Fiery Bata-Django gains q'finals, repels Canada

MANILA, Philippines - Efren “Bata” Reyes flashed vintage form, knocking in difficult, crucial shots as Philippine B withstood Canada, 8-5, in the second round of the 2012 PartyPoker.net World Cup of Pool at the Robinsons Mall Ermita Midtown Activity Center late Thursday night.

With Team Phl holding a precarious 6-5 lead, Reyes pocketed a table length bank on the 8-ball to set up Francisco “Django” Bustamante for an easy clincher, a big moment the Filipinos preserved in completing a three-rack victory that sent them to the quarterfinals against Finland.

The Finnish pair of Mikka Immonen and Petri Makkonen stunned German defending champions Thorsten Hohmann and Ralf Souquet, 8-4, also late Thursday night before the fancied bets took the limelight again yesterday.

Americans Rodney Morris and Shane Van Boening, the No. 5 picks, crushed Austrian upstarts Albin Ouschan and Mario He, 8-4, while former champs Li He Wen and Liu Haitao, the fourth seeded Chinese pair, routed the Spanish duo of David Alcaide and Diaz Pizarro, 8-1.

The Chinese take on the Americans in the other featured Last 8 duel.

“We have to be careful against Finland because they are playing good. We’re not doing very well on the break right now. If we can fix that, then we have a good chance,” said Bustamante of the Philippines-Finland match that will feature three world 9-ball champs in Bustamante, Reyes and Immonen.

It was also the case in the Phl-Canada tiff that featured another former world 9-ball ruler in Alex Pagulayan, a Fil-Am player who opted to play for Team Canada.

Pagulayan missed couples of critical balls, including what looked like an easy 6 ball on the 13th rack, and it was pounced on by Reyes and Bustamante to complete their follow-up on their 8-3 win over Hong Kong in the opening round.

“We felt too much pressure in the beginning. My hands were shaking, but when they made a few mistakes, I started to feel better and I calmed down,” said Reyes.

The 2011 finalists were later wiped out as Englishmen Chris Melling and Darren Appleton tripped Thais Nitiwat Kanjanasri and Kobkit Palajin, 8-2.

Kanjanasri and Palajin had a dream run last year, making all the way to the finals versus Hohman and Souquet.

Sixth seed Chinese Taipei arranged a quarters showdown with England with a close 8-6 win over Japan. 

On his clutch 8-ball bank in rack 12, Reyes said: “I can’t play safe on that shot. The cue ball is close to the 8-ball and that makes the pocket bigger so it’s better to go for it. I have no choice because there is nowhere to hide the ball.”

Like Bustamante, Reyes was wary of the Finnish who looked sharp in their first two matches.

“We broke better than them (the Germans) and that was totally huge. I could see they were struggling. Their break was all over the place and that put a lot of pressure on them,” said Immonen.

“Petri is coming along great and he made some great shots. We are working as a unit, we just knocked out the defending champions and we can do anything,” Immonen also said.

“We played a perfect match. Everything went right for us and we are playing very well together,” said Makkonen.

From 4-3, the Finns made three excellent run-outs and went on to bundle out the defending champs.