Most major sports experience the football-originated “any given Sunday” phenomenon, which acknowledges that while favorites and underdogs exist, when you get into the games, almost anything can happen, and often enough, it does. The growing popularity of the FargoRate system in pool has a way of codifying favorites and underdogs and even, if you look it up, provides the odds in a match between opponents in possession of a FargoRate.

 

On Sunday, Oct. 21, at Legends Sports Bar in Auburn, ME, 54 entrants competed in the $1,000-added 4th stop on the 2018/2019 New England 9-Ball Series. The Fargo-rated ‘underdog,’ Benjamin Leblanc, with a rating of 525, went undefeated, downing the ‘favorite,’ Jeff Mosimann (616) twice. On this particular Sunday, Leblanc’s Fargo-rated odds of winning either of the two matches was 38.4%.

 

Leblanc and Mossiman, both emerging from the event’s upper (higher rating) bracket, met first in a winners’ side semifinal, as Matt Benson and Josh Edmonds from the lower bracket faced off in the other one. Both matches featured an opponent (Leblanc and Benson) who began the match with two ‘on the wire’ in a race to 6. Benson sent Edmonds to the loss side 4-3. Leblanc didn’t give up a rack to Mossiman. Nor did he give up a rack to Benson in the subsequent match that put him in the hot seat.

 

Mossiman moved to the loss side and met up with Kyle Sariceno, who’d defeated Ricky Bergevin, Jr. 4-1, and a racing-to-7 Ross Webster 3-5. Edmonds drew Greg Morse, recent winner over Justin Myers 4-1 and Derick Lycette, double hill 4-2.

 

Mossiman chalked up two straight double hill wins. He defeated Sariceno 6-2 and then, after Morse had downed Edmonds 4-2 to join him in the quarterfinals, he beat Morse 8-2. With Benson racing to 3 in the semifinals that followed, Mossiman gave up only a single rack to advance 8-1, to a re-match final against Leblanc.

 

Leblanc started the finals with 3 on the wire in a race to 7. He completed his undefeated, ‘any given Sunday’ run with a 4-2 victory.

 

Tour director Marc Dionne thanked the ownership and staff at Legends, along with 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 (#5) on the New England 9-Ball Series, scheduled for Nov. 4, will be a $500-added event, hosted by Bo’s Bar & Billiards in Warwick, 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.