“DJANGO” BUSTAMANTE BEATS “SCORPION” ARCHER RULES WPBL IN WINNIPEG

FORMER WORLD NO.1 Francisco “Django” Bustamante lived up to his top billing to clinch the inaugural event of the World Professional Billiard League dubbed as Super Series of Billiards at the Mc Phillips Station Casino in Winnipeg, Canada, over the weekend.

Bustamante, one of the top players of sportsman/ businessman Aristeo “Putch” Puyat defeated American Johnny “The Scorpion” Archer, 5-2, in the finals.

Other invited players in the round-robin format were Nick Varner, Shane Van Boening, Corey Deuel and Charlie Williams and John Schmidt of the United States and Erik Hjorleifson of Canada.

The format of the league was set up so each player of the World Professional Billiard League (WPBL) played the exact same amount of games as each other player, in the round robin event. The top four players played races after the round robin. After the super series was over, each player was awarded points that they would carry forward through the season. Bustamante tallied a total 60 points.

“Magandang balita ito sa Philippine Billiards. Ang pagkapanalo ni Lee Vann (Corteza) sa Los Angeles at pagkapanalo naman ni Django (Bustamante) sa Canada. Hope maganda ang magiging resulta ng ating top Filipino pool players sa Las Vegas events this weekend,” said RP billiards God Father Aristeo “Putch” Puyat.

It was a third major title of Bustamante early this year. Bustamante, is member of the winning Team Asia who routed the Team Europe last January 17 in Brunei dubbed as Asia vs Europe Challenge Match.

Other members of Team Asia were hall of famer Efren “Bata” Reyes, Hui Chan Lu and Ko Pin-yi of Taiwan and Teo Che Soon of Brunei. Each of them received $5,400 for their effort.

Last March 21, Bustamante defeated Puyat Sports stablemate Reyes for the crown of the

23rd Annual Japan Open - Open Division in Tokyo Japan enroute the top prize of

$16,000.

BY: MARLON BERNARDINO