Samoth Sam and Kyle Pepin
Prior to this past weekend (Feb. 17-18), Maine’s Kyle Pepin had not recorded a cash finish in our records at a pool tournament since he finished as runner-up at a stop on the Joss NE 9-Ball Tour three years ago. He returned to the tables to compete in the 2024 Maine State 9-Ball Championships and went undefeated to win the $750-added event that drew 78 entrants to TJ’s Classic Billiards in Waterville, ME.
As it so happened, the runner-up at this event was, until recently, also a relatively absent figure from the tables for a while. Though Massachusetts’ Samoth Sam had managed to bring home a cash prize a couple of weeks ago when he finished 5th at a Second Chance event on the Joss Tour (the Massachusetts State 9-Ball Championships in Malden, MA) and finished 5th in two Joss Tour events in 2022, he, too, had been more or less absent from our records since 2021, when he finished at that year’s Stop #5 on the Joss Tour, the same event at which Pepin had finished as runner-up.
Pepin’s trip to the hot seat match was almost diverted to the loss side, twice. Following an opening round bye, he’d battled to double hill in his opening match against Tyson Trepanier, and then, downed Chad Avallone (4), Bob Dennis (1) and David Hall (4) to draw and eventually lock up in another double-hill match in his winners’ side semifinal versus Steve Michaud.
Sam, in the meantime, who’d opened up with a pair of victories over Bill Jerome (3) and Dennis Patenaude (6) dropped his third match 5-9 to David Hall, who would go on to be defeated by Pepin in a winners’ side quarterfinal and eventually, meet up with Sam a second time, on the loss side.
Derrick Burnham was the other competitor who was destined for the hot seat match. He got by John Ketcham (3), Jeff Provencher (4), Eric Nickerson (3), and Cody Francis (5), before meeting up with Bill Longmore in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Both battles for advancement to the hot seat match went double-hill, Burnham over Longmore and Pepin over Michaud. The hot seat match came within a game of double hill before Pepin edged out in front to claim the seat 9-7.
On the loss side, it was Michaud who came up against Sam, five matches into his seven-match, loss-side winning streak that had recently eliminated Cody Francis 9-6 and Ivaylo Petrov 9-7. Longmore picked up David Hall, who’d followed his loss to Pepin with victories over Chad Bazinet 9-6 and Guy Bouthot 9-3.
Sam and Hall both chipped in to assure their rematch in the quarterfinals by defeating their opponents by the same score. Sam and Hall defeating Michaud and Longmore 9-2. It didn’t come as a surprise to anyone that the quarterfinal match went to its full-potential, 17-game, double hill match.
Sam won the match and reverted back to his 9-2 strategy, downing Burnham in the semifinals by that score. It looked, at first, as though the two well-acquainted competitors were going to turn the final into at least one double-hill match, possibly two. But Pepin gained control in the opening set, was ahead by four, 9-5, at the finish line and claimed the event title.
Jim Hayden won a concurrently-run, $250-added Second Chance event that drew 19 entrants. In the finals that went double-hill, Hayden downed Roger Barriere, who had eliminated Brandon Butler in the semifinals.
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