WORLD OPEN 8-BALL CHAMPIONSHIP : 7 Pinoys remain standing

Francisco "Django" Bustamante sustained his unbeaten streak to lead the march of six other Filipino bets into the fourth round of the US$3 million IPT World Open 8-Ball Championship at the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino in Reno, Nevada.

On the day that saw Pinoy cue artists Rodolfo "Boy Samson" Luat and Ramil Gallego getting the exit slip, Bustamante, Efren "Bata" Reyes, Dennis Orcollo, Ronnie Alcano, Antonio Lining, Alex Pagulayan and Jose "Amang" Parica provided some joy to the Philippine contingent by securing berths into the Final 36.

Bustamante, unscathed in 13 matches, completed a clean 4-0 sweep in the third round with convincing wins over Americans Tony Chohan, 8-0, and Jason Kirkwood, 8-0. His other victims were countryman Pagulayan, 8-4, and Japanese Furuta Kazuo, 8-6.

His defeat to Bustamante, however, did not derail Pagulayan's road to the next round as "The Lion" roared off to an 8-6 triumph over Chohan before gobbling down Kazuo, 8-3, to advance.

Reyes kept his hunt for the staggering US$500,000 (Php26.5 million) top prize by piling up three more wins in the fourth day of this week-long poolfest.

Reyes dumped French Yannick Beaufils and American Johnny Archer via the same 8-5 verdict. He lost his next match to Daryl Peach of United Kingdom, 5-8, but called it a day with an 8-2 rout of Scotland's Jayson Shaw.

Orcollo, Alcano, Lining and Parica came up with similar 3-1 win-loss records in Day 4 to assure themselves of at least US$25,000 each.

Orcollo prevailed over Germany's Ralf Soquet, 8-4, but lost his next match to Finland's Marko Lohtander, 7-8. The Surigao City terminator quickly vented his ire on American David Matlock, 8-5, and Englishman Chris Melling, 8-6.

Alcano opened his Day 4 campaign with a 6-8 loss to Ben Davies, but bounced back oozing with fire to scorch Darren Appleton, 8-7 before dusting off Taiwanese Hung Ming Chu, 8-6, and Englishman Imran Majid, 8-5.

Lining dismantled American Tony Robles, 8-5, Finland's Mika Immonen, 8-2, and Australian Quinten Hann, 8-4, before bowing to American James Walden, 6-8.

Parica fell prey to Germany's Oliver Ortmann, 3-8, but waxed hot in his succeeding matches to roll over Rico Diks (8-5) and Nick Van Der Berg (8-7) of The Netherlands, and Hui-Kai Hsia of Taiwan, 8-6.

Luat and Gallego, on the other hard, kissed their championship bids goodbye after producing only one win each in the round three.

Luat succumbed to Americans Gabriel Owen, 7-8, and Jason Miller, 4-8, and Dutch Neils Feijen, 4-8, while Gallego fell prey at the hands of Americans Steve Moore, 4-8, and Charles Williams, 7-8, and Englishman Michael Hill, 4-8.

Luat's lone win was against American Larry Nevel, 8-6, while Gallego's solitary victory was an 8-2 drubbing of American Nick Varner.

Luat and Gallego will go home with additional US$15,000 in their pockets.