Corey Deuel Comes Alive in 8-3 Match With Pagulayan on Day Two of The Accu-Stats 8 Ball “Make It Happen” Series

Day two saw a couple of rule changes at the Lets “Make it Happen” series, 8 ball, 6 man Round Robin, played on a 10 ft Diamond table in the Simonis Arena at Sandcastle Billiards in Edison, NJ.

It was decided after the end of day ones play to increase the shot clock to 45 seconds - The opening shot, however, stayed at 90 seconds. Due to problems with the Magic Rack (A manufacturing problem was thought to be the problem) the wooden rack was brought in to use.

It was very evident on day one that making balls on the break was key to getting the “W” in this format, and it was on everybody’s mind just how the players that came up dry yesterday would come to terms with it on day two.

EFREN REYES VS DARREN APPLETON 1:00 PM MATCH

Efren, who did not come with his best game on day one, unfortunately only showed flashes of the old Efren in his match with Darren Apppleton in the first match of the day.

Darren, who had a terrible breaking day on Thursday, certainly found the solution overnight, and made balls on the break on four of his six breaks. This, in conjunction with his excellent potting ability, and his pin point positional play got him to the finish line in double quick time. Darren soon had the score to 3-2 in his favor, but Efren broke and ran the very next rack to put the score at 3-3. It should be noted that Efren had to change his run out plan a couple of times due to bad positional play.

At this point Mr. Appleton put his foot down and sped away from his opponent, and did not allow Efren to win another game. Darren being able to get to the table was able to show the fans both in the arena and on PPV, just how he got to be a multi World Champion, and back to back US Open Champion. Final score 8-3 to Darren.

　

COREY DEUEL VS ALEX PAGULAYAN 3:00 PM MATCH

Alex Pagulayan, who played so well on the first days play, certainly got off to a quick start against Corey Deuel and soon had the score line to 2-0 in his favor. In rack three Corey used his patented soft break, which came up dry, and allowed Alex to quickly run out the rack to the 8 ball. Oops, Alex missed an almost straight in 8 ball. Game to Corey and score now 2-1 to Alex.

In rack four Alex made a red, but took the yellows for the run out and missed his third ball, again giving the game to Corey. In rack five Corey pulled off an unusual feat when he made the 8 ball in the side pocket on the break. That made it 3-2 to Corey.

Rack six looked to be going to Alex, but he miscued, and Corey ran out the rest of the rack. Score 4-2 to Corey. The next rack saw Corey miss the last red ball in his run out, Alex played a lock up safe to take the game. Score 4-3 to Corey. Racks eight and nine go to Corey making the score 6-3 to Corey.

Rack ten turned into a classic safety game, as little clusters of balls appeared all over the table with each player locking their opponents balls on the rails, with neither player being willing to attempt the run out. After probably ten minutes of safety play, Alex took the plunge and decided to go for a run out, making two balls before having to play another safe. This shot actually left Corey a couple of shots and he finally won the rack. It really looked at one point as though they were playing One-Pocket. Score 7-3 to Corey.

Alex took the next two games - the first against the break and the second with his break. Score 7-5 to Corey. Unfortunately for Alex, he was about to witness Corey make his second 8 ball on the break, and that would be all she wrote for poor Alex. Final score line 8-5 to Corey Deuel.

Even though Corey was breaking better on day two, we definitely saw a less confident Alex Pagulayan than we saw on the first day, which I think was reflected in the score line of this match. It will be interesting to see which Alex will show up for day three.

DARREN APPLETON VS JOHNNY ARCHER 7:00 PM MATCH

Despite Darren coming up dry on his first three alternate breaks, the score was amazingly tied at 3-3 after six racks. However, the next three racks all went to Mr. Appleton who found himself ahead 6-3, by dint of some perfect positional play, and clever safeties.

Rack ten saw Johnny scratch on the break, which did not help his comeback effort, and Darren ran out. Score 7-3 to Darren. In the very next rack Darren also scratched on the break and handes Johnny his last game. Score 7-4 to Darren.

In what would be the last rack of this match Johnny surprisingly scratched during a run out of the yellow balls, handing the game to Darren. Final score 8-4 to Darren Appleton.

SHANE VAN BOENING VS EFREN REYES 9:00 PM MATCH

This match started out well for Shane who broke and ran out the first rack. Efren came up dry on rack two and handed the run out to Shane. Score 2-0 Shane. Shane made an uncharacteristic miss in rack three to allow Efren to get the score to 2-1.

In rack four Efren again missed a shot that we are not used to seeing him miss, and handed the rack to Shane. Or at lease we thought he did. Shane returned the favor and missed after three balls and handed Efren a gift rack. Score 2-2.

Shane was handed a gift in the next rack, when he allowed Efren to the table after coming up dry. Efren picked his way through the rack, changing tactics several times along the way, before missing the last ball before the eight ball. Unfortunately, this would not be the last ball that we would see the Magician miss in this match. It would appear that Efren is unable to pull rabbits from his top hat like he did in the past. Score 3-2 to Shane.

To the pleasure of the audience Efren made a rally, and got the score to 6-4 taking the next five games. This however, was not due to exceptional play on his part, but by a combination of dry breaks, and out of character misses from Shane.

All of the next four games went Shane’s way, with the final score at 8-6. We saw some vintage Shane in the later part of the proceedings, as he made clever run outs that he made look so simple.

We are, for whatever reason, witnessing a lackluster performance from Efren so far in this event, as he is last in the standings with no wins. However, we cannot take away his greatness and all that he has done for the sport. Let us hope that Efren can turn things around in the next two days.