By: Erik Hjorleifson
This past week in Gibraltar the world pool masters promoted by Matchroom Sports held their annual 16 player invitational showdown. This tournament is a one of the longest running on the international scene and continues to be one of the prestigious titles up for grabs throughout the year.
This years participants included a who's who of pool superstars from around the world. The west was represented by two time winner Shane Van Boening and Alex Pagulayan, the east had 2015 U.S open winner Kevin Cheng and runner up in two major events in 2016 Chang Jun Lin. Europe's hopes were headed by Jayson Shaw, Neils Feijen, David Alcaide, Ralf Souquet, Albin Ouschan and Mark Gray. The middle east had one representative in Omar Al Shaheen who had a resurgent season in 2016.
This event was single elimination race to 8 winner breaks with the 9 racked on the spot and was played out on live T.V. in many countries around the world. In round one Alex Pagulayan would start his journey against the host country qualifier who was a 2500 hundred to one underdog in the match betting provided by an online English book maker.
Gibraltar is not known as a country with billiards experience but 2500 is an astronomical number. What if the nine lined up off the break 5 or six games in a row? Or the forbidden lay down in which if Alex was involved his conglomerates would only have to bet 100$ to win $250 000!!! pretty tempting when first prize was only $20 000!!! However honour and cooler heads prevailed as Pagulayan advanced easily with an 8-1 win. Omar Al Shaheen had a nice win over Neils Feijen and David Alcaide put the field on notice with n 8-3 win over Ralf Soquet.
In round two David Alcaide continued his strong play defeating Shane van Boening. The quarter finals would also feature the match of the tournament between Alex Pagulayan and Jayson Shaw, with the score tied at 7 all alex made a nice out from the one ball including a good recovery shot on the eight. His position on the nine ended up on the rail but without pressure it was a shot that he might miss one in a hundred. This happened to be that one time and after the match Pagulayan admitted to be nervous on the shot, so for all of you amateurs who I'm sure get nervous all the time don't sweat it even the best all around player in the world is not immune to pressure.
Naoyuki Oi also added some color to the event with his crazy interviews
In the semi finals Jayson Shaw defeated current world nine ball champion Albin Ouschan and David Alcaide defeated the red hot Chang Jun Lin from Taipei. The final would prove to be another close affair. David Alcaide would make his first final appearance in a major event after years of solid performances and having a spot on the list of as one of the best players never to win a major.
Jason Shaw came in as the most successful player in the world in the last 6 months and the betting odds favorite at 6 to 1 at the start of the tournament. Shaw would reach the hill first in this match, leading 7-6 after a tough positional shot on the 5 he landed in a tricky spot on the 6. Shaw went for the pot and missed but hooked Alcaide who then played a nice kick safe leaving distance but still a very make-able ball for Shaw. To everyone's surprise Shaw known for his potting missed again perhaps feeling some nerves himself. Amazingly he hooked Alcaide again but Alcaide calmly jumped the ball n and proceeded to break and run the final rack for the win, big congratulations goes out to him on his first major title.
1st David Alcaide $20 000
2nd Jayson Shaw $10 000
3rd Albin Ouschan $5000
4th Chang Jun Lin $5000
