U.S. Open Update!
Gabe Owen is the defending champ.
But many favorites are still undefeated after two rounds, including Efren Reyes and John Schmidt (who play each other today), as well as former U.S. Open Champs Johnny Archer and Francisco Bustamante and defending champ Gabe Owen.
WPC Knows No Favorites as Big Names Fall
As round-robin play at the World Pool Championship draws to a close, some big names are arranging for flights out of Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
Top performers like Mosconi Cup veterans Ralf Souquet (Germany) and Charlie Williams (USA) are packing their bags, and Steve Davis (England) and Filipino legend Efren Reyes are hanging on by a mathematical thread.
The ranks of the undefeated include Johnny Archer (USA), the Philippines’ Marlon Manalo, Taiwanese hopes Po-cheng Kuo and Che-wei Fu, Japan’s Satoshi Kawabata and Scottish challenger Michael Valentine.
There’s one more day to go in the round-robin stage, which pares the 128-man field to 64 players, who then will brave the single-elimination stage.
World Pool Championships Underway
The round-robin stages of the 2005 World Pool Championship are under way in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, and a few big names in the 128-player field are already in danger of missing the cut. Ralf Souquet, Steve Davis and Efren Reyes have already lost three times each, and will need sparkling records from now on to proceed into the knockout stage, featuring the top half of the field.
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.
Deuel wins UPA Championship
Corey Deuel completed an undefeated run to win the UPA Pro Tour Championship at the Bicycle Club in Bellflower California this weekend.
Deuel, known as the master of the soft break, was working that break to perfection all weekend and had wins over Charlie Williams, Mika Immonen and Efren Reyes before a 7-5 win over Danny Basavich for the hot-seat.
On the one-loss side, Basavich eliminated US Open Champion Gabe Owen 7-3 and forced Owen to settle for third place.
The finals were one race to seven on the ESPN table, and it went all the way to hill-hill before Corey put it away.
Deuel earned $10,000 for first place, while Basavich settled for $5000 in second place prize money. Owen and Efren Reyes filled out the top four places.
Complete Results:
1st Corey Deuel $10,000
2nd Danny Basavich $5,000
3rd Gabe Owen $4,000
4th Efren Reyes $3,000
5th/6th Rodney Morris, Mika Immonen $2,400
7th/8th Ralf Souquet, Santos Sambajon $1,850
9th/12th Frankie Hernandez, Mike Davis, Paul Potier, Troy Frank $1,350
13th/16th Francisco Bustamante, Johnny Archer, Tony Robles, Rodolfo Luat $900
17th/24th Charlie Williams, Neil Fujiwara, Bill Ferguson, Danny Kuykendall, Dave Hemmah, Max Eberle, Robb Saez, Charlie Bryant $400
Japan Cup Day 1 complete
Shuji Nagata
After the first day of play, Efren Reyes, Francisco Bustamante, Ralf Souquet, Thorsten Hohmann and Mika Immonen are joined by Antonio Lining, Ramil Gallego, Young Hwa Jeong, Charlie Williams, Hiroshi Takenaka, Shintaro Sugaya, Terukazu Mukai, Go Takami and Syuji Nagata on the winners side.
Warren Kiamco and Dennis Orcullo did take early trips to the one loss side, but are still playing. Mike Massey has been eliminated.
Japanese players are performing well on their home turf. Go Takami upset Warren Kiamco 9-6 and Shuji Nagata beat Antonio Gabica 9-1 on day one.
The tournament runs until June 13th with a wheelchair event beginning Thursday and a Women’s division beginning June 12th.
Further information from the event is available on the official website at http://www.ibcjapancup.com/
Reyes win San Miguel Tour Taipei Stop
It was a different opponent in the finals, but the same result for Efren Reyes over the weekend at the San Miguel Asian 9-Ball Tour stop in Taipei.
Reyes, vieing for his third tour win this season, faced off against Young-Hwa Jeong from Korea in the finals and trailed 10-8 late in the match. Reyes lived up to his ‘Magician’ nickname and took advantage of some great shotmaking to win the next five games and the title.
Reyes won $10,000 for first with Jeong pocketing $5000 for second. Reyes countryman Warren Kiamco and Chatchawal Rutphae from Thailand finished in a tie for third.
San Miguel Asian 9-Ball Tour Season Opens
The first event for the 2004 season of the San Miguel Asian 9-Ball Tour is happening this weekend, at Pool Haven in the city of Clarke Quay, Singapore.
A field of 32 top Asian players, headed up by pool stars Francisco Bustamante and Efren Reyes, will vie for the $50,000 prize purse, as well as a chance at entry into the World Championships in Cardiff, Wales. The Tour is the only ranking tour in Asia for players to qualify to the World Pool Championships, and the top ten finishers will be given entries.
The rest of the stops on this five-leg tour are as follows: Ho Chi Minh City (March 13-14), Hong Kong (April 17-18), Taipei (May 7-9) and Manila (May 29-30).
Due to the outbreak of SARS, only two legs were held in the inaugural San Miguel Asian 9-Ball Tour last year. 2002 Busan Asian Games 9-Ball singles gold medalist Yang Ching Shun of Chinese Taipei and 1999 world champion Reyes took the two leg titles, in Singapore and Manila respectively.
For more information on the Tour, please check out www.asian9-balltour.com.
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.