Aristeo "Poch" Puyat, of the organizing Puyat Sports, said the format will require the loser on the rack to make the break. The old rule gives the winner the right to make the next break, often leading to an accumulation of points.
The aim, Puyat said, is to give each player an equal chance to win the game. Under the previous format, a player who has the luck of the breaks will have the chance to pile up points.
The Reyes-Strickland duel, which gives $15,000 to the winner and $5,000 to the loser, will be a race to 33 affair, with the first session, a race to 11, to be held tomorrow. The setto starts at 7 p.m after the race-to-9 exhibition game between Leonardo Didal and Dennis Orcullo.
The next two sessions will be staged on Saturday, with the second session, also a race to 11, set at 3 p.m. PBA stars Kenneth Duremdes and Glen Capacio will slug it out in an exhibition match, a race to 7, during the intermission. The third session, the completion of the race to 33, will be held at 8 p.m. after the exhibition match between Angeline Halili and Ces Marquez.
It will be the third time that the Filipino cue artist and the American world no. 1 will face each other with so much more than pride at stake. Reyes beat Strickland in a classic confrontation in Hong Kong five years ago, 120-117, before the 39-year-old American won their second matchup last December in Alabang, Muntinlupa.
"Itong laban na ito ay tiyak na malapitan. Suwertehan na lang," said the 47-year-old Reyes, the 1999 world 9-ball champion who is coming off a P100,00 victory in the "Supreme Masters of Billiards" held recently in Alabang where he defeated world-class countrymen Francisco Bustamante, Rodolfo Luat and Leonardo Andam.
Strickland, who joined Reyes in yesterday’s PSA Sports Forum at the Holiday Inn said "it will be close and that the player who takes a load of four to five racks will clearly have the upperhand. "