And Then There Were Six: Heavy Favorites Make Beeline for Final IPT Round-Robin
The cream has risen to the top of the field at the IPT North American 8-Ball Open, and six well-known players look to get significantly richer in the next round.
After 12 hours of round-robin play on Friday, a half dozen players separated themselves from the pack of 18 remaining shooters, in some cases by mere inches on the table, or percentages point on the official stat sheet. Those deserving six stand to make a minimum of $40,000 in the next round, and a maximum of $350,000 for winning the title at Sunday’s final.
The players are: Efren Reyes, Marlon Manalo, and Dennis Orcollo of the Philippines; Thorsten Hohmann and Ralf Souquet of Germany; and Evgeny Stalev of Russia;
Stalev was probably the biggest surprise of the bunch. The 26-year-old from Litkarino, 20 miles outside of Moscow, rarely ventures outside his home country for pool events, beyond the U.S. Open 9-Ball Championships and Derby City Classic. But he’s a legend in Russia, having won nearly 100 titles in the cue sport of pyramid.
The reedy Stalev found himself in a must-win situation in the fifth and final match of the day, against plucky Englishman Darren Appleton. He took control of the match from the start, using his powerful break (with full-body extension) to gain control of the table, and his surgical-quality touch to pilot the cue ball.
With Stalev up 7-4, his close friend Fabrio Petroni of Italy began nudging fellow spectators in the stands, saying in a dramatic stage whisper, “That is my friend. I know him. He is a very good player!” Stalev closed the match at 8-4, leaving Appleton slumped in his chair for several minutes with his head in his hands.
“It was tough,” Stalev said. “Every opponent right now is tough. … I feel terrible. My back, my legs. The whole week, you wake up and play 10 hours a day.”
He quickly grabbed his cell phone and called his father back in Russia, and then his manager.
Meanwhile, Hohmann and Sweden’s Marcus Chamat were fighting on an adjoining table for the final spot in their bracket. Chamat led 7-5 and had three solids left on the table when he ended up straight-in on the 2. His only choice was to draw straight back on the shot, hooking himself on the 6. After a missed multi-rail Hail Mary, Hohmann took over the table and didn’t let go until he had the 8-7 victory.
The final set of matches for the night were anticlimactic for three players: Reyes was undefeated at 4-0 and a sure thing to advance; and Souquet and Manalo could afford to lose their matches, knowing that at worst they would tie with their respective bracketmates and still advance on the basis of their superior games-won percentage.
It’s No Fluke — Putnam Keeps Winning
Surprising Shawn Putnam in now 2-for-2 in major pro events this year after powering past Fabio Petroni, 10-6, in the finals of the Brunswick Pro Players Championship, held March 17-20 in Valley Forge, Pa.
After scratching on his first break shot, Putnam fell into a 4-2 hole against Italy’s Petroni. But the vastly improved shooter from Youngstown, Ohio, went on a 6-1 run to take control of the match, 8-5. Putnam received almost no open shots after his thunderous breaks, but he created spectacular run-outs with an array of ballsy jump shots, combos and pinpoint-accurate kicks. Any hope Petroni had for a comeback ended in the 16th rack, when he broke dry for the fourth time in the match.
Early in the year, 33-year-old Putnam reengineered his game by trying more reliable run-out patterns, using center-ball hits instead of extreme English, and staying calm while shooting. He then won the North American Open Tour event in February in Pittsburgh — his first major pro victory — and followed up with his decisive Pro Players win.
“The whole thing is about keeping your heart rate constant — the same heart rate when you’re playing as when you’re sitting down, so you don’t have to get adrenaline going as you’re playing and then sit down and cool down,” Putnam said of his newfound Zen strategy.
With his $10,000 in winnings, Putnam planned to buy a 1996 Cadillac Seville he had test-driven recently. “Now it’s really getting bought; I don’t care what he wants for it,” he said.