Filipino Lee Vann Corteza is the Turning Stone Classic IX Champion.
This event, held at Turning Stone Casino in Verona NY on August 16-19, boasted an all star field of players including Johnny Archer, Thorsten Hohmann, Ralf Souquet, Karen Corr, Jasmin Ouschan, Julie Kelly, Dennis Hatch, Mike Davis, Liz Ford, Stevie Moore, Jose Parica, Dennis Orcollo, Mika Immonen, Shane Van Boening, Tony Robles, Tony Crosby, Allen Hopkins, Ronnie Wiseman, Ronnie Alcano, Niels Feijen. But in the end, it was Corteza who put on a dominating performance to win the event.
Corteza had wins over Tony Chohan and Tony Robles on the winners side, but fell to fellow Filipino Dennis Orcollo 9-6 on Sunday. Orcollo then lost to Louie Ulrich 9-6 for the hot-seat. Ulrich usually flies under the radar on the pro pool circuit, but that was not the case in this event. Ulrich had wins over Jasmin Ouschan, Allen Hopkins, Shane Van Boening, Stevie Moore and Karen Corr on his way to the match against Orcollo for the hot-seat.
On the one loss side, Corteza bounced back with a 9-3 win over Niels Feijen. That win was revenge for Feijen's win over Corteza a little over a week ago in the finals of the International Challenge of Champions. The win over Feijen was not enough to satisfy Corteza though. He went on to score a 9-5 win over Ralf Souquet, which set up a rematch with Orcollo. The rematch was very short, as Corteza ripped through Orcollo 9-2 in all of twenty two minutes.
In the final race to thirteen match, Corteza came out firing and cruised to a 12-2 lead over Ulrich. A scratch on the break by Corteza let Ulrich back to the table and he took full advantage by winning running five straight racks to narrow the margin to five games at 12-7. Then it was Ulrich whose break deserted him as he came up dry. That was Ulrich's last shot as Corteza ran the last rack for the 13-7 win.
Follow all of the match results with our online brackets.
Photo courtesy of Bruce Clayton
