Bustamante Captures First WPBL Bonus Ball Event

The World Professional Billiard League held it's first ever event this weekend. It was a huge success for all involved. It was held in Canada at the beautiful, McPhillips Station Casino in Winnipeg. Statistically, the two best players were found battling it out in the finals. That is what tournament director Barry Bremner and owner, Larry Chiborak predicted prior to the inaugral event, "The Super Series of Billiards".

"The game of Bonus Ball uses a scoreboard and time clock, and they operated flawlessly", stated Chiborak. "The players made a few mental mistakes due to the challenge of having to think fast on their feet, but at the end of the event, all eight players were showing why they are called professionals!" Bremner said..."Corey Deuel, who seemed at odds with the new game, came storming back on the final day, playing flawlessly! I was very impressed with the size of his heart. Most players would have packed it in the final day. That was not the case with Deuel. I expect Corey to be vastly improved in the next event"

SUNDAY PLAY-OFFS

There was a movie in the 60's about a gunslinger who hauled a coffin behind his horse and took out an entire force with a gattling gun hidden inside the coffin. This character was named “Django” Francisco “Django” Bustamante acted the part of gunslinger all weekend and took out anyone in his way! What an outstanding performance he put on. In a race to five, after Archer ran the first two tables to go up two games to nothing, this gunslinger won five straight to win the tournament. Here's how today's action played out to set up the final.

The noon match featured the fifth place finisher, John Schmidt against the 6th place finisher, Erik Hjorleifson, a “raised in Winnipeg” product. In this consolation event, Erik got a couple of bad breaks, scratching after making his object ball, once in each of the first two games, allowing “Mr 400” to go up two games to none in a race to three. After a back & forth battle, Schmidt prevailed in the third game to finish fifth in the standings after event number one. This event was a great experience for “Big Red.” "I need to practice more to bring my game up. Banking was so important this weekend.", noted Erik.

In the quarter final match up, The “South Dakota Kid”, Shane Van Boening, who finished third after the round robin portion of the tournament, was up against his Mosconi Cup team mate, fourth place finisher Johnny "The Scorpion" Archer. Johnny jumped out quickly to a one-nothing lead and Van Boening won three straight, two of them in over-time, to get to the hill. Archer fought his way to the hill as well and ran out the final game to win the prize of facing Nick “The Kentucky Colonel” Varner in the semi-final.

The semi final, like the quarter final, was a race to four. Varner came back from being down seven – nothing to capture the first game nine – seven. At that point "The Scorpion" once again found his stinger and won four straight games to sideline Mr. Varner. What a great tournament Nick Varner had though. If retirement was ever really on his mind, that has been put on the back burner. Bonus Ball brought out all the skills that Varner has specialized in the past and brought him back into the spot light. Without a doubt, Nick Varner was quite a show!

With the quarter final and semi final matches, Johnny had won seven of his last eight games and was on a roll! Bustamante was well rested for the final. Winning the round robin, rewarded him with a birth into the play-off finals, while Johnny had just come through some pressure situations and had a couple of barn burners to get there. Archer came out very focused in this race to five and ran out the first two games. That's when Bustamante took over and proved to be too much for Archer on this night. Francisco was very strong from Thursday evening right through the entire event and was deserving of the win. What an amazing three and a half days of Bonus Ball and the "Super Series of Billiards" was just that...super!

Mike Massey was also on hand and had a crowd everywhere that he went. The World Champion Trick Shot artist was a crowd pleaser for sure. Mike Massey was the player that convinced Larry Chiborak to use only three pockets in his game to help make Bonus Ball more challenging for seasoned players. It was a great addition to the game by a great billiard entertainer.

Rick Sparling, media representative for the World Wide Sport of Billiards

FINAL ROUND ROBIN RESULTS:
Francisco Bustamante FINISHES FIRST!

FORMAT: The format of the league was set up so each player of the WPBL played the exact same amount of games as each other player, in the round robin event. The top four players played races after the round robin. After the super series was over, each player was awarded points that they would carry forward through the season.

NEWS: Unfortunately, Rodney Morris could not attend this week and we would like to thank Charlie Williams for coming to Winnipeg to replace him on short notice. Charlie was a treat to watch and we hope to have both Charlie and Rodney competing with us in future events.

You can go to playbonusball.com to watch our latest video highlights of this weekends events. We would like to thank our fantastic production staff that helped put on this professional event. Jim Wych: for all his color commentary and video voice overs Mike Massey: Our classy showman and trick shot artist, extraordinary. Impact Productions: Video and Film Editing (Neil, Andrew, Gilbert and Alfie). Gord Kerr: Statistician Duy Tran: Head Official. Ron Chiborak: Time Clock Official. Rick Sparling: Media Representative. Chad Stevens: Stage Set-up John Giglioti of Three Phase Electrical: Lighting. Connie Chiborak, Karlyn Stadnyk and Kristi Labossiere: Our beautiful VIP and door staff.

We also want to thank our the Canad Inns and The McPhillips Station Casino and the Upper Deck Sports Bar staff that treated everyone like royalty all weekend long! Last but not least, all the press and media that covered this history making event in Winnipeg. That also includes all our friends in the pool industry: AVO Billiard Supply, for the beautiful tables, Triple B's billiard rooms in Winnipeg, www.pro9uk.com www.insidepoolmag.com and www.azbilliards.com
Our next stop in the "Super Series of Billiards" will be announced shortly.