Day Two of the Philippine Open Pool Championships

What is wrong with this picture?

By Bob Guerrero

This is the scene at the TV table at the Philippine Open. It is being aired all over Asia on ESPN Star until Monday. Four days, five hours a day.

The Department of Tourism is supporting the event. Swell. We need to reach out to all those sets of eyeballs in Asia to tell them what a great place the Philippines is to visit.

You would think, therefore, that the Department of Tourism would put as their advertising placement perhaps their website (tourism.gov.ph.) or maybe at the very least an exhortation to come. “Visit the Philippines” would be a good start.

But no. The folks at the DOT seem to be so enamored with their lovely seashell logo that they'd rather put that on TV. They must feel that it's terribly important for travelers all over Asia to know this logo and know it well.

It depresses me that our tourism authorities seem to not have the slightest scintilla of marketing sense. This is a huge opportunity to lead millions of people all over Asia to the Philippines. But no. The ball is dropped.

If it were up to me I'd put “TOURISM.GOV.PH” in big-ass bold letters on that panel, as big as possible. It seems the obvious choice to me.

C'mon DOT. Get with the program. A little common sense would be great.

On to the Pool. I covered four TV table matches on Friday. Lin Yuan Chun fell to Yu Ram Cha in the first match. It was scrappy, with neither player getting the speed of the table. The next match, was an all-Surigao affair between Allan Cuartero (Madrid, Surigao del Sur) against Dennis Orcullo (Bislig, Surigao del Sur.) Orcullo broke open a tight game with a three-pack to get to the hill at 8-6. He finished Cuartero off two racks later, dumping the Kuwait-based pro to the Loser's Bracket.

The third match saw Ramil Gallego eliminating Korea's Lee Gun Jae 9-5. We saw the shot of the day on rack 9. With the 3 ball hard up near a short rail and the cue ball at an angle off to the right, Bebeng called the three into the right side pocket, where 9 ball was loitering, acting as a possible backstop to guide the three in. He played a simple stop shot, leaving the cue near where the three was. The red three then went short rail, long rail, short rail, kissed off the nine and dutifully plunged into the hole.

“Sinasafety ko talaga yun, pero alam ko may pasok.” explained Gallego to me after. The Bacolod native lives to fight on in the Loser's side.

In the final match on the main table, an off-form Mika Immonen hung on to send Rudi Susanto of Indonesia packing, 9-6. At one point the Finn led 7-1 but made several uncharacteristic errors to allow Susanto to rally and make a game out of it. In the end, Immonen continues on in the Loser's bracket, Susanto goes home.

We're playing an interesting shot clock rule this week: No clock until the tenth rack, then its 40 seconds per shot with one extension. If the match goes to a deciding rack, the clock is off. I like the last bit, but I think I'd prefer to have the shot clock on for the whole game, instead of it starting at rack 10. It's counterintuitive and just not natural.

Ten Ball is a better test of skill than 9 Ball for sure. That extra ball adds a lot of safety play, which favors better players. But I don't believe it's better television. The racks can sometimes get arduous, and the lack of a shot clock is only making things drag on a bit longer. Perhaps 9 Ball with alternate breaks might be a more exciting option for TV.

Don't miss the action at IBC 13, or better yet, come on over to Megatrade hall 1 in SM Megamall to catch world-class Pool in person. We'll crown a women's and men’s champion on Monday.


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Thanks to Bob Guerrero who will be making his Ateneo Football League debut today with his team Psykicks FC.