Denis Grabe Takes Down the 2018 Aramith 9-Ball Players Championship

Denis Grabe 

Submitted Article

During the third weekend of April, Alex Kazakis of Greece and Denis Grabe of Estonia squared off in the finals of the Dynamic Billiard Ballazzo Open in Austria, with Kazakis besting his 28-year-old friend in the finals, 9-5.

The following week, the two men moved across the Atlantic and met again in the finals of a tournament – the Aramith 9-Ball Players Championship. This time, it would be Grabe evening the score, using a combination of ball pocketing and stellar safety play to easily defeat the young Greek 17-7 Sunday evening at Astoria’s Steinway Billiards.

“I wanted to win because last week we played in an Eurotour event and he beat me. So, this was a sweet revenge,” said Grabe, who also lost to Kazakis in the quarterfinals of the Kremlin Cup last year. The match was nip-and-tuck in the early stages, as Kazakis won the first two games then watched as Grabe sunk the 2-ball on a jump shot following a push out – the first of four consecutive games that he would win to take a 4-2 lead.

Kazakis fought back with three straight wins of his own and had a chance to increase his advantage to 6-4 but missed a 4-9 combination shot. “The turning point of the match was that. After that it was only in favor of Dennis all of the time,” Kazakis said. “I didn’t really have a chance to be at the table. I only had tough shots to make and I missed all of the tough shots.”

Grabe would tie the match after the missed combination attempt, then use two breaks and runs along with frustrating safety play to win the next seven games and take an 11-5 lead into the 15-minute intermission. Of Grabe’s 17 wins only three were of the break-and-run variety despite not executing a dry break the entire match.With few clear shots after opening the game, Grabe had to focus on tying up his opponent with safety play and then taking advantage of any mistakes, which he did throughout the match.

“When you’re breaking and you always have the first shot you always have the advantage,” Kazakis said. After the break in play Kazakis’ frustrations continued. Despite Grabe twice relinquishing control of the table after consecutive illegal breaks Kazakis still didn’t see a clean shot on an object ball – losing a safety battle in one game and missing a cut shot on the one-ball in the side pocket in the next rack.

Meanwhile, Grabe used a 2-9 combo, somemore safety play, and another miss by Kazakis on a 3-ball in the 24th game to close out the match. The Estonian opened the tournament by narrowly escaping Alex Pagulayan 11-10 in the first round then was sent to the one-loss bracket after an 11-9 defeat at the hands of Lee Vann Corteza. Grabe then defeated Ronnie Alcano,

Joey Korsiak, and Ruslan Chinahov on Friday to reach the Saturday quarterfinals and face Petri Makkonen. Grabe ran six straight racks on his way to an easy 13-3 defeat of Makkonen, then took advantage of some mistakes from Dennis Orcollo to win 13-8 and advance to the finals.
“I had a couple of matches where I managed to win when I could have lost but in the final, I was like dominant. The scoreline says it all,” Grabe said. It was a disappointing loss for Kazakis, who had many people in the Greek-owned facility cheering him on.

“I’m disappointed that I failed them, but it’s okay. One day I will win this event,” Kazakis said.
On an adjacent table earlier in the afternoon, Albania’s Klenti Kaci defeated Jayson Shaw 11-7 in the Simonis 9-Ball Players Challenge, a second-chance event for players previously eliminated from the Aramith event. After easily defeating Americans Tommy Tokoph and Kenney Nguyen in the early rounds, Kaci survived Germany’s Joshua Filler 9-6 to reach the finals.

The Aramith 9-Ball Players Championship is the first event of the four-tournament 2018 World Pool Series. This event is being held at Steinway Billiards in Astoria, Queens, New York City from April 19th to 22nd, 2018. The World Pool Series is sponsored by Aramith, Rasson, Predator, Iwan Simonis, Tiger, and Kamui. Our suppliers and partners are Billiards Digest, CueScore, Let’s Go Print, On The Wire, Outsville, UpState Al, and the WPA. For the complete draw and live scoring please CLICK HERE. For more information on the World Pool Series, please visit www.worldpoolseries.com.

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Corr Goes Undefeated in SBE Women's Open 9 Ball Pro Womens Championship

By: Markus Noé

Karen Corr once again showed she is till one of the top women players in the world going undefeated through a 56 player field at the Super Billiard Expo. This event had over $8000 added and was sanctioned by the North American Pool Tour (NAPT), which is one of the most successful Pro tours for either Men or Women going at the moment in North America.

Each event is a $5000 first prize and attracts some of the best female talent around such as, Corr, Allison Fischer, Brittany Bryant, April Larson, Janet Atwell, Naomi Williams, Jennifer Barretta and more. There was really two tournaments inside of one in this event, as once we got down to the final 16 it turned into single elimination with no redraw. Meaning if you stayed on the winners side throughout the beginning stages you would have the tougher path to the finals.

Corr won the winners bracket with wins against Atwell 11-8, Vivian Villareal 11-9, and Allison Fischer 11-8. Bryant long time Pro with several big titles under her belt, lost her first round match then showed her heart and experience as she went undefeated on her way to making her second appearance in the SBE final. Her victories where against Store 11-7, April Larson 11-9 and then against Jai Li 11-9 before meeting up with Corr. It should be mentioned that Li split her time between working as a vendor and the Pro Arena. In her first match she got stuck at her booth and with the strict 2 minute forfeit rule she was forced to forfeit her first match.  She pulled herself together and had an impressive 4th place finish.

In the finals Corr showed that she is still a step above winning 11-6 to capture her 3rd SBE title. There was a strong showing by Canadian talent in this one, Denise Belanger had an excellent tournament as she was the only Canadian who made the final 8 on the winners side. She played a solid match against one of the next big things outs of the U.S Brianna Miller winning 11-3, before being knocked off by Fischer 11-4.

Veronique Menard the number one player out of Québec for sometime now also had a good tournament. She finished in 13th place making the single elimination stage and losing a close match to Barretta 11-9 a match she was leading in most of the time and played very well. Multiple Canadian Champion Naomi Williams finished just before the single elimination rounds and for a fairly inactive player showed her talent level once again with a decent tournament. She is just about to finish her schooling, so look to see her more in the near future and would not surprise me to see her near the top of the next NAPT tournament she plays.

Williams knocked out fellow Canadian and rising talent from Québec Valerie Bedard 9-6 who won two matches after her first round defeat to Miller. This was Bedard first time playing on this type of stage and she did not crumble under the pressure, look to hear more from her as she continues to develop. Nathalie Chabot was also in attendance but lost a couple close matches.

During this week I spent more time then ever watching the Women play and I have to say it was enjoyable. The women seem to treat each other with more respect and do not get as testy as some of the men do. When the match ends win or lose they literally embrace one another, there is something kind of nice about the whole thing.

Congratulation to the winners and look forward to seeing you all next time.

Thank you to my sponsors for this event:

Rack-M-Up Billiards 

Super Billiard Expo

Touhey Management 

Tailgators 

In Honour of Carl Schulte Who Lost his Life at the Super Billiard Expo

Carl Schulte 7/15/57-4/14/2018

By: Markus Noé

Last Friday was the second day of the Super Billiard Expo an event I attend every second year. This week of pool is something I look forward to more that a child waiting to open their presents on Christmas morning. Once I know for certain that I will be attending I start marking the days off the calendar and even stay awake at night thinking about all the great times I have had in the past and wondering what awaits me in the future.

For pool enthusiast such as myself the Super Billiard Expo which takes place at the Greater Philadelphia Expo in Oaks Pennsylvania, this is the Mecca. There is a 1000 player Open Amateur tournament, as well as events right from Junior to Super Senior. TAP leagues hold their playoffs at the same time and there are Professional Women's and Men's tournaments. All this before I mention the countless vendors from the industry and the "Action Pit" where it is not uncommon to see matches played for thousands of dollars. For the average person they might not understand, however for us pool players that have the bug deeply ingrained in us, this might be the closest thing to heaven on earth.

Being Canadian and all my sponsors are local supporters I often spend most of my time, sometimes admittedly too much of my time watching and covering Canadian players. Last Friday at approximately 4:45 PM I was in the bleachers in the Pro Arena watching my friend Martin Daigle play against Mike Dechaine second round on the winners side of the Diamond 10 Ball Pro Players Championships.

I happen to look to the right at one point where you can see people outside the front doors through a blue curtain having their smoke breaks. As soon as I look over I see a middle aged man slump against the outside window and then collapse to the ground. I remember my first reaction being of concern but also realizing how we are all sleep deprived and having some beverages at this event and I was hopeful it was not as serious as it ended up being.

Quickly my concern turned into panic as I could see the people close to him frantically trying to revive him. Within a few seconds you could see someone performing CPR. The Match between Daigle and Dechaine was the closest to the window and to the credit of  Dechaine he was the first player to noticed the man in distress and yelled into the crowd several times, "we need a doctor!"

Players attempted to carry on, but most players and the entire crowd were focused on the man outside, as we watched the EMT's try everything in their power to revive him. The whole scenario played out over what might have been 20 minutes however it felt like an eternity, as we collectively held our breaths and watched as the EMT use a combination of CPR and a defibrillator which brought him back several times. While this was going on I made a brief post explaining the situation on the Cue Sport Nation Facebook page, I saw him get loaded into the Ambulance and throughout the rest of the event I wondered what happened to this man.

It was not until yesterday where his son Carl Schulte Jr. reached out to me to express his gratitude for the post I made wishing his father to pull through. He informed me that his Father held on for 9 more hours in which time he was able to have one last conversation him, a lifetime pool player and league operator for both VNEA and BCA.

Medical staff later informed Schulte Jr, that his father was most likely suffering from this for nearly 24 hrs and it went unnoticed. As he said, "He fought through it, drank beers and played a damn good match." A match that Schulte ended up winning, in fact the picture above was taken during this match less than 2 hours before the heart attack.

Schulte Jr, is a fourth generation pool player who described his father as a loving man who never pressured him to play pool and the best teacher he could ask for. It was just something he saw his father doing and wanted to follow in his footsteps. Pool was an activity that father and son frequently enjoyed together and was a lifetime source of bonding. The duo just a few weeks back won the Pennsylvania State Tournament, a memory that will undoubtedly live on in his son forever.

Just a week prior to his death, Schulte celebrated his 34th anniversary to his wife Rita. Carl Schultes will be sadly missed by  his daughter Nicole Marie (Jason) Blosser of Canfield, his son Carl E. Schulte Jr. of Hubbard, and three grandchildren Easton, Camden, and Karina.He also leaves his brother John A. (Lynn) Schulte, and his sister Sharon L. (Albert) Chiaberta both of Hubbard.

I would like to personally send my condolences to the entire Schulte family. His loved ones and the Hubbard, Ohio pool community will feel this loss for sometime. I would like to thank his son for reaching out and informing me of what happened, let it be known that the pool community is a small tight nit one and we are all with you and your family in this difficult time.


RIP Carl Schulte

Carl Schulte had his own table but when he wanted to play at pool hall he chose Ice breakers 

Super Billiard Expo: Dechaine Goes Undefeated to Capture Diamond Open Pro 10 Ball Players Championships

By: Markus Noé

Last week April 12-15 the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center at Oaks hosted the 26th Annual Super Billiards Expo. This was my fourth time attending this event in the last 8 years and outside of the one at Valley Forge this was the best experience I had. For those that attended the older location we are all aware of the magic atmosphere this place had especially in the "action pit" that is near impossible to replicate. 

With every major pool company in attendance as exhibitors, a men and women's pro event a 1000 player amateur event along with events for seniors and juniors it is impossible for me to say I have ever had a bad time at one of these events. There was just something about that Valley Forge experience that I will never forget, its like comparing all your relationships to your first love.  

This year the Pro Arena was the best set up I have seen in a few events. Two years ago when I was there last the Pro Arena was where the Action Pit was this year. The switch was crucial as this made for a much bigger venue for the Pro Men's and Women's events which played side by side. The crowds were bigger as it was only $10 a session and $20 a session for VIP with two session a day. 

There was many favourites in this event such as, Shane Van Boening, Jayson Shaw, Alex Pagulayan, Dennis Orcullo to name a few. The format for the Pro 10 Ball was a little different then any other tournament I have ever seen at this level, which made it interesting to say the least. It was 10 ball played with 9 ball rules which meant no call shot. Also once the tournament got down to the final 16 the winners and the losers continued on in the same brackets however it was now single elimination. 

Most tournaments that switch to single elimination mid tournament usually pit the winners vs the losers. This is a curious format for a few reasons, beginning with it tempts some players to purposefully lose early on to obtain a better draw to the final "theoretically". Also if you are an event selling tickets why would you risk losing some of your big stars earlier than you have to? That being said for those players who are not on paper a favourite to win it gives them a chance to go a little deeper than might otherwise have and perhaps give them a chance to catch a gear. 

This is what happened to Danny Olson, a strong player from North Dakota but not really on the radar as a potential threat to win before this event started. For a player I have not been around much I have to say I was very impressed with his workman's like demeanor all week. He does not say much, no antics just breaks like a monster and shoots straight. Olson won the losers bracket with some impressive lop sided wins against Martin Daigle, and John Morra. In the Semi-Final  Olson met up with Oscar Dominguez and edged out a close win 13-10, this was a high level match filled with a lot of safety and strategical battles. 

On the winners side bracket Mike "Fireball" Dechaine was cruising through this tough field. Dechaine was on fire beating Hohmann 13-6 then Strickland 13-1 and Jayson Shaw 13-9 before meeting Olson in the final.  

Olson had another impressive performance but Fireball was just too much as he went on to win 13-10 to capture this prestigious title. Congratulations to all the winners in this event I look forward to going back next year. Thank you to Allen Hopkins Jr and Sr for the press pass for the event it made my life a lot easier. On a side note this win was even more impressive for Dechaine as I believe he no longer travels and works a "real" job, just goes to show you the amount of talent there is out there. 

Sponsors:

Tailgators

Rack-M-Up Billiards

Super Billiards Expo 

Touhey Management 

Top 4 Payout

Mike Dechaine $10,000

Danny Olson $5000

Jayson Shaw $4000

Oscar Dominguez $3000