“The Lion” is King of the Jungle, in Vegas!!! Snaps off the Pool World Masters as well as wins the Action Challenge over Shane Van Boening! Former World Champion “The Lion” Alex Pagulayan earned $20K last Sunday night at the Riviera Hotel and Casino in snapping of the World Pool Masters. He also follows up with major win defeating 2007 US Open 9 Ball Champion Shane Van Boening.
In the final match, it was looking like it was all Mika Immonen as he was looking very dominant. “The Ice Man” has stepped up his game of late as he has been placing consistently in the top 5 in recent events. Alex was down 6-3 in the match, and was thinking to himself that it was a repeat of the World Pool Masters in 2006, but lost to Ralf Souquet.
But what proved to be the turning point of the match “The Ice Man” Mika Immonen, broke and made an illegal break as he only had 2 balls pass the headstring. “The Lion” Alex Pagulayan then showed Vegas who was the King of the Jungle as he wins the next 5 consecutive racks for the World Pool Masters Title.
“The Lion” Alex Pagulayan reprieved himself from his last “Action Challenge” match up vs 2007 US Open Champion Shane Van Boening. In a 3 day marathon race to 100 Challenge Match, Shane had Alex buried at one point by as much as 22 games down as it looked like Shane was going to easily cruise to the win.
Alex showed the fans who were watching it on TAR, as well as all of the people who were watching the match in person, what it is to have the heart of a Lion. After the first day the score was 30-24 Shane. On the second day, Shane incrementally increased his lead to 70-63.
On the third and final day of the race to 100, Alex at one point was down 22 games and was clearly on the ropes. In an impressive turn of events, Alex came out of his corner with a clever combination of tactical play, like a seasoned boxer looking to grind back points… and when saw opportunities to strike, started to combine racks like carefully placed punches.
Alex slowly grinded back to being 90-85 down, when Alex like an angry Lion in the jungle started to tear up his opponent in the field of battle. “The Lion” roared back to take the lead 99-92, and while Shane gave his fans some hope as he won the next two games 99-94, it just wasn’t enough to stop the momentum that Alex built up.
Alex Pagulayan proved to be the “Lion” in the Vegas jungle as he closed out the 2007 US Open 9 Ball Champ and last years former 10 Ball World Champion 100-94.
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