Sixty Three of the best players in the New England area came out to play for the $4,550 purse at the New England 9-Ball Series' Winter Classic on February 16-17th.
Notables in the field included Joey Dupuis, Choneyi Tenzin, Rich Ross David Wright, Jim Prather, Rich Senna, and Josh Gormley.
There were a lot of great matches over the two days of pool. One great match was the one between Sam Barrett and Choneyi Tenzin on the one loss side. The race was 10-3 and the score was tied at 2-2 early in the match. Choneyi needed 8 games in a row to win and somehow he dug deep and was able complete the task and win the set 10-2.
The winners side Finals came down to Wes Demling vs. Dan Tankerly. This was a 7-5 race and it looked like it was all over until Wes made a mistake on an easy 7 ball and let Dan back into the match. Dan cleared the table to tie the score at hill-hill. Dan would come up dry on his next break and let Wes back to the table, where he ran to a 3-9 combo that ended the match 7-4.
Meanwhile on the one loss side, Choneyi was making easy work of his next opponent, Jim Prather, by the score of 7-2. Next up for Choneyi was Rich Ross. Rich had sent Choneyi to the one loss side earlier in the tourney, but Choneyi would get his revenge with a 7-1 victory. Choneyi didn't slow down and eliminated Dan Tankerly 8-2 in his next match to earn his place in the finals.
The finals featured Wes Demling vs. Choneyi in a 6-8 race. As strong as Choneyi had played in his previous matches was no help in this one as he just appeared to run out of gas. Wes was more than capable to taking advantage and winning the match 6-6.
Sunday also featured a Second Chance event that was open to anyone that played in the main event.
Joey Dupuis would take the hot seat in this twenty two player event, with a 3-2 win over Rich Senna. Senna would eliminate Steven Smith 3-2 for another shot at Dupuis in the finals.
Senna took the first set of the finals 3-1, but Dupuis won the final set 3-2 for first place.
Tour director Marc Dionne thanks Steve and Regina Goulding (owners of Snookers) for hosting the event. He also thanked Ivan Lee of Simonis, Mike Webb for doing all the Cue repairs and all his media sponsors - NewEngland9ball.com, ProfessorQball.com and Azbilliards.com.
Marc also sent out thanks to the players for making it such a successful event.
