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Saturday, 8 October 2011

(Manila, Philippines)-- World 8-ball champion Dennis Orcullo snapped yesterday the winning streak of the hottest player in the National Pool Championship — to regain top-rank status in the highly contested tournament of the Billiards and Snooker Congress of the Philippines.

The world No.1 player defeated the erstwhile unbeaten Allan Cuartero, 9-5, in the quarterfinals of the 9-Ball event on Friday night at the Star Billiards Center in Quezon City.

The win gave the man known as “The Robocop” one of the two outright seats in the Final Four of the event,  that serves as a qualifying event for the AKTV World Pool Summit in November. The National Pool Championship of the Philippines is being played as a multi-discipline event. Players are competing in 8-ball, 9-ball and 10-ball with the overall winner being crowned Grand Master. 

“Slowly but surely, I’m beginning to get my game going,” said Orcullo.

Orcullo started to break the game wide open beginning the 10^th rack when he won three consecutive racks en route to posting an 8-4 lead.

Although Cuartero managed to salvage a game in the 13^th, there was no denying the hottest player in the international circuit as he went back to the table in the 14^th and disposed off the remaining balls one by one to complete the win – and hand Cuartero his first loss in nine matches stretching back to the 8-Ball event that started Monday.

Cuartero, who is already assured of a finals berth in the 8-Ball event, fell into the loser’s bracket and will await the winner of the Dodong Andam-Carlo Biado match.

While Orcullo was beginning to make his presence felt in the 9-Ball event, Jerico Banares was sizzling on all fronts, winning his first five games capped by a near perfect performance against Roberto Gomez.

Banares, the former Philippine junior champion, nearly swept Gomez, the former world pool runner-up, 9-1.

The youthful cue artists from Antipolo City also had a near flawless performance on Thursday night when he subdued Jeff de Luna, 9-1.  In beating Gomez, Banares joined Orcullo as the only players to advance to the Final Four so far.

Renemar David, another rising pool star, and Edgi Geronimo pulled off contrasting victories in the loser’s bracket  to keep their flickering hopes alive for the other two semis berths.

David whipped veteran Rene Cruz, 9-6, while Geronimo edged Arvi Tanega in a hill-hill encounter, 9-8.