My World Pool Masters Experience

Double-Dave · 2006-06-19T10:10:28+00:00

Wow. What a great day and half of the highest quality pool. I really enjoyed my time in Egmond, making a great new friend along the way. I shared my hotelroom with a previously unknown person to me and it turned out great, he was such a nice guy. Unfortunately I had to miss the friday matches and both the semi's and the final but what I did see was awesome. The first match I saw was the first round match between Pagulayan and Davis. I had never seen either player in person, and was very impressed with the way Alex plays, he really earns that Lion nickname he's fearless! Steve never really got into the match mainly because he hasn't been playing alot of pool lately, he also had a few bad rolls. On one occasion he tried to snooker Alex along the long rail with some balls frozen on it, but managed to bank the objectball. He went over to Alex's seat and waving his cue at him kept saying "don't you smile, don't you smile" that was great fun. Also when Alex had to bridge over a ball he used two rests and declared himself "x-man", in his next match they had brought over a q-claw and Alex changed suits to become "batman". What a great caracter this little guy is. he beat Steve 8-4 running 3 or 4 racks. The second match was Imran Mahjid vs. Alex Lely. This never really became a match. Imran played strong and Alex played weak, Alex never ran a rack and Imran just ran away with it without having to work hard. Imran is the UK no. 1 player, and it showed. He has a great stroke and a very nice speed around the table. The third match was one of the main reasons I was there Souquet vs. Reyes. This was a real cracker! In his normal highly methodical fashion Souquet ran and broke his first two racks, Efren missed two balls in his first two resulting in 3-1, Souquet kept going at it and stretched the lead to 6-2. Then Efren found another gear, I saw him play so many shots that I could not pull off realistically it was amazing (or shall we say magic). His quarter ball hits with serious sidespin hit at warp speed are really something else. Efren equalled the match at 6-6 and 7-7 but due to the alternate break Ralph had another chance and ran his rack for a 8-7 victory. I didn't see the Drago - Engert match, but I heard Tony completely deserved this victory, he played awesome. Then, Wu vs. O'Sullivan. This went as expected really. Wu's break in this match was just out of this world. He averedged something like 3 balls on the break. Wu only missed his very first pot. After that he just kept running out. Don't get me wrong Ronnie played good (but has to work on his break ALOT) but there was no beating Wu that night. I almost felt a little sorry for Ronnie, he had no chance. Ronnie scratched once on the break and came up dry on another occasion, the only dry break I saw the in 8 matches. The wing ball went in every single time. You just can't give Wu chances like that, he just runs everything out. He was awesome. Then a heartbreaker Hundal vs. Feijen. Both players played strong, but not great. Hundal stretched out a 6-2 lead that Niels managed to pull back with some great runouts and some unbelieveable shots. His positional play on a 4 ball frozen on the short rail was the best direct screw shot I've seen in a long time. The match went hill-hill at which point Hundal had the break. The nine was kicked towards the pocket, everyone thought it was over, then the nine got kicked again, everyone sighed. Then it got kicked one final time and the match was over. All the dutchies out....boy that sucked. Then Alex P. vs Vilmos Foldes. This was lightning action, both players play fast and furious. That Foldes is a name to remember, he plays so confidently and accurately he had Alex on the ropes for the first half of the match. Alex stuck in there with a couple great shots. One comes to mind where Vilmos left Alex almost snooker on the 1, with the white frozen on the short rail. Alex looked at the table, saw that the 8 was in the corner pocket and caromed it in with the cueball finishing nicely on the 1. Vilmos missed two shots later on and Alex capitalized on that. Also even though Alex is small he seems to have the ability to dislocate his spine cause he bridged over a ball in the middle of the table, that I could not have reached and I'm 5"11, it looked very weird but he made the shot. Ralph vs Mahjid was a disappointment. I don't really enjoy watching Souquet play, and Mahjid couldn't really pot a ball. One of the frames he won was because Ralph missed the eight. The other was a break and run, which Ralph was doing like it was easy. His positional play is so strong that he very rarely has to pull out a big shot, which is impressive in it's own right, but doesn't make for great viewing. Ralph was playing like clockwork, and Imran wasn't. Then Tony Drago vs. Wu. Another cracking match, everytime you blinked one of the players had broke and run another rack. I think there was something like 9 B&R's in 13 games. Tony missed one safety and two pots to Wu's one and that made the difference. A very high quality match that deserved to go hill-hill but again Wu was playing so strong again that he was virtually unbeatable. I also have to say Wu is a perfect gentleman around the table (not that the others aren't) but he never banged his fist on the table, never made a sound, walked away fast when he did miss and so on. After this match I had to leave for home cause the finals would have lasted till 11 p.m. and I still had a 170 mile drive home. I saw all the payers I came for so I was satisfied. The one thing that did surprise me when I came home was Ralph's 8-4 win over Wu. I could see him beating him maybe 8-7 or 8-6 but for 8-4 Wu must have played a little less out of this world. As for Ralph going all the way, this can't really be a surprise since this man has won everything there is to win except the IPT. The venue was also great, nice seating arrangements very good visability. The conditions for the players were also very good. Brand new table, cloth and balls, ample space around the table. Michaela Tabb and the other ref. made sure the audience didn't get out of line. Also sitting with Takenaka and some of the other players in the audience was an enjoyable experience. I can't wait for the next big tournament in my area, I'll definitely go! Now that is my longest post by far. Hope you enjoyed the read. gr. Dave p.s. Sorry no vids or pictures, but Matchroom had a full crew there so DVD's will be made.