Lion Wins Derby City Ring Game
The 2005 Derby City Classic is underway with 408 players competing in the bank pool event. That is more more players than competed last year. Promoter Greg Sullivan was elated with the event so far. “It is great to see our goals being accomplished in such a big way” Sullivan said.
The 10-Ball ring game took place in front of a standing room only crowd between Efren Reyes, Johnny Archer, Shannon Daulton, John Schmidt, Robb Saez and Alex Pagulayan. Each player was putting up $3000 for the chance to walk away with $18,000.
Johnny Archer was the first player eliminated, and Robb Saez quickly joined him as a spectator. At the time of Saez’s elimination, Alex Pagulayan led with $8600. John Schmidt was in second with $5000 and Efren Reyes was in third with $3600. Shannon Daulton is on the bubble with $1100 and the players are playing for $400 a rack.
Shannon Daulton was the third player eliminated. At the time of the elimination, Alex Pagulayan held $7100 with Efren Reyes and John Schmidt only $100 apart at $5500 and $5400.
The fourth player eliminated was John Schmidt and Alex Pagulayan was in the lead with $9900 and Efren Reyes trailing with $8100. At that time, the format went to ‘no miss – roll out’ where a player can push out at any time, but the next shooter must make a ball or give up ball in hand. The wager on each game was raised to the amount that the lower player had, which meant the first game was for $8100.
It only took one game after that when Efren missed a ball mid-rack and Alex ran out for the ring game win.
Schmidt wins Firecracker Open
John Schmidt came back from a long stay on the one-loss side to avenge his only loss to Mika Immonen and won The Florida Firecracker Open at Capones Billiards in Springhill, Fl.
The tournament, a stop on the Seminole Florida Pro Tour, drew a field of 62 players to Capones for the two day affair. Schmidt had a perfect Saturday with wins over Rick Croney, Eric David and Robb Saez. Sunday was a different story though, as Schmidt lost a 9-4 match to ‘The Iceman’ Mika Immonen.
After the victory over Schmidt, Immonen cruised into the hot-seat relatively untested with a 9-2 win over Capone’s housepro Rodney Morris and a 9-4 win over ‘The Korean Dragon’ Charlie Williams.
Schmidt took the trip to the one-loss side and landed on his feet. A 9-3 win over Jimmy Wale got a five match winning streak started on the left side of the board. Schmidt beat Ray Martin 9-3, Danny Harriman (who won at Capones last year) 9-7, Buddy Hall 9-4 and Charlie Williams 9-4 to get to the finals.
Schmidt was not content with just a trip to the finals though, as he quickly jumped out to a 5-1 lead over Immonen in the final set. The players traded games until the 7-3 mark when Immonen put on a run and tied the match at 7-7. With the match tied at 7-7, both players knew it was a straight race to four for the title and Immonen was breaking. Immonen may have reached back a little too far looking for a strong break as he knocked the cue-ball off the table in rack 15 and was forced to watch Schmidt take control of the match again. From that point, Schmidt won the next four games to score the 11-7 victory.
Schmidt pocketed $3500 for first place, while Immonen was forced to settle for $2000. Charlie Williams and Buddy Hall filled out the top four spots. The Seminole Florida Pro Tour will be at Planet 9 Ball in Tampa, Fl on July 31st – August 1st for their next event. That event is limited to the first 64 players who pay their entry so players should get their entry in soon. Players can contact Planet 9-Ball owner Ken Miller at 813-891-1450 to sign up.
Reyes Shines at Derby City
Reyes like what he saw on the table at Derby City.
A 24-hour, 9-day pool orgy for both gamblers and serious tournament players, the Classic kicked off on Jan. 16 with a $30,000 ring game between Cory Deuel, Jimmy Wetch, Alex Pagulayan, Earl Strickland, Rodney Morris and Charlie Williams. Deuel eventually outlasted Pagulayan for the $30,000 prize in a match that went well past five hours. The event proved so popular that Derby City organizers hastily assembled a six-man cast for the next night for another $30,000. In that six-hour tilt, BD Player of the Year Johnny Archer bested Pagulayan, Reyes, Ralf Souquet, John Schmidt and Jose Parica.
More than 300 players entered each of the three main events at Derby City this year. Jason Miller of Dayton, Ohio, took the 9-ball bank pool crown and its $8,000 first prize after besting undefeated John Brumback twice in the true double-elimination final (Derby City players with one loss can buy back into the tournament once in each division). Reyes mopped up Chicagoan Marco Marquez in the one-pocket final, 3-0, after his foe failed to take advantage of a commanding lead in the first game.
Pocketing the $9,000 one-pocket prize, Reyes then plowed through the 9-ball field, only to meet the similarly undefeated Souquet in the final. Souquet took the first match, 7-2, and after Reyes bought back in, “The Kaiser” toppled Reyes again by an identical score. The win brought a $13,000 payday for the German, who entered all three events this year without ever having played bank pool or one-pocket in a serious tournament setting.
Reno Open Underway
The 2003 Reno Open is down to 48 players as of 7PM EST on Friday.
The winner from last June, John Schmidt, is still undefeated and will play Jimmy Mendoza from Phoenix Arizona on Friday night. Other top seeds who are still undefeated include Rodney Morris, Jose Parica, Santos Sambajon, Jeremy Jones and Max Eberle.
The final winner crowned on Sunday will pocket $12,000 for the win.