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Espiritu wins 8-ball pool tourney
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Posted on Apr 27 2001
Veteran Roger Espiritu demolished dark horse Wayne Shimabukuro in the finals of the Budweiser 8-Ball Billiards Open Tournament Tuesday night to emerge as champion in the weekly pool competition at the Corner Pocket Pool Bar in Garapan.
Eight of Saipanís best cue artists took part in the Tuesday night regular event which is sponsored by Marpac and organized by Corner Pocket Pool Bar every week.
The 8-ball tournament takes on a double elimination format where the champion comes home with 50 percent of all the entry fees collected. The second and third place finishers collect 30 and 20 percent of the fees, respectively.
Espiritu worked his way up in his division by beating tournament favorite Roy Durumpili in a fiercely fought first game, followed by a convincing win over another veteran player, Eric Santos.
He then won in a tight game over Senen Pangilinan to take the Winnersí Bracket finals slot.
On the other hand, Shimabukuro took a more bumpy route to the finals after losing his first game to Raffy Arroyo.
He did it by maintaining a pristine record after that, notching succeeding wins over Rommel Crisostomo, Santos, Arroyo and Pangilinan in that order, to top the Losersí Bracket and earn the right to shoot it out with Espiritu for the championship.
The finals match had Shimabukuro needing to beat Espiritu twice to win the tournament.
The score was settled quickly when a fruitless break by Shimabukuro led to an Espiritu cleanup for the game and the match.
Espiritu, who works at Pacific Oriental Inc., won the top cash prize along with Budweiser giveaways. Shimabukuro, who owns Stop Light Night Club, went home also with cash and Marpac products.
