Wednesday 27 July 2016

Ottawa/Gatineau: ABO Dates and New Format

Press Release

TOURNAMENT  FORMAT 2016-2017   

For its 2016-2017 season ABO is guided by two main objectives: 
1- Increasing participation in tournaments 
2- Starting tournaments earlier in order to finish the day around 8 P.M. 

Most ABO players are already rated in classes B, A, AA, AAA, SP or Pro. 
Some fine tuning, before the season starts, will be necessary. An advisory  committee will be struck to help ABO decision making. 

For ABO tournaments, players will be divided into 3 main groups with similar skill levels.  

Every month, starting at 10:30 AM (with registration at 9:30) 

1- There will be a tournament for B and A players together,  
- Races to 7 
- 9 Ball, regular rules except for 9 off the break that doesn't count   
- Double elimination with last 8 or 4 in single elimination depending on number of   players in field 
- A player will give one handicap game to B player 
- Alternate break 
- Magic rack mandatory 
- Entry fee: $20 for B players 
$30  for A players 

2- On the same day, at the same time and in the same room: 

There will be a tournament for Pro and Semi Pro players together. 
-  Races to 7 
- !0 Ball  under normal 10 Ball rules 
- Double elimination with last 8 or 4 in single elimination depending on number of    players in field 
- Pro player will give one handicap game to Semi Pro player 
- Alternate break 
- Magic rack mandatory 
- Entry fee: $60 for SP players 
$90  for PRO players 

On that day, any lower rated player can play for the cost of the entry fee in his or her class. 
However the lower rated player will receive a one game handicap from a Pro only. 




3-  On another day of the same month: 

There will be a tournament for AA and AAA players together. 
- Races to 7 
- 9 Ball, regular rules except for 9 off the break that doesn't count   
- Double elimination with last 8 or 4 in single elimination depending on number of   players in field 
- AAA player will give one handicap game to AA player 
- Alternate break 
- Magic rack mandatory 
- Entry fee: $40 for AA players 
$50  for AAA players 

On that day, any lower rated player can play for the cost of the entry fee in his or her class. 
However the lower rated player will receive a one game handicap from a AAA only. 


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Entry fees include green fees and a provision for Finals. 
A once a year management fee is not included. 

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We are planning a special tournament / dinner, off statistics, for all classes of players, on January 28, 2017 at the Terminus, birth place of ABO, to celebrate its 20th anniversary. 







Tuesday 19 July 2016

Tailgators: 3rd Annual Summer Shootout August 12-13






The 3rd annual Summer shootout will begin Friday August 12th and ends on the Saturday. Tailgators will be accepting the first 60 players. They will be put into 12 groups of 5 where players will play 4 matches. After that players will advanced to knock out stage depending on how they did in round robin stage.

Tailgators is one of the premium rooms in Eastern Ontario. They host several big tournaments a year that are all well attended. Despite having 16 9ft Black Crown 2's they are mostly known for their barbox tournaments. The organizers are also guaranteeing $1000 added based on a full field.

To reserve your spot call Curtis Houlden at 613-224-0249 or pay in person at Tailgators located in the Merivale Mall, in Nepean Ontario.


Thursday 7 July 2016

On The Snap Billiards: Morra Double Dips Big Red In Final of Open 10 Ball Event

Winner John Morra, Owner Patrick Peters, runner-up Erik Hjorleifson 

By: Erik Hjorleifson

This past Saturday July 2nd On the Snap Billiards in Stoney, Creek Ontario held their second Open non handicapped event of the 2016 season. Entry for players that played in the first event was $75 and $100 for players who did not compete in the first event. It was a race to 8 on the winners side and a race to 6 on the losers side with a two set final.

Owner of the room Patrick Peters guaranteed $1000 for first prize and regrettably only 12 players showed up leaving the paid entries at about $1100. At this point Peters could have just made it $1000 for first and $100 for second. However he demonstrated his integrity by deciding to add a fair bit of money making the payouts $1000 for first $500 for second $300 for third and $75 for fourth. This room which opened in 2013 has shown great improvements in the past three years. When I first went there in 2014 the playing conditions were a little skeptical but with a lot of hard work and dedication the conditions are now up to standard and makes playing in this room an enjoyable experience.

Favourites on the day were without a doubt world #5 John Morra, myself, Dave parker and Jesse Piercey from London rounded up the next group of players. Home room players included Rod Arsenault and Cade Coats who are always a threat.

Notable scores throughout the early stages of the tournament:

John Morra 8 Dave Parker 1

Erik Hjorleifson 8 Jesse Piercey 5

Dave Parker 6 Cade Coats 5

John Morra 8 Rod Arsenault 4

This brought us down to the winners side final where a lot of safety battles ensued and I came away with an 8-5 win. After losing to Morra in the second round Dave Parker made it all the way back to the losers side final to face him again, only to see Morra bounce back with a 6-2 win.

The first set of the final was a little scrappy with neither player being able to put together a strong charge off the break. I made more errors than John and it turned out to be very costly as he would go on to win that set 8-5. In the last set he finally  started getting shots off the break a took full advantage, breaking and running 4 of the 6 games he won and took the win easily with a 6 0 win in this winner breaks format.

Special thanks to On The Snap for the great hospitality and to Patrick Peters who was very generous in helping out with the prize money. This room has made some major strides since opening and a huge congratulations goes out to them! more tournaments will be planned in the fall.

1st John Morra $1000

2nd Erik Hjorleifson $500

3rd Dave Parker $300