SUN.STAR Superbalita champions Alex Pagulayan and Dennis Orcullo will carry the country’s colors as Asia’s elite pool players gather for the Guinness 9-Ball Tour grandfinals in Jakarta Indonesia on Oct. 24 to 26.
The finals, which is the culmination of the six-leg tour of the series, features the Top 10 of the Tour’s Order of Merit and a top prize of $36,000.
Amongst the Top Ten are two World Pool Champions—2005 WPA 8-Ball and 9-Ball king Wu Chia-Ching of Chinese-Taipei and 2004 WPA World champion Pagulayan of the Philippines—as well as current WPA World No.1 Orcullo and defending grand final champion Chang Jung-Lin.
Both Pagulayan, who won the Superbalita crown in 2007, and Orcullo, a two-time Superbalita champion, skipped the just-concluded WPA 10-Ball championships hosted by the Philippines where Wu lost in the finals against Darren Appleton.
Pagulayan, who won the Singapore leg of the Guinness Tour, is the highest-ranked Pinoy in the Order of Merit at fourth with 165 points, while Joven Bustamante is fifth with 160 points.
Orcullo is seventh with 140 points owing to his success in the Guanzhou leg.
The host country also got a wild card entry in Ricky Yang, its highest-ranked player.
Prize money
Up for grabs in the grand finals is $72,000. The eleven players will be divided into two groups of six and five and the players in each group will play in a single round robin format. The top two players from each group will advance to the semifinals and the final two will play for the $36,000 top prize.
In addition, the top ten players in the grand final have also qualified for next year’s WPA World 9-Ball Championship as the Guinness 9-Ball Tour is the only ranking tour in Asia for players to qualify for the WPA World 9-Ball Championship.
The six-city Tour previously had stops in Chinese-Taipei, Penang, Genting Highlands, Singapore, and Guangzhou. (ML from PR)
