Another Monster win for Monture

Apr 29, 2017

What a fantastic tournament. The biggest amateur tournament ever held in Toronto came and gone this past weekend. With almost $30,000 in prize money and the fact that it was an invitational event ONLY sparked a lot of hype among the pool community. With 70 players that qualified and 66 players came out to compete you know this is a tournament that you don’t want to miss. The 66 players included plenty of hotshots and favourites, for example, Rob Hall, Waleed Hashem, Adam Monture, Jesse Piercy, and much more.
With a full field there was a top 16 payout. There were 8 players left on the A side and 8 on the B side. On the A side there was Daniel Devos versus Kenny Chen, Jesse Piercy versus Rob Hall, Adam Monture versus Ken Stutz and Harry Chaggaris versus Ian Argue. On the B side it was John Andrade versus Froland Magsonac, Vince Chrysler versus Gannon Mcsween. Starting with the A side matches Daniel Devos, who is definitely one of the favourites and strongest 7+s there managed to thrash Kenny 8-2. A similar story played out in the match between Rob and Jesse as Rob advanced also only letting Jesse get two games. Moving down the board the matches only got more competitive. Adam had a very close match with John winning hill-hill sending John to the B side and continued his run against Ken winning 9-4. Harry who was also playing strong from his first match failed to outpace the turtle of the tournament Ian, losing hill-hill. This now left Daniel Devos versus Rob Hall and Adam versus Ian.
On the B side, John managed to show Froland who the better Filipino is beating him 7-1. Vince seemed to run out of steam against Gannon losing 6-2. John was once again close to getting knocked out of the tournament playing Kenny in a match that ended hill-hill. Gannon turned the heat on high taking out Jesse Piercy by a 9-3 score line, but was unable to reproduce his form in his next match against John succumbing to a 7-2 loss. John now advances into the final 6 players. Even though there were the expected powerhouses in the final 16 there are a fair amount of lower handicaps showing the balance of players in this tournament. Randy managed to come away with a strong win against Tony. Randy had a competitive match against a very strong Ken Stutz but eventually lost 8-3. Continuing with the lower handicaps, it was the battle of the 5s in the likes of Arjun and Jackson. Arjun lost early on the A side and manage to grind his way through to the last 16, his dream was ended short and sloppy by Jackson losing 5-0. This left Jackson advancing to play Harry. Jackson played his heart out but eventually lost hill-hill to Harry. Harry’s nightmare of hill-hill matches repeated against Ken but yet again Harry was the benefactor of that match and now like John guarantees himself 5/6th place.
Daniel returned the shtick to Rob beating him 7-3 which puts Daniel in a very good position to finish high this tournament. Adam who had a couple of close matches early seemed to put that behind him almost giving Ian the doughnut winning 9-1. This now sends Rob to play Harry and Ian to play John in the battle for 5/6th place. Our A side final consists of Adam and Daniel, who would win and guarantee themselves second place? You would not expect any less than a win from either of these Shooters, but with Adam playing so consistently strong it was hard for Devos to keep up with him and Daniel eventually lost 9-2. This now put Adam in the hot seat and left Daniel waiting for the shooter to emerge from the B side to play him in the B side finals.
Back on the B side John was not phased by the slow tactics of Ian and showed a strong performance winning 7-3. The same surprisingly can be said for Harry as he managed to shut Rob out of the match almost entirely winning 9-3. At this point, anyone could be the winner and the matches only get more and more exciting. John managed to keep up with Harry shooting game for game with him until John eventually was the victor at 7-7. This now left a battle of the super 7s in the likes of John Andrade and Daniel Devos. You could not give an edge to either of them nor could they give each other an opening, as one would miss the other would clear up. John managed to edge out a couple of extra matches though and won 7-5 which gave him the chance at his revenge match against Adam.
With just John and Adam left in the final, both players definitely deserved to be there playing strong throughout the whole tournament. Adam was the eventual victor having played like a champion the entire tournament.

Congratulations to Adam for taking down the biggest tournament of the year and perhaps more excitingly, the $10,000 prize money that came with first place. Credit also goes to young rising star John Andrade for his outstanding performance in the last two days, John fought extremely hard from the B-Side and came second. Daniel Devos and Harry Chaggaris placed 3rd and 4th respectively.
Shooters would like to thank all the players/spectators that participated in our "Silver Jubilee" Events which made it possible another Monster Payout 9-Ball event from Shooters Snooker & Sports Club!
See you all on April 29, Amateur Tour ($3,000 added) Finale.
Field: 66 players ( Total: 70 qualified players, 2 days )
Prize: $15,000
Calcutta $ 12,460
1. Adam Monture $4,400
2. John Andrade $$2,800
3. Daniel Devos $1,800
4. Harry Chaggaris $1,200
5. Rob Hall $800
6. Ian Argue $800
7. Ken Stutz $520
8. Gannon McSween $520
9. Jackson Revell $340
10. Jesse Piercey $340
11. Randy Ventresca $340
12. Kenny Chen 340
13. Froland Magsanoc $200
14. Arjun Devarajan $200
15. Vince Chrysler $200
16. Tony Hong $200
**Calcutta not included**