As the Predator International 10 Ball Championships continues to catch a gear, there have been several upsets along with stand out dominant play.
Tony Robles from NY continued his dominant play over Japanese player Hiroshi Takenaka after Hiroshi closed the gap from a 6-1 lead to 6-5... Tony caught a gear and defeated Hiroshi 10-6.
Also look out for Manuel Gamma from Portugal who is riding high with the support of his Portugal entourage from the Pro-Pool League in his corner. Manuel is a "Pool Elite" in Portugal which he earned coming up the ranks in his native homeland. Many players from the US have not heard of Manuel... keep him on your radar for this event to make a statement.
Jeremy Jones looked strong as he knocked out a determined Al Lepena 10-7.
Florida pool player James Roberts continues to play stellar pool throughout the event. In day two James upset current #1 USA pro Johnny Archer 10-5.
Spanish player Carlos Cabello was impressive in defeating Ralph Souquet, who was considered a favorite to win the event. Carlos clutched out a key "Hill-Hill" victory over the current World 8 Ball Champion to the delight of his deep entourage.
Dan Heidrich was able to escape a 7-0 deficit out of the grips of reining World Straight Pool Champion Niels Feijn. Niels could not close it out as he began to make many uncharacteristic mistakes en-route to a shocking 10-8 loss.
Live scoring and brackets can be followed at www.predator10ball.com
TUESDAY DAY TWO ACTION:
9:30 PM MATCHES
In the 9:30 pm matches we had no big surprises, as the top seeds cruised through their matches with ease. Interestingly, very few of the top pros were paired against each other.
The Russian, Ruslan Chinahov lost to Nick Van Den Berg 10-8, with Nick continuing his stellar play in yet another match.
Thorsten Hohmann took down Hunter Lombardo 10-7. Thorsten appeared very confident during the match, and looked to be the winner from the get go.
Steve Lillis just did not have the game to stand up to Corey Deuel, and went quietly to the losers side 10-1. Warren Kiamco beat Kim Shaw 10-3, also never looking threatened at any point in the match.
Allison Fisher failed in her attempt to stay on the winner's side when she lost to Lee Van Corteza. Rodney Morris took no time to get the better of one of New York top young guns, Marc Vidal 10-5. Rodney, who always tells me that he just doesn't play much any more, always seems to come through in these big tournaments. I guess it says that even if he does not practice, he still has a game that is good enough to place high in tournaments.
Kim Davenport was matched up against this year's World Pool Masters Champion and present World 10 Ball Champion, Darren Appleton of England. Kim did not give up on this one and fought to the very end until Darren edged him out 10-8.
Dennis Orcollo (PHI) soon took charge of his match with Allen Hopkins, and won convincingly 10-2. Look for Dennis to avenge himself for what he considers his under-par play in the preceeding World Pool Masters Tournament held in this same arena just a few days ago.
Tony Robles came out the winner in his match with Hiroshi Takenaka (JAP) 10-6, Tony who has ben showing great form on The Predator 9-Ball Tour in New York of late, should do well here this week.
Yu-Ram Cha (KOR) could not get the better of Sylver Ochoa, and had to retreat to the loser's side to continue her chance of success in this event losing 10-6. I expect this talented young lady to win a few more matches, and have been very impressed with her play to date.
Dave Hemmah ended his run on the winner's side of the bracket when he ran into an in-form Mika Immonen, who has been playing as good a pool as I have ever seen from him, beating Dave 10-4. Expect Mika to advance right to the end of the bracket. WHen he is on he is hard to beat.
11:30 PM MATCHES
The 11:30 PM matches did supply one surprise, when Charlie Bryant got out muscled by Roberto Gomez (Phi) with a lop sided score line of 10-1. Roberto does not venture away from home much, and as such we do not get to see his game that often. Well let me tell you that he has a bloody great game, as was shown when he took runner up in the 2007 World 9 Ball Championship held in Manilla, Phi. Look to see Roberto around when it comes to the weekend.
Mike Davis just could not handle the fine play of Alex Pagulayan on the TV table, and went to the left side 10-3. Alex was his usual bubbly self, and seems to like the limelight of the TV table, and also showed us his A game, to the delight of the crowd watching.
James Roberts had to play Karl Boyes from the UK, and ran into a buzz saw losing 10-3. Karl who proclaims not to have hit a ball in a year, must either have very good muscle memory or he is trying to snow us with bum information. Karl looks very sharp at the table and is still on the winners side and taking scalps left right and center.
Tyler Edey was matched up against 2006 US Open Champion John Schmidt, in a match that either could have won at the end of the day. The match went to and fro with the score, and John finally got to the finishing line first, with a close score of 10-8 to John. We did however see a better game from Tyler than the one he showed when he substituted for Alain Martel (CAN) in the World Pool Masters last weekend here in Vegas.
Manuel Gama (POR) quickly ended Dan Heidrich's event when he blitzed him 10-1, it was moving day for the pros and many of the semi-pros were jumping from the left side of the boat in droves.
The slowest match of the evening session was Oliver Ortmann against Shawn Putnam. This match was a drawn out affair and close throughout the match, with Shawn getting to 9-8 first. During this game Shawn accidently left Oliver no shot on the 7 ball, and Oliver decided to jump this long shot on the seven into the side pocket.
He made a great jump cutting the ball into the side , but could not stop the ball flying up and down the table, and ended up scratching. Just leaving the 8 & 9 ball for Shawn to finish the game.
LAST THIRTY TWO PLAYERS
At the end of the day we now know the top half of the winner's side that will be in the last 32, to be played on Friday:
Tony Drago (MAL)
Alex Pagulayan (PHI)
Karl Boyes (UK)
John Schmidt (USA)
Manuel Gama (POR)
Shawn Putnam (USA)
Roberto Gomez (PHI)
To be played
We will be posting more news on Wednesday's play later this evening, and thank you for reading our story on this great event - See you soon.
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