Souquet Last Player Standing in 9 Ball and Bustamante Wins All-Around

Souquet Last Player Standing in 9 Ball and Bustamante Wins All-Around
Ralf Souquet is making a habit of winning the Derby City Classic 9-ball division. The 10th year winner also won in ’06 and ’04. He outlasted runner up Francisco Bustamante and third place finisher John Schmidt in a marathon circus fitting of the third and final event of the 2008 DCC. Around 8:00 pm at the conclusion of round 11, only three contestants remained and they all had their re-buy available.
John Schmidt, Francisco Bustamante, and Ralf Souquet all made it to round 12 without dropping a match. One player would get a bye and Souquet could take a break while Schmit and Bustamante played. After falling behind 4-0, Schmidt caught up and went on to make a one-nine carom to take the match 7-5.
Tournament director Scott “The Shot” Smith called for all three players to meet in the TV table area for a flipping of coins to determine the odd man to get the bye. Souquet, the last of the three to arrive under the hot lights, declined to flip coins and said, “Let the computer draw. It has been doing it all tournament.” Smith asked the staff at the desk to run the draw on the computer. Bustamante received the bye.
Souquet and Schmidt squared off as now the only two undefeated players. This close match began with Souquet winning the first three games but then tied at 4 games each and ended when Souquet made a terrific run from the two-ball to win the match 7-6. John Schmidt was asked if he’d like to exercise his re-buy to which he does.
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Once again the three players are asked to center court for the draw. This time the match announcement booms, “Ralf Souquet plays John Schmidt.” Immediately, Bustamante jumps out of the player chair and begins to bend his knees, clench his fists in front of him and hollers, “Ahhhh!” to the on-lookers. Even the stoic German smiled at the wild twist that allowed Bustamante to sit by the sidelines as Souquet and Schmidt played one more time.
The rematch went much like the first with Souquet edging Schmidt out 7-5 this time. John “Mr. 403” Schmidt finished third place grumbling about the luck of drawing Souquet twice in a row.
No draw was needed as only Bustamante and Souquet remained, Souquet having the advantage of having his re-buy, Bustamante the advantage of being Filipino and having locked up the Master of the Table award. The match started at 1:15 am thanks to a very effective cut break, Bustamante gave Souquet very few chances and ran four racks from the break and took the set 7-2 ending at 2:00 am sharp.
After Souquet used his re-buy, the players lagged for the right to break first in the second set at 2:20 am. As if to tease the players and spectators into thinking it would be an all night affair, Scott Smith could not determine the winner of the lag so he announced, “Tie! Re-lag.” This time Bustamante won the lag and the first game. The rest of the match was the opposite of the first with Souquet running five racks from the break. The final score of the last match was seven games to two with Souquet netting $17,500 for first.
Bustamante was also given an oversized check after the match, his for $20,000 as Master of the Table. Souquet finished third in all-around points and Gabe Owen the one-pocket champion finished second in the points race. Bustamante quipped to Souquet, “Ha, I lost the match and got a check bigger than yours!” Souquet replied, “That’s ‘cause my bank pool sucks!”