It was a stirring win for Luat, who led majority of the race-to-11 clash but faltered towards the end, enabling Saez to force a double-hill with the Filipino cue master barely winning in a battle of safeties to arrange a clash with Gabe Owen for the top berth.
Owen defeated Dave Broxson, 11-9, in the other encounter.
John Schmidt, meanwhile, eliminated Filipino Antonio Gabica in the losers’ bracket with an 11-4 win then defeated Saez, 11-5, to gain a crack at the top spot in their side against Broxson, who ripped Darren Appleton, 11-5.
Earlier, Luat, winner of the San Miguel Asian 9-ball Tour leg early in the year, edged Charles Bryant to keep his winning run in the event that drew some of the world’s top pool players.
But while Luat continued to flourish, the other RP bets floundered with Ronnie Alcano first to bow out with a 6-11 loss to Owen and an 8-11 setback to Schmidt.
Lee Vann Corteza also dropped out of the race with a 3-11 loss to Mike Immonen in the losers’ side.
Gabica stayed in the hunt on the left side for a while with a couple of 11-6 routs of Corey Deuel and SJ Wiley but the diminutive Filipino cue artist failed to sustain that fightback as he stumbled to Schmidt.