Not only did Jane Imm advance to the hot seat in her first pool tournament, she took two out of three against a much higher-ranked opponent to seal the deal and claim her first event title. The occasion was the $3,000-added New England 9-Ball Series’ Bangor Bash (Stop #8), held on the weekend of December 1-2 at Rack City in Bangor, ME. Jane worked her way through a field of 81 entrants, winning six in a row (including back-to-back double hill wins) to get into the hot seat, losing the opening set of a true double elimination final and fighting back to take the second set and win it all.

 

Assisting her in the moral support department were her father, Samoth Sam, a long-time ‘A’ player on the tour, who finished in the tie for 9th place, and her brother Sam, who competed, but finished out of the money. Standing in her way, towards the end, was Greg Murray, boasting a FargoRate 200 points above hers (550-350), giving Jane six ‘on the wire’ in what proved to be their three races to 9. He almost got there in their hot seat battle and allowed her only a single rack in their first of two in the double elimination final.

 

Coming out of the lower bracket in the early stages of the tournament, Jane, after an opening round bye, defeated Amandas Soucy and Macdonald, Mark Pulsifer and Fred Gillis to arrive at a winners’ side semifinal against Jason Richards. Murray, in the meantime, having defeated Mike Gagne, Ron Ricard, Kyle Pepin, Stan Rupard, and Jeff Furness, squared off against Ben Harvey in the other winners’ side semifinal.

 

Murray, in a straight-up race to 7, got into the hot seat match 7-5 over Harvey. Imm joined him after a double hill (3-7) win over Richards. In her second straight double hill fight, Imm claimed the hot seat 3-8 over Murray and waited for him to get back from the semifinals.

 

On the loss side, Harvey picked up Michael Verducci, who’d been sent to the loss side by Jane Imm’s Dad, Samoth Sam and won six in a row, including most recent victories over Steve Smith 7-4 and Jeff Furness 7-2. Richards drew a re-match against Claude Poitras, who, after being sent to the loss side by Richards, downed four in a row, including Fred Gillis 4-2 and Jenn Brown 5-1.

 

Verducci advanced to the quarterfinals with an 8-2 win over Harvey, and was joined by Poitras, who’d eliminated Richards 4-4 (Richards racing to 6). Pointras’ FargoRate was 169 points lower than Verducci’s (420-589), which gave Poitras five ‘on the wire’ in a race to 8. Poitras, as it turned out, didn’t need any of them. He shut out Verducci out in the quarterfinals 3-0, and turned for a shot against Murray in the semifinals.

 

Poitras only got four ‘on the wire’ in the semifinal race to 8. He chalked up two more, but fell to Murray 8-2, setting up the finals re-match.

 

With six ‘on the wire’ in a race to 9, Imm chalked up only one more, before Murray won the opening set 9-1. In the second set, Murray got to six racks before Imm collected her first event title with a 3-6 win.

 

Tour director Marc Dionne thanked the owner Corey Hanson and his Rack City 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 #9), scheduled for Sunday, December 9, will be a Partners Tournament (Maximum Fargo Rate of 1200), hosted by Crow’s Nest in Plaistow, NH.

 

Carlos Aguilar and Tyler Dunbar opted out of a final match at the end of the New England 9-Ball Series’ 2018-2019 opener, held on Sunday, September 23. As the undefeated competitor, Aguilar claimed the event title. To secure his runner-up position, Dunbar, who’d been defeated in the second round of play, won nine on the loss side to earn a spot in the finals that didn’t happen. The event drew 57 entrants to Crow’s Nest in Plaistow, NH.

 

Tour director Marc Dionne announced at the start of this new season for the New England 9-Ball Series that the tour would no longer be using letter ratings (A, B, C, etc.) to determine handicaps and match races. They have switched to the FargoRate system for this purpose and with certain competitors and matches, we’ll be providing current FargoRates, in parentheses, as a reference.

 

The tour continues to separate the players into lower and upper (rank) brackets at the start of events, combining them towards the end. Playing in the lower bracket, Aguilar (503) chalked up victories over Peter Rizzo, Sr., Lida Mullendore and Tyler Boudreau, who’d just sent Dunbar (461) to the loss side.  Aguilar then defeated Dorie Oakes, advancing to an overall winners’ side semifinal against Josh Edmonds (479). From the upper bracket, Matt Rezendes (539) and Jose Concepcion (585) squared off in the other winners’ side semifinal.

 

In a straight-up race to 5, Aguilar and Edmonds battled to double hill before Aguilar prevailed, advancing to the hot seat match. He was joined by Rezendes, who’d sent Concepian to the loss side 5-2 (Concepcian racing to 6). With Rezendes racing to 6, Aguilar claimed the hot seat 5-2 in what proved to be his final match.

 

On the loss side, it was Edmonds who picked up Dunbar, seven matches into his loss-side winning streak that had included recent victories over Dorie Oakes and Ben Come, both 5-1. Concepcian drew Mike Gagne, who’d chalked up two straight double hill wins against Gabriel Kirshnitz and Ruben Soto to reach him.

 

In what was Gagne’s third straight, straight-up race to 5, Concepian allowed him only one rack and advanced to the quarterfinals. Dunbar joined him following a 4-1 victory over Edmonds.

 

Dunbar started the quarterfinal match with three on the wire in a race to 6, and though he and Concepcian chalked up three racks each, the handicap advantage gave Dunbar the win and advancement to his last match of the night.

 

Dunbar and Rezendes battled to double hill before Dunbar finished it to earn a shot at Aguilar in the hot seat. The two opted out of the final match and split the top two cash prizes.

 

Tour director Marc Dionne thanked the ownership and staff at Crow’s Nest, as well as sponsors Predator Cues, USAPL New England, FargoRate, 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, scheduled for October 6, will be the $500-added Dave Marcus Memorial Tournament, hosted by Buster’s Billiards in Somersworth, NH.