World Pool Masters Reaches Quarterfinal Round

World Pool Masters Reaches Quarterfinal Round
World Pool Masters / Las Vegas, NV
by InsidePOOL Staff
Three more matches are in the books at the 2008 PartyPoker.net World Pool Masters, presented by Matchroom Sport. The billiards event began May 9 and will crown its $20,000 first-place prize winner May 11.
Corey Deuel, now sporting the moniker of “Cash Money,” came out the winner of a tough match against Germany’s Christian Reimering. They split the first four racks—all of which had empty breaks—but then Deuel jumped ahead two racks after a couple of errors by Reimering. However, Deuel might have been lulled into malaise, for he inexplicably missed the 6 ball, allowing Reimering to draw within a game.
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Unfortunately for Reimering, he was not able to capitalize on Deuel’s streaky skills enough to stage a comeback. A missed 2 ball by the German widened the gap to two racks, but Deuel came up empty on his following break, and Reimering dished up. He only won one more rack, though, before Deuel reached the goal—in the final rack, Reimering and Deuel traded innings before Reimering missed a thin cut on the 5 ball, and Deuel finished off the rack to win 8-5.
Mika Immonen took some of the “dazzle” out of Daryl Peach’s act in the second match. The reigning world champion fell down early in the match and never recovered, though Immonen easily shook off the first-game jitters. Interestingly, the illegal break rule, which states that three balls must either go past the headstring or into a pocket after the break, came into effect several times in this match.
Immonen had rocketed to a 4-1 lead, playing superb pool, when he failed on a safety attempt in the next rack and Peach cleared the table. That turned out to be Peach’s swan song, though. He fouled in the next game to give Immonen ball in hand and that rack. Peach then made a strong two-rail kick on the 1 ball but peculiarly missed an easy 2 immediately afterward. Immonen reached the hill when Peach left him a shot on the 1 ball in the ninth rack. The next and final rack saw Immonen play a jam-up safety on the 2 ball and Peach whacked haphazardly at it without appearing to make a genuine attempt to make contact. With ball in hand, Immonen cleared the table for the 8-2 win.
The final match of the evening was the first quarterfinal match, which was between Alex Pagulayan and Rodney Morris. In the most hotly contested match of the day, Morris started out by breaking and running out two racks in a row. Pagulayan answered by taking the next two—Morris missed the 1 ball and Pagulayan cleared that rack and then broke and ran the next rack to knot the score at 2 each. The players traded the next four racks with some excellent play by both.
“Come on, make some balls!” screamed Pagulayan as he broke in the race to 4 that remained. They split the next four racks—with the score 6-5 Morris, the Hawaiian broke and then attempted a dicey bank on the 2 and missed, leaving Pagulayan to tie it up again. Pagulayan played a strategic safety on the 1 ball in the next, and when Morris fouled, Pagulayan should have been out easily, but he got out of line on the 4 and missed. However, Morris missed the 4-8 combo, and Pagulayan redeemed himself to reach the hill. He came up dry in his final break, but with no shot on the 1 ball, Morris opted to push out. Pagulayan gave the option back to Morris, who hit the 1 and got safe. Pagulayan kicked at the 1 and also got safe. Morris made the easy jump shot in the side but then hit the 2 ball, knocking it out of position, so he played safe instead. Pagulayan was able to hit the 2 and fluke in the 5 ball. From there it was smooth sailing for “The Lion,” who cleaned up for the 8-6 win.
Sunday’s afternoon matches will see the remainder of the quarterfinal matches, and the evening round will ultimately see the final match. Visit InsidePOOL for the latest news on the sport of billiards and pool.