Rebecca Ellis forces a deciding match against Seavey in battle for the hot seat
Though Jason Seavey earned the headline as the undefeated winner of the New England 9-Ball Series’ 5th tour stop this past weekend (Sat., Oct. 24), he has to share part of the story with the woman who almost defeated him in the battle for the hot seat – Rebecca Ellis, who, according to our records, has never cashed in a major event anywhere and on this day, came within a single match of playing, with a chance of winning, her first major final. One has to wonder whether her defeat in the subsequent semifinals was a source of relief or concern for Seavey, who ended up facing Troy Fortin, who’d been defeated by Ellis in a winners’ side semifinal and had a short, three-match trip on the loss side, which included a successful rematch against Ellis.
They ended up 1, 2 & 3 at the $750-added event which drew 48 entrants to American Pool & Billiards (formerly Union Station Billiards) in Portland, ME.
Seavey may have been lulled into a false sense of security when he won his upper bracket opening match against a slightly higher-Fargo-rated opponent, Steven Smith (591 to Seavey’s 530). It gave Seavey a single bead on the wire at the start of the race-to-6, first round match, which, as it turned out, he didn’t need. He defeated Smith 5-1. His next three opponents were not so generous and forced Smith to face three double-hill deciding games (versus Robert Davis, Xavier Libby and Ben Savoie) just to get to his winners’ side semifinal match against Mike DeMarco.
Ellis, in the meantime, working in the lower bracket toward her winners’ side semifinal match against Troy Fortin, faced three opponents with higher ratings than her (367). She began against Bob Campbell, whose 506 Fargo Rate awarded her three beads on the wire in a race to 7, which, as it turned out, she needed. Campbell got to 6, but Ellis hit her ‘4’ target and advanced. In the only straight-up race to 5 she faced in the entire tournament, she defeated Michelle Haddock 5-2, before downing Steve Desrochers 4-4 (Desrochers racing to 6) and Shane Ryan 4-2 (Ryan also racing to 6) to draw Fortin for her winners’ side semifinal.
Ellis, with two beads on the wire in a race to 6, downed Fortin in their first meeting 4-3. Seavey, in the meantime, in a straight-up race to 6, sent DeMarco west 6-4 and joined Ellis in the hot seat match. Ellis started this match with four beads on the wire in a race to 8. They battled to a 3-7, double hill point, before Seavey prevailed and heaved (presumably) a huge sigh of relief as he settled into the hot seat.
On the loss side, Fortin opened up with a rematch against James Smith, whom he’d sent to the loss side in a double hill, winners’ side quarterfinal. Smith then defeated Bob Campbell and Ryan McCrum, both 5-1, to draw Fortin. DeMarco picked up Mark Morgan, who’d lost his opening match and was in the midst of a seven-match, loss-side winning streak that had recently included victories over Brandon Coley and Ben Savoie, both 6-3.
Morgan defeated DeMarco 6-3 and was joined in the quarterfinals by Fortin, who’d eliminated Smith 5-2. With two beads on the wire in a race to 7, Fortin then ended Morgan’s loss-side winning streak 5-3 in those quarterfinals.
The rematch between Fortin and Ellis did not go well for Ellis. She had two beads on the wire in a race to 6 and ended up adding just one. Fortin won it 6-1 and advanced to meet Seavey. The finals were a straight-up race to 6, won by Seavey to complete his undefeated run and claim the event title.
Tour director Marc Dionne thanked the ownership and staff at American Pool & Billiards for their hospitality, as well as Predator, Poison, Arcos II, BCAPL, USAPL New England, Fargo Rate, AZBilliards, Inside English, Professor Q-Ball’s National Pool and 3-Cushion News, Bob Campbell, MJS Construction, Master Billiards, OTLVISE Billiard Mechanics of America, Piku Tips and Just the Tip Cue Repair and Custom Accessories.
The next stop on the NE 9-Ball Series (#6), scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 14, will be a $500-added event, hosted by Straight Shooters in Fall River, MA.
(l to r): Eli Davenport, Ross Webster & Troy Fortin
In something of an end-of-the-year dash to an imagined finish line, Ross Webster had already made 2019 his best earnings year to date, when he came back from a hot seat loss to double dip Troy Fortin in the finals of a November 30-December 1 stop on the New England 9-Ball Series. Webster’s only (recorded) cash finishes in 2019 began in September when he finished in the tie for 9th place at the New England 9-Ball Series’ Tour Championships. Two weeks later, he finished in 3rd place at the Joss Northeast 9-Ball Tour’s Maine Event XXIII, behind Jeremy Sossei and Joe Dupuis (Webster has won three Joss Tour Second Chance events since 2017). Separated by two weeks in October, he finished in the tie for 5th place at two more stops on the New England 9-Ball Series. According to our records, his win this past weekend marked his first major regional tour victory. The $1,000-added event drew 52 entrants to Legends Billiards in Auburn. ME.
After an opening round bye, Webster downed Jason Richard, Scott Martel and Dana Oulette to arrive at a winners’ side semifinal match against Tyler Campbell. Fortin, in the meantime, working in the lower bracket, defeated Gerry Gross, Bradley Nichols, Bob Lussier and Eli Davenport to reach his winners’ side semifinal matchup versus Jozy Vienneau.
Webster gave up just a single rack in a 7-1 victory over Campbell that put him in the hot seat match. Fortin joined him after surviving a double hill fight against Vienneau (7-4). Fortin locked up in a second straight double hill fight, battling for the hot seat and won it.
On the loss side, Campbell picked up Keith Trafton, who’d lost an opening round match to Stan Rupard and embarked on an eight-match, loss-side winning streak that would take him as far as the quarterfinals. He’d picked up loss-side wins #6 & #7 against Oulette (5-0) and Samoth Sam (5-2) to arrive at the battle for 5th/6th against Campbell. Vienneau drew Eli Davenport, who’d been sent to the loss side by Fortin and defeated Jason Seavey, double hill and Nathan Johnson 5-2 to reach Vienneau.
Trafton eliminated Campbell 5-2 and in the quarterfinals, faced Davenport, who’d defeated Vienneau 6-2. Davenport ended Trafton’s loss-side streak, double hill in those quarterfinals (4-5). Webster, in turn, ended Davenport’s four-match, loss-side streak with an 8-2 win in the semifinals.
With the wind at his back (so to speak), Webster sailed into the finals and claimed the opening set over Fortin without giving up a rack. Fortin was able to muster three of the four racks he needed to win the second rack and force a 12th, deciding game. Webster closed it to claim the event title.
Tour director Marc Dionne thanked the ownership and staff at Legends, as well as sponsors Predator, BCAPL, 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 with Lease Fundings, Master Billiards and OTLVISE Billiard Mechanics of America. The next stop on the New England 9-Ball Series, scheduled for Sunday, December 15, will be a Partners 9-Ball Tournament, hosted by Crow’s Nest in Plaistow, NH.
As Tyler Dunbar entered the Bangor Bash, Stop #3 on the New England 9-Ball Series’ 2019-2020 tour, held on the weekend of October 12-13, he was looking to collect what he hoped would be his third cash prize in a regional tour event. According to our records, he’d collected his first cash prize in January, when he finished in the tie for 9th place at the 10th stop on the NE 9-Ball Series’ 2018-2019 season. Two months later, he finished third at a Joss NE Tour stop in Portland, ME. Working from the lower (Fargo Rate) bracket, Dunbar went undefeated through to the hot seat, before giving up the opening set of a true double elimination final to Jeff Yerxa. Dunbar won the second set to claim his third cash prize as he won his first major title. The $2,000-added event drew 43 entrants to Rack City in Bangor, ME.
Following lower bracket victories over Becca Ellis, Kasandra Lam, Kyle King and Ben White by an aggregate game score of 26-9, Dunbar arrived at a winners’ side semifinal against Phil Walton. Cody Porter, in the meantime, who’d finished 7th in the Joss NE Tour stop in which Dunbar had finished third and like Dunbar, was looking for his third cash win in a regional tournament, faced Ross Webster in the other one. Webster had just sent Jeff Yerxa to the loss side 7-4.
Dunbar advanced to the hot seat match with a shutout over Walton. Porter and Webster battled to double hill before Porter prevailed to join Dunbar. With the higher-ratEd Porter (583) racing to 8, Dunbar (481) claimed the hot seat 5-3.
Over on the loss side, Yerxa opened his run to the finals with a 6-2 victory over Joash Neault and followed with a 6-3 win over Michael Levitt, to draw Webster, coming over from the winners’ side semifinal. Walton drew a rematch versus Jason Seavey, whom he’d sent to the loss side in a winners’ side quarterfinal and who’d won two straight double hill matches against Mark Pulsifer and Ben White to earn the rematch.
Yerxa advanced to the quarterfinals 6-4 over Webster. He was joined by Seavey, who’d wreaked his rematch vengeance on Walton 5-2.
Yerxa then chalked up two straight, double hill wins (7-4) against Seavey in the quarterfinals and Porter in the semifinals (both racing to 5) for a shot at Dunbar in the hot seat. With a 119-point differential in their Fargo Rates, Dunbar (481) started the first set of the true double elimination final against Yerxa (600) with four on the wire in a race to 9. Dunbar added three to that four, but Yerxa chalked up the nine he needed to claim the first set.
The race was reduced in the second set, with Dunbar awarded three on the wire in a race to seven. Dunbar chalked up the four racks he needed to claim the event title, while allowing Yerxa only two racks in his quest for 7.
Tour director Marc Dionne thanked the ownership and staff at Rack City, 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 (#4), scheduled for this Saturday, Oct. 19, will be a $500-added event, hosted by Yale Billiards in Wallingford, CT.
(l to r): TD Marc Dionne, Dave Morrison, Tom D’Alfonso, Mike Verducci and Jen Brown, daughter of Joe
Going into the finals, there had been three distinct phases to Tom D’Alfonso’s victory on the New England 9-Ball Series’ tour stop #15 – The Joe Brown Memorial – on Saturday, March 9. In his opening three matches, he won 90% of the games he played (29-4). During a three-match trip on the loss side, he chalked up 92% of the games he played (24-2). In one match, a winners’ side semifinal, double hill loss, he won only 61.5% of the games he played (5-8; D’Alfonso was racing to 9). He returned from that defeat to face Dave Morrison in a double elimination final and over 20 games, gave up only two racks (90%, exactly). The single loss left D’Alfonso with a deceptively low, although admittedly good 85% overall win percentage in games played. The $500-added event drew 49 entrants to Buster’s Billiards in Somersworth, NH.
After an opening round bye in the event’s upper bracket, D’Alfonso gave up a surprising (only in hindsight) three racks to Jeff Provencher in a 9-3 win. Over the next 21 games in two matches, he gave up only one, to Matt Gagne, first, and then, none at all to Fred White, which set D’Alfonso up to face Mike Verducci in a winners' side semifinal. Morrison, in the meantime, working in the lower bracket following a bye, had defeated Catherine Ong 5-3, Walter Kelly 4-4 (Kelly racing to 6) and shut out Carlton Gagnon, to face Jason Seavey in the other winners’ side semifinal.
In a straight-up race to 5, Morrison advanced to the hot seat match over Seavey 5-1. Verducci started his winners’ side semifinal match against D’Alfonso with four on the wire in a race to 9. He chalked up the five he needed and sent D’Alfonso to the loss side, double hill 5-8.
On the loss side, D’Alfonso picked up Fred White, who, in a straight-up race to 6, defeated Carlos Aguilar 6-3 and then, with three games on the wire in a race to 7, beat Ben LeBlanc 4-1. Seavey drew Fred Gillis, who’d eliminated Carlton Gagnon, double hill (4-3) and Walt Kelly 4-2.
In a straight-up race to 4, Seavey advanced to the quarterfinals 4-2 over Gillis. D’Alfonso, giving White four on the wire in a race to 8, shut him out to join Seavey in the quarterfinals. Also giving both Seavey and later, in the semifinals, Verducci, four on the wire in races to eight, D’Alfonso defeated them both 8-1.
Giving Morrison in the hot seat five on the wire in races to 9, D’Alfonso took the opening set of the true double elimination final 9-2. He didn’t give up a single rack in the second set and claimed the Joe Brown Memorial title.
Tour director Marc Dionne thanked the ownership and staff at Buster’s Billiards for their hospitality and support for the Joe Brown Memorial, 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 (#16) will be the $1,000-added Players Championship, scheduled for this weekend (March 16-17) at Yale Billiards in Wallingford, CT.
Richard Comeau, Lukas Fracasso-Verner, Bobby Lewis, and Marc Dionne
At the age of 17, Lukas Fracasso-Verner has already chalked up an enviable number of regional tour victories. Most recently, in what was, to date, his best earnings year (2018), he added victories on the Predator Pro Am Tour (March) and The New England 9-Ball Series (October), in the middle of which, on Memorial Day weekend, he became the youngest player (at 16) to ever win the Georgy “Ginky” Sansouci Memorial Amateur Tournament in New York City. He won the 8th Annual “Ginky” Memorial by emerging from a field of 143 competitors, winning 12 on the loss side (after being defeated in the opening round of play), and downing hot seat occupant, Chuck Allie, in the finals. On the weekend of January 12-13, Fracasso-Verner signed on to compete in the New England 9-Ball Series’ 14th Annual Robert Dionne Memorial (commemorating tour director Marc Dionne’s father), and trodding what would appear to be a comfortable path for himself, he came from deep on the loss side to challenge hot seat occupant, Bobby Lewis, and win his second NE 9-Ball Series title. The $750-added event drew 31 entrants to Crow’s Nest in Plaistow, NH.
Lukas (easier to type repeatedly than Fracasso-Verner) opened what would prove to be his winning campaign with a 7-3 (upper, higher-ranked bracket) win over Jeff Furness. In the next round, he was defeated, double hill, by Jason Richard (they would come within a single match of meeting a second time). Lukas began a seven-match, loss-side winning streak that would take him to the finals, and then, conclude with a title-earning victory over Lewis.
Richard would advance to a winners’ side quarterfinal against Lewis, who would send him to the loss side 7-3, and then meet Joe Lynch in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Richard Comeau and Emily Cady, in the meantime, emerging from the lower bracket, met in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Lewis shut out Lynch to get into the hot seat match, where he was joined by Comeau, who’d sent Cady to the loss side, double hill. Comeau would force an 11th, deciding game in that hot seat match by chalking up two of the three racks he needed against the much higher-rated Lewis (614 Fargo Rate, compared to Comeau’s 434), who was racing to 9. Lewis though dropped the 9-ball in the 9th game he needed to claim the hot seat.
On the loss side, Lukas was working his way toward the money rounds and an eventual meet-up in the first money round against Lynch. He’d recorded two victories on the loss side, when he chalked up two straight shutouts, over Tom Hood and Geoff James, to meet up with Lynch. Cady, in the meantime, drew Chris Ouimette, who’d defeated Jason Seavey 3-2 (Seavey racing to 4) and Juan White, double hill, 4-2.
Lukas downed Lynch 6-2, as Cady, in a straight-up race to 4, shut Ouimette out to join Lukas in the quarterfinals. Over the next 18 games that put Lukas into the finals, he’d give up only two racks; one each to Cady in the quarterfinals, and Comeau in the semifinals.
Going into the finals, Lukas, needing to win two matches to claim the title, had given up only 10 racks in his last 53 loss-side games (81% win average). With hot seat occupant Bobby Lewis racing to 5 in the opening set (Lukas to 6), Lukas took the opener 6-2. They reduced the ‘races’ in the second set; Lukas to 5, and Lewis to 4 (Lukas with the higher Fargo Rate/642-614). Lukas chalked up his third shutout, finishing with the same win average of 81% with which he went into the finals and claimed the event title.
Tour director Marc Dionne thanked everyone who participated in the event, to which a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the March of Dimes in memory of his father. He also thanked the ownership and staff of Crow’s Nest, and 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 (#12), will be the $2,000-added Winter Classic, scheduled for the weekend of January 26-27, at Snookers, in Providence, RI.
Dana Hussey had the lowest FargoRate (351) among the final 12 competitors in the Saturday, Oct. 6 stop on the New England 9-Ball Series, the Dave Marcus Memorial Tournament. In his final three matches, Hussey was being awarded three and four games on the wire in races to 6 or 7, and only at the end, in the finals, did a competitor (Kyle Sariceno; 507) manage to force a deciding game. Hussey went undefeated in the event’s lower bracket, before joining the final 12 and eventually claiming his first event title. The $500-added event drew 45 entrants to Buster’s Billiards in Somersworth, NH.
Following an opening round bye in the lower bracket, Hussey chalked up victories over Shane Ryan, Lida Mullendore, and Peter Rizzo, Sr., to arrive at a winners’ side semifinal matchup against Cody Chagnon. In the upper bracket, Jason Seavey and Hussey’s eventual finals opponent, Kyle Sariceno met in the other winners’ side semifinal.
In a straight-up race to 6, Seavey and Sariceno battled to double hill before Seavey finished it and advanced to the winners’ side final. Hussey joined him after a 3-4 victory over Chagnon (racing to 6). With Seavey racing to 7, Hussey allowed him only two racks before chalking up his own three to claim the hot seat.
On the loss side, Sariceno began his march back to the finals against Matt Treglia, who’d eliminated Fred White, double hill and Walt Kelly 6-2. Chagnon picked up Mark Pulsifer, who’d defeated Rizzo, Sr., double hill and Matt Benson 4-1. Sariceno downed Treglia 4-1 (Treglia racing to 6) and was joined in the quarterfinal match by Pulsifer, who’d shut out Chagnon (in this match, racing to 4).
In a straight-up race to 4, Sariceno and Pulsifer battled to double hill before Sariceno dropped the final 9-ball to earn a re-match against Seavey in the semifinals. In his second straight double hill match, Sariceno prevailed again, downing Seavey 5-4 to get a shot at Hussey in the hot seat.
Third time proved to be not such a charm. In his third straight double hill fight, Sariceno got six of the seven racks he needed to win the opening set of the true double elimination final, but Hussey chalked up the three he needed to claim the event title.
Tour director Marc Dionne thanked the ownership and staff at Buster’s Billiards for their hospitality, as well as sponsors Predator, 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 (#3) on the New England 9-Ball Series, scheduled for Saturday, October 13, will be a $500-added event, hosted by Yale Billiards in Wallingford, CT.
