Reyes Suffers First Loss at Derby City One Pocket

Reyes Suffers First Loss at Derby City One Pocket
By Mike Fieldhammer, InsidePOOL staff
Efren “The Magician” Reyes has lost his first one-pocket match at the Derby City Classic since 2006. Reyes played Alex “The Lion” Pagulayan on the Accu-Stats Arena table this afternoon 3-2. The marathon game four of the match stretched the contest to nearly three hours. A defensive battle developed with Reyes ahead two games to one. Pagulayan clawed his way to a 7-6 in ball count when Reyes scratched attempting to cut in the 7 ball. Pagulayan pocketed the spot shot with a firm, confident stroke to tie the match at 2-all.
The final game started with an excellent break from Reyes. “The Lion” chose all out offense and tried a thin cut on the 6 ball at his pocket. The cue ball missed the 6 completely and smashed into the underside of the stack. Reyes ran six and got his seventh ball on a carom shot that didn’t leave him an out ball. After the safety, Pagulayan made an extreme bank shot and ran the remaining balls on the table for the win.
Reyes and Pagulayan both have one loss, leaving players Francisco Bustamante, Ralf Souquet, and Shane Van Boening among the few with their re-buy option in place.
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First-round 9-ball matches are underway and a couple of WPBA players have already notched wins. Playing on tables next to each other, Helena Thornfelt and Allison Fisher won in front of an unusually large crowd in the upstairs tournament room.
In the one-pocket ghost challenge, Gabe Owen was the winner with 60 balls out of a possible 75. The runner-up in this event was Mika Immonen, who managed to get 46 balls. Entrants were given a total of five racks to see how many balls they could make.
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More one-pocket and 9-ball results will be posted soon. Visit InsidePOOL for the latest news on the Tenth Annual Derby City Classic.