Monday 25 May 2015

John Morra to Represent Canada at World Pool Masters


By: Erik Hjorleifson

The first 13 players have been named for the 2015 World Pool Masters which will be held August 14-16 in Manchester England. This is a 16 player invitational tournament in which the invites are picked by Matchroom Sport officials. Selections reflect the best players in the world from different regions as well as players that are ranked high in the world rankings. This year China, Taiwan, Australia, Canada, Qatar, Philippines will be represented, the rest of the field will be rounded up by the strong European contingent. 

The event will once again be produced by Matchroom Sport and shown live on Skysports. When an event by Matchroom Sport is produced I feel like the world of professional billiards should sit up and take notice, because the full production value of their events is everything billiards should be working towards. If we had 15 events like this a year I believe the game would be well on its way to mainstream acceptance.   


John Morra
 2015 will mark the return of a new Canadian face to the World Pool Masters. Friend of Cue Sport Nation John Morra has been chosen to represent Canada after of string of years with Alex Pagulayan as the representative. John has taken the bull by the horns as they say in the last year. Boasting a competing schedule that is rivaled by very few pros in the world. Morra has had many impressive results in 2014 including a runner up at the Derby City Classic, the Manny Pacquiao Cup, Smokin Aces invitational and recently had a record breaking performance at the Canadian Championships winning the 8 ball, 9 ball and 10 ball divisions. We are all looking forward to cheering on Morra in August at one of the most prestigious tournaments of the year.
 
Morra will return for the first time since playing as a qualifier in 2010, the only year the Masters went with an expanded field with open qualification tournaments. I asked Morra for some thoughts on his 2015 selection and he said, "I am proud to once again represent Canada at this event, it has been a long time coming and I would like to better my quarter final finish from the last time where Orcollo beat me and went on to win the tournament." He also said he would like to extend a big thanks to his sponsors who make it all possible; Falcon Cues, Kings Of Vapor, Hustlin USA, Touhey Management, Taom Break/ Jump Tips, Moose's Billiard Shoes. 

It will be a busy week for Morra has he has to fly back forth to England then meet up with me a few days later for the Turning Stone Classic. We at Cue Sport Nation wish him all the best and look forward to watching him compete for the title.

 
 
 

Tuesday 19 May 2015

Thorsten "The Hitman" Hohmann Wins Inaugural Archer Cup

 Johnny Archer and Thorsten Hohmann. Photo courtesy of Lynn Gosselin @ www.infiny.ca
By: Markus Noé

Four days of billiard festivities concluded yesterday in Thetford Mines, Québec as the Archer Cup and the amateur divisions both came to an end. This years "Classique des Applaches" which was in its 5th year, boasted amateur divisions for "C" caliber players right to Semi-Pro. The pro division was renamed to the "Archer Cup" in honour of the multiple world champion and hall of fame inductee Johnny "the Scorpion" Archer. This was dubbed a memorial tournament and some of the English speaking players jokingly poked fun, as usually a memorial tournament is for someone who has passed. However this is something that is lost in translation as the intent in renaming the tournament is to honour a great champion and promoter of the game for everything he has done and continues to do. The irony of this was not lost on Archer as he even poked fun of himself in the opening ceremonies, which you can see on the Cue Sport Nation Facebook page.

Archer Cup 


Danny Hewitt photo courtesy of Lynn Gosselin @ www.infiny.ca

The final day of 24 player marquee event started off with Danny Hewitt vs Thorsten Hohmann in the winners side final. Hohmann went into this event as one of the overall favourites and it was no surprise to see him in this match. On the other hand lesser known on an international scene Danny Hewitt was a bit of a surprise to see in the winners side final to most fans outside of Canada. For some this was a coming out party for Hewitt who dispatched both Mike "Fireball" Dechaine and John "Mr. Smooth" Morra on his way to meet Hohmann. However for fans north of the border he is a proven world class talent who is a threat in any tournament. In fact he recently beat Hohmann at the Turning Stone Classic 9-5, which Hohmann later acknowledged in his victory speech.

Hohmann was on a different level this week as he was clearly the most consistent performer and beat Hewitt 10-5. From here Hewitt had to wait for the losers side of the bracket to finish up to see who his oppenent would be in the semi-finals. First up was Erik "Big Red" Hjorleifson up against a strong Semi-Pro from Gatineau, Québec John Leblanc. Leblanc had an incredible run in this tournament as he beat both Johnn Archer and Luc "The Machine Gun" Salvas and only lost to Morra on his way to meet Big Red. This match went back and forth with Leblanc taking an early 3-1 lead then Hjorleifson came back to go up 6-3 before he won 10-7 knocking out Leblanc in the 5/6 Position

Morra was up against Dechaine in the other 5/6 match up. Dechaine got up early in this match 3-1 however his break left him and Morra was breaking and running at a high level and basically played flawless winning 10-4. This set up a match between two long time friends, road partners and Canadian Champions Morra and Hjorleifson. This was an unconventional match as Hjorleifson broke and ran his first 3 breaks in this alternative break format and built a lead 3-1. From there a few bad rolls that resulted in fouls allowed Big Red to pad his lead to 9-2. In alternate break format this is almost a guaranteed win at this level the way they break. However Morra was not done yet as some stellar play and a few errors made the score 9-7 before Hjorleifson was able to secure the final rack.

In the losers side final between Hewitt and Hjorleifson, Hewitt continued on his torrid pace winning 10-2. Hjorleifson's break left him during his match leaving a lot of open tables which Hewitt took full advantage of and combined with his great breaking won this match with ease. This set up a rematch of the winners side final between Hewitt and Hohmann to the delight of the Québec fans. Unfortunately Hohmann was just too good to beat on this occasion as he walked away with this set 12-6. In his post match speech he congratulated his oppenent and acknowledge his high level of skill. Hohmann also joked to the crowd when he said, "I know you all wanted to see a closer match in this final, but I did not."

Archer and Hohmann in front of the "Archer Cup" with CBA Board members, photo courstesy of Lynn Gosselin @ www.infiny.ca 

Hohmann is not only a world class champion but a consummate professional as he gracefully accepted the trophy and acknowledged the great work of the promoters.  I watched him all weekend and was really impressed with how he handled himself the entire event.

Top 3 Payouts

Thorsten Hohmann -$6500
Danny Hewitt-$4000
Erik Hjorleifson-$3000

Final Thoughts

I would not only thank Marco Sanschagrin and the entire C.B.A board for sponsoring Cue Sport Nation to cover this event, but to also congratulate him on its success. Sanschagrin is one of few promoters who delivers exactly what is advertised. He promised a world class event with $10,000 added and that is exactly what we got. In any event of this magnitude there will be issues, that goes without saying. However most issues in billiard related events has to do with broken promises, poor organization, last minute funding issues and the list goes on. What was great to see this weekend is that the only issues that came up were left on the table.

For one Mike Dechaine was very vocal this weekend on his displeasure with having to use the "Magic Rack" and he said the pocket sizes were a bit big. Dechaine who is well known for his break, felt that perhaps the "Magic Rack" made it too easy to make balls and took away one of his key advantages. On the flip side what we did not hear complaints about was missing prize fund money and players not getting what they were promised. It really is a treat to attend an event where we can all focus solely on whats going on at the table.

The amateur divisions and the Scotch Doubles events which we will be covering in an article later this week all went off without a hitch. All the matches were scheduled via an app called CompuSport. At the conclusion of each match the winner simply had to scan their paper and the brackets would automatically update. The app feature also enabled players to get a notification sent to their phone as soon as their match was scheduled to play. This kept all the tournaments running smoothly which is quite a feat considering there was up to 14 tournaments being played simultaneously throughout the divisions.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the C.B.A they are a billiard promotional organization backed by the city of Thetford Mines. Marco Sanschargrin is at the head of all this and you will be hearing more about them in the coming months. They have also secured the Black Lake Arena to host this event for the next few years and have struck a deal with the Québec Federation to host the Provincial Championships as well.

Finally some exciting news for those who have been desperate to see change for our Canadian Championships, which have not been well attended at the highest level for some years now. Sanschagrin has stated he will be placing a bid to host the 2016 Canadian Championships, this news comes to the delight of Canada's top players in which he has their full support. As my partner and I here at Cue Sport Nation usually do after these type of events, we discussed what we thought on this years Classique des Appalaches. I feel Hjorleifson summed it up perfectly when he simply said, "It just does not get any better than this"


Sunday 17 May 2015

Archer Cup Day 2: Hewitt and Leblanc Continue to Impress

Photo courtesy of Hanna Kwon
By: Erik Hjorleifson & Markus Noé

Day 2 is now in the books at the Classique des Appalaches being held at Black Lake Arena in Thetford Mines, Quebec. This really is a first class tournament with 41 nine foot Black Crown 2 tables set up on the floor of a hockey arena. I believe it is the most 9 foots I have ever seen in a venue other than a poolroom. This is the 5th annual edition of this tournament which has progressed year after year. A new added feature this year is the "T.V Table" which can be watched at www.eventime.ca.

Francis Crevier/Mario Paradis vs Richer Francoeur/Danny Hewitt
Today in the doubles division my partner Ashely Nowlan and myself continued on our hot streak with a 9-2 victory to move on to the winners side final. Morra and Cicero had a hard fight hill-hill win over Grenier and Lalande, we will be playing our hot-seat match at 11:00 am.  On the losers side both teams that lost the winners side semi-final bounced back and advanced to the 4th place match. 

Hewitt Vs Morra 
In the Archer Cup 10 ball division Montreal native Danny Hewitt had a high quality match with John Morra. After trailing 7-5 he went on to win 5 of the last 6 games to pull off a hard earned 10-8 victory. Thorsten Hohmann played strong as well as he beat me 10-5 to set up a match-up against Hewitt in the winners side final.




On the losers side John Leblanc who already had a notable win against Johnny Archer in this tournament, was also able to beat Luc Salvas in the last match of the day. This secured Leblanc a match up against me at 9 am in the 5/6 position. Before beating Salvas 10-8 he also ended Yan Lalande's bid at this years Archer Cup. Stay tuned to the Cue Sport Nation Facebook page for continuous doubles and Archer Cup updates as both tournaments will wrap up tomorrow. Also check back in at www.cuesportnation.com later on in the week as we will have last article on this years Archer Cup as well as the results in the Amateur divisions. We would like to thank our Sponsors Marco Sansachagrin and the entire C.B.A team as well as Mario Paradis at Chalk Cube, for making coverage of this tournament possible. 

Saturday 16 May 2015

Archer Cup Day 1: Dechaine Suffers Early Loss/Archer Eliminated

Unveiling of the "Archer Cup"

By: Markus Noé and Erik Hjorleifson

Archer Cup 

Today was the opening round for the highly anticipated Archer Cup at the Black Lake Arena in Thetford Mines Quebec. It was a day of upsets as some of the favorites to win this tournament were beaten early. First it was John Leblanc upsetting former World Champion Johnny "The Scorpion" Archer 10-8.

  In Archer's very next match he played young upstart Tom Theriault who has just been bumped up to professional status. In another surprise Theriault also got the best of Archer 10-8 to eliminate one of the favorites early on. 

Mike Dechaine playing Danny Hewitt
Mike Dechaine also suffered an early deafeat. This one was not as much as an upset as Archers losses because Danny Hewitt is a well known world class player out of Montreal Québec. Hewitt's lack of fear towards Dechaine was evident in this 10-8 win. Perhaps Hewitt was still confident from his 9-5 win over Thorsten Hohmann earlier this year at the Turning Stone Classic. Dechaine followed this loss with a win over Danny Ngyuen and his waiting for the winner of the match between Joey Cicero and Roger Doyons. 

Erik Hjorleifson will play Thorsten Hohmann tomorrow on one side of the final four winners bracket  and John Morra will play Danny Hewitt on the other side. Make sure to go to www.eventime.ca to watch the live stream and follow along with the brackets at www.compusport.ca

Scotch Doubles

Along with the Archer Cup singles tournament, most of the pro's also participated in a doubles event in which they were paired with a semi-pro ranked player. This division is a 9 ball winner breaks race to 9 format. As is usually the case in teams and doubles events, the performance of the weakest link is a very important factor.  Which makes the play of the semi-pro partners a strong determinant in the outcome of each match. 

Another factor is the chemistry of the team.  On day one it seems that friends Dany Nguyen and Eric Horth both from Montreal have a good vibe going. They had a notable win over Richer Francoueur and Dany Hewitt 9-5. Another Montreal pairing Yan Lalande and  Sylvain Grenier advanced to the final four with a win over Johnny Archer and Roger Doyon. Also advancing on the winners side were the teams of Hjorleifson/Nowlan and Morra /Cicero. Notables still alive on the losers side include Martel/Abrouq and Paradis/Crevier, play will continue on Sunday. Follow along on the fly at the Cue Sport Nation Facebook page as we can because we are both still in dealing with hectic playing schedules. 



Wednesday 13 May 2015

Classique des Appalaches: Schedule, Dress Code and Stream



Friday

* Noon: -Open for practice

* 5 pm

- Skills contests qualifications

- Live stream begins

* 6pm: Press conference and unveiling of the Archer Cup

* 19h : - Skills contests players introduction

- Skills contests starts-mini tournaments (10$/persons)

Saturday

* 9 am: Tournament begin

* Noon: Players meeting

* 22h: mini tournaments (10$/persons)

Dimanche

* 9 am: Tournament resumes

* 2 pm: Hard-luck tournament begins

* 10 pm: mini tournaments (10$/persons)

Lundi

* 9 am: Tournament resumes

* 6 pm: End of tournament

Dress code

* No jeans, t-shirts, hats, or sneakers.

Skills contests qualifications

* If you want to try to qualify for the skills contests, qualifications will be held at 5 pm at the price of 25$

Hotels

* There are rooms availables at the Comfort Inn and the Balmoral. You must go trough our website (eventime.ca). We have reserved all the rooms to make sure of the availability for the tournament players.

* In the comments box; note your check-in and check-out date

Stream

* Thursday night there will be an exhibition beetween Johnny Archer and Thorsten Hohmann at 7 pm, and the unveiling of the Archer Cup, the press conference, and the skills contests will be free on the stream of Eventime.ca.

* Saturday, Sunday and Monday, the stream will be 10$/day or 20$/three days

Tuesday 12 May 2015

Pagulayan Eliminated from Chinese Masters




Press Release

On May 7th, array of international stars gather in the first station of “the Grand Epoch City·Joy Cup”2015 World Chinese Eight Ball Masters. The former 9-ball world champion Pagulayan is challenged by folk master Shao Hongda at 19:00,and then a strong-strong dialogue begins. The match is forced to stop because of the time limitation after a disappointing draw 6:6. Thus the match goes into penalty kicks. Although Pagulayan ,who has a first try in penalty kick, shoots one ball into the pocket, off to the bad start,he could not accomplish the counterattack with 6:7.Therefore ,Pagulayan could not gain the qualification to top 96.

Even though meeting some challenges, Pagulayan is still in good form for the match in the first stage 384 to 192(double elimination). However, the intensity of the match increases and his opponent is more competitive when the match comes to the second stage. Similar to the previous situation,he arrives at the playing field very earlier,from which we can see that he attaches great importance to this single-elimination match.

With seeded players,including Yu Ting,Qiu Paomou and Yang Fan,having already reached the next round,they are sitting in the side of the field and watch Pagulayan’s match just like his fans.Regrettably,Pagulayan does not do well in the match and makes a series of mistakes,thus leading to his missing the promotion opportunity.

Shao Hongda,the opponent of Pagulayan,is a typical 90s player.It is not hard to see his aggressiveness as a fresh man.Until the 7th set has been finished,Pagulayan still trail by one point,which never occurs in the previous matches.



Pagulayan is a big goof with the ability to charm everyone by his nature of entertainment.When he sees Yang Fan sitting in the audience during the match,he make his classic gestures to ask for his help.This pleasant interaction makes the audience burst into laughter.Once returning to the match,Pagulayan behave both calm and fierce,and his strong desire for wset is so memorable.Unfortunately,the result of the match has not been changed.

Pagulayan makes the score 5:4 after his difficult equalizer in the 8th set.But Shao does not give up any chance to counterattack.In the 12th set,no billiard ball is shot into the pocket after Pagulayan’s racking.He returns to his seat remorsefully and suddenly begins to hit himself on the head,which is exactly the same as the performance of O’ Sullivan in the world championship.And then Shao also makes some mistakes.Until the match is finished,the 6:6 draw does into penalty kicks.

Pagulayan is still struggling to explore the knack of penalty kick while Shao has already shot a ball into the pocket.In the exciting penalty kicks,a cannot help laughing scene appears--When the referee reports middle pocket,Pagulayan should immediately understand it even though his Chinese is poor,and correct it to the bottom pocket,making the audience burst laughing.After 5 rounds of penalty kick,both of them have already shot one ball into the pocket.Finally the match comes to an end with Shao’s shooting the ball into the bottom pocket.

With the love for the Chinese Eight Ball,Pagulayan dares to become a pioneers and joins in the largest Chinese Eight Ball League.Everyone of his match will be a classic that cannot be permanently altered.He never refuses to sign photographs and greet the fans,and he also give some helpful advice for the 15-year-old girl.There is no doubt Pagulayan is a perfect combination of billiards skills and personal quality.

The fail of this match does not means that Pagulayan has left away the field of Chinese Eight Ball.However,he will not stay away from the field permanently,because he is a real master !

Friday 8 May 2015

Deadline For 10K Added Archer Cup Draws Near


By: Markus Noé

A week from today the festivities for another addition of the Classiques de Billard des Appalaches in Thetford Mines, QC will be underway. For those of you who are planing to participate in either the amateur or pro divisions the entry deadline is this Monday May 11th. This is a firm deadline with no exception as the organizers need these few days leading up to the event to make the tournament charts and post schedules.

Most of the Amateur divisions are filling up nicely. In the A and AA there are over 35 players registered in both the 9 and 10 ball. The AAA has 17 and the B division has over 30 registered as well. The semi-pro and the pro are still less than half full at the moment but I do expect them to get more entrants this weekend. Especially in the $10,000 added pro event in which there are only 14 registered at this time.

Here is the current list of players registered in the pro:

Luc Salvas
André Pelletier
Sylvain Grenier
Dany Normandin
Mike Dechaine
Johnny Archer
Francis Crevier
Alain Martel
Ashley Nowlan
Hohmann Thorsten 
John Morra
Mario Morra
John Leblanc
Tom Theriault

I can also confirm that Martin Daigle and my partner Erik Hjorleifson will be signing up for this event. If this division is able to get to 32 players it will payout the same as the most recent 128 player field at Turning Stone which was $8,000. As you can see regardless on how many more entrants there is, this field is packed with world class talent. For those who are not interested in playing there will still be some very entertaining matches to watch and will be worth the drive.

A reminder to all who are coming on the Friday night there will be a skills competition. For those that want to qualify you need to be there in the afternoon, all the details are in the poster below. For more information about signing up go to www.eventime.ca or contact Marco Sanschagrin directly on Facebook.


Thursday 7 May 2015

TvMike.tv to broadcast live national/international pool tournaments from Las Vegas NV.



Press Release       

Las Vegas, NV (PRWEB) May 07, 2015

TvMike.tv is proud to announce that we will be travelling to Las Vegas Nevada to produce NOT ONE, but TWO major Billiard events!!!!! This feat has never been accomplished in the history of amateur Pool & Billiards and we are extremely excited to let everyone know that both events will be available to you for FREE!! Tournament schedule as follows the Universal cues 2015 ACS Nationals LIVE from the Tropicana May 9th to the 15th and the 35th Anniversary of the VNEA world internationals LIVE from Ballys May 21st through the 30th of May. The coverage of these events would not be possible without the interest and support of both amateur billiard organizations.



TvMike.tv has produced multiple ACS State championships in the states of Illinois and Indiana in both 2014 and 2015. “Mike does a fantastic job with the production and commentating of the events and our players really enjoy every show” said John Lewis Executive director of the ACS. “We invited Mike to come produce our VNEA juniors tournament last year in Battle Creek MI and we were really impressed with his knowledge of our organization and we saw the results. When Mike provided us with the google analytics of how many people actually watched it was easy decision to work with him again on our nationals” – Brian Elliot Director of Marketing and Promotions – VNEA

“I really want to see how far this can go” said Mike Warden (aka TvMike) previous state level broadcasting efforts have surpassed 3,000 unique viewers over the span of the event. Doing competitions of this prominence and magnitude with the promotional marketing support of the leagues I wouldn’t be surprised to see the accumulated numbers over 10,000 viewers coming in from all over the world.”



Viewers can tune in to watch the broadcasts on any mobile device or computer with one click by visiting the channel located at http://www.tvmike.tv on the internet.



Mike Warden (TvMike) has been producing hundreds of live stream broadcasts of pool and billiards since 2010. The “Netflix of Pool” boasts a growing library of over 2,500 pool matches available to video subscribers. TvMike.tv has had over 76,000 unique viewers since Nov of 2013.



https://www.facebook.com/tvmike.tv

http://www.americancuesports.org - jlewis@americancuesports.org - http://www.vnea.com – Brian Elliot – info@vnea.com







Friday 1 May 2015

Big Red Wins the 10 Ball Division at the Fargo Spring Shootout





By: Erik Hjorliefson

This past weekend Fargo Billiards one of if not the nicest room in North America held their annual Spring Shootout. There was three tournaments on the bill with the prestige event being a 32 player $90 entry 9 foot 10 ball tournament.  Also on the bill was a $60 entry 7 foot 8 ball tournament with $2000 added and an amateur 9 ball tournament limited to players with a rating of 5​5​0 or less in the extensive ​"Fargo Rate" system that has been developed by innovative room owner Mike Page.​  Apparently, we will soon be hearing more about Fargo Ratings, which are chess-like ​ratings for pool that rate players everywhere on the same scale.

Fargo Billiards features fourteen 9​-​foot Gabriels tables, ​6 Gabriels 7​-​foot tables and ​36​ Diamond 7​-​foot tables. The room also features a full service kitchen with endless choices and private function room equipped with lounge seating and po​o​l tables. If you are a fan of the game and are ever in the area this room is an experience that can't be missed.

The 9​-​foot 10 ball tournament began Friday night with the round robin portion of the tournament. The round robin would eliminate half of the field and would seed the remaining 16 players wit​h​ the low seeds playing the high seeds in the single knockout portion of the tournament. The field featured most of the top players from the Northern Midwest and Southern Manitoba. Tournament favourites included Lee Heuwagen, Fargo Billiards house pro Rory Hendrickson, Jesse Engel​, Taylor Anderson, ​ and Danny Olson. Berry Mclean, Felix Beardy, Jeff Clare and Mike Frechette headed up the hopes for North of the border. In the end I was able to come out on top with an 11-5 victory over Jesse Engel in the final.

Big Red
The ​7-foot table 8 ball division started with a healthy field of 64 players​,​ and Lee Heuwagen made a surprising early exit​.​ I spoke with him and he told me he has been spending long hours at work. On the winners side I made my way through to the final to play Midwest bar table legend Rory Hendrickson, Rory went on to claim the hot seat and eventually waited for the winner between myself and young up and comer Danny Olson. Olson advanced with a 5-4 victory and ​followed that by two more 5-4 victories to prevail over Hendrickson.

Results Amateur 9 ball

 ​1st       Darin Meyer    $600
​  2nd    ​ ​Lee Gray   $450
3rd  Dan Gu  $250
4th  Ryan Kingbird $175
5/6  Jimmy Williams, Wade Odegaard​  $100




10 ball
1st         Erik Hjorleifson $1400 + Entry to the CSI U.S.Open 10 ball championships
2nd        Jesse Engel         $850
3rd/4th Lee Heuwagen $500
              Danny Olson
5th/8th Jeff Clare            $200
               Rory Hendrickson
               Taylor Anderson
               Mike Frechette

8ball
​Danny Olson $1700 + Entry to the CSI U.S. Open 8 ball Ch​ampions​h​ips
​Rory Hendrickson           $1000
Erik Hjorleifson       $700
Prad   ​Rana              $400
Felix Beardy            $240
​Tyler Perry​ ​                  $240​