match, while Charlton Chagnon (winner of four matches) faced Charles Rosco in the lower bracket’s hot seat match. Nickerson downed McGuane 6-4, as Chagnon sent Rosco to the loss side 5-1. Nickerson claimed the overall event hot seat with a double hill (8-4) win over Chagnon.

 

On the loss side, McGuane ran into an immediate re-match against Kyle Pepin, whom he had defeated earlier. Pepin’s loss-side trip in the upper bracket amounted to a single match, which he won, over Derick Burnham 8-4. This advanced him to the loss side of a single, merged bracket, where he survived a double hill fight against George Morgan to draw the re-match against McGuane. Rosco picked up Mike Pepin (Kyle Pepin’s uncle), recent winner over Kevin Lank (forfeit) and Josh Edmonds 5-3.

 

Uncle and nephew Pepin moved on to face each other in the quarterfinals; Nephew Kyle, defeating McGuane, double hill and UncLe Mike, 5-2 over Rosco. Kyle chalked up the quarterfinal win over his uncle 9-2 (Mike racing to 5). Kyle then defeated Chagnon 10-5 in the semifinals to earn a spot in the finals against Nickerson.

 

Pepin battled Nickerson to a deciding game in the opening set of the true double elimination final and won it to force a second set. Nickerson, though, came back to win the second set 6-5 (Pepin racing to 8) and claim his first recorded tour victory.

 

Tour director Marc Dionne thanked the ownership and staff at Legends, as well as 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 (#5) on the New England 9-Ball Series, scheduled for October 21, will be a $500-added event, hosted by Yale Billiards in Wallingford, CT.