Orcollo beats Bustamante to win Derby City Classic Bank Pool title
Dennis Orcollo has won yet another prestigious title by sweeping away the challenge of another Pinoy legend, according to leading Pool site azbilliards.com.
On Tuesday Orcollo topped Francisco Bustamante in the final of the Bank Pool division of the Derby City Classic in the Horseshoe Southern Indiana Hotel and Casino, USA, winning 3 racks to 1.
The victory earns the 2013 SEA Games gold medalist a US$10,000 prize and puts him in a good position to claim the Derby City Classic Master of the Table plum as well, worth an additional US$25,000. The Master of the Table award goes to the player who does best in all of the disciplines on offer.
The DCC is an annual multi-discipline Pool festival with competitions in 9-Ball, Bank Pool, and One-Pocket featuring the finest players in the world. There are also side events like the Diamond Bigfoot 10-Ball Challenge played on an oversize ten-foot table and a Straight Pool (14.1 Continuous) event.
True to Derby City Classic tradition, the tournaments are set up like Poker tournaments, with an entry fee of US$110 and one “buy-back” (re-buy) option of US$50.
Incredibly, out of a field of 361 runners, Orcollo was the very last to use his buy-back after falling to Bustamante in his penultimate match. After Django defeated Earl Strickland in the next match, a finals encounter between the two Pinoys was set.
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Bank Pool, also known as 9 Ball Banks, uses a standard 9-ball rack, but the object of the game is, as the name suggests, to bank balls in instead of shooting them directly. Unlike 9 Ball, the balls can go in any order. Due to the sometimes very defensive nature of the game, the races are short.
Orcollo won the first two racks with inspired shooting. But Bustamante pulled back rack three to make it 2-1.
In a tense rack four Orcollo raced through four balls but narrowly missed a pivotal, potentially title-winning fifth, which caused him to slump in his chair in disgust.
Bustamante leapt at the opportunity, dazzling the crowd in the Accu-Stats arena with a breathtaking four-ball run of his own. But just like Dennis, Bustamante was unable to bank in the fifth ball. Orcollo got back to the table and buried the winning ball, causing him to leap for joy.
Bustamante, last year's Banks champ, settles for the second prize of US$5,000. Orcollo won the Bigfoot 10 Ball last year and finished second to American Max Eberle in the 14.1 event in 2013. Fil-Canadian Alex Pagulayan is the defending champ in the 9-Ball tilt.
Orcollo has also been in-form in the other events this year, thus far unbeaten in the One-Pocket event and also has a 14.1 high run of 141, only bested by Ralf Souquet's 178.
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14.1 Continuous (Straight Pool) is a discipline using all fifteen numbered balls that allows you to pocket any ball in any order, and when there is only one numbered ball left, the remainder are re-racked and play continues, hence the name.
Other Filipinos participating in the DCC this year are Efren Reyes, Lee Vann Corteza, Carlo Biado, and Warren Kiamco. The DCC runs until February 1. This year's event is the 16th running of the competition.
It was also reported on azbilliards that the World Professional Billiard League will host the WPBL All-star Charity Billiards Challenge for Typhoon Yolanda relief in the Philippines on February 14.
The team event features three Pinoys (Orcollo, Biado and Kiamco) against Germany's Thorsten Hohmann, England's Darren Appleton, and Canadian John Morra. The players will play the new Pool discipline of Bonus Ball, which is used in WPBL, also a team league.
Streaming of the matches will be available on PPV at US$9.99 a day or US$29.99 for all ten days. Portions of the proceeds will go to the Rising Asian Pacific Americans Coalition for Diversity, a registered charity founded by Filipina-American Salve Vargas Edelman. For more info, click on www.wpbltv.com.
Follow Bob on Twitter @PassionateFanPH.
