Strickland: Duel far from over

Down in their marathon race-to-33 duel, American Earl " The Pearl" Strickland remains confident of his chances against Filipino former world champion Efren "Bata" Reyes and has vowed to get back at his rival at resumption today of their classic $20,000 Color of Money Part II showdown at the Casino Filipino in Parañaque.

Despite losing the race-to-11 opener Thursday, 7-11, the cue master from Greensboro, North Carolina said the chase for the top $15,000 purse and the title is far from over and although Reyes has the hometown edge in the series, losing to the "supreme master" isn’t on his mind.

In fact, Strickland, an accomplished golfer, relaxed by playing 18 holes at the Southwoods course along with Eugenio Puyat II, son of Jose "Popit" Puyat, before practicing in the afternoon at the Coronado Lanes in Makati. A three-handicapper, Strickland fired an 81.

Strickland and Reyes clash again at 3 p.m. in another race-to-11 before the duo winds up their series at 8 p.m.

A race-to-5 side event, featuring lady players Angeline Halili and Ces Marquez, will be played in between the race-to-11 duels. Spicing up the event is a race-to-9 duel between PBA stars Kenneth Duremdes and Glen Capacio.

Strickland, the two-time world champion and five-time US Open titlist, made no excuses for his defeat but stayed around after the match to polish his shotmaking and get a better feel of the table.

The format, where the loser of a rack gets the initiative on the break, resulted in a number of safety shots and efforts to surprise each other with Reyes, a master of precision pool, coming up with fine shots that stifled Strickland in the closing racks.

Showing remarkable touch, Reyes went up 4-2 before Strickland took the next rack. Reyes then capitalized on a good break to go up 5-3 before Strickland, coming up with some unbelievable shots, leveled the score at 5-5.

Strickland seized the lead at 6-5 but Reyes tied it at 7-7. As the loser of the 14th rack Reyes broke and in a nerve-wracking endgame saw the 9-ball rattle the corner pocket before dropping in amidst a roar from the crowd and a sigh of relief from Reyes.