9 Pinoys advance, but three crash out

The undefeated Francisco "Django" Bustamante joined eight other Filipino cue artists into the third round, but three of their compatriots crashed out of the US$3 million IPT World Open 8-Ball Championship at the Grand Sierra Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Bustamante easily made himself as the brightest hope of the Philippine contingent to win the whopping US$500,000 (Php26.5 million) grand prize with a perfect 9-0 record, so far.

Bustamante demolished Tang Hoa of United States, Ben Nunan of Australia and Carl Morris of United Kingdom via similar 8-2 decision. He then whipped Taiwanese Hung Ming Chua (8-5) before pulling off an 8-7 cliffhanger over Dutch hitman Nick Van Den Berg.

Bustamante was joined into the round of 60 by Efren "Bata" Reyes, Dennis Orcollo, Ronnie Alcano, Alex Pagulayan, Antonio Lining, Ramil Gallego, Rodolfo Luat and Jose "Amang" Parica.

Cebuano Warren Kiamco, Santos Sambajon and Marlon Manalo were not fortunate enough as inferior showing in the second round sent them packing.

Reyes dropped just two of his five games in the second day of action. He notched victories over Americans Allison Fisher (8-1) and Samuel Jones (8-3) and Italian Fabio Petroni (8-6), but lost to Chris Melling of England (8-7) and Kim Davenport of USA (3-8).

So far, Orcollo emerged as the second best Pinoy performer next to Bustamante with only one defeat in nine starts.

After suffering his first setback at the hands of American Ernesto Dominguez, 4-8, Orcollo charged back with four straight wins over Americans Shannon Daulton (8-4) and Louis Butera (8-3), Markus Juva of Finland, 8-5, and Neil Raybone of United Kingdom, 8-4.

Alcano and Pagulayan posted 3-2 win-loss in round two. Alcano counted on Italian Sandor Tot (8-7), Australian Johl Younger (8-7) and American Jason Kirkwood (8-4) among his latest victims, while Pagulayan added Austrian Jasmin Ouschan (8-4), French Vincen Facquet (8-5) and Frank Hernandez (8-0) in his victims' list.

Lining trounced Americans Earl Strickland (8-2), Shane Van Beoning (8-5) and Larry Schwartz (8-5) and Japanese Futura Kazuo (8-7), while Gallego outlasted fellow Pinoy Marlon Manalo (8-5), Americans Lee Heuwagen (8-2) and Dallas West (8-4) and Taiwanese Hui-Kai Hsia (8-7).

Parica bested Americans Cliff Joyner (8-4) and Tony Chohan (8-2) and Chilean Alejandro Carvajal (8-2), while Luat kept his slim championship hopes alive by getting past Americans Michael Zimmerman (8-3) and Adam Wheeler (8-7).

Kiamco was not as lucky as he joined Manalo and Sambajon to the showers after incurring three losses yesterday.

After escaping with an 8-7 win over American Dennis Hatch, 8-7, Kiamco crumbled in his next three matches against Americans Nick Varner (2-8), Johnny Archer (4-8) and Danny Harriman (1-8).

Aside from a bowing to Gallego, Manalo also fell prey at the hands of Englishman Karl Boyles, 2-8, American Dallas West, 6-8, and Taiwanese Hui-Kai Hsia (7-8), while Sambajon lost to Dimitri Jungo of Switzerland (2-8) and Japanese Takeshi Okumura (3-8).

Kiamco, Manalo and Sambajon will go home with US$7,000 each.