Dennis Orcollo
Racks On The Rocks was the place to be this past weekend. Located in West Peoria, IL and owned by Rob and Heather Williams, the Aramith/Simonis Pro Classic had three divisions – ten ball, one pocket and bar box eight ball.
Sponsors contributing to this $17,000 added event were Aramith, Simonis & Diamond.
The $7,500 added ten ball division started on Wednesday night. Seventeen players anted up their $300 entry fees for this double elimination, race to eleven, winner breaks format played on nine foot tables.
All but two of the players received a first round bye except for Warren Kiamco and Jared Brahler. Unfortunately for Jared, he was defeated 11-1 and headed west. Warren’s next match was a lot closer – he survived an 11-10 squeaker against the always tough Fedor Gorst as did John Morra over Abrahan Martinez. Roberto Gomez blistered Evan Lunda 11-1 and Dennis Orcollo battled “The Great Dane,” Mickey Krause, eventually posting an 11-9 win. Jeremy Seaman also notched an 11-5 win over John Gabriel.
Next match, Seaman ran into a buzz saw named Alex Pagulayan and was soundly defeated 11-1. Round three also saw Jeffrey de Luna defeat Kiamco 11-5 while Dennis Orcollo defeated Corey Deuel 11-8. Gomez didn’t have such an easy time with Morra but pulled out an 11-9 victory.
By the fourth round, it was an all-Filipino winner’s side final four. After trailing or being tied almost the entire match, Pagulayan finally overtook de Luna to win the match 11-9 as did Orcollo over Gomez 11-7. Alex and Dennis advanced to the hot seat match. This match was all Dennis as he locked up his seat in the finals thumping Alex 11-5.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the chart, de Luna dismantled Gomez 11-8 leaving him in fourth place and then Pagulayan 11-6 to face Orcollo in the finals. Alex finished third.
The finals was to be one match – an extended race to fifteen. The match was close with both players trading racks with Dennis reaching the hill first. He pocketed game ball to take the match 15-13. Congratulations, Dennis!!! Great job, Jeff!!!
The one pocket division of the event drew nine players – each paying an entry fee of $1,000. The format in this event was also double elimination – alternate break with races to four. All but two of the players received a first round bye except for Corey Deuel and John Morra. In a hard fought match, Morra edged out Deuel for the win. Round two saw Morra defeat John Gabriel 4-1, Dennis Orcollo edge out Evan Lunda 4-3, Roberto sink Alex Pagulayan 4-2 and Warren Kiamco sneaked by Ike Runnels 4-3.
In the third round, Orcollo beat Morra 4-2 and Kiamco blitzed Gomez 4-0. This set up the hot seat match with Warren eking out the win 4-3 sending Dennis over to the one loss side to await an opponent.
Battling it out, Morra defeated Gomez 4-3 leaving him in fourth place. Looking to avenge his loss to Kiamco, Orcollo smoked Morra 4-1 to face Warren in the finals. John finished in third place.
The final match was an one extended race to six. A close match all the way and going down to the last ball of the case game, Dennis claimed the title!!! Congratulations again, Dennis!!! Good tournament, Warren!!!
The $2,000 added Open Bar Table Eight Ball began on Friday night and ran all weekend. Drawing 94 players paying a $25 entry fee, this double elimination event had races to seven on both sides with winner breaks. By the time the smoke cleared, the field had been whittled down to four players. After losing to Mickey Krause in the fourth round 7-6, Abrahan Martinez went on a tear mowing down six opponents before he reached Krause again. Taking revenge, he beat him 7-5 and moved into the finals against the undefeated John Gabriel. Krause finished in third place.
Since this was true double elimination, Martinez would have to defeat Gabriel twice to win the tournament but it was not to be – Gabriel only needed one set to claim the title 7-5!!! Great tournament, John!!! Good job, Abrahan!!!
Congratulations to all!!!
Thanks to Tournament Director Josh Suits for keeping everything running smoothly. We’d also like to thank the Racks On The Rocks staff for taking great care of players and fans alike.
Thanks to Jeremy Jones, Larry Schwartz, John Gabriel, Jeremy Seaman, Rob Williams, Ray Hansen and Mary Kenniston for their great commentary!
And last, but not least, we’d like to thank our fans and sponsors! Our sponsors include JB Cases, Diamond Billiard Products, Lomax Custom Cues, Simonis, Aramith, Hanshew Jump Cues, StraightPoolEye, Durbin Custom Cues, Fort Worth Billiards Superstore in Fort Worth, TX, The Action Palace of Dayton, OH and our venue, Racks On The Rocks.
PoolActionTV.com’s next stop is the Action Palace Open in Huber Heights, OH. The dates are November 3rd-7th. Hope to see you there!!!
