US Open Champions Top Qlympics Podiums

Posted by admin as Billiard Tour News - Pool Tour News

US Open Champions Top Qlympics Podiums
Chohan holds Owen off in one-pocket, Brumback up-ends Miller in banks

by Paul Berg, InsidePOOL Magazine Staff
Taking center stage at the Qlympics in Louisville, KY, Tony “T-Rex” Chohan and Kentucky favorite John Brumback have claimed the first two of four U.S. Open billiards titles up for grabs in the Clarion Conference Center. Chohan brought his aggressive style of one-pocket past Shannon Daulton to claim the hot seat in the one-pocket event last night, and he stopped the charge of Gabe Owen in the second race to four of a true double-elimination final. Brumback came from the one-loss side after a lackluster performance against Jason Miller yesterday in the winners’-bracket banks final, getting past Brian Gregg in today’s semifinal before beating Miller twice in a row for the crown.
Chohan and Daulton engaged in a slug-fest of powerful bankers and smart aggressive play, but Chohan caught better rolls as Daulton bobbled a few more opportunities on his way to winning the first three games by progressively larger margins. “The Cannon” fought back, joining the shootout with two run-out wins of his own, but “T-Rex” reasserted himself there. Daulton ran five balls off of Chohan’s break, trailing three games to two, but had to survive the Sacramento native and Detroit resident’s kicking prowess in the subsequent shot. Chohan hung that kick attempt up, and Daulton didn’t clear the first ball in a combination at it from the hole. Seven and out dealt Daulton his first loss, the 8-5 win securing a 4-2 ticket to the finals for Chohan.
Owen worked last night to get a chance at Daulton in the semifinals. With a convincing 4-2 win over mastermind Rafael Martinez-Chavez and another by the same score over capable Sergio Perez, Owen looked prime to roar back from his first defeat at Daulton’s hands. While Owen is a less risk-oriented player, he showed spurts of strong offense against fourth-place finisher Perez, who had left all-around threat Miller in fifth place the match before but succumbed to an explosive two-inning loss in the midst of three opening wins for Owen and finally an eight and out to finish the night’s play.
The reigning Music City 9-ball champ, Owen was known as a one-pocket threat well before claiming a U.S. Open 9-ball crown in 2005. Despite a weak break that kept showing Daulton opening shots, Owen was able to take the first three games of the semifinal. While Daulton earned an 8 to -1 reprieve in the next, it was his only glimmer of hope to add another title to his impressive one-pocket resume. Daulton would settle for third place after an awesome 8-7 win for Owen, a classic game that carried Owen to the final. Daulton’s fourth-place finish in banks makes him an interesting candidate against other all-around contenders, but “The Cannon” has a tournament to run on his Great Southeastern 9-ball Tour this week and will be absent for the 10-ball and straight pool events that start next Monday.
Chohan waited for Owen, who, by virtue of a 4-3 win, forced a second set. From a tie at one, Chohan’s aggressive play stopped generating opportunities for Owen and suddenly ended games in Chohan’s favor. With stunning shows of fearless firepower, Chohan swept the next three games 8-1, 8-0, and 8-1. The 4-1 victory finally validates the backroom conviction in Chohan’s amazing potential in all games, and perhaps maturity and seasoning have made the young “Cha-Ching” a new tournament threat.
While Chohan forfeited his first round in banks and surged back to the edge of the money with a seventh-place finish, established masters of the game were in position today. Gregg is from across the Ohio River in Indianapolis, and Miller is from Dayton, OH, but the Midwest bank eminence resides in Kentucky. Brumback overcame Gregg 3-1, the final game of long-rack banks a fine 8-7 shooter’s duel.
Miller had ruined Brumback’s one-pocket tournament the night before in a match determining a seventh-place tie. Facing 2006 World All-Around champion Miller in the final, the perennial high Derby City Banks finisher and former Lexington All-Stars Banks champ took the first game, only to watch Miller come to life. Down three balls to one in the second game, Miller rained down cross-side shots in a run of six banks on his way to an 8-3 equalizer. Forced by the rules of the tournament to break open, Miller took it to heart for the rest of the afternoon, this time making four balls on the break, running four banks, and slopping a fifth attempt into a different pocket. Five balls spotted surrounding the cue ball, and Brumback fought his way to a 6-3 deficit despite two scratches. Miller stopped him there and reached the hill first, but it would be his last win of the day.
With an 8-2 win that saw Miller finally miss a few, Brumback joined him on the hill, and Miller seemed to lose momentum there, missing banks he normally shoots a high percentage on repeatedly and allowing Brumback shots. The avid hunter found his prey this day, his familiar waggles and repeated adjustments lining up true shots on the way to an 8-2 win that ended the first set 3-2.
The wheels seemed to come off for Miller a second time, as he held a 7-6 lead in the first game of the second set with Brumback. He scratched on a cross-side, and Brumback mustered an 8-6 win from there. While Brumback’s break was often dry, Miller always made a ball but missed in game two, and Brumback ran four banks to open. Miller never looked the same, and Brumback stayed steady, winning 8-1 for a 2-0 lead. With the score tied at three in the next rack, Miller showed Brumback a cross-side that he never looked back from, running five and out for the 3-0 win and the U.S. Open Banks victory.
While the professional open tournaments resume Monday, TheActionReport.com’s Action Challenge 2 is underway. Class acts John “Mr. 403” Schmidt and Danny “The Springfield Flash” Harriman played a race to 400 balls in straight pool last night, the first in a three-leg all-around contest, ten grand a man. Harriman led Schmidt early on, but with a high run of 114 balls, Schmidt jumped back into contention. Trailing Harriman 310-305, Schmidt ran 67, the last a pocketed break ball that he was unhappy with and missed the touchy subsequent slow-roller. Harriman only managed to claim the thirteen balls remaining on the table to trail 372-323, making tough shots late with no classic break ball available.
When Harriman missed the ensuing break shot, Schmidt ran through the next two racks to claim a 400-323 win. Currently, the two are playing a race to ten in one-pocket, with 10-ball coming tomorrow night. Stay tuned to InsidePOOLmag.com for all the latest from the Qlympics in Louisville, as this weekend the BCAPL 8-ball Team Championships bring league play back to the fore.

Philippines World Pool Championship Whittle to Eight

Posted by admin as Independent Tournaments - World Pool Championship

Philippines World Pool Championship Whittle to Eight

There are just eight billiards players left in the 2007 Philippines World Pool Championship as day seven completed at the Araneta Coliseum, Quezon City, Manila.
The Philippines has the most players in the quarter-finals with Roberto ‘Superman’ Gomez, and the two Bustamante’s, Francisco and Joven flying the flag for another repeat home victory following Ronnie Alcano’s success this time last year.
Surprisingly there are two Englishmen in the mix still and more surprisingly both Karl Boyes and Daryl Peach both reside in the Northern seaside town of Blackpool.
Boyes had a great win over European No.1 Konstantin Stepanov while Peach battled out a fine 11-5 win over sole remaining German Harry Stolka.
Roberto Gomez and Francisco Bustamante both enjoyed one-sided wins courtesy of their perfection of the soft break. ‘Django’ cast aside 2004 Champion Alex Pagulayan, while Gomez white-washed Niels Feijen of Holland.
Joven Bustamante, making his debut in the event, was an 11-9 winner over Satoshi Kawabata.
Other Europeans through are Mika Immonen, the only former champion left in the competition and ex-World Junior titlist Vilmos Foldes of Hungary – they meet tomorrow.
Normally one of the strongest countries in the event, Chinese Taipei has just one player left – Kuo Po-cheng. He was a finalist in 2005 and will be a stronger player for it.
As the tournament enters its business end, the rewards are great with losers tomorrow carrying off $10,000.

Results
Daryl Peach (ENG) 11 – 5 Harry Stolka (GER)
Francisco Bustamante (PHI) 11 – 2 Alex Pagulayan (PHI)
Mika Immonen (FIN) 11 – 8 Alain Martel (CAN)
Vilmos Foldes (HUN) 11 – 5 Lu Hui-chan (TPE)
Joven Bustamante (PHI) 11 – 9 Satoshi Kawabata (JPN)
Karl Boyes (Eng) 11 – 4 Konstantin Stepanov (RUS)
Kuo Po-cheng (TPE) 11 – 7 Corey Deuel (USA)
Roberto Gomez (PHI) 11 – 0 Niels Feijen (NED)

Saturday’s Quarter-Final Matches
Daryl Peach (ENG) v Francisco Bustamante (PHI)
Mika Immonen (FIN) v Vilmos Foldes (HUN)
Joven Bustamante (PHI) v Karl Boyes (ENG)
Kuo Po-cheng (TPE) v Roberto Gomez (PHI)

Immonen Last Former Billiards Champ Standing

Posted by admin as Independent Tournaments - World Pool Championship

Immonen Last Former Billiards Champ Standing
Mika Immonen is now the only remaining former champion left in the 2007 Philippines World Pool Championship as he edged past Canada’s Dancing Bear, Alain Martel by 11-8 on Table 2.
The 34 year-old Helsinki-born globe-trotter was a champion in Cardiff in 2001 when he beat Ralf Souquet 17-10.
He now faces either Hungary’s Vilmos Foldes for a spot in Saturday night’s semi-finals.
I’ve won this thing before so I know how to do it, said Immonen. I was a bit nervous when it got to 8-8 but I felt pretty comfortable.
I feel I’m peaking as the tournament goes on. I’ve been having quite an off season but I played pretty good at the US Open, practised hard before coming here and I felt this was the right time and right stage for me.
I’m not a big fan of soft break but if it must be done then I will do it.
Immonen moved into a 5-2 lead but Martel, who reached the semi-finals in 2001, ironically losing 11-7 to the Finn, stayed with him.
He reduced the deficit to 6-5 before Immonen got away from him to lead 8-5. However, the 48 year-old from Montreal who was the oldest man remaining in the competition, dug in to level it at 8-8 and with the break in his favour, he had every chance.
He came up dry though and that allowed Immonen to run out the match to seal his position in the last eight.
After another last 16 match, Vilmos Foldes, the 22 year-old former WPA World Junior Champion, is stalking the top half of the draw following another convincing win. Foldes beat Lu Hui-chan of Chinese Taipei 11-5 to book a quarter-final match against Mika Immonen tomorrow (Saturday).
The Hungarian, who reached the last 16 of this event in 2005 and the last 32 last year, certainly has the pedigree and will give Immonen all he can handle.
At 5-1 up, Foldes let his opponent back to the table and the Taiwanese got back into it at 5-6 down. However that was to be Lu’s last meaningful contribution to the game as Foldes took five racks on the spin to seal the win.

Bustamante Wins All-Filipino Billiards Battle

Posted by admin as Independent Tournaments - World Pool Championship

Bustamante Wins All-Filipino Billiards Battle
In a flawless performance on the main TV table, Francisco Bustamante won the billiard battle of the Filipino giants as he crushed Alex Pagulayan 11-2 to book a spot in the quarter-finals of the 2007 Philippines World Pool Championship.
Playing in front of a standing room only crowd at the Araneta Coliseum, the game was something of an anti-climax as Bustamante mastered the easy breaking table as he ran rack after rack, leaving Pagulayan in his chair.
The ever-popular Bustamante has the tag of the greatest player never to have won this title but he will now be betting favourite to lift the trophy on Sunday night.
Bustamante won the lag and proceeded to run out the first two racks but bad positional play in the third forced him into a bank attempt but he missed to let Pagulayan to the table for the first time. The 2004 Champion completed the run out to take the score to 2-1.
A soft break from Pagulayan saw the 2 ball tied up and he was forced to play safe. Both players traded safeties before Pagulayan closed out the rack to level it at two racks each.
Pagulayan couldn’t get onto the 3 ball in the next but his second option was to tie his opponent up in a tight safety. Bustamante went off three rails, made contact with the 3 ball and fortuitously it nudged the 5 ball into the pocket.
There was more safety but Bustamante prevailed to regain the lead at 3-2. A 2/9 combination increased the 43-year-old Tarlac natives lead. Bustamante struggled with his positional play in the next but always had the shot to recover as he cleared the table to get to 5-2.
Things looked ominous for Pagulayan as Bustamante, another player to have mastered the soft break on the TV table, took the next to open a four rack gulf. There was more of the same in the next rack as Pagulayan cut a sorry figure in the arena, waiting for a chance.
Bustamante completed his fifth break and run of the game in the tenth to increase his lead to 8-2. There was a potential problem in the next for Bustamante but he used the 9 ball to hold the white when cutting the 2 ball into the centre pocket and continued on his way to leave himself two racks from victory.
He took the next to reach the hill and then played a lovely cross bank on the 3 ball to set up the match winning run-out.
Bustamante now faces the winner of the Daryl Peach v Harry Stolka, the last match on Table 2 tonight.
When I started I was nervous but I was lucky to hit the ball when he had hooked me (in the fifth rack). I hope I will still have the game as I played today and hopefully I will be in the final, said Bustamante.
Pagulayan added: I’m not disappointed, I played a guy that I predicted would win the tournament and I lost to the right guy.