Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Valle, top Pinoy bets advance in IPT 8-Ball
By Charles Raymond A. Maxey
GANDY Valle, the boyish-looking pool master from Davao City, performed well enough to book a ticket Tuesday to the next phase of the rich International Pool Tour 2006 North American 8-Ball Championships at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Valle, an Asian Games gold medalist and Singapore leg winner of the 2004 San Miguel Asian Tour, won two of his four matches to gain the third and final spot in the tough Group 20.
Victories over Charlie Bryant (8-3) and Jim Raney (8-2) in his first two matches proved to be crucial for Valle, who lost to Oliver Ortmann of Germany (6-8) and Mika Immonen of Finland (5-8) after that. The big guns of Philippine billiards led by Efren "Bata" Reyes and Francisco "Django" Bustamante lorded it over their respective groups to likewise advance.
Reyes, a former World Pool champion, crushed the opposition in posting a clean 4-0 slate in Group 9, while Bustamante reached the next phase with a similar 4-0 record in Group 10.
Alex Pagulayan, the 2004 World Pool titlist, likewise topped Group 4 with a 4-0 slate even as Marlon Manalo (Group 12) and Dennis Orcollo (Group 15) posted the same records to move on.
Also advancing were Ronnie Alcano, Antonio Lining, Rodolfo Luat and Santos Sambajon.
The 120 players who advanced from the original number of 200 will be divided in 20 groups at six players each in the next level. The top three players from each group will then advance to the next level.
Unfortunately for Valle and the rest of the Pinoys still alive, the next phase will see them battling each other to advance further after the rooster of the remaining 120 cue masters were determined.
Valle is entered in Group 48, so are Orcollo and Alcano. Joining them in the group are George San Souci, John Williams and American Corey Deuel.
Reyes and Bustamante are playing the next level also in the same group. Group 45 is composed of Reyes, Bustamante, Philip Harrison, Dee Adkins, Jonathan Macias and Andreja Klasovic.
Luat and Lining are also entered in Group 53.
For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (July 26, 2006 issue)
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