Dennis Orcollo
In effect, the West State Billiards/POV Pool West Coast Swing slowed down to accommodate a $6,000-added One Pocket tournament that drew 64 entrants to California Billiards in Fremont, CA from July 5-7. Following up on his victory at the opening event of this West Coast Swing (The 5th Annual Cole Dickson Memorial), Dennis Orcollo went undefeated to claim the title, downing The Lion (Alex Pagulayan) twice, in the hot seat and finals.
As was the Cole Dickson Memorial that proceeded it, the One Pocket tournament was a star-studded event that had a great many of this (and other) country's top players competing. By the time the tournament had whittled down to its final 12 players, many of them, of course, were out (Warren Kiamco, Billy Thorpe, Oscar Dominguez, Chip Compton, Francisco Bustamante, Skyler Woodward, Tony Chohan and Rodney Morris among them). Left standing for the winners' side semifinal were an extraordinary quartet; Orcollo facing Shane Van Boening, and Jayson Shaw (who won the Swing's second event; the 10-Ball Challenge) and Alex Pagulayan.
Orcollo shut out Van Boening, as Pagulayan was busy downing Shaw 4-1. Orcollo claimed the hot seat 4-1 over The Lion and waited (and waited, and waited) on his return.
On the loss side, Van Boening picked up John Schmidt, who was working on a four-match, loss-side winning streak that was about to end and which had included victories over Bustamante and Warren Kiamco, both double hill. Shaw drew Santos Sambajon, who'd eliminated Gus Briseño and Damien Alishan, both 3-1.
Van Boening advanced to the quarterfinals with a 3-1 victory over Schmidt. He was joined by Sambajon, who survived a double hill fight against Shaw. Van Boening then shut Sambajon out, before himself being shut out by Pagulayan in the semifinals. Dennis completed his undefeated run with a 4-2 second victory over Pagulayan in the finals.
