If you average out the BCA rankings of the last 10 men standing in the Galveston Classic's Open 8-Ball Tournament, you'd have a mythical player ranked at # 125. In comparison, the mythical player created by the averages of the final eight in the One-Pocket event (now down to three players) would be ranked at # 245 and the event could be won by an actual player – Shannon Daulton - who's ranked at # 128. As happened in the One Pocket event, which will come to a close on Thursday night, the Open 8-Ball event, which won't conclude until Saturday, is arguably more noteworthy for the names that have been eliminated than the names that have survived.
Half of the Open 8-Ball's Final Eight are in place. Ronnie Alcano (#40) will face Roberto Gomez (# 257) for the hot seat of that event on Saturday morning at 10 a.m. Alcano survived a hill-hill match against Larry Nevel (#61) on Wednesday morning, moving him to the one-loss side of the final eight bracket. Nevel had sent Francisco Bustamante (# 11) west in the preliminary bracket. Gomez sent Goh Takami (# 595) west in the final eight bracket 9-5 just after noon on Wednesday. Takami had defeated Dennis Orcollo (#13) and Corey Deuel (# 9) to get himself into that final eight bracket.
On his six-match journey to the hot seat match, Alcano took a forfeit win in the opening round and then sent Shane Van Boening (# 4) to the one-loss side of that preliminary bracket 9-7. He defeated Stan Tourangeau 9-2 and then sent both Alex Pagalayun (#34) and Rodney Morris (# 57) over by identical 9-4 scores.
Gomez' trip to the hot seat match took him through five opponents, including Cliff Joyner (# 40) and Jose Parica (#16). He gave up only eight racks in the first four of those games, including only two to Joyner and none at all in his match versus Parica.
Over on the one-loss side of one of the preliminary brackets, Lee Van Corteza (# 79) is awaiting the winner of a marquee matchup between Van Boening and Pagalayun (#34), set for Thursday morning at 10. The winner will face Van Corteza just after noon on Thursday, in a match that will send one of them to the final eight bracket. Also waiting in the one-loss wings in that bracket is Rodney Morris, who's awaiting the results of a marquee matchup between Nick Varner (# 117) and Bustamante. That match, as well, will take place at 10 a.m., with the winner meeting Morris just after noon on Thursday. The two ultimate winners will move into the one-loss side of the Final Eight bracket.
In the other preliminary bracket, Corey Deuel is awaiting the results of a match between Charlie “Hillbilly” Bryant (# 8) and Johnny Archer (#26) with the same Thursday schedule in effect. Jose Parica is awaiting a matchup between Orcollo and Marlon Manalo (# 115); same Thursday schedule, leading to two more advancing to the event's Final Eight bracket.
In the two main events thus far – the One Pocket and the 8-Ball Open – a whole bunch of Davids have been beating up on an army of Goliaths and unless some of these Goliaths step up in the final rounds of play (Reyes in the One-Pocket or perhaps either Bustamante, Pagalayun, Deuel, or Archer in the 8-ball event), some David's gonna go home with a lot of money Goliath thought sure was going to be his.
