By: Erik Hjorleifson
Today will be day one of the four day Turning Stone Classic, held in Verona New York at the Turning Stone Resort and Casino.This is a semi-annual event for the which kicks off and ends the Joss Northeast 9 ball tour, the tournament has become very popular with players that compete on the regular tour as well as for North American and International pros from around the world.
For me this is one of the nicest tournament venues I have ever played in, there are sixteen Diamond tables lined up end to end so there is very limited interference from other tables. Stadium seating is also available for fans, if you have never been it is definitely something to put on your pool bucket list. This year I called 4 months in advance to enter and the tournament was full!
The usual suspects of Thorsten Hohmann, Mika Immonen, defending champion Earl Strickland, Mike Dechaine, Dennis Hatch and 6 time past champion Johnny Archer will all be present. There have been tournaments in the past that have had brutally strong fields. However this year the line up is a little softer because of a conflict for some players at the World Cup of pool and many Filipino players were home for the Pacman Cup.
Representing the Canadian side will be John Morra from Toronto and 7 players from Quebec including Dany Hewitt and Martin Daigle. The format for this event is winner breaks, rack for your opponent, race to 9 and double knockout, the finals is one race to 13.
One of the best features of the Turning Stone Classic is the free live stream courtesy of Upstate Al at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/turning-stone. All matches from the morning to evening sessions will be streamed for free and considering how many paid streams there are out there now, it is nice treat to be able to watch some great pool free of charge. We will be following all the results over the next 4 days, stay tuned for all the latest.
Roger Miller,Dale Kimmett and Karim Attia from Tailgators are 3 more Canadians who are in the field. I will be there Saturday and Sunday to talk to the players about the Eastern Canadian Championships im doing November 8th weekend as well. Good luck to all players and I'll see Saturday Marcus
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