Mike Zuglan, Jeremy Sossei, Mike Dechaine and Stephen Goulding
Mike Dechaine has joined a small crowd of players who have three or more Ocean State 9-Ball Championship banners hanging from the ceiling at Snookers in Providence, RI. In earning his third banner, he also accomplished something that no other player has managed in winning three straight Ocean State titles.
For the third week in a row, it was Jeremy Sossei competing for the hot-seat at a Joss NE 9-Ball Tour event. This time, he would lose the hot-seat to Dechaine 9-6.
On the one loss side, Mike Davis was on a tear. After losing to Earl Strickland in a close match on Saturday, Davis won four straight matches that included revenge over Strickland. Davis had no answer for Sossei though as Jeremy raced to a quick 9-2 win.
Sossei kept his strong play going in the first set of the finals and scored a 9-3 win over Dechaine to force a second set. That second set was a back and forth affair that finally saw Dechaine pull out the 9-7 win for his third straight Ocean State 9-Ball Title.
The second place finish moved Sossei to the top of the Joss Tour's Points list, and Dechaine climbed to third on the list with two tournament wins so far this season.
The Joss NE 9-Ball Tour will be at Raxx in West Hempstead, NY next weekend for their next event.
Mike Zuglan, Martin Daigle, Mike Dechaine, Jayson Shaw, Regina and Steve Goulding
Mike Dechaine won two out of three matches over Jayson Shaw, to defend his title at the 25th Annual Ocean State 9-Ball Championship.
Dechaine topped a field of 67 players at Snookers Sports Bar & Grill in Providence, RI. He took the hot-seat with a one sided 9-4 win over Jayson Shaw on Sunday.
Shaw's tournament looked to be over in the next match as he watched from the chair as Canada's Martin Daigle made the 9-ball on the break at hill-hill. To Shaw's surprise, the cue ball also found the hole on that break shot and he had a reprieve. Shaw won that game for the 9-8 win over Daigle, and another shot at Dechaine in the finals.
While Dechaine, housepro at Snookers, certainly felt comfortable in his home pool room, Shaw took late control of the first set of the finals and won the match 9-5 to force a second match to determine a final winner.
The second set of the finals was highlighted (?) by a handful of uncharacteristic errors and misses by both players as the length of the event had left them both visibly tired. Dechaine would be the first player to break through the daze and take control of the match, which he won 9-6.
After back to back runner up finishes in 2010 and 2011, Dechaine has now won back to back Ocean State 9-Ball Championships and will see a second banner raised in the rafters of Snookers to commemorate his play. Dechaine joins Mike Zuglan, Mika Immonen, Tony Robles, George San Souci and Dennis Hatch and multiple time Ocean State Championship winners.
The Joss NE 9-Ball Tour will be at Raxx Pool Room in W. Hempstead NY next weekend for another $1500/$500 added tournament and second chance event on Sunday. After the Raxx tour stop, the tour will take a break until February.
Joss Tour director Mike Zuglan will start taking signups for the Turning Stone Classic XXII (taking place Sept 18th – 21st) in early January. As always, players are encouraged to sign up for this event early.
David Vanbenburghe, Scott Smith, Ed Hagan, Dee Adkins and Chad Scharlow
I guess we can refer to the Derby City Classic as an annual event as this is the second tournament with dates already released for 2001, Jan 19-27.
It really ranks as a classic in the mold of Johnson City. The event runs 9 days with 3 days each for Bank Pool, One Pocket and 9-Ball.
The venue was the Executive West Hotel in Louisville, KY and the tournament was conducted Feb, 4-12.
It’s an impossible event to follow, as it allows players to buy back in once they have been eliminated.
Every time there are buybacks they redraw, so you really can’t tell where you are until the field is pared to the two final players in each division.
Shannon Daulton was victorious over Whitey Stephenson in the Banks event. This was, by the way, 9-Ball Banks.
Shannon looked very strong, especially his defense, as he went through the field.
It’s always a pleasure to see Donnie Anderson perform. He is getting up in years and has some medical problems which don’t help his playing.
During the event he had to play Truman Hogue, whom he defeated. In fact, Truman hadn’t beaten Donnie in 30 years or so in a tournament.
At one point during the match, Donnie had to stretch out for a shot with one knee on the table, but he couldn’t get his knee up high enough so he said, “Come on, Truman, help me.”
Truman jumped up and lifted him onto the table. After all that, he didn’t like the shot and chose another. But Truman went down to defeat anyway.
And friends are always helpful. One of Truman’s asked, “How old does Donnie have to be before you can heat him?” What are friends for anyway?
Kentucky is the heart of the bank pool game and 184 players entered the event, with $19,200 total prize money.
Even Detroiter Paula Albright entered and beat up a couple of boys. Not bad, Paula!
The second event was One Pocket, won by Nick Varner. It was kind of a reversal from last year. Shannon Daulton won the One Pocket and Nick won the 9-Ball Banks.
There were 156 players in the One Pocket division with $26,700 in total prize money.
The final event was 9-Ball and George San Souci took home the first-place prize, beating Dee Adkins, 7-5.
George played very well throughout the event, shooting .951 for the match against Gary Spaeth, winning 7-2.
Don’t shed tears for Adkins, though, as he did win the All Around Championship title, which was worth $5,000. Dee did this by finishing 5th in 9-Ball Banks, 25th in One Pocket and 2nd in 9-Ball as he trucked off $10,478.
And George got $8,000 for his win in 9-Ball, which was the only event he entered.
There were 178 players in the 9-Ball division with a total purse of $42,800.
There was also room upstairs which had a lot of very lively action. All in all it was a very good event.
