Jayson Shaw looks to be in prime Mosconi Cup form, as he crushed a field of 87 players to win his third Ocean State 9-Ball Championship at Snookers in Providence RI on November 17th – 18th. 

 

Shaw cruised through the winner’s side with wins Tony Masi, Pat Fleming, Pete Bowman, Raphael Dabreo and Ryan Lineham. Over those five matches, Shaw lost only 9 out of 54 racks. 

 

After a late Saturday loss to Zion Zvi, Shawn Wilkie was cruising through the one loss side. Wilkie had wins over Matt Krah, Lucas Fracasso-Verner, Pete Bowman and Kyle Pepin before getting revenge against Zvi 7-5. Wins over Dabreo and Lineham lead to a match with Shaw in the finals. 

 

While Wilkie would fair better against Shaw than any other opponent all day, he would only get to 5 in the first set of the finals. 

 

A field of nineteen players came back on Sunday to compete in the $500 added second chance tournament, where Ryan Urso went undefeated including a 3-2 hot-seat win over Mike Demarco and a 3-1 final match win over Francisco Cabral. 

 

The Joss NE 9-Ball Tour will now take a break until the Turning Stone Classic XXXI on January 10th – 13th at the Turning Stone Casino in Verona, NY. That tournament is full and players are urged to contact Mike Zuglan if they want to be added to the waiting list. 

 

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.

As the upper and lower brackets, detailing the progress of Stop #23 on the NE 9-Ball Series, began to join near the end of the tour stop on Saturday, April 21, Derrick Burnham got edged out of the winners’ side of the upper bracket by Bobby Hilton. He moved to the loss side, won five straight to get into the finals against former junior champion Lukas Fracasso-Verner, and double-dipped him to claim the event title. The $500-added event drew 46 entrants to Yale Billiards in Wallingford, CT.

Following his victory over Burnham, Hilton drew Fracasso-Verner in one of the (overall) winners’ side semifinals, while Steve Romann and Kelly Hodder met up in the other one. Fracasso-Verner moved into the hot seat match with a 7-3 win over Hilton and was joined by Romann, who’d sent Hodder to the loss side 6-2. Fracasso-Verner claimed the hot seat 8-5 over Romann and waited for Burnham to complete his loss-side run.

Burnham opened his loss-side campaign with a double hill win over Sal Midolo, and followed it with a shutout over Ryan Urso, to draw a re-match against Hilton. Hodder picked up Shiek Ahmed, who’d won two straight double hill battles, against Phil Medeiros and Mike Marzik, to reach him.

Burnham allowed Hilton only a single rack in their re-match, as Hodder was busy downing Ahmed 5-4 (Ahmed racing to 6). Burnham then gave up only single racks to both Hodder in the quarterfinals (8-1) and Romann in the semifinals (7-1) to finish his loss side run with an aggregate score of 33-7 (his earlier three-match run on the winners’ side featured an aggregate score of 17-8).

In the double elimination final that followed, Burnham gave up more racks in two matches than he’d given up to either his winners’ side or loss-side opponents, combined, over eight matches. But with Fracasso-Verner racing to 7, Burnham won two straight matches, double hill (6-6) to claim the event title.

Tour director Marc Dionne thanked the ownership and staff at Yale 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 next stop on the New England 9-Ball Series tour, (#24) scheduled for Saturday, April 28, will be hosted by Maxamillian’s Billiards in Tyngsboro, MA.

In the end, it was a battle of generations. Though Mike Dechaine hasn’t got enough years on his resume to be considered a member of any ‘older’ generation (in the vein of Earl Strickland, Nick Varner, or Shannon Daulton, as examples), he has certainly earned the title of veteran player. At 16, Lukas Fracasso-Verner is still young enough to be considered a ‘Junior,’ although he’s been competing against fellow juniors, veterans and the Pros for over three years now.

 

The two met in the finals of the $2,000-added New England 9-Ball Series Players’ Championships. Held on the weekend of March 17-18, the event drew 56 entrants to Yale Billiards in Wallingford, CT. To the surprise of many, although not, apparently, to Dechaine himself, Mike lost his opening match to Lance Lisciotti. This launched a 10-match, loss-side winning streak for Dechaine that allowed him to challenge Fracasso-Verner in the finals. Dechaine took the opening set of the true double elimination final, before he (with a three-hour drive ahead of him) and Fracasso-Verner (more or less in his own backyard), both at that stage with a single loss, opted out of a final match and split the top two prizes.

 

Dechaine’s opening round loss was a 5-6 victory for Lisciotti (as a Pro player, Dechaine was racing to 10). Asked if the loss came as a bit of surprise to him, Dechaine said that it hadn’t.

 

“No,” he said. “Lisciotti is capable of playing well, and he played well.”

 

Later in the tournament, Dechaine had the opportunity for a re-match, and the results were quite different. It should also be noted that in Dechaine’s 10-match, loss-side run, he won just over 89% of the games he played, with an aggregate score of 110-13.

 

As Dechaine began work on the loss side, Fracasso-Verner (an A player) and Anthony Petruzelli (C+) were advancing through their respective upper- and lower-bracket fields for a meetup in the hot seat match. Verner won four to meet Ryan Urso (a B Player) in one winners’ side semifinal, while Petruzelli won his four to face fellow C+ player, Jimmy Gonzalez in the other one. Fracasso-Verner and Petruzelli gave up only two racks between them (one each, to Urso and Gonzalez) to move into the hot seat match. Fracasso-Verner was even stingier in the winners’ side final, giving up none at all to sit in the hot seat.

 

Meanwhile, back at the (loss-side) ranch, Dechaine was mowin’ ‘em down, one by one. Opening loss-side wins of 10-1, 11-1, and 11-3 brought him into the money rounds, where he defeated Bobby Hilton by shutting him out and then, in his re-match against Lisciotti, sent him home 10-2. This set him up to face Urso, coming over from the winners’ side semifinal. Gonzalez’ first opponent on the loss side was Jack Cooper, who’d shut out Ralph Caton in the first money round, and then survived a double hill fight against Darryl Helm (5-5; Helm, as a C+, racing to 6) to reach Gonzalez.

 

Dechaine and Cooper handed Urso and Gonzalez their second straight loss. With Urso racing to 4, Dechaine eliminated him 11-1. Cooper gave up only one to Gonzalez in a 5-1 victory (Gonzalez racing to 6). Dechaine took the quarterfinal match 13-1 over Cooper, and completed his loss-side run with a 12-2 victory over Petruzelli in the semifinals.

The final match actually dropped Dechaine’s winning-game percentage down a notch, from its 89.4% after the semifinals to 88% at the end of the first double-elimination set. Dechaine won it 10-2, and then, in consultation with Fracasso-Verner, opted out of trying to make it two in a row.

 

Tour director Marc Dionne thanked the ownership and staff at Yale Billiards, as well as sponsors Ozone Billiards, Molinari, Bert Kinister, AZBilliards, Inside English, Professor Q-Ball’s National 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 (#20), scheduled for the weekend of March 24-25, will be a $500-added, 8-Ball event, to be hosted by Legends Billiards, in Auburn, ME.

Michael Mathieu and Kevin Brule played three times to determine the winner of the February 17 stop (#16) on the New England 9-Ball Series. In each of the three matches, the winner gave up only a single rack. Mathieu won two of the three, including the critical second set of a true double elimination final to claim the event title. The $500-added event drew 47 entrants to Yale Billiards in Wallingford, CT.

 

They met first in the hot seat match. Mathieu had defeated fellow B player, Ryan Urso 6-2, as Brule was downing fellow C Player, Joann Cobbett, in a match that went double hill. Mathieu gave up the single rack to Brule in this first encounter and sat in the hot seat, waiting for rounds two and three.

 

On the loss side, Urso picked up Ali Raza, who’d defeated Mike Langley, double hill, and Ryan McQuade 6-2 to reach him. Cobbett drew Marc Murphy, who’d eliminated Ed Murray, double hill and Darryl Helm, 5-1. In a straight-up race to 6, Raza advanced to the quarterfinals over Urso 6-2. By the same score, Cobbett (racing to 6) downed Murphy (racing to 5) 6-2.

 

Raza then eliminated Cobbett 6-3 in those quarterfinals. Raza then had his loss-side streak ended by Brule in the semifinals, in a match that went double hill.

 

With Mathieu (B) racing to 6, and Brule (C+) racing to 5, Brule took the double elimination final’s opening set, giving up a single rack. Mathieu returned the favor in the second set, giving up a single rack in a 6-1 win that earned him the event title.

 

Tour director Marc Dionne thanked the ownership and staff at Yale 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 next stop on the New England 9-Ball Series (#17), scheduled for February 24, will be the $500-added Joe Brown Memorial Tournament, hosted by Buster’s Billiards in Somersworth, NH.