Ruslan Chinakov Wins Straight Pool Challenge

By: Markus Noé

The George Fels Straight Pool Challenge has just ended at the Derby City Classic and Ruslan Chinakov has come through as the new Champion. In the final he faced Jayson Shaw, who earlier in the tournament set the all time high record run of 227. As he does in all the disciplines Shaw brings his own style to straight pool and despite being effective, most would classify his gun slinging ways as unconventional.

Going into the final the commentators had Chinakov as a slight favourite because of his more conservative pattern play and overall experience. Chinakov had the high run in this match of 56 and a few 20's and 30's after that, mostly off of some errors from Shaw. For those who are unfamiliar with Shaw's style until today, most would think that his fast pace and fearless approach was his downfall today losing 125-50. However it was this same approach which allowed him to get the final and have his record breaking high run.

Besides Shaw's high run, the other story of this tournament was John "Mr.400" Schmidt forfeiting his match against Shaw after leading 117-60. From what I heard he quit after a disappointing break shot, however without him coming out himself and saying exactly why, none of us know for sure. Through threads on Facebook "Mr.400" has expressed that prior to this forfeit he had been having a bad week mentally and was in no form to be competing publicly. Still with only 8 balls left to secure victory his move here has many scratching their heads. He was fined $300 for forfeiting the match and has been getting beat pretty bad on the forums.

The 9 Ball Division is the only event left for this years Derby City Classic. It will be streamed live all day, so make sure to go to Accu-Stats and buy the pass. Also for Canadian fans, Alex Pagulayan is still going in the 9 Ball Division and even though it is still unconfirmed it looks like he has secured the $20,000 Master of the Table Bonus.  Check back at Cue Sport Nation for the final results from the 9 Ball.


 

The "Lion" Makes History at the Derby

By: Markus Noé

Yesterday was the final day of the 1 Pocket Division, those that tuned in last night to the Accu-Stats stream were treated two a few fantastic matches. The final three in this division were Canadian Alex "The Lion" Pagulayan, Mosconi Cup Team member Justin "Hollywood" Hall and a bit of a surprise as he is not known for this 1 pocket play was Mike "Fireball" Dechaine.

Just like in the Banks Division at the end of the bracket there is an odd number of players so they do a draw and someone gets an automatic buy into the final. The lucky one this time was Dechaine. What made things even tougher for Hall and Pagulayan wass that Dechaine marched though this giant field undefeated meaning he was the only on left with a re-buy.Thus whoever was going to make it to the final would have to beat Dechaine twice in order to take the 1 Pocket crown.

Going into the semi-final the "Lion" was in top form as he just beat out the legend and 6 time Derby City 1 Pocket Champion Efren Reyes by a 3-0 scoreline. Pagulayan also made quick work of Hall knocking him out in third place with an identical scoreline of 3-0. After winning 6 games in a row against some of the best 1 Pocket players in the world, the "Lion" continued his charge in the first match of the final winning 3-0.

It took 10 wins in a row before Dechaine grabbed a game of Pagulayan to tie the last match of the tournament at 1-1. Unfortunately for Dechaine who had an amazing tournament that was as close as he would get, as Pagulayan went on to win his first Derby City 1 Pocket title 3-1. In the 17 year storied history of the Derby City Classic, Alex Pagulayan has etched himself in the history books by becoming the first ever player to win the triple crown. As he has won both the 9 Ball Division and the Banks Division earlier on in his career.

To add to this historic moment Pagulayan has been playing well enough throughout the week that he is a favourite to win the Master of The Table honours. This goes to the player who has performed the best during the week in all three divisions: Banks, 9 Ball and 1 Pocket. Winning this title means an extra $20,000 in his pocket. Congratulations to him on his big win and good luck to the rest of the way. Make sure to share this historic moment with your friends and tell them Cue Sport Nation is the place to go to get all the Derby City Classic updates.

All Kentucky Final in the Banks Division

By: Markus Noé

Last night cue sport fans who bought the Accu-Stats stream were treated to two fantastic bank pool matches. The first was the semi-final between Bank Pool Hall of Fame member Shannon "The Cannon" Daulton up against the legendary Efren "Bata" Reyes. Rotation games like 9 and 10 ball are widely considered a young mans game, thus the 60 year old Reyes has perhaps lost a step or two and is not as big of a threat as he once was in these types of games. However in games like bank pool and one pocket which take a lot more knowledge and strategy, Reyes still brings shivers to his opponents.

In the semi-final match-up you could tell that the nerves for Daulton were at times getting the best of him, as several errors allowed Reyes to take an early 2-1 in the race to 3. Reyes built himself up a lead in the next frame as well going up 4-1 and missing several banks to close the match. Perhaps the thought of becoming the first ever player to win all the divisions began to weigh on him. These few misses was all Daulton needed to regain his form and he quickly began his comeback and won the match 3-2 after some incredible banking. In 2012 Shane Van Boening had an opportunity to be the first to win all the divisions and to do it in one year, however Canadian John Morra ended those hopes for him by beating him in the banks final that year.

The final was an emotional match-up between two friends of 35 years Shannon Daulton and John Brumback. Both of these Bank Pool and 1 Pocket legends have participated in each of the 17 Derby City Classics and both cruised through this 411 person field to make it to the final. For these two life long friends from Kentucky it was all but fitting to see them battle it out in the final.

Brumback won the lag which is a huge advantage in these races to 3. However he broke dry and Daulton ran out this rack in less then 2 minutes to take the early 1-0 leads. Daulton also took the next game to go up 2-0 before Brumback who was waiting for the semi-final to complete, began to find his rhythm when he won the third frame. Unfortunately for his championship hopes it was too little to late as after a brief players break Daulton came back and finished up this match to win 3-1 and win his second Derby City Banks crown.

The 1 Pocket division continues today, as I am writing this update Shane Van Boening and Efren Reyes are doing battle on the stream. Make sure to purchase your Accu-Stats stream to keep up with all the action today.

"Mr. 10 Ball" Wins $16,000 Bigfoot Challenge

Once again Shane Van Boening proved why another nickname besides the "South Dakota Kid" has emerged these past few years. " Mr. 10 ball" as he has been known lately, has been given to him based on his domination of any kind of 10 ball tournament or challenge match for several years now. His win yesterday was his second in back to back years of the Derby City Bigfoot challenge. Combine that with his yearly robbery of the Super Billiard Expo Professional division which is a 10 ball format tournament along with many other 10 ball titles and money match wins, he has solidified himself as the best 10 ball player in the world.

Yesterdays matches began with two Filipino players squaring off in the first of two afternoon semi-final matches, it was Jefferey Ignacio against Lee Van Corteza. Ignacio who is perhaps a lesser known to North Americans made some noise in his previous match beating tournament favourite Dennis Orcollo 11-8. I was fortunate enough to watch him play a few weeks ago at the Turning Stone Classic, it was my first time seeing him play live and I have to admit I was taken aback by his offensive prowess. Ignacio reminds me and many others of his countrymen and hall of fame inductee Francisco Bustamante.

In his match against Corteza there were two contributing factors to his 11-7 loss. The first would have to be his scratching on the break, Ignacio even moved the cue ball to different areas a few times but consistently scratched in the side. Corteza was able to rack up as many as 4 free games off these errors. The other factor was some strong safety play by Corteza and some poor safety play from Ignacio. The Filipinos as a whole are known for their high offensive style of play however Corteza plays a rock solid positional game and very consistent, I would say his style falls more into the European style of play.

In the other semi-final of the day, Canadians had high hopes with Alex Pagulayan vs Shane Van Boening. Pagulayan has been playing mostly snooker as of late and early on in this Bigfoot Challenge against Jayson Shaw and John Morra it looked to be an advantage for him on the 10 foot table. Also SVB in his previous matches against Johnny Archer and Jason Klatt had looked human at times and not the unbeatable SVB we are used to seeing. Thus it looked like Pagulayan would have a good chance to move into the final. However as the commentators mentioned, SVB had been practicing until 3 am the night before and came into his semi-final well prepared. Even with the practice no one expected the scoreline to be 11-2 for SVB with 6 break and runs by the end which is what happened.

Obviously after dominating Pagulayan, SVB would be marked as a favourite in this finals match-up against Corteza. Despite being a favourite to win no one expected him to have a repeat performance which he did winning again 11-2. In SVB's last two matches he was up against two of the best players in the world and beat them 22-4, mind boggling if you really think about it. I have not heard if he has confirmed for the newly sanctioned World 10 Ball Championships in the Philippines next month but I would image Mr.10 Ball will be there. For American fans this is an exciting time, as their number one player has had some international success as of late and looks poised to add a World Championship to his 4 U.S Open Titles.

Accu-Stats will be airing the one pocket division throughout the afternoon today and will return tonight with the semi-finals and finals of the banks division. Check to www.cuesportnation.com for the results tomorrow.

Bigfoot Challenge Down to the Final 4

By: Erik Hjorleifson

The Action at the Derby City classic is getting into full swing as day 3 is now in the books. Sunday featured the quarter finals of the Bigfoot 10-ball challenge and the banks division has been narrowed down from 415 players to about 30 players heading into round 8 on Monday, Sunday also saw the first round of the one pocket division get underway.

In the first match of the day in the $16 000 first prize Bigfoot Challenge, Canada's Jason Klatt was up against Shane Van Boening. The match was close early on, in game 4 Klatt ran out to a very make-able 10 which he proceeded to miss. It was a very elementary mistake but I'm sure we can all relate, however Klatt regrouped well and regained the lead at 4-3. The middle part of the match was highlighted by a very odd choice of rules in my opinion,  as I was playing in a tournament yesterday it was my first chance to watch the stream and I became aware that flukes counted!?.

In two of the 6 games in the middle of the match Van Boening fluked in balls and proceeded to run the rack. With the score at 7-6 for Shane, Klatt had a very make able 1-10 combo and hung it in the pocket which was a huge turning point in the match. Other than the two mistakes on the 10 Klatt played a pretty strong match, Shane looked a little out of stroke but the better part of the rolls pushed him forward in this one.

In the Second match of the day World Cup of pool Canadian representatives John Morra and Alex Pagulayan went to battle. Pagulayan looked very strong in the first ten games of the match holding his accu-stats TPA (total performance average) well over 900 which is particularly impressive considering they are playing on 10 foot tables. Alex is choosing to go with a medium speed break from the side rail which tends to send most of the balls to the same side of the table the player is breaking from. This results in a lot of tactical games which plays into his strengths, Pagulayan stumbled a bit over the finish line but overall Morra aside from a few missed pots, fell victim to his strong play. Look for him to be a force to win the event, he will play his semi-final match against Van Boening on Monday.

I was unable to watch the third match of the day between Jeffrey Ignacio and Dennis Orcollo both from the Phillipines, the favourite coming in to the match was probably Orcollo taking into account he won his first round match 11-1, however Ignacio the young upstart continues to impress with his attacking style of play which reminds me of Francisco Bustamante. He booked his spot in the semi-final with an 11-8 victory.

In the final match of the day between Mika Immonen and Lee Van Corteza I was able to tune in about half way through with Mika leading the match 6-5. The quality of play from there on was very high and Corteza edged his way to a 10-8 lead, Immonen made a very tough out in game 19 and broke and ran the next to make it hill-hill. In the hill game Immonen broke dry and didn't leave a shot on the one, a safety battle ensued and Corteza gained the opportunity for the win. The 3 ball was in a tough position and after a good attempt Corteza ended up hooking himself. With no option for a kick safe he went all offense at the 3 and ended up fluking it in the side and ran out for the win, again why they are not playing call shots in this tournament is beyond me. Aside from the lucky roll in the hill game Corteza played well and will face off against Ignacio in the semi finals on Monday.

In the banks division we are into round 8 with about 25 players left, notables who are yet to lose a match include John Brumback, Shannon Daulton and Shannon Murphy. Filipino veterans Orcollo, Reyes, Bustamante are still in the tournament with one loss, John Morra will face off once again against Alex Pagulayan with both on one loss.

All the action on Monday and for the duration of the week can be viewed at http://accu-stats.com/ play starts at noon eastern, stay tuned to http://cuesportnation.com/ for daily updates throughout the

Bigfoot Challenge Evening Results

By: Markus Noé

The evening session started with with a battle of two of the greatest American players of all time, Shane Van Boening vs. Johnny "The Scorpion" Archer. The Scorpion was a slight underdog in this match against the world number one, who overall travels and plays a lot more at the moment.

This match was close early on then much like the Morra match from this afternoon one player began to pull away. It was Van Boening who pulled away in this one having multiple 3 and 4 game leads. Archer who was struggling with his position play early on this match, began to turn it around late and after being 8-4 down, pulled within two late in the set 9-7. However it was not to be as Van Boening was able to close out the match 11-8 in the end.

The next match was Canadian Jason Klatt up against Rubén Bautista of Mexico. Strong safety play and some big shots early by Bautista kept it close in the beginning. At 4-4 Klatt began to pull away with some strong play, this combined with some errors by Bautista allowed Klatt to run away with this match 11-5.

Tomorrows matches have not been giving time slots as of yet but they can be found at http://www.accu-stats.com/liveppv.html. There will be some interesting match-ups as two Canadians and friends Alex Pagulayan and John Morra will face off, Jason Klatt will be playing Shane Van Boening. Mika Immonen will face Dennis Orcollo, and the other two Filipinos in the Bigfoot Challenge Jefferey Ignacio and Lee Van Corteza will face off. If you are interested in purchasing a pass for tomorrow go to the Accu-Stats website for more information. Check back daily here at Cue Sport Nation for updates.

Derby City: Bigfoot Challenge Afternoon Update

By: Markus Noé

The Bigfoot 10 Ball Challenge continued this afternoon with some thrilling match-ups. First up was recent Turning Stone Champion Jayson Shaw against former World Champion Alex "The Lion" Pagulayan. With the way Shaw ran through opponents during the last few months and with Pagulayan playing more snooker than rotation as of late, the early betting odds most likely favoured Shaw.

It was a slow start for both players the first four racks as each made mistakes which allowed them to trade racks. From there Shaw began winning the safety exchanges and combined with a break and run came out to a 5-3 lead after 8 racks. From here Pagulayan became suffocating in his safety play and his overall style of play seemed to be a big advantage on these tough conditions. As Shaw is more of a gunslinger who relies on his shot-making abilities to get him through while Pagulayan plays near perfect position and very tight pattern plays. On this 10 foot Diamond with pro cut pockets, getting out of line at times cost Shaw as he rattled a few key shots he perhaps would not have on a 9 foot. In the end the "Lion" prevailed with  an 11-7 scoreline.

The next match of the afternoon session featured another Canadian John Morra against hall of fame member Francisco Bustamante. Morra got off to a very rough start missing a simple 10 ball early and made a few other uncharacteristic mistakes. Bustamante compounded this with some great safeties and a few clearances to push his lead to 6-1. Things did not look good for Morra as he was not only spotting 5 games on the wire to one of the best players ever, but this is a single elimination format meaning you lose and your out.

At 7-5 down, Morra kept exchanging racks with Bustamante until the scoreline was 10-8 for the Filipino. In this rack Bustamante made an error allowing Morra to run out and then he was able to break and run to force a double hill match. A dry break by Morra meant his opponent would get a chance to run out, however this was a tricky rack and a misplayed 4 ball by Bustamante forced him to tie up the 5 and the 9 ball giving Morra ball in hand. An elaborate and very educational safety battle for those lucky enough to witness this match ensued. After about 6 safety exchanges Morra had an opportunity to run out and he did not let it slip away, going on to get the impressive 11-10 win.

The evening matches start immediately with Johnny Archer taking on Shane Van Boening, after that Canadian Jason Klatt and Ruben Bautista square in the 9 p.m. time slot. Make sure to check out Accu-Stats to purchase your live stream pass to catch tonight's actions.

Derby City Bigfoot 10 Ball Challenge

By: Markus Noé

Yesterday the fan favourite Bigfoot 10 Ball Challenge event began. This $1000 entry 16 player max event is played on a Diamond 10 foot table with pro cut pockets. Even at the action pact Derby this event stands out because it is the best players in the world, playing on tougher than normal condition in this single elimination format. The winner takes home $16,000.

 The first of the three matches yesterday began with Mika Immonen against Nick Van Den Berg, this was a close match with Immonen coming out ahead 11-9. Lee Van Corteza ended Rodney Morris hopes 11-8 and Jeffery Ignacio defeated Mike Dechaine 11-6.

The first match of today began at noon eastern between Alex Pagulayan and recent Turning Stone Champion Jayson Shaw. At the time this update is being written Shaw is up 5-3 in a race to 11. The 3 pm match will feature Canadian John Morra vs Filipino legend Francisco Bustamante. Once this match is completed there will be a dinner break. The evening sessions will be Johnny Archer vs Shane Van Boening and Ruben Bautista vs Jason Klatt.

The 9 ball division and the Banks are underway. Canadians Jason Klatt and John Morra have both won their first matches in the banks. Stay tuned to Cue Sport Nation as we will be updating as the event goes on. Thank you to Accu-Stats for providing us with a great stream so we can properly cover the 10 Ball Challenge. To get access to the stream visit their website at http://www.accu-stats.com/liveppv.html.

Derby City Classic Gets Underway

By: Erik Hjorleifson

It's that time of year again as the Derby City Classic at the Horseshoe Casino in Elizabeth, Indiana is set to kick off today!The format for this years event will remain relatively unchanged, the first of the three main events will begin today with the 9 ball banks, on Sunday the one pocket division will get underway and on Wednesday the richest prize fund of the three tournaments; the 9 ball division will begin. Once again this year the tournament offers a $20 000 bonus to the player who has the highest total finish over the 3 main events.

There will be a few players absent this year as the $100 000 first prize Chinese 8 ball world championships has been scheduled at the same time, however given most players unfamiliarity with Chinese 8 ball the impact will not be to strongly felt. Of the notable American players Oscar Dominguez, Corey Deuel and Max Eberle have decided to make the trip over to China and to my knowledge the only European standouts that will be missing are Darren Appleton, Karl Boyes, Ralf Soquet and Thorsten Hohmann. Shane Van Boening will be at the Horseshoe along with one pocket legend Efren Reyes and most of the top Filipino players, who on paper will be the favourites to take home the coveted all-around title.

 Along with the 3 main events there will plenty more pool to be played. The biggest prize fund of the secondary events as well as possibly the most prestigious tournament of the week will be the 16 man invitational Big Foot Challenge, so named because it is played on 10 foot tables. The winner of this event will take home $16 000 and the top 4 spots will be paid. Canada will have 2 entrys in the bigfoot challenge with John Morra who is in good form coming off his second place finish at the Turning Stone and Jason Klatt who will be making his first appearance. This tournament will run from the 23rd to the 26th and will be available on stream, we will have the info for the stream as it becomes available.

There is also the Straight-Pool challenge open to anyone and nightly min tournaments that will be about $1000 first prize. Lets not forget of course the famous 2 player competitions that will be going on all week,  http://cuesportnation.com/  will be here all week with daily updates and results from all the action, stay tuned! brackets and info can be seen at http://dcctickets.com/

The Turning Stone Experience

By: Markus Noé

Living in Cornwall, Ontario a small border city in Eastern Ontario, the Turning Stone Classic is the closest tournament of this magnitude for me to attend. Friday morning after some discussion, a few friends and myself decided to jump in the car and head south. For those who have never been to this casino the entire experience is a bit surreal.

Once we cross the border at the Ivy Lea bridge near Gananoque it takes about another 2 hours to reach our destination. During this time driving through upper New York State there really is not much to see besides small towns, farms and at this time of the year massive snow squalls. Then all of a sudden the landscape of the Turning Stone Tower emerges seemingly out of nowhere. The sheer size of this Casino which boasts several of its own restaurants, bars and nightclubs is almost overwhelming after driving hours in farmland. The inside of this resort is beautiful and for pool players and fans, once you take the escalators upstairs you get to see one of the best venues to watch a pool tournament in North America.

Friday we spent most of the day settling in while watching a few matches. Saturday is when the real big matches started lining up and I spent the day railbirding our Canadian players. For the third event in a row the posse from Quebec was once again very impressive. Alain Parent, Sylvain Grenier, Danny Hewitt and Martin Daigle all made the money. Most notably Hewitt was able to knock off former World Champion Thorsten Hohmann late Saturday on the losers side of the bracket 9-5. Also players from the the East Coast such has Rob Sakell and Stephan Doiron were on the list of Canadians moving through the brackets.

Martin Daigle 

The professionals from Toronto did not fair quite as well as Erik Hjorleifson was eliminated in the 4th round after an impressive win over Mike Dechaine in the first round 9-5. This might have been the toughest bracket to get through early on, as the next match-up would be Hjorleifson vs John Morra. Morra won this match in a lopsided affair as it was evident he was breaking at a very high level, racking up 5 or 6 break and runs in this set alone. Multiple Women's Canadian Champion Brittanny Bryant ended up losing to the "grinder" Ron Casanzio one round before the money after some impressive wins, including one earlier that day against a very tough Houlden Chin.

Morra vs Hjorleifson

The excitement of Saturday concluded with a thrilling double hill match between Rodney Morris and John Morra. Morra who went undefeated until the final won this match, and midway through the set he made what I believe to be the shot of the tournament. In Canada we have seen a similar shot before, we all call it the "Martel Shot" which Alain Martel made against Jeremy Jones a few years back in the 9 Ball Border Battle Challenge, I recommend that everyone searches this shot on YouTube. This match was tightly contested making each rack was very important. In this particular scenario Morra was playing shape for the 6 ball however the 7 ball was on the end rail as well with the 6 presenting a bit of a problem. After making the 5 ball Morra sent the cue ball two rails and hooked himself on the 6 behind the 7. Without hesitation he jacked up over the 7 ball jumping the cue ball off the side rail over the 7, landing perfectly on the 6 ball making it in the corner and running out the rack while the crowd erupted.

Morra vs Morris 

As a Canadian I have been a fan of Morra since I began playing pool 7 years ago. However since starting Cue Sport Nation with one of his is closest friends Erik Hjorleifson and seeing him several times as of late I can call him a friend. Being a die hard pool junkie as I am, I can say it was a thrill coming back on Sunday to watch as Morra was still undefeated and in a great position to win this tournament. In the 11 a.m. time slot Morra had to play the defending champion Jayson Shaw. Once again this was a nail-biting affair with Morra edging him out 9-8.

Mika Immonen made quick work of Jeremy Sossei in the other winners side final four match-up, winning 9-1. In the hot-seat match Morra won the lag and came out firing stringing the first 3 racks together. His break was just too much for Immonen to overcome in this set as he also went down to Morra by a scoreline of 9-1.

Immonen vs Morra 

Despite his loss, Shaw was undeterred making quick work of Shawn Wilkie then he gave Immonen his second demoralizing loss of the day 9-1. Immomen was a victim of how cruel the game can be at times, as in his final two sets of the tournament he might have gotten to the table 6 times with very little to shoot at.

Shaw shooting the final 9 ball to win

The final was a thrilling match-up between the two best shooters of the tournament, Shaw and Morra. For me it was one of the best finals I have ever seen live or otherwise. Not only because I was cheering for Morra but because in this extended race to 13 each player took a 2-3 game lead at one point with the other responding in championship caliber style. In the end Shaw was able to repeat his performance in August and became the first back-to-back Turning Stone Champion in some time. Congratulations to both players who are under 30 and leave me excited for the future as their level of play will presumably continue to grow during the next 10-15 years.

For those who have never been to this event I strongly recommend it. Where else can you go to watch the best players in the world compete for free in such a fan friendly environment? Also for the 4 days you are there it is like being on an island as there is not much around to do besides gamble or play pool. This allows the fans to mingle with the players in between matches and get to approach them in ways that would be impossible at other events. I look forward to the next Turning Stone Classic and as Cue Sport Nation continues to grow I don't plan an missing any in the near future. If you are interested in seeing more pictures from this weekend I invite you to our Facebook page as I have posted them all there.
 

"Moving Day" at Turning Stone Classic

By: Markus Noé

Today is day 3 from the $25,000 added Turning Stone Classic in Verona N.Y. Yesterday was mostly loser side brackets as the players who lost in the first two rounds began inching their way towards the money rounds. Going into today Canadians such as John Morra, Erik Hjorleifson, Alain Parent, Danny Hewitt, Martin Daigle and Brittany Bryant are all still in the mix.

I was lucky enough to drive down yesterday to take part in my first Turning Stone event. The first round of matches that I saw included Erik Hjorleifson vs John Morra. It was unfortunate that to close friends and two of  Canada's best hopes to take down this event had to play so early on in the draw. In the end Morra moved on by a scoreline of 9-3 with the help of 6 break and runs.

Morra went on to win a his next match as well against well known Joss Tour competitor Ron Casanzio 9-5. Hjorleifson went on to win his 10 pm match and is currently playing against R. Staskwoski. Winner of that match goes on to play Corey Duel to get into the money rounds.
Also there is lesser known Canadian talent putting on strong performances as Steph Doiron and Sylvain Grenier are both final 16 on the winner side.

For the sake of getting the information out as fast as possible I will be updating through our Cue Sport Nation Facebook. Also Azbilliards courtesy of Upstate Al has been providing a fantastic free live stream.

Turning Stone Classic Begins Thursday!

By: Erik Hjorleifson

The 23rd edition of the Turning Stone Classic is set to get underway this Thursday in Verona, New York. The 128 player field was once again filled months in advance. Players in the North East and pros from around the U.S. have responded very well to this bi-annual tournament in recent years, it is always professionally run and is set in the spacious event center at the Turning Stone Casino. The space is equipped with permanent stadium seating which makes the spectator experience very enjoyable as well. The event will also have live stream coverage and live scoring courtesy of azbilliards.com the stream produced by Upstate Al can viewed here http://www.ustream.tv/channel/turning-stone.

Rounding up the notable names for the international and U.S. contingent are former world Champions Johnny Archer, Thorsten Hohmann and Mika Immonen, Steve Moore, Mike Dechaine and Rodney Morris are among the top contenders. It must be noted that although it is a full field the overall strength of the field  is a little weaker than we are used to at the Turning Stone. One of the main reasons is the coincidence of the Chinese 8 ball event that is currently going on in China, Dennis Hatch and Earl Strickland are among the American contingent in action over in China. 

The Canadians will be well represented in this edition of the tournament with myself, John Morra leading the list of hopefuls from Ontario and Martin Daigle, Dany Nguyen and Dany Hewitt leading the way for Quebec. From the east coast Rob Sakell an Stephane Doiron will be making there first appearance, Brittany Bryant, Randall Truscott, Randy Fawcett, Randy Whitehead and Eric Cloutier will also be in action.  Stay tuned to cuesportnation.com as I will be providing updates and insight for this years event.  Finally in a recent announcement Turning Stone has been added to the WPA ranking system. Meaning participants will be carrying a world ranking, this is great news for players who are unable to travel overseas.