John is a great player and he can beat anybody. Nonetheless, I think that beating the winner of Shane Van Boening vs Marcus Chamat will be a very tall order. I consider them two of the players with a realistic chance of winning the event. Van Boening is now a confirmed susperstar, and Chamat looked awfully strong in NYC last weekend, beating Thorsten Hohmann, Mika Immonen, Rodney Morris, Tony Robles and Raj Hundal in succession.
Good luck to John, but I think his draw is too unfavorable for him to be the lone survivor of his quarter of the winner's bracket draw.