Manny "PacMan" Pacquiao Singles 10 Ball Event Results

by: Erik Hjorleifson

For the past 3 days the billiard rich country of the Philippines has played host to a stunning list of Filipino legends mixed in with a solid contingent of players from around the world. It seems that the billiard promotion in the Philippines has dropped off as of late or at least dropped off the grid of international recognition. There have been numerous Filipino backed tournaments such as the Philippine Open, and the World Ten Ball Championships among others that have been cancelled last minute due of lack of funding. It is not only the Philippines that has seen this downturn but also the rest of the world. But as the saying goes, "everything goes in cycles".

Hopefully what we have seen this week is a sign of things to come as the players response and competition has been second to none, virtually every Filipino of note is in attendance. Imagine walking around a tournament room with these giants; Reyes, Bustamante, Orcollo, Alcano, Pagulayan, Corteza, Biado, Luat Gomez, Kiamco Lining and then throw in young upstarts like Michael Feliciano, Johann Chua and many other unknown Filipinos that have done very well against the international competition. Representing the international side are Rodney Morris and Max Eberle (U.S.A), Ralf Soquet and Thorsten Hohmann (Germany), Ga Young Kim (Korea), and John Morra (Canada). Quite an impressive field.

The tournament is taking place in General Santos, Phillipines billed as a feature event as part of the annual long Tuna Festival. Manny "PacMan" Pacquiao is the promoter/sponsor of the event, he has promoted events and owned billiard rooms in the past and is unofficially the most accomplished celebrity pool player. I can't confirm 100 percent, but I would be very surprised if he didn't play in the event himself.

Specific information for this tournament has been a little hard to come by. I am piecing together this article through information from sunstar.com. Things as simple as draw sheets have been elusive in my searches but here are some notable score lines that I came across; approximately 90 players began play.

Day 1
Ruben Cuna defeats Alex Pagulayan 9-5
Ga Young Kim defeats Bobby Pacquiao 9-3
Warren Kiamco defeats Jimmy Shaik 9-8

Day 2
Lauro Bonga defeats Thorsten Hohmann 9-7
John Morra defeats Reynaldo Lariba   9-4
Lee van Corteza defeats Raul Cabillin 9-7
Michael Feliciano defeats Carlo Biado 9-3

Day 3
Romeo Silvano defeats Ralf Soquet 9-4
Jordan Legaspi defeats Francisco Bustamante 9-6
Ronnie Alcano defeats Max Eberle 9-3

Final 4 on the winners side match-ups
Romeo Silvano vs Jerico Banares
William Manares vs Roberto Gomez

I featured the previous scores because I was trying to show that unknown talent from the Philippines has the ability to beat world class names, also evident in the final 4 on the winners side 3 of the 4 names are unknowns. Regardless where they finish from, they have proven the depth of talent that is present in the Philippines.

On the final day the bigger names began to prevail as Thorsten Hohmann beat Romeo Silvano 11-8 and Roberto Gomez beat Dennis Orcollo 11-9, to set up the final match of the tournament. Gomez has been a little less active on the international scene in the past couple of years but he is a very well respected player with career highlights as runner up in world nine ball championships and a former Beijing open champion. Hohmann is one of the hottest players in the past year. Undoubtedly the players were in fine form after making their way through a field of such quality. The final match would not disappoint and it went all the way down to the wire 13-12.

On September 10th Manny Pacquiao will be promoting a second tournament, the format will be scotch doubles 10 ball and players are allowed to pick their own partner. I believe this is the first tournament where players have the option to pick their own partner so it will be interesting to see how they perform together. As with the first tournament, the majority of the field will be Filipino but there will also be some international participants as well. A couple of notable teams are Manny Pacquiao paired with Marlon Manalo and Canada's John Morra will be playing with Thorsten Hohmann. First prize in the second event is $40 000. Straight-pool will be following it on our blog and hopefully by the end of this tournament we will have launched on our new website platform cuesportnation.com........stay tuned.

Winning Payouts

Thortsen Hohmann $12000
Roberto Gomez $6000
Dennis Orcollo/Romeo Silvano $2500