Fourth Seed Pagulayan Crashes Out

Filipino Alex Pagulayan crashed out of this year’s 2006 Philippines World Pool Championship as he lost a hill-hill thriller to Taiwan's seasoned Lee Kun-fang.

It was a bitter disappointment for Pagulayan’s army of home fans who gathered around TV Table Two at the Philippine International Convention Center, but the charismatic 2005 US Open champion can only have himself to blame following some lackluster performances.

An 8-2 win over limited Argentinian Gustavo Espinosa got Pagulayan, the competition’s fourth seed, off to a good start but he then slumped to a shock 8-2 defeat against the dangerous Li-He-wen of China.

That made today’s match a do-or-die affair and on-form Pagulayan, who won the World Championship in 2004, was expected to win. However, Lee had other ideas and he always maintained the pressure leading 4-1, 5-3 and 6-4 before ‘The Lion’ came back at him.

The encounter levelled up at 7-7 and with the Taiwanese player at the table he delivered his best break of the match, spreading the balls across the table. He held his nerve to run out and take his place in the last 64 at Pagulayan’s expense.

“I had no luck on the break and the balls didn’t run for me,” said Pagulayan. “It was the same in last night’s match but that’s the way it goes sometimes.”

Alex Pagulayan “Roars” undefeated again back to back at Bigwigs

The Canadian 30K Tour had the stop at Bigwigs this week end and the field was full with 64 anxious players. What a super time we had surrounded by friends, fans and foes too!!

The hype was up because Alex Pagulayan has too many fans locally and the word went around that He was going to play again.

The weather was a little chilly but clear with sunny skies, traffic was excellent and the field was loaded with good players again, but inside the place it was warm and cozy yet.

Ken Botham, Rob Blair and Jim Martin and staff all excelled in hosting the event; with associate sponsor Brian Bedford from Dunlop Billiards in Barrie being our MC today it had no choice but to go smooth as silk.

Alex Pagulayan, Chris Orme, Scott McDonald, Rob Brandenburg, Brian McDougall, Dennis Rhodes, William Arquette, Kevin Cardinal, Scott Soroko, Mike Roberts, Mike Leigh, Rob Blair, Ken Botham, Tol Kuy, Norm Glover, etc. They all had a chance to topple Alex with Brian McDougall almost getting hill-hill, but a bad landing on the 5 ball prevented the win.

The fans were not disappointed and remained glued to their seats as Alex played the final set against Dennis Rhodes. Alex played amazing and cruised to a 10-1 victory.

8 players will cash on Sunday at noon, 4 A side and 4 B side

Mike Roberts 9 vs. Dennis Rhodes 7 (match is 9-7) and Mike bested Dennis 9-3

Alex Pagulayan 9+ vs. Brian McDougall 7+ (match is 9-7) and Alex prevailed 9-5 after Brian missed position on a 5 ball.

The “Hot Seat” match was between Alex Pagulayan 9+ and Mike Roberts 9 (10-9 race) and Alex had a convincing score of 10-5 sending Mike to grind.

B side matches saw Mike Loponen 5+ vs. Chris Orme 9+ and Mike bested Chris 5-3, Chris settles 7/8th

Ryan Clements 5 vs. Mike Leigh 7 and Ryan prevails 5-2, Mike settles 7/8th

The next round sees Dennis Rhodes 7 vs. Mike Loponen 5+ (match is 8-6) and Dennis goes hill-hill and advances with an 8-5 score. Mike takes 5/6th

Brian McDougall 7+ vs. Ryan Clements 5 (match is 8-5) and Brian still hot from His loss, takes out Ryan with an 8-1 score. Ryan settles 5/6th

Dennis Rhodes 7 vs. Brian McDougall 7+ (match is 7-8) and it goes hill-hill again, but Dennis wins by a hair. (Very thin hair)

Dennis goes to meet Mike Roberts 9; this player had sent Him to grind the one loss side and Dennis gun is super loaded now…… Grind Dennis did and it goes hill-hill this time for Dennis, Mike Roberts settles for 4th

Dennis Rhodes 7 has to take the express train to the A side where Alex is patiently waiting for Him and after the formalities are concluded the score reflects the tale of the tape at 10-1. Needless to say Dennis was thrilled to have played Alex in the finals and as a courtesy He asked Alex for a note for Dennis son Adam. See the note in the pictures section. Alex once again has demonstrated the high caliber of player and fine person He truly is. Congratulations Alex and continue success as you move around the world.

Results:

1- Alex Pagulayan $2060*
2- Dennis Rhodes $1100*
3- Mike Roberts $700*
4- Brian McDougall $350*
5- Mike Loponen $180*
6- Ryan Clements $180*
7- Mike Leigh $90*
8- Chris Orme $90*

* Including calcutta

Pagulayan Places 3rd at the Predator World 10-Ball Championship

Alex stopped by Bankshot Billiards in Jacksonville Florida to compete in the Predator World 10-Ball Championship. This event put on by Charlie Williams and Dragon Promotions invited an international mix of top players including Canadians Tyler Edey, Luc Salvas, John Morra, Edwin Montal, Ronnie Wiseman and Alex Pagulayan.

On the final day it would be 23 year old American Shane Van Boening who has been making waves fresh off his second place finish at the EnjoyPool.com event that would earn the title World 10-Ball Champion. This young man is fast becoming one of the best players in the world.

Though we would have loved to see Van Boening and Pagulayan square off in the final, Alex would fall one game short with a shocking miss on the 10 ball double hill vs. Cliff Joyner.

Alex would settle for 3rd on his opportunity for a second World Champion title.

Morra, Salvas, Edey and Wiseman would narrowly miss their chance to get to the cash, though all three players earned impressive victories along the way.

While John Morra was competing with the men he was busy in the Junior tournament as well. Finishing 2nd in the World Junior 10-Ball Championship is no easy task but these days Morra is one of the top Junior players in the world.

Groups Announced For IPT World Open Championships

The International Pool Tour announces the official player groupings for the IPT World Open 8-Ball Championship. The tournament starts Sunday, September 3, 2006 at 10am in Reno, Nevada at the Grand Sierra Resort.

This historic event boasts the biggest prize fund in the history of the sport. $3,000,000 is the total prize purse, and the winner of the tournament will win an historic $500,000!

Here are the official groupings:

Group 13:

Pagulayan, Alex
Becker, Kevin
Kucharo, John
Bryant, Charles
Alvarez, Frank

Who's Hot and who's not? Knockout draw

As Cardiff recorded the highest temperatures in the United Kingdom, several stars of the blue baize were wilting in the heat on Judgement Day.

Former world champion Nick Varner was one of several American casualties. The Hall of Fame inductee threw away a 4-1 lead over Antonio Lining and with it went his chances of qualifying for the Last 64. He'll be joined on the plane home to America by Charlie Williams, who never showed in Group 5.

Johnny Archer and Earl Strickland left it to the last minute to scrape through their groups. Archer started his campaign with three losses but came with a late run on the rails and Strickland, the defending champion, needed just one win out of three matches on the final day, but lost the first two, putting himself under pressure to win the last, which he did.

The Filipino players will be well represented in the knock out draw. Efren Reyes leads the way with a perfect record of seven wins, with 35 racks won and only 18 lost. Reyes' record is only better by Canada's Alex Pagulayan who lost only 14 racks. Marlon Manalo, better known as a snooker star also notched seven straight wins, for the loss of 21 racks and the fourth player with a perfect record was Ralf Souquet, who also lost 21 racks.

Qualifiers: Draw

Group 1: Ying-Chief Chen, Jorge Llanos, Earl Strickland, Mark Williams
Group 2: Francisco Bustamente, Thomas Engert, Evgeny Stalev, Raymond Cruz
Group 3: Ralf Souquet, Max Eberle, Fabio Petroni, Alex Lely
Group 4: Efren Reyes, Sin-Young Park, Roxton Chapman, John Horsfall
Group 5: Marlon Manalo, Mika Immonen, Haruyoshi Hinokiyama, Pascal Budo
Group 6: Akikumo Toshikawa, Ching-Shun Yang, Teddy Garrahan, Mukesh Rehani
Group 7: Hui-Kai Hsia, Rico Diks, Sten Jarledal, Johnny Archer
Group 8: Satoshi Kawabata, Niels Feijen, Steve Knight, Ernesto Dominguez
Group 9: Steve Davis, Ramil Gallego, Warren Kiamco, Tony Drago
Group 10: Lee Vann Corteza, Cory Deuel, Young-Hwa Jeong, Kevin Smith
Group 11: Alex Pagulayan, Tommy Donlon, Danny Harriman, Shintao Sugaya
Group 12: Hiroshi Takenaka, Che-Wei Fu, Oliver Ortmann, Niclas Bergendorff