Dennis Orcollo
In a three-hour epic battle to (presumably) win at least one of the events of the 1st Annual Omega Diamond Open before they headed for events along the Virginia coast later this month, Dennis Orcollo and Sky Woodward struggled until 3:45 a.m. on Monday morning to claim the last title available – the $10,000-added One Pocket title. All told, including their earlier battle for the hot seat, they invested the last four hours of their five days at the event to determine which of them would go home with first-place cash in their pocket. It was Dennis Orcollo who did so, winning two of their three matches by an aggregate score of 10-6.
The One Pocket matches began on Thursday, with 24 of the 32 allotted spaces filled. Woodward was awarded an opening round bye, while Orcollo faced Alex Pagulayan in his opening round. Orcollo shut Pagulayan out, advancing to down one of the game’s premier competitors Josh Roberts 4-2. He then defeated the winner of the Diamond Open’s first event (the 10-Ball tournament), Roberto Gomez, to face Shane Van Boening in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Woodward shut out Jason Brown and sent Roland Garcia to the loss side to face Alex Calderon in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Woodward battled Calderon to a double-hill final game before advancing to the hot seat match. Orcollo had less trouble with Van Boening, allowing him only a single rack, before advancing to meet Woodward. Woodward took the first of their three 4-2 and claimed the hot seat.
On the loss side, Calderon picked up Roberto Gomez, who’d followed his loss to Orcollo with victories over two ‘Jasons,’ although more accurately, one Jayson (Shaw) and a Jason (Brown). Van Boening drew Evan Lunda, who’d lost his opening match and was four matches into a six-match, loss-side streak that would take him all the way to the semifinals and had included the significant elimination of Josh Roberts, Justin Hall and Fedor Gorst.
Lunda made it five in a row, downing Van Boening 4-1. Calderon battled Gomez to double hill before eliminating him to join Lunda in the quarterfinals.
It became six in a row, when Lunda navigated his way to a double hill win over Calderon. Orcollo ended Lunda’s loss-side winning streak 4-1 in the semifinals.
Sunday had turned into Monday when Orcollo won the opening set of the true double elimination final 4-1. By 3:45 a.m., Orcollo had done it again, downing Woodward a second time 4-1 to grab the final prize up for grabs in the first, though according to Michael Hoang, head of Omega Billiards, not the last Omega Diamond Open.
