Orcollo, Bustamante share 3rd in Million Dollar tilt

Filipino star Dennis Orcollo yielded to former world 10-ball champion American Shane Van Boening, 13-8, in the semifinals and settled for joint third place with Francisco “Django” Bustamante in The Million Dollar 9-Ball Shootout on Sunday at the Valle Forge Convention Center in Pennsylvania, USA.

The defeat denied Orcollo, currently the world’s top player, his fourth crown this year as he settled for the losing semifinalists purse of $10,000 (about P440,000) with Bustamante, who bowed to American Corey Deuel, 13-6, in the other match. Van Boening routed Deuel, 13-7, in the finals to rule the 12-man, five-day event and pocket the top prize of $20,000. Deuel took the $12,000 runner-up purse.

“The ball didn’t go my way,” said Orcollo,who had won the Quezon City 9-Ball Championship, the Japan Open and the Qatar International 9-Ball tilt earlier this year. “But I’m still happy because I played well overall in this event, which I hope I can carry into my next tournament,” added Orcollo, stalwart of the star-studded Bugsy Promotions of businessman Perry Mariano.

Orcollo’s next stop in his two-week US sojourn would be the International Challenge of Champions, a $50,000 winner-take-all event featuring eight of the world’s best players slated Aug. 14 and 15 at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut.

The 29-year-old Orcollo came into the knockout stage as the top seed, having won five of his six first round matches and accumulated the most number of racks won (93 out of 150) from among the 12 entries. But that didn’t give the pride of Bislig, Surigao del Sur, any advantage as the tournament shifted to a do-or-die format.

In the Challenge of Champions, Orcollo will pit skills with world No. 2 and defending champion Niels Feijen of the Netherlands, reigning world 9-ball king Darryl Peach of England, Van Boening, Fu Jianbo of China, Chang Jung-lin of Chinese-Taipei, Satoshi Kawabata of Japan and Seung Woo Ryu of Korea.

Orcollo, Bustamante fall in Pennsylvania 9-ball semis

Filipino cue artists Dennis Orcollo and Francisco “Django" Bustamante lost in their respective semifinal assignments and settled for joint third place in The Million Dollar 9-Ball Shootout set Sunday at the Valle Forge Convention Center in Pennsylvania.

World no.1 Orcollo lost in his bid to win a fourth title this year when he dropped a 13-8 decision to Shane Van Boening, while Bustamante fell to Corey Deuel 13-6.

The two Filipinos took home $10,000 (P445,000) each.

Orcollo’s next stop in his fortnight-long US sojourn will be the International Challenge of Champions, a $50,000 (P2.22-million) winner-take-all event featuring eight of the world’s best players.

The tournament is slated August 14 and 15 at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut.

In the Challenge of Champions, Orcollo will pit skills with a roster that includes world no.2 and defending champion Niels Feijen of the Netherlands and reigning world 9-ball king Darryl Peach of England.

Orcollo, Django advance to semis in Pennsylvania 9-bal tiff

World no.1 Dennis Orcollo of the Philippines won all but one of his first-round matches to advance to the knockout stage of the Million Dollar 9-Ball Shootout held in the weekend at the Valle Forge Convention Center in Pennsylvania.

Orcollo’s 93 won-game total put the Surigao-raised cue artist on top of the 12-man field vying for the $20,000 (P886,000) top prize.

Orcollo opened his campaign by demolishing Evan Broxmeyer 22-3 then followed it up with a 15-10 trouncing of Stevie Moore.

He lost a close 13-12 decision to former world champion Johnny Archer in the third session, but immediately rebounded by beating former US Open titlist Corey Deuel 15-10, countryman Francisco “Django" Bustamante 13-12 and Dennis Hatch 16-9 in that order.

Behind Orcollo were Deuel and Bustamante who finished with 86 wins (out of 150 games) each, while former world 10-ball champion Shane Van Boening rounded up the final four with 83 points.

The semifinal matches pit Orcollo and Van Boening, and Bustamante and Deuel in a race-to-13 affair with the winners moving up to the title showdown.

Orcollo has been on a roll recently, winning the Qatar 9-Ball Open and finishing runner-up in the Guinness 9-Ball Tour Singapore leg

Marlon Manalo of the Philippines narrowly missed the semifinals with 81 won games.

Bustamante lost his first two matches (against Van Boening 15-10 and Manalo 14-11) But the former world no.1 bounced back by annihilating Daryl Peach 18-7 and Archer 16-8 before he bowed to Orcollo.

He closed out the preliminaries with a 19-6 whipping of Tony Chohan.

Bustamante on Million Dollar Billiard Shootout Cut to Four

Allen Hopkins’ Million Dollar 9-Ball Shootout has cut 8 of its original 12 players, with the last 4 returning Sunday for the final rounds. This inaugural event is hosted by the Valley Forge Convention Center and will award its winner a $20,000 first-place prize Sunday.

Saturday was the final day for the players to fall into place and either advance to Sunday’s rounds or leave early. In the same format as the previous two days, there were two rounds, each consisting of 25-game matches. There were no major changes in the line-up, though, for the top four players after Saturday’s rounds were the same as after Friday’s: Dennis Orcollo, Corey Deuel, Francisco Bustamante, and Shane Van Boening.

While there were no real blow-outs in the first round Saturday, there were some extremely lopsided scores in the final round. Dennis Hatch, who up to the evening round seemed a strong contender to make it to Sunday’s rounds, only won 9 games against Orcollo. Equally, Tony Chohan, who took 15 games to Marlon Manalo’s 10 in the first round Saturday, only put together 6 games against another Filipino champion, Bustamante, in the second round.

Orcollo is still the games leader at this point with a grand total of 93 out of 150 games played. His break and run-out total is 32. Tied for second place are Deuel and Bustamante, both with 86 total games; however, Deuel leads in the run-outs with 34, compared to Bustamante’s 38. The player with the most break and run-outs is Van Boening, who has 38, though he has the lowest total games won of the top four with 83.

Matt Krah fared the worst in the evening round, only winning 4 games to Deuel’s 21, cementing Deuel’s advancement to Sunday. Krah’s total games won for the event amounted to 53, with 16 break and run-outs. Evan Broxmeyer eked out 5 racks against Manalo in the final round Saturday, bringing his total to 38 games with 3 break and run-outs.

Manalo ended the event only 2 racks behind Van Boening with 81, with Steve Moore and Hatch tied with 78 games. Daryl Peach notched one less, and Johnny Archer had 72. Sunday’s semifinals will be a race to 13 and will feature Orcollo versus Van Boening and Deuel versus Bustamante.

Francisco 'Django' Bustamante can't make it to the Davao leg

A Guaranteed total cash prize of P800,000 will be up for grabs in the star-studded First Senate President Manny Villar Cup 9-Ball Open Davao leg set August 21 to 23 at the Gaisano Mall of Davao Atrium.

Billiards Managers and Players Association of the Philippines (BMPAP) secretary-general Gandy Valle made the announcement during the Davao Sportswriters Association (DSA) Forum at the Tower Inn.

Valle, who guested with Davao Billiards Association (DBA) president Menlee Migellano, said the office of Senator Villar has yet to send a breakdown of the prizes, although he revealed that the champion will take home not less than P300,000. The runner-up and the next top players will also receive huge prizes.

Valle said they will also hold an inter-barangay competition on August 17 for all-Davao players and a qualifying tournament on August 18 and 19 at the NCCC Mall B3 Center. The qualifying tournament is open for those who want to earn a slot to the main event to be held at the Gaisano Mall.

Migellano said the inter-barangay champion will pocket P10,000 while the qualifying champion will bag P20,000 and book a slot in the Villar Cup Open along with the runner-up who will get P9,000. The qualifying third and fourth placers, meanwhile, will go home with P3,000 each.

Valle, a former Bangkok Asian Games doubles gold medallist, confirmed the participation of pool sharks Efren "Bata" Reyes, current World No. 1 Dennis "Robocop" Orcollo, Alex "The Lion" Pagulayan, reigning World Pool runner-up Roberto Gomez, Davao City's Southeast Asian (SEA) Games back-to-back medallist and New York champion Lee Vann Corteza and former two-time world pool champion Ronato Alcano, among other big names.

"Only Francisco 'Django' Bustamante can't make it to the Davao leg because he has a campaign abroad on the same schedule as our tournament here. The leg champions in Alabang, Cebu and Bulacan will also come and put up a stiff challenge," said Valle, who won the Cebu leg of the prestigious cuefest.

Valle downplayed his chances to winning the Davao leg title citing the huge cast of veterans entered in the knockout, race-to-nine, alternate-break format meet. "I'll just focus on my game," he said.

RP pool masters off to Qatar for 9-ball tournament

Manila, Philippines – Former World Pool champs Efren "Bata" Reyes, Alex Pagulayan, and Ronnie Alcano will lead the Philippine contestants going to Doha for the 2008 Qatar 9-Ball Championship, which starts on Friday, June 27, at the Qatar Billiards and Snooker Federation Hall.

The other contestants are current world no.1 Dennis Orcollo, former world no.1 Francisco "Django" Bustamante, 2007 World Pool runner-up Roberto Gomez, defending national champion Lee Van Corteza, veterans Warren Kiamco and Ramil Gallego, upcoming stars Joven Bustamante and Benjie Guevarra, and recent Villar Cup Cebu leg champ Gandy Valle.

The tournament offers total prizes worth $150,000, according to a statement issued on Wednesday by the Billiards Managers and Players Association of the Philippines (BMPAP).

"I hope I could carry a momentum from my Villar Cup triumph," Valle said.

Reyes, Francisco Bustamante, Orcollo, and Corteza are all seeded to the main draw. But Valle, Pagulayan, Alcano, Gomez, Kiamco, Gallego, Guevarra, and Bustamante still need to earn their spots in the 96-person main draw through the two-day qualifying tilt starting on Friday.

Bustamante Eases Way Into Semis

Francisco Bustamante made his way into the semi-finals of the PartyPoker.net World Pool Masters to set up an all-Filipino clash with Alex Pagulayan following an 8-4 win at the Riviera over England ’s Imran Majid.

Majid played well in patches but his luck deserted him at critical moments and Bustamante made enough quality run outs to keep himself ahead throughout.

“That was a great match and I played good in the beginning,” said Bustamante. “Majid got close and I was lucky when he scratched on the break at 5-4. That was a very big game for me. “I’ll try my best against Alex in the semi-final. I last played him in the World Championship in the Phil ippines last November when I beat him.”

The Filipino won the lag and completed a comfortable run out to take the early lead and with two balls off the break in the next, another clearance made it 2-0.

There were two more balls down from Bustamante’s next break but he scratched as he needed to force the cue ball to gain position off the yellow 1. Majid’s first visit to the table was with ball in hand but he missed an easy 8 ball into the corner pocket to gift the rack to Bustamante.

A fluked 3 ball from the Filipino set up another run out to take the score to 4-0 but he came up dry in the fifth game to give Majid his best chance.

He missed the 1 ball into the centre pocket though and Bustamante pocketed it with a precise bank shot. A bank on the blue 2 wobbled in the jaws and stayed out and Majid set about the table but a nudge on the cue ball made him lose position.

Majid’s snooker on the 7 ball forced Bustamante to reach for his jump stick and although he made contact, it fell nicely for Majid and he ran out to take his first rack of the match.

A dry break from Majid allowed Bustamante back to the table but he was forced to play safe. Majid though laid an excellent snooker and although his opponent escaped, it left the 1 ball on.

A positional error from Majid forced him to play safe and both players went back and forth with safeties. Bustamante made the first mistake which allowed Imran to clear to get the score back to 2-4.

The Filipino though won the next rack to move into a 5-2 lead and he made two balls off the next break to put himself in a good position. He missed a tough pot on the 1 ball though, and Majid ran the table to grab a rack back.

Yet another dry break resulted in Bustamante looking good for a run out but he inexplicably scratched into the side pocket with just three balls left on the table. The Englishman returned to the table and finished it off to reduce his deficit to a single rack.

Majid looked to have made a golden break but the cue ball scratched to deny him. With ball in hand, Bustamante ran out to go to 6-4.

He broke and ran the next to reach the hill at 7-4 and there was more of the same in what was the final rack of the game to seal an 8-4 win for Bustamante.