Orcollo leads PH’s bid in APBU 10-ball today

Filipino cue masters Dennis “Robocop” Orcollo, Roberto “Pinoy Superman” Gomez and Carlo “Cool” Biado will lead the country’s campaign in the Asian Pocket Billiard Union (APBU) Guinness World Series of Pool 10-Ball Tournament which gets underway today at the Mal Taman Anggrek in Jakarta, Indonesia.

“We have a big chance of retaining the Guinness World Series of Pool title dahil marami tayong players na pasok sa main draw,” said Billiards Managers and Players Association of the Philippines (BMPAP) founding head Perry Mariano.

Also joining the $41,000 event are defending champion Jundel “Jano” Mazon, Warren “Warrior” Kiamco, Jech-Jech Limen and John Salazar of Jonathan Sy’s Negros Billiards Stable and 2007 Manny Pacquiao International 9-ball champion Jeffrey “The Bull” de Luna.

Orcollo and Mazon are both seeded in the main draw while Gomez, Biado, Kiamco, Limen, Salazar and de Luna needed to go through the grueling qualification tournament at the Kenari Billiard Hall in Jakarta.

This year, the Guinness World Series of Pool 10-Ball Tournament has five new ambassadors namely Johnny Archer of the USA, Mika Immonen of Finland, Thorsten Hohmann of Germany, Ricky Yang and Irsal Nasution of Indonesia

Orcollo, the reigning world No.1 player and current World 8-Ball champion, is coming off a fruitful campaign in the recent World 9-Ball Championship in Doha, Qatar where he reached the semifinal round but lost to compatriot and double world champion Ronato “Volcano” Alcano.

Alcano, however, fell short in his bid to become the first Filipino three-time world champion when he dropped an 11-13 decision at the hands of Japanese rival Yukio Akakariyama in the finals.

His semifinal finish in the world 9-ball event allowed Orcollo to retain his top ranking. He was also recently named by the World Pool-Billiards Association as the highest-earning billiards player in the world, halfway through the WPA season.

Orcollo has so far racked up $81,740 in earnings, including the $10,000 purse he pocketed in reaching the Final Four of the recent world 9-ball where he also also gained 640 points.