New format to level World Pool field

To give the players an equal chance, organizers of the 2006 World Pool 9-ball Championship yesterday decided to adopt the alternate break format throughout the event, which reels off Nov. 4 at the PICC in Manila.

"With the standard of play expected to be of the very highest caliber, it was felt that the potential for one-sided matches with one player running out rack after rack was too great. With alternate break, the playing field is leveled with all players receiving an equal chance," according to organizing Matchroom Sport. "Hopefully, it will mean that the best player always progresses."

In previous World Pool Championships, only the preliminary group stage was played to an alternate break format with the rest using the winner’s break format.

But after a discussion with the WPA (World Pool Association) as well as other parties concerned, it was agreed that an alternate break format throughout would give all players an even chance.

The races for the knockout stages, however, will remain the same with the Last 64 and 32 both race-to-10 duels, and the Last 16, quarterfinals and the semifinals all race-to-11 clashes. The final will be a race-to-17 affair.

Efren "Bata" Reyes, the 1999 champion in Cardiff, and Alex Pagulayan, who won in Taiwan in 2004, head the chase for the top $100,000 purse in the event which drew 128 of the world’s finest cue masters from over 40 countries.

The event will be televised live for over 60 hours throughout Asia via the ESPN Star network and across the UK on Sky Sports.

Meanwhile, the $400,000 event will be launched today in elaborate rites at the Boracay Function Room at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza.

Reyes, Pagulayan and four other Filipinos — Francisco "Django" Bustamante, Marlon Manalo, Jose "Amang" Parica and Dennis Orcollo — head six of the 32 groups of four players with the top two after the single round-robin-elims advancing to the Last 64.