NEWS  May 29, 2006 UPA Predator Florida Open 10-Ball – 3 German players in the top 8


Karim and Thomas

As already in the recent years, Dragon Promotion organized once more the Predator Florida Open, a ranking tournament of the American UPA. With 72 participants, the event was well booked for the first time since long, however, compared to the EuroTour, this was rather a small event. More than a third of the participants came from outside the US, so that the tournament had a very international flair. My personal sponsor „Seybert’s Billiard Supply“ was co-sponsor of the event and took care of the online broadcasting of the results on their site http://www.seyberts.com

After a walk-through in round one, I played the winner of the Players Championship March 2006, Dennis Hatch (USA). It was a typical first round match and both players committed mistakes. The Brunswick Metro tables „Tournament Edition“ had very tight holes. The Simonis 860 cloth, which was not tight enough at spots and the extreme air humidity in Florida, made the game very difficult. Even if we both played almost without errors towards the end, I finally had to give in 7-9.

In the losers bracket, I had another walk-through and then played Ron Park (USA). I played well and won 9-4 and then was opposed to Walter Blacker from Jacksonville. Already last year I had the pleasure to play this car salesman whose objective was to avoid another 9-0. It was a relaxed match and Blacker managed for the first time to score two racks. With this 9-2, I entered the next round against US player Rob Saez. This match was more interesting, since it was the so-called money-match. The winner would enter the prize money ranks and the loser had to travel back home without anything. The match turned out to be a fight which remained open until the very end. At 8-8, things looked bad, since Saez had won the first break and this meant that he now had the break, too. He pocketed on ball, but then had to play a safety. I played a good shot via the rail and left him with a re-safe. Saez did the same and with a kick ball, I answered in the right way with a super safety. He managed to contact the ball via 4 rails, but he left me with a good position. I could pocket the remaining 5 balls to win 9-8 and started to prepare for a long Saturday night. In the evening session, I first played Danny Hewitt from Canada, who just had lost to Thomas Engert (GER). In the beginning, I was trailing until 3-5. The Canadian was a tough player and had a very constant break shot. Then I could finally win a break rack and this seemed to interrupt his game. From now on, he did not play well upon his own break and I won rack after rack. I finally won 9-5 and entered the next round against Dave Grossman (USA). This match was pretty balanced in the first place, but the more the match continued, the more I could put my opponent under pressure and force him to make mistakes. I won 9-4 and in my last match this evening, I played Gandy Valle from the Philippines, who just had lost to Corey Deuel (USA), in spite of an early 6-1 lead.

I could even improve my game and played an almost perfect set. Without too much trouble, I won 9-3 and entered the round of the last 8 players. Two of my fellow countrymen had also entered this round. In the losers bracket, Thorsten Hohmann qualified to play Jeremy Jones on the final day and in the winners bracket Thomas Engert, who had to play the Finnish player Mika Immonen in the semi-finals. I had to play another Philippine player, Dennis Orcullo, who had recently qualified for the IPT tour. I did not play up to my form of the previous day and made two huge mistakes right at the beginning. However, I was leading by one rack all along the match, but only pocketed once a ball upon my break, so that the break was more a handicap than an advantage. At 7-7, my opponent played a bad position on the 9 ball and I hoped to take the lead again. But via two rails, he hit the 9 ball so well that both the cue ball and the 9 ball were parallel at the cushion. I tried a bank shot with a safety option, but the 9 ball only hit the edge of the middle pocket and jumped back to the middle of the table.

Orcullo tried to play a safety and left me with a long 9 ball. I could have played an aggressive shot, but the danger was that the cue ball would drop, too. So I decided to play a safety, but this safety was not too good. The player from the Philippines payed the long, difficult and thin 9 ball and took the lead at 8-7. In rack 16, no balls were pocketed upon the break and my opponent could win the match with a 4 – 9 combination. I was not satisfied with my 7th rank, after having played that well the previous day. Hohmann played on the next table and did not play better than me – he lost 8-9 to Jones, having already trailed 2-6 and having even had the lead at 8-7. Thorsten had to make do with rank 7 as well. Thomas Engert was more successful – he made use of all mistakes made by Immonen and secured a spot in the final winning 9-2.

His opponent was US player Corey Deuel, who had clearly defeated Immonen in the final of the losers bracket 9-3.
The finals was one of those „who makes more mistakes“ shows. First, Engert allowed Deuel to take the lead. Deuel then missed a 10 ball and allowed Engert to equal the score. And this is who it continued until the end. A match with loads of mistakes on both sides, whereas the US player made 5 more mistakes and this is what allowed Engert to finally win. Engert underlined his great current shape and will be also one of the favourites at the upcoming 14.1 WC.

Seyberts.com will also be there to cover the 14.1 WC.