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.