On Sunday May 15, 16 of the strongest players in the Boston area decended upon Mickeys Billiards in Holbrook Mass. Some of the strong players that played included Jason Michas, Mike Nickaloro, Steve Shimkus, Randy Labonte, Joe Dupree and Shane Cote.
Even though it was a small field there was a lot of talent in this group of 16 players. The hot seat match was between Shane Cote and Joe Dupree. Shane Cote jumped out to a 4-2 lead, but Joe said he wasn't done yet and ran the next two games to tie the score up at four games each. The next two games belonged to Shane Cote due to shooting errors by Joe Dupree. Joe still didn't give up as he fought his way back to tie the score at 6-6. Dupree broke the balls and he made nothing and Shane Cote ran the rack to win the set 7-6.
In the losers side finals Dupree played strong local player Jason Michas. Dupree was ahead in the match 5-2 then he missed an easy 9 ball to go head 6-2. Instead the score was 5-3 and it seemed that the momentum was turning to Jason's favor. In the next game, Jason broke and made the 9 ball to make it 5-4. The next game Jason broke and ran out to make it 5-5. The next two games were won by Jason because of careless errors by Dupree and the final score of that match was 7-5, and this gave Jason Michas his first appearance in the finals.
The final match went neck and neck for the first 12 games. Neither player was playing their best pool, making some unforced errors. By the 13th game, Jason seemed a little tired and made an unforced error on the 9 ball which gave Shane Cote the lead 7-6. Cote then won the next game to make it 8-6 and things weren't looking good for Jason in this final match race to 11. Michas then woke up he won the next 4 games straight to take a 10-8 lead over Cote. Shane won the next game to make the score 10-9 but he came up empty on the break in the next game and left an easy 4-9 combo for Jason and he made it for his first victory of the year.
Complete Results:
1st Jason Michas $400
2nd Shane Cote $215
3rd Joe Dupree $100
4th Steve Shimkus $55
I would like Mickey's Billiards for hosting this event and I hope to see all of you at the next event which will be at RI Billiards on June 12th and will be $500 ADDED.
