Hard Times Packs A PUNCH On The 10-Ball Trail

Alex Pagulayan (Photo courtesy of Andy Chen)

Known to many here as the Home Of Champions in Southern California, Hard Times, Bellflower is the place where pool  dreamers and pool-pros from all corners, to soak up some those 'Cali' rays and loosen their stroke in preparation for the U.S. Open, 10-Ball Championship, happening next week in Las Vegas at the BCA Nationals.

So, without further ado, our results from the last two days play:

The Final 8 Players…

It's all about Alex; quickly recovering his stroke from an early knockout at the Seminole Pro-Tour stop last week, held at California Billiards Club in Mountain Veiw. Alex Pagulayan got to clock out early on day 2, after pushing back Brandon Shuff (9-3) and then John "Johnny Rocket" Demet, (9-5) to the 1-loss side. Alex opened his first day defeating Lorry De Leon (9-1) and the Jenny Lee (9-2).

Alex hits the quarter finals waiting to face off with Chris Bartram, who is also undefeated. Chris worked hard for his pool stripes this weekend beating Mike Davis, who was at one point ahead 6 games to 2. Mike eventually found himself unscrewing his cue after a nail-biting 9-7 loss to Chris. Chris then went on to beat Jeff Carter, (9-4) and went on to cool the jets of Rodney "The Rocket" Morris for yet another exciting 9-7 final. And if that wasn't enough, Chris also managed to prevent Oscar Dominguez, (9-5) from claiming his home turf in SoCal and sending him back to hold court with Jesse Engel in the 1-loss side.

Tokyo pool superhero, Kenichi Uchigaki took it in stride, beating Wei Ni (9-4) and Curtis "CJ" Johnson (9-3) on the first day. Day 2 - a close call with Sal Butera who made it to the hill against Kenichi but that was it. Kenichi hurled a 5 game streak at Sal to take the match back and win, (8-4). A win against Rodney served only as fuel, for Kenichi was now revved up and ready to race Santos Sambajon defeating Santos, 9-4. No doubt, Kenichi has had a workout these last two days; he should now be ready to match up with Jose Parica on Day 3. Parica defeated Chris Wedekind (9-3) , Jun Almoite (9-4), Stan "The Man" Tourangeau (9-4) and Hard Times house pro Dave Hemmah (9-5).  

On the 1-Loss side:
- Louis Ulrich vs. Jesse Engel
- Efren Reyes vs. Rodney Morris

Full bracket  for the tournament can be viewed here.

Streaming Live…Go-Go-Go!
Stream provided by Andy Chen at: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/hard-times-10-ball-open  Please join us at 11:30am on Sunday, May 8th for some action packed 10-Ball on the 3rd and final day, which starts at 12:00 noon

Hey Pacquiao! Are you swinging by!?