Bustamante on QC-RP faces The World

Billiards superstars Efren Reyes and Francisco Bustamante will banner the Philippines’ charge against a selection of top foreign cue artists in the 9-Ball Grand Billiards Showdown Quezon City will host from Dec. 2 to 4 at the Trinoma Mall.

Reyes and Bustamante will lead an eight-man squad against eight equally-talented foreign pool masters in a team tournament where the winning group gets the ,000 (R1,800,000) cash prize.

Reyes and Bustamante will be joined by Alex Pagulayan and Ronnie Alcano, reigning world no.1 Dennis Orcollo, 2007 World Pool runner-up Roberto Gomez, Lee Van Corteza and Warren Kiamco in the dream billiards match dubbed as Quezon City-Philippines vs the World.

"This event will not only showcase the talents our players but promote Quezon City as sports hub of the Philippines," said event organizer and QC Councilor Ariel Inton during yesterday’s formal launching of the tournament at the Mario’s Restaurant in Tomas Morato.

The three-day event, which is a joint project of Inton, Quezon City Sports Tourism Council led by Raffy Chico and Billiards Managers and Players Association of the Philippines (BMPAP) headed by Perry Mariano, is aimed at promoting the Quezon City as the billiards destination of the world.

Except for Bustamante, all members of Team Philippines were on hand to display their solid ground against their equally competitive opponents who will be coming to town in the next few months.

The foreign invasion will be spearheaded by Finish Mika Immonem, German Thorsten Hohmann and former European No. 1 Russian Konstantin Stepanov.

Also joining the foreign squad are Americans Charlie Williams and Rodney Morris, Taiwanese Yung Ching Shunand Wu Chia Ching and 2006 Asian Games gold medalist Japanese Sotoshi Kawabata.

Quezon City Mayor Feliciano "Sonny" Belmonte and Vice Mayor Herbert Bautista were also in attendance to add glitter to the star-studded gathering which saw the formal unveiling of the logo of the tournament.

"I’m honored to meet our world champions and some of them pa nga ay legendary na tulad in Efren," said Belmonte, who also signed a Memorandum of Agreement that formally accepted the city’s hosting of the event.

"Dito sa Quezon City, tanggap na tanggap ang billiards dahil dito mismo nakatira ang mga billiard players natin," said Belmonte, boasting that reigning World No. 1 Orcullo was a recipient of last year’s Outstanding QC Citizen award.

"Unstoppable ang Quezon City at ang billiards. Hindi na mapi-pigilan ang pag-unlad. We hope to make our city the sports capital," Belmonte said.

For his part, Bautista cited the honor and pride the billiards players bring to the country and even thanked Reyes for his exploits in the past that made the country known to the world of billiards.

BMPAP co-founder Jonathan Sy, BMPAP president Atty. Vic Rodriguez, Solar Sports Vice president for Marketing Jude Torcuato, Quezon City Councilors Toto Medalla and Vincent Belmonte, members of the Quezon City Chamber of Commerce, heads of the Quezon City-Red Cross Chapter were also present.

Django routed in New Jersey straight-pool finals

Francisco “Django" Bustamante lost to Neils Feijen of The Netherlands, 200-11, in the championship round of the World 14.1 Straight Pool Championships held Saturday in East Brunswick, New Jersey.

Feijen stormed to an 80-0 lead and never looked back to win $14,000. Bustamante settled for the runner-up purse worth $6,000 (P277,740).

To reach the finals, Bustamante defeated Danny Harriman of the US 200-137, Huidji See of The Netherlands 200-141 and Jasmin Ouschan of Austria 200-148 in that order.

The object of straight pool, also called the 14.1 game, is to pocket as many balls as possible to reach the required number of points. One ball is equivalent to one point.

Final Four Set at Straight Pool Championships including Bustamante

The final four are set at the Predator Straight Pool Championships at the Hilton Hotel in East Brunswick, NJ. Niels Feijen will join Nick Van Den Berg, while the Philippines’ Francisco Bustamante and Jasmin Ouschan meet in a final single-elimination round of play on Saturday to determine the champion.

Bustamante was the first to make his way to the final four with an early evening 200-41 victory over Huidj See. The remaining matches played out simultaneously, with Feijen facing USA’s John Schmidt, Thorsten Hohmann versus Nick Van Den Berg and Jasmin Ouschan, continuing an unlikely streak of victories, playing the number-one-seed Oliver Ortmann.

Ahead by two balls at 184-182, Schmidt allowed a moment of pique to cost him the victory, not to mention some cold hard cash. After missing a shot that he presumed signaled victory for his opponent, Schmidt swept his stick across the table and conceded the match to Feijen. Van den Berg was next. He and Hohmann were rarely more than 20 or so balls apart until the score hovered in the area of the 120s, when Van den Berg took repeated command of the racks and finished it at 200-126.

World Straight Pool Final Sixteen

Phase two is complete at the Predator World Straight Pool Championship and the field has now been narrowed to just sixteen players.

The rest of the event is single elimination and all prior losses have been forgiven.

At the time of this writing, Oliver Ortmann had already defeated Thomas Engert 200-42 and was comfortably awaiting the winner between Mika Immonen and Jasmin Ouschan.

Other matches for today are Huidji See vs Corey Deuel, Danny Harriman vs Francisco Bustamante, Ignacio Chavez vs Niels Feijen, John Schmidt vs Mike Dechaine, Ralf Souquet vs Thorsten Hohmann and Nick Van Den Berg vs Dominic Jentsch.

Bustamante first Tickets Punched to Final 16

For any player who lost the first match in the bracket stage of the Predator World 14.1 Championship, the format is not single elimination — as was first reported.

The field of 32 is currently drawn on a double-elimination bracket. The event will then go to a knockout format once 16 players remain — eight from the winners side, eight from the one-loss side.

As play resumes on Friday, three players have already moved into the round of 16. Corey Deuel easily advanced with wins over Steve Lipsky, 150-3, and Raj Hundal, 150-104.

Thorsten Hohmann and Mika Immonen, two of a handful of European favorites, also won their first two matches in bracket play.

Nick Van den Berg and Niels Feijen, who remained unbeaten through group play, stand just one win away from advancing. And Oliver Ortmann will square off against Mike Dechaine, with the winner moving into the 16-player field.

The biggest surprise in the 32-player bracket has to be the early departure of Johnny Archer. After going 7-0 in the round-robin stage, Archer was sent to the one-loss side by Raj Hundal, 150-89, then sent packing by Lipsky, 150-141.
American hopefuls Mike Sigel, John Schmidt, Allen Hopkins are still alive on the one-loss side, while Danny Harriman faces Francisco Bustamante on the right side.

Django advances to last 32

Lone Filipino entry Francisco “Django” Bustamante kept pace with the titans of world billiards with an impressive, 100-67 win yesterday over reigning World 8-ball champion Ralf “Kaiser” Souquet of Germany in the World 14.1 Straight Pool Championships at the Hilton East Brunswick, in New Jersey, USA.

The former world No. 1 Bustamante, playing under the banner of Puyat Sports, had already secured his spot in the last 32 because of the win alongside former World Pool champions Johnny “The Scorpion” Archer of the US and Mika “The Iceman” Immonen of Finland.

The undefeated trio have already racked up five wins. Archer stunned compatriot Steve Lipsky, 100-24, in Bracket 8 while Immonen routed Mike Davis of the US, 100-52, in Bracket 7.

Bustamante, who is fresh from winning the Blaze 9-Ball Tour Stop worth $3,053 last August 23 to 24 at the Skyline billiards in Brooklyn, New York, also defeated Americans Tony Robles, 100-39 and Carmen Lambardo, 100-79, Vincent Facquet of France, 100-43, and Martin Kempter of Austria, 100-2, in Bracket 5 in the event hosted and organized by the Dragon Promotions of Charlie “The Korean Dragon” Williams.

Bustamante's remaining assignments are against Dan Wallace and Jonathan Smith of the United States in the group stage.

Other top cue artists playing the event include former World Straight Pool champion Allen Hopkins and Mike Sigel of the USA, Nick Van Den Berg and Neils “The Terminator” Feijen of the Netherlands, Thorsten “The Hitman” Hohmann and Oliver “Machine” Ortmann of Germany, Radoslaw Babica of Poland, Konstantin Stepanov of Russia, Alan Rolon of Puerto Rico and world women's No. 1 Jasmin Ouschan of Austria.

Django joins World Pool tourney in New Jersey

Francisco “Django” Bustamante will be shooting it out with the world’s best cue masters as they compete at the 2008 World Straight Pool Championship (14.1) in East Brunswick, New Jersey.

A report posted on AZBilliards.com said Bustamante was among those in the alternate list to replace some of the top names in the tournament. Other placers in the list are Ignacio Chavez of Mexico, Alan Rolon of Puerto Rico, and

Carmen Lombardo, Earl Herring and John Rousseau of the US. The hard-breaking “Django” is the lone Filipino in the 64-man line up for the tournament which runs from Aug. 25-30, 2008. It will be his international debut in 14.1.

Dragon Promotions which handles the event described Bustamante as a superb cue artist that established himself on a level even higher than just a top pro player in the eyes of some of today's best players.

"If you could pick four top pros that stand head and shoulders above the rest, Bustamante would be in that mix," said India representative Raj Hundal, currently ranked number 5 on the US Pro Rankings.

"I play a little bit of straight pool in Germany awhile ago, but this is my first time in a big tournament," said Bustamante, former world number 1. "But I think I can play a little still."

Bustamante is listed in Group 5, which includes German Ralf Souquet was runner-up in the 2006 World 9-Ball Championship in Manila.

Among the top names competing in the five-day tournament are Niels Feijen of Netherlands, Mika Immonen of Finland and Johnny Archer of the US.