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At
the 8th edition of the Derby City Classic in Louisville, KY, promoter
Diamond Billiards could welcome a record high number of participants. In the
first discipline, the 9-Ball Banks, 471 competed for the first points
for the overall ranking of the World All Around title. In 9-Ball Banks, the
aim is to pocket 5 balls via bank shots. The player who does so wins a rack
and to win a match, one has to win three racks. However, it is not allowed
to play rail shots and all bank shots must be announced (pocket and number
of rails hit). And the shots have to be clean bank shots, which means that
the object ball may not touch any other ball on its way to the pocket.
My first opponent was Nick Vita from the USA, whom I
could defeat after a good performance 3-1. In my second match, I clearly won
3-0 against Mark Wilson (USA). In my third match against Ryan McCreesh
(USA), I sure was the outsider, but with a good performance, I could make
him doubt. In spite of me trailing 0-1 racks and 1-4 balls, I turned the
match around and won 3-1. In round four, I had to play Larry Nevel (USA),
one of the big pretenders for the victory in this discipline. In less than
20 minutes, he sent me to the losers side – 0-3. I did not stand the
slightest chance in this match and had an opportunity to watch world class
bank pool. I just hope that I could retain something from this lesson for my
future. Since there is no losers bracket in this tournament, but the
possibility of a second buy-in after the first defeat, I did so. But in
round 5, this discipline was finished for me, because Brian Groce (USA)
played just too well and did not leave me much of a chance when winning 3-1.
Even if this was not my best result in bank pool at the DCC, I made good
progress and I hope for more next year.
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In
the second discipline One Pocket 424 players competed for the
points. This discipline was also played in races to 3, and to win a
rack, the player has to pocket 8 balls in one of the two corner
pockets at the short rail.
After I waited more than 10 hours for my match to
start, it finally was kicked off at 23h00. The first rack was very
long, because the match turned out to be a real defence battle. My
opponent was already leading with 7-1 balls, when we played one
after the next, all balls in the upper half of the table. After 70
long minutes, I could win the rack 8-7. All of a sudden, my opponent
seemed not to feel well and had to take a time-out. After 15 minutes,
he came back and retired from the match. My second opponent was Nick
Vita (USA), whom I had already played in bank pool. But bad enough,
the match did not take place because he did not show up and so I had
already entered round 3. My opponent was Tony Mougey (USA), who
played in a very self-assured manner and deserved to win 3-2. I did
another buy-in and could win round 4 against Damian Alishan (USA)
3-1. I could win one more match before finally being defeated in
round 6. My result amongst the top 40 in One Pocket was satisfying
and the game is more and more pleasant for me.
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In
the meantime, a short 14.1 high series tournament was played,
which did not count for the overall ranking. The stake was 50
dollars for three attempts to play a high series, with a free break
ball. The format said that for each 20 pocketed balls, the player
had one try in the final stage. The highest series in the qualifying
stage was played by Danny Harriman (USA) with 139 balls, which
brought him some prize money and 6 tries in the final. Second best
was Alex Pagulayan (PHI) with 110 balls and 5 tries in the final.
Thomas Engert (GER) and myself only played 42 balls and had only 2
tries in the final.
The final day was not one of my best days and after
having consulted with a surgeon, I could not even pocket one single
rack. Thomas played much better and played first a 56 series which
was only stopped by bad luck, when the cue ball fell. In his second
try, he showed that he belongs to the best
14.1 players in the world. With 128 balls, he played the highest
series in the final and won before Corey Deuel (USA) who pocketed
121 balls. However, Thomas missed the overall highest series by
little, when he had already pocketed 128 balls with an open table
– he missed a mere 3600 $ with an unnecessary mistake.
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The
last regular discipline was 9-Ball with a record-breaking 471
participants. The format were races to 7. My first opponent was Mike Duke
(USA), whom I defeated 7-1. I won my next two matches 7-1 and 7-5, before
playing Denver Barger (USA) in round 4. I won 7-3 and had then to play my
best billiards to defeat Rick Howard (USA) 7-4. In round 7, I waited more
than 45 minutes for my opponent Mark Vidal (USA), before tournament
director Scott Smith scored the match as a win for me. In round 8, I was
facing Scott Frost (USA), one of the best All Around players of our times.
The current One Pocket US Open champion who has won numerous other One
Pocket titles, is also a difficult opponent in 9-Ball. I played very
solidly and made use of 4 scratches (the cue ball fell upon my opponents
shots) and won merciless 7-1. But in round 9, the Japanese player Hiroshi
Takenaka caught me off-guard and with his perfect game, inflicted me the
first defeat. I could not help the 3-7 defeat. I made another buy-in and
was lucky to draw a walk-through in round 10. This can happen because the
players can buy in after their first defeat, which can lead to an uneven
number of players in a given round. In round 11, against Mark Jarvis
(USA), I played my worst match of the tournament. But the player from the
USA was not making use of the fact that I was trailing all the time. At
4-5, he missed the great opportunity to take a 4-6 lead. Finally, I scored
a lucky 7-5 and had to play the Philippine player Rodolfo Luat in round
12. I already seemed to be on the losing side trailing 2-5, but then I
could run out 4 tables and finally won 7-5. In round 13, only 4 players
were left in the competition and all had already lost one match. So, it
came to “real” semi-finals and this was the draw: Rodolfo Luat vs.
Efren Reyes (both PHI) and Johnny Archer (USA) against me. Luat defeated
Reyes and I did not leave a chance to Archer when I upset him 7-2. So, the
final was a re—make of my match against Rodolfo Luat. The first rack was
very tight and after a series of safety shots, I could take a 1-0 lead.
After the break, I could only play a safety and this safety was not
perfect. The re-safe played by Luat was not bad, but I could kick the 3 as
a rail shot in the direction of the 9 ball, which was located a few
centimetres aside the middle pocket. After checking on all options, I
decided to play this one and hit the 3 ball perfectly. I pocketed the 9
ball to take a 2-0 lead and ran out the next 5 racks to finally win 7-0. I
could not have finished the final in any better way and after a long way,
I could win a major title again.
Interesting fact: the winners of the individual
disciplines are exactly the same ones than in 2004. The 9-Ball Banks
competition was won by Jason Miller (USA), the One Pocket event was
dominated for the fourth time by Efren Reyes (PHI) and I could win for the
second time the 9-Ball tournament. Just in the overall ranking of the
World All Around, there were some changes. The fact that Jason Miller had
made it to the final in One Pocket and that he had reached the top 20 in
9-Ball, made him the new Master of the Table 2006. Runner-up was Efren
Reyes, followed by Alex Pagulayan (PHI). In 2004, my 9-Ball victory was
good enough for a 3rd overall rank – this year it was only sufficient
for a top 8 rank.
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