Toughest Pool Nationals Set in October 2011

THE Billiards and Snooker Congress of the Philippines (BSCP), the governing body of pool sports in the country, will unwrap the toughest national pool championship ever staged in the country with the 2011 BSCP National Championships scheduled on October 3-11 at the Star Billiards Center in Quezon City.

To highlight this year’s championship, the BSCP will adopt a three-game format for the tournament.

In the battle for the men’s championship, the players will compete in three disciplines – eight ball, nine-ball and ten-ball -- each a tournament in its own right.

The 2011 men’s national champion will be determined based on total points garnered by each player from all three tournaments. Points will be assigned to players based on their order of finish in each event.

In the women’s championship, women players will only compete in one 10-ball event.

 A total prize fund of P800,000 await the winners of the three tournaments and the grand national championship.

Because of the grueling format adopted in the men’s championship, “whoever emerges as the winner will be the truest national champion ever,” says BSCP spokesman Butch Argonza.

He explained that the BSCP adopted the format with a view to accelerating the development of cue sports in the country and defending the country’s image as the leading pool-playing nation in the world. “As the rest of the world have gotten better at pool, it is important that Filipino players excel in all pool games. We have to maintain our edge,” he said.

BSCP, AKTV, Star Billiards and Raya Sports have joined together in mounting this year’s championships.

AKTV on IBC 13 will broadcast the event .

Raya Sports will organize and promote the tournament.

Star Billiards, under BSCP president Sebastian Chua, will host the 9-day pool extravaganza.

Top-ranking Filipino players, as well as young fast-rising players are expected to join the competition.  “We are expecting a minimum number of 64 players to join each of the three tournaments,” says tournament coordinator Sol Gueco.               

The full schedule of the 2011 National championships is as follows:

Men’s 8-Ball tournament (Oct. 3-4), Men’s 9-Ball tournament (Oct. 5-6-), Men’s 10-Ball tournament (Oct. 7-8).  Women’s championship (10-ball only, Oct 6-8).

The finals of all tournaments will be held on three successive days: Oct. 9, Oct 10, and Oct. 11.

Registration in the tournament is now ongoing. To register, call Sol Gueco at (0910)887-5216; or Edgar Acaba, BSCP secretary-general (0916)573-1458. 


-- By: Marlon Bernardino

DENNIS ORCOLLO BEATS MIKA IMMONEN, WINS PREDATOR 10-BALL; POCKETS $10,000; ENDS MANILA JINX

WORLD no.1 Dennis Orcollo of the Philippines put together a big comeback, winning the final three racks to beat Mika Immonen of Finland, 10-8, to capture the 11th Predator International 10-Ball Championship Sunday night at the Robinsons Galleria in Ortigas.

Orcollo, top player of Perry Mariano's Bugsy Promotions claimed the champion’s purse of $10,000 prize plus Predator elegant trophy. More important, the reigning World 8-ball champion won his first international tournament here in Manila.

"It's a great tournament, really hard," said Orcollo. "First day I lost to (Yukio) Akagariyama. I went to the loser's bracket. But I didn't worry."

"I am so happy to win this tournament.This is my first international tournament title here in Manila," added Orcollo, who also won the 9th Predator International 10-Ball Championship two years ago in Las Vegas, Nevada at the expense of Ralf Souquet of Germany, 8-3.

“I’m happy for Dennis (Orcollo). He’s long been looking to win this tournament,” said Ceferino "Perry" Mariano, Orcollo’s chief benefactor at Bugsy’s Promotions.

Immonen settled for the runner-up prize of $5,000.

"I was really close to ending this drought that I've had for the past four or five months," he said. "I thought I'd end it with this event. I was up by two racks, but I made a couple of unforced errors. Maybe I got ahead of myself a little bit." added Immonen.

Earlier, Orcollo defeated Wu Jia Qing (formerly Wu Chia-ching) of China,10-5, in the final four to arranged a titular showdown with Immonen, who brought downed Liu Haitao of China, 10-9, in another semi-final affair.

Losing semi-finalists Wu and Liu received $3,250 for their efforts.

 Immonen seize a 5-2 lead winning four racks in a row before allowing Orcollo to finally get his chance at the table by missing a tough shot on the 7 in the eighth rack, which the Filipino parlayed into a two-rack run that cut the lead to 5-4. A poor safety shot by Orcollo in the 10th, however, prevented him from knotting up the score, and Immonen seized the rack to go up 6-4.

Another error by Immonen, this time a miss on the 1, gave Orcollo another opening, and he took full advantage by winning the rack as well as the next to knot it up at 6-6. But Immonen inched ahead again at 7-6 after Orcollo came up dry with his break in the 13th rack. Then things started going south for the Finn.

The Iceman has been in a slump of late, failing to win any title of sort for the last five months or so. Now he was three racks away from victory and breaking to go ahead 8-6. He had a good break in the 14th rack and seemed to have a clear path to the 10 ball and a decisive two-rack advantage in the homestretch. But he shunned the use of a bridge in an attempt to hit a difficultly placed 4 ball, choosing instead to stretch across the table. He missed badly, and Orcollo made him pay by tying it up at 7-7.

Immonen came back to win the 15th rack after Orcollo missed a bank on the 4, but Orcollo tied it up again in the next rack. The 17th rack was messy, with both players committing errors. Immonen nearly stole the rack with a kick-in on the 7 that just rattled out, but Orcollo left the door slightly ajar when he didn't completely cover up the 8. Immonen had a chance at a safety, but he virtually handed over the rack to the world no. 1 when he scratched.

Orcollo sank the 3 on his break in the 18th rack, but he had to sink a couple of tricky shots before he could complete a run-out and clinch the title, his second with Predator after winning this same event in 2009.

For Orcollo, this latest tournament win, which came off a runner-up finish in the World Pool Masters, firmly established him as the top player in the world, even though the Predator event carries no World Pool Association (WPA) ranking points. Orcollo also made it to the semifinals of the World 9 Ball Championships in Doha in June and the quarterfinals of the World 10 Ball Championships in Pasay City in May.

Orcollo became the third Filipino in eight years to rule the World 8-Ball Championship, clobbering the Netherlands’ Neils Feijen, 10-3, for the 2011 crown at the Fujairah Exhibition Center in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates last February.  BY: MARLON BERNARDINO

GERMANY WINS WORLD CUP OF POOL

GERMANY, represented by Ralf Souquet and Thorsten Hohmann, won their first PartyPoker.net World Cup of Pool crown as they dismantled Kobkit Palajin and Nitiwat Kanjanasri of Thailand by a score of 10-4. The tournament was held at the The Block Atrium of SM North EDSA in Quezon City on Sunday. "It’s still hard to believe and it hasn’t sunk in yet. We really worked hard for the title and held ourselves together,” said a jubilant Souquet, who als won the World Pool Masters crown. “We had a really hard semi-final that could’ve gone wrong and I played awful against Korea but Thorsten carried me to the final. “I always said you can only lose as a team and we certainly won as a team. Playing here in Manila in the Philippines is the best thing that has happened to pool.” For the Thai side of Palajin and Kanjanasri , it was an anticlimax after their heroic 9-3 defeat of Taiwan spearheaded by Ko Pin-yi and Ko Phung-chung, 9-3, in the semis and maybe they were mentally drained by their efforts. The German duo, meantime ousted the Koreans pair of Hwang Jong and Lee Gun Jae, 9-7, to arranged a titular showdown with the unseeded Thai duo. Efren "Bata" Reyes and Francisco "Django" Bustamante of PHL-B and the pair of Dennis "Robocop" Orcollo and Ronato "Volcano" Alcano for PHL-A lost their quarter-final round matches last Saturday. The German duo of Souquet and Hohmann defeated the tandem of Reyes and Bustamante, 9-1, while the Ko Pin-yi and Ko Pung-cheng of Chinese-Taipei edged the pair of Orcollo and Alcano, 9-8. It was a sweet revenge for the German cue masters who lost to the Filipino dynamic duo of Reyes and Bustamante in the finals two years ago. In fact the German duo raced a 9-7 commanding lead in the race-to-11 affair before the host nation bounced back winning four consecutive racks for an 11-9 victory. With 32 teams representing 31 countries – home nation Philippines has two teams in the competition – the World Cup of Pool sees the gathering of some of the most decorated stars of pool. With a total purse of $250,000, the winning pair split $60,000 between them while first round losers are guaranteed $1,500 each. All the action will be carried live on Solar Sports in The Philippines and other broadcasters across the region.MARLON BERNARDINO