The Billiards Sports Organisation of T&T (BSOTT), received a record number of entries for their March end-of-month tournament, titled "March Mania". The nine-ball tournament, which was held on Sunday (March 30), capped off at 102 participants.
This by far beats out the previous best of 78 players in this year’s February Carnival Crackshot. As with the February version, because of its size, the tournament was held at two venues, the Pyramid Sports Bar in Gasparillo and Lucky Sports Bar in Williamsville. There were fifty-one players each at both venues. The winners from the first round went directly into the knockout phase, while the losers were given an opportunity to re-enter. There were 21 re-entries at Lucky’s and 20 at Pyramid. The numbers were eventually brought down to brackets of 32 at both venues and when it came down to the last 8 overall, the quarter-final matches were moved to Pyramid.
The quarterfinal match-ups were as follows: Sham Jagerssar vs Michael Lochan; Aaron Raghoonanan vs Kazim Daniel; Reynold Samaroo vs Albi Knights; Lyndon Ramkissoon vs Vishaal Singh.
Jagerssar, who has been almost unbeatable in recent times, was again in fine form, advancing to the semifinals by way of a 5-nil defeat of Lochan. That win booked him a semifinal match with Raghoonanan, who got the better of Daniel, 5-1; The other semifinal pitted Ramkissoon against Samaroo, who were both 5-2 winners against Singh and Knights respectively.
Raghoonanan then advanced to the final by beating Jagerssar 5-3 and Ramkissoon rolled over Samaroo 5-0.
Raghoonanan was eventually declared March Mania champion after Ramkissoon conceded the final at 2.30 am on Monday.
With the record numbers, BSOTT was able to expand the prize pool from the top 4 to the top 16.
There were also special incentive prizes, referred to as bounties, awarded to lower-ranked players and female players who managed to defeat players of a higher rank. March Mania bounties amounted to $800, which shows growth from the up-and-coming players and the women in the pool.
The top 16 on the leaderboard at the end of the 2025 monthly tournaments, qualify automatically into the prestigious Masters Cup, which takes place in early January.
March Mania Honour Roll
1st: $2,500 - Aaron Raghoonanan
2nd: $1,500 - Lyndon Ramkissoon
3rd/4th: $750 - Sham Jagerssar/Reynold Samaroo
5th/8th: $500 - Albi Knights/Kazim Daniel/Michael Lochan/Vishaal Singh
9th/16th: $200 - Keshawn Rodney/Andy Sirju/Clifford Sookdeo/Brian Sorias/Dilip Deo/ Glen Bridgemohan/Carlos Poyer/Amit Saboo
