Jarrod Clowery, Mike Dechaine and Mika Immonen
Mika Immonen came out on top of a field of 79 players to win the Joss NE 9-Ball Tour's 22nd Annual Ocean State 9-Ball Championship on November 13-14, but it wasn't as easy as it originally looked like it might be for Immonen.
From the beginning of the event, it was pretty obvious that both Immonen and Mike Dechaine would be the players to beat in this event. As the brackets came together, the two would have to face off in the final eight on the winners side.
Heading up to the match with Dechaine, Immonen had been relatively untested as we had not allowed an opponent more than 4 games in a match. The match with Dechaine was no different as Mika ran away with a 9-3 win.
Immonen just kept cruising through the event and ran over Jarrod Clowery 9-4 to take the hot-seat and await an opponent in the finals.
On the one loss side, Dechaine has dusted himself off and dispatched five straight opponents to earn another shot at Immonen in the true double elimination finals.
The first set of the finals was a completely different story than the earlier meeting between these two. This time, Dechaine was able to stay with Immonen game for game and with the score tied at 7-7, Dechaine took charge and ran back to back racks for a 9-7 win.
With both players having losses, one final race to nine was required to crown a champion. Immonen came out strong in the final set and raced to a 5-2 lead, but Dechaine wasn't done yet. Dechaine came back to win five of the next six games to take the lead at 7-6. Immonen won the next game and the players found themselves at 7-7 again. This time, it was Immonen who took control, winning the final two games for the 9-7 win and first place.
Immonen earned $2500 for the win, while Dechaine consoled himself with $1700 in prize money.
Next up for the Joss Tour is a $2000 added event at Bison Billiards in Buffalo, NY next weekend. That will be the last event before the Turning Stone Classic XVI at the Turning Stone Casino in Verona, NY on December 16-19. Inquiries regarding the Turning Stone event should be directed to Mike Zuglan at 518-356-7163.
