Misc. ramblings from the Open:
More strong filipino players here than in Manila! Van Corteza, Django, Gallego, Alcano, Kiamco and Luat. And this tournament is 9,000 miles away! Jonathan Sy brought many of these guys over here, and is putting them in action nightly at Q Master. Orcollo is playing on the Guinness Tour in Asia right now. That's why he isn't here. And Efren is sick at home we are told.
A shame that one of the main topics of conversation is about the recent World Ten Ball and will the players get paid. Many of these players are here and beginning to get antsy. I feel bad right now for Darren Appleton who is owed $100,000. I'm praying for him, one of the truly good guys in pool. A very strong European contingent is here, and I look for one of them to be there at the end.
Many good Asian players in the field, but none from Chinese Taipei. Maybe it's because of the Guinness Tour, but who knows. EVERYONE wants to see Wu over here, including me. I tell everyone he may be the best player on Earth today. We are working on a Challenge Match between reigning World Cup champs SVB and Rodney vs. either a team from Taipei, the Philippines or Great Britain. It will be held at next years DCC. Will keep you posted on this one, when it is set.
Good action nightly at Q Master. Two nights ago, Matt Clatterbuck beat Ronnie Wiseman in a 12 Ahead, Ten Ball match in a little over two hours. He won $7,000 and HE GOT PAID! Last night Donnie Mills played Warren Kiamco for $3,000, a Race to 26. With the score tied 20-20 Donnie shut Warren down, running six perfect racks! Soft break, made the corner ball and left the one near the far corner pocket. Six times in a row! Never got out of line and never had to make a hard shot. He played PERF!
Big mix up the first day. Flyers had been distributed saying the players meeting was at 3 PM Sunday, with the tourney getting underway at 8 PM. That was changed to a 8 PM players meeting on Saturday (a day earlier), with play starting at 11 AM Sunday. Unfortunately some players showed up on Sunday (Santos for one) and didn't get to play. Tony Robles also came late but he just got in on time. He is rolling too, three wins over all strong players. He beat Gallego last night 11-5 and has Johnny tonight. I have no idea why this happened but I saw the flyers which clearly stated Sunday 3 PM for the players meeting. Someone dropped the ball here big time.
Consequently the field only has 236 players and not a full field of 256. A strong field nonetheless. Barry Behrman stated that he would still add $85,000. Not too shabby, only the biggest and best tourney in the USA. This is still more than the $72,000 added last year.
One final disconcerting note. You may not be aware that the IPT and Trudough never completed the promised payouts. He still owes a final payment (11%) to all the players, and more to the players from the Qualifiers. ALL players I discussed this with said they had not yet gotten the last payment. Interesting how this was swept under the rug when he started his new round or events. All may be forgiven, but is definitely not forgotten. Once a con man, always a con man is my comment on this. I still think he only paid what he did under duress and fear for his life. JMO of course.
