ORCOLLO BOWS OUT IN WORLD POOL MASTERS; GOMEZ NEARS 8-BALL CROWN

Former world no.1 Dennis Orcollo ran into a series of dry breaks as he bowed to former world champion Mika Immonen, 8-4, in the quarterfinals of the 2009 PartyPoker.net World Cup of Pool yesterday at the Riviera Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas , Nevada
.

After scoring a masterful 8-3 win over Canadian Tyler Edey in the opening round, Orcollo couldn’t get his game going against Immonen, who took advantage of it to advance into the semifinals of this $66,000 event.

Immonen, who was the runner-up to Alex Pagulayan last year, won the lag and quickly raced to a 3-0 lead. He missed an easy shot of the yellow-1 in the fourth rack, and Orcollo cleaned it up for his first point.

But the Filipino failed to sink a ball on his break of the fifth frame to give the table back to the Finn.

It was the same story the rest of the way with every time Orcollo stole a rack from Immonen, he would break dry
on the next.

The win move Immonen to a Final Four match against reigning World 10-Ball titlist Darren Appleton of England , who edged five-time Ralf Souquet of Germany , 8-7, in their quarterfinals match.

The other semifinals match pits American Shane Van Boening against Dutchman Nick van den Berg. Van Boening made it by beating Tony Drago of Malta , 8-5, while Van den Berg downed Johnny Archer, 8-5.

Meanwhile, reigning two-time Manny Villar Cup champion Roberto Gomez won five of his first six matches to remain in contention for the Men’s Grand Masters Singles title in the BCA
National 8-Ball Championship, also being held at the Riviera Hotel.

Gomez, who is playing in the US circuit for the first time, defeated in succession Mike Hill (7-6), Ike Runnels (7-4), Oliver Ortmann (7-0), Max Eberle (7-3) and Van Boening (7-5) before getting upset by little-known Simon Pickering, 7-6, in the hot-seat match.

That loss sent the 2007 World Pool runner-up to the losers’s bracket, where he is going to face Van Boening
once again with the winner advancing to face Pickering in the finals.

Gomez was joined in the tournament by compatriots Orcollo, Warren Kiamco and Rodolfo Luat.

Orcollo lost his first match against Van Boening, 7-1, but rebounded by defeating David Martin, 7-2, before
absorbing his second setback against Dan Louie, 7-3.

Kiamco also dropped his opening match against Eberle, 7-4, but won two consecutive over Steve Lillis, 7-1, and

Rafael Chavez, 7-5, before bowing out with a 7-2 loss to Immonen. Luat, on the other hand, defeated
Chavez, 7-6-, lost to Eberle, 7-5, beat Gary Lutman, 7-0, before succumbing to Edey, 7-0.