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| Champion Jayson Shaw Photo by Erin Bechner |
By: Markus Noé
August 25-28 the 26th edition of the Turning Stone Classic took place. As always this was played at the Turning Stone Casino and Resort located in Verona New York. This is a $25,000 added tournament that takes place August and January. This was the fourth time that I had the opportunity to attend this event and if last January was the strongest field I witnessed last weeks was the weakest.
Unfortunately in the pool world with so many separate organizations, events often collide with each other. Most of the top players in the world went to Shanghai to play as the prize pools are considerably higher. For those that did not want to go to Shanghai others went to Las Vegas to play in the U.S Bar Box Championships.
With the year beginning to wrap up players looking to make their Mosconi Cup Teams are scrambling for points. An interesting observation here is that the U.S Bar Box Championship held three events last week all carrying these valuable Mosconi Cup Points. Turning Stone also carries these points however I heard some top players who are in the running wondering if each tournament in Vegas held the same amount of points as Turning Stone? Which would not really be fair and is a little confusing considering that these are bar box tournaments.
All that aside going into last week the favourites in my opinion were Jayson Shaw, Mike Dechane, Earl Strickland and Rodney Morris. The next group of favourites to win was Erik Hjorleifson, Hunter Lombardo, Brandon Shuff, Donnie Mills, Ernesto Dominguez, Karen Corr. Throughout the first two days there was not really any upsets to speak of. Martin Daigle did knock Erik Hjorleifson over to the one lose side in the first round 9-4.
It was not until Saturday evening deep on the winners side until the bigger names met up and some entertaining matches took place. Dechaine and Strickland was in my opinion the most entertaining match of the weekend. This took place in the final 8 of the winners side. Both players are incredible talents and both players are very animated around the table thus around 200 fans gathered to watch this match to see if there would be any fireworks. This match went 8-8 in a race to 9 with Strickland edging out Dechaine in the end, when Strickland won he did his patent fist pump to the delight of the crowd.
Alongside this match on the stream table Karen Corr legendary Women's player was up against a young stud from Russia. His name is Maksim Dudanets and he is only 17 years old. He came to the U.S about a month ago for the Atlantic Cup Challenge and has stayed to play in some events. He had Corr stuck in this set 7-3 however Corr showed her experience and slowed the momentum of this match right down and ended up winning. Another seasoned player Ernesto Dominguez ended his run in the 7/8 bracket 9-2. Once Dudanets was eliminated from the tournament he wasted no time going to an empty table and setting up advanced practice drills and did this for hours. I would look over and even some of the others pro's where watching and impressed with this young mans work ethic and dedication. I am predicting we will be hearing a lot from this player in the future.
As always there was a strong contingent of players from Québec. Alain, Parent, Danny Hewitt Joey Cicero all ended up cashing in this event. Cicero once against finished in the 9-12 bracket and Hewitt was the top finishing Canadian in this event ending up in the 7/8 bracket..
The final 4 remaining players on Sunday were the same final 4 from the winners bracket. As Corr, Strickland, Mills and Shaw were are still in the running. Shaw beat Strickland earlier in the winners side final 4 and then Strickland went on to beat Dominguez 9-8. Corr edged out Mills 9-8 and then lost in the winners side final to Shaw 9-2. Mills and Strickland met up in the 4th place match as Corr waited for her shot at history, as no female player has ever been to the final of the Turning Stone Classic let alone any men's professional tournament.
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| Runner-up Karen Corr photo by Erin Bechner |
Strickland eliminated Mills and in a bit of an upset Corr beat Strickland 9-8 and was visibly happy, as she not only made history but I believe she never beat Strickland in competition before. Shaw who in my opinion is a top 3 player in the world currently was just too much for the field. He virtually cruised through the brackets undefeated and was never really threatened. He took the final 13-5 and won his 4th Turning Stone title in his last 5 tries. There is another great thing about Shaw and that is the manner in which he plays, if there was anyone that can make pool watchable to the masses it is this man here. Congratulation to Shaw who has also been crushing it in Europe and I expect him to make his first Mosconi Cup team this year.
I would like to thank my sponsor for this event David Touhey of Touhey Management located in Ottawa, Ontario. The next Pro event for me will be the Falcon Tour stop in Valleyfield, Quebec September 17-18 look forward to seeing you all there. To stay up to date at the events we will be at follow us on our Cue Sport Nation Facebook Page.
