12/15/2004 - Alex Pagulayan loses in Poker

Reigning World Pool champion Alex Pagulayan has lost his semifinal bid in London's $500,000 poker tournament among sports celebrities. The 26-year-old Pagulayan was eliminated from Europe's richest televised poker tournament after drawing a bad card.

Said Luke Riches of promoter Matchroom Sport: "Alex is a favorite here among poker enthusiasts because of his unorthodox playing style which the TV people and sponsors absolutely love. It would not be understating it to say that he has already made a significant impact."

7/5/2004 - Reyes, Kiamco advance to semifinals in pool tourney

ELIMINATION ROUND RESULTS:
RP (W L) -- Reyes 4-0; Kiamco 2-2; Bustamante 2-2; Lining 1-3
EUROPE -- Immonen 3-1; Souquet 2-2; Feijen 1-3; Chamat 1-3

Efren Reyes and Warren Kiamco have secured slots in the semifinals of the On Cue 1st RP-Europe nine-ball billiards tournament as they dispatched their European counterparts at the Loop Entertainment Center at the Don Eugenio Lopez Building in Quezon City Friday night.

Reyes beat former world champion Mika Immonen of Finland for a perfect 4-0 slate in the eliminations, bringing Immonen down to 3-1. Kiamco defeated Neils Feijen 7-3 for a 2-2 slate, eliminating the Dutchman who dropped to 1-3.

Kiamco will face Immonen in the semifinals 4 p.m. Saturday, while Reyes will face Ralf Souquet of Germany, also a former world champion, at 8 p.m.

Francisco "Django" Bustamante actually tied Kiamco with a 2-2 slate in the elimination round when he defeated Souquet 7-5 Friday night, but by virtue of having a bigger margin than his opponent, Kiamco's 7-3 win over Feijen bumped Bustamante off the tournament.

Earlier, Marcus Chamat of Sweden defeated Filipino veteran Antonio Lining with a 7-2 victory. Hardly displaying the form that gave him a 7-2 victory over Feijen last Thursday, Lining struggled against Chamat, who played confidently all throughout.

As a result, Lining dropped to a 1-3 win-loss record, joining Bustamante in an early exit from the tournament.

6/11/2004 - Beat Alex Pagulayan

Former world champion Johnny Archer, Mika Immonen and Thorsten Hohmann want to come here and challenge newly crowned World Pool titlist Fil-Canadian Alex Pagulayan in a "Special Series" as soon as possible, possibly by the last week of August.

According to well-placed sources, Archer, Immonen and Thorsten are raring to fly here anytime, aiming to beat the 26-year-old Pagulayan, and regain their dominance of pocket billiards after they fell flat in Taiwan last week. Other topnotch pros like reigning US Open champion Jeremy Jones, Rodney Morris and former world champion Chao Fong-pang of Taiwan also want to come here and seek revenge against Pagulayan and their longtime Filipino rivals, including 1999 world pool winner Efren "Bata" Reyes, Francisco "Django" Bustamante, Lee Van Corteza, Marlon Manalo, Dennis Orcullo, Rodolfo Luat, Leonardo Andam and Warren Kiamco.

On the projected billiards blockbuster, the country's sports leaders could very well make this dream come true. Needless to say, playing the key role is Puyat Sports, a nonprofit venture which is the moving spirit behind the enormous progress of billiards in the Philippines because of its close contact with world-class players and international promoters.

Will Putch Puyat, Pagulayan's benefactor, come to the rescue? Will you make us happy by organizing this "Special Series" as your gift to your kababayans? Of course, government agencies such as the Department of Tourism headed by Secretary Roberto "Obet" Pagdanganan and the private sector led by San Miguel Corp. of boss Danding Cojuangco would be ideal supporters of this world-class sporting event.

Methinks, it would be a golden opportunity to stage this "Special Series" because it would take away the world's attention from the country's tainted image. Besides, this projected "Beat Alex Pagulayan" affair would preserve the Philippines' gilt-edged reputation as host of highly successful international billiards tournaments in the past.

As a matter of fact, two of the foreign players-35-year-old Johnny Archer of the United States and 30-year-old Mika Immonen of Finland-consider the Philippines their "home away from home."

Last year, Archer, a consistent winner of several major tournaments for nearly two decades, and Immonen, who won the World Pool Championship in 2001, ruled the well-attended On Cue 1 and 2 "Battle of Champions" organized by Puyat Sports at Robinsons Galleria in Mandaluyong City.

Born on Nov. 12, 1968 in Twin City, Georgia, Archer is the most feared player in contemporary billiards history along with Bata Reyes. With his razor-sharp execution of a given shot, Archer won the World Pool Championship twice, in 1992 and 1997.

In winning the World Pool Championships in 2001, Immonen made sure that the world title returns to Europe following the Asian domination of the event in 2000 when Chao Fong-pang of Taiwan won the title the year after Bata Reyes took it.

Immonen is not a flashy player at the pool table, but he is much admired because of his simple ways, charm and concentration when he is playing. He loves to drink beer and eats Italian food, but he is surprisingly fit and trim.