Usually when Mike Dechaine takes the hot-seat at an event, it is a foregone conclusion that he will win the event. As a matter of fact, Dechaine himself could not remember ever being double dipped in his career as a pro pool player. Somehow, Jorge Rodriguez didn't get the memo about Dechaine's final match record before the Joss NE 9-Ball Tour event at Raxx Billiards in West Hempstead, NY over the March 31-April 1 weekend.
The field of 38 players at Raxx included such heavy hitters as Dechaine, Mika Immonen, Hunter Lombardo, Jeremy Sossei, Robb Saez, Shaun Wilkie, Zion Zvi and Jennifer Barretta.
Dechaine cruised through his early match, only dropping seven games across three different matches. He would be tested in his fourth match, a hill-hill win over Mika Immonen. Meanwhile, Jorge Rodriguez was cruising right along with a dominating performance of his own. Rodriguez won his first match 9-5 over Ray Lee, but would not face another serious test before facing Dechaine.
The hot-seat went to Dechaine 9-2 and it looked like Dechaine would be adding another tournament win to his resume soon enough.
On the one loss side, Rodriguez eliminated Zion Zvi. Zvi had lost to Jeremy Sossei on Saturday, but bounced back with six "W"s on the left side including wins over Saez, Wilkie, Lombardo and Immonen.
The first match of the double elimination finals was a close one, with Rodriguez edging Dechaine 9-7. In the second set, the wheels completely fell off for Dechaine as Rodriguez dominated the match for a 9-3 win.
Rodriguez earned $1000 for first, while Dechaine settled for $750 and a little humility to take back home with him.
The second chance tournament on Sunday saw Phil Davis pushed to two sets before defeating Raj Vannala in the finals. Davis defeated Brent Boemmels for the hot-seat and then lost the first set of the finals to Vannala 3-2. The second set saw Davis get back on track and win the match 3-0 for the tournament win.
The Joss NE 9-Ball Tour's next event will be the NE 9-Ball Open XXV at Golden Cue Billiards in Albany on April 14th and 15th.
Players are still urged to contact Mike Zuglan soon in order to reserve their spot in the season finale at Turning Stone Casino on August 23 - 26. Mike can be reached at 518-356-7163.
