Major Upsets Abound in Predator 10-Ball Championship

Major Upsets Abound in Predator 10-Ball Championship
Predator 10-Ball Championship / Las Vegas, NV
by InsidePOOL Staff
Tied at 5 apiece, John “Mr. 403” Schmidt came through to defeat arguably the best billiard player in the world, Efren Reyes, in Wednesday night’s winners’-side round. At 9-7, Reyes sank the 10 ball on his break, which didn’t count as a win for it was in one of the bottom two corner pockets. After Reyes tried for a 2-10 carom, Schmidt played safe, and Reyes missed the subsequent thin cut, handing the table and the match to Schmidt 10-7.
“I played pretty terrible the first half of the set,” admitted Schmidt afterward. “You just gotta do your best out there and not get cracked.”
Across the room, 2007 Inside POOL Magazine Player of the Year Shane Van Boening was matched up against veteran player Ernesto Dominguez. Up 6-4, Van Boening opened the door for Dominguez to come at him, and the table mechanic won the next three to make it 7-6 in his favor. Dominguez left Van Boening a shot on the 5 ball in the next rack after a safety by “The South Dakota Kid,” so Van Boening took that rack, and then a miss on the 5 in the following put Van Boening on the hill. However, Van Boening’s grueling match the previous three days with Alex Pagulayan may have taken a toll, for he broke and ran out the next rack but badly missed a routine 10 ball. Dominguez grabbed the lifeline to make it 9-8 and then broke and ran out the last two racks.
Also in the winners’-side round Wednesday evening, Charlie Williams sent Pagulayan to the one-loss side 10-4, Niels Feijen won 10-6 over Karl Boyes, Jose Parica bested Rodney Morris 10-8, and Francisco Bustamante dealt Rafael Martinez a 10-3 loss. England’s Raj Hundal gave Johnny Archer his first loss of the event 10-8, fellow countryman Darren Appleton bested Tony Robles 10-8, and Gabe Owen won over Ralf Souquet 10-7.
View the Predator 10-Ball Chmapionship image gallery (/gallery2/v/Pool+Tournaments/Predator-10-ball-championship/)
In the one-loss side, Ronnie Wiseman was eliminated by Manuel Garcia 10-7, Sparky Ferrell took out Matt Krah 10-6, Christian Reimering ousted Warren Kiamco 10-8, Tony Chohan defeated Sarah Rousey 10-3, and Imran Majid routed Richard Wolff 10-1.
For live coverage of the 8th Annual Predator 10-Ball Championship, please visit Predator10ball.com, Kozoom.com, and InsidePOOLmag.com.