Vic S. Hocog capitalized on crucial miscues by rolly polly Erick Santos in the championship game to clinch the Monday 9-Ball Tournament at Corner Pocket last Monday.<\/p>\n
Santos, who was the defending champion of the competition after winning the Dec. 6 edition of the tournament, was on the comeback trail tying the series at 3-3 after overhauling a 1-3 deficit.<\/p>\n
He was in control of the seventh and deciding game, running the ball and entertaining the crowd with his usual comic banter. But he made a critical error on the 8-ball overshooting the mark that brought Hocog back to the table.<\/p>\n
The big Chamorro made good of the opportunity and proceeded to pocket the finals two balls, as Hocog silenced Santos\u2019 loudness and won the title in roller coaster fashion.<\/p>\n
Hocog struggled in the second and third rounds after registering a sweep of Ruel Mariano in the opening round.<\/p>\n
Other results in the first round saw Roger \u201cThe Ghost\u201d Espiritu beat Eric Caisip, 4-0; Santos skunk Juancho Mendoza, 4-0; Luis Fajardo squeak past Bert Mettao, 3-2; Boyet Sequioco, close out Mario Diola, 3-1; Wily Roman shock Zheng Jian Qing, 3-2; Nolan Cultura sweep Rommel Crisostomo, 3-1; and Leonard Sablan oust Primo Rivera, 3-1.<\/p>\n
In the second round, Hocog had his hands full against Roman but persevered and advanced with a 5-3 victory. Other second round games saw Santos nose out Espiritu in a classic encounter, 4-3; Sequioco slip past Fajardo, 4-3, in yet another tight match; and Cultura sweep Sablan, 4-0.<\/p>\n
Hocog then needed his \u201cA\u201d game in his semifinal encounter against Cultura, as the relative newcomer gave the A-lister a tough time before losing in a score of 5-2.<\/p>\n
Santos, for his part, took care of vastly improved Boyet Sequioco, 5-3, and got a shot at defending his weekly title only to be denied by good friend Hocog.<\/p>\n
Corner Pocket\u2019s Monday 9-Ball Tournament rolls off every Monday beginning at 9pm. The competition uses a handicap system to give beginners a chance against top-caliber players. Entry fee is $10 and first place and second place are guaranteed prize money.<\/p>\n
Corner Pocket has also moved its Tuesday 8-Ball Tournament to Thursday. Play starts at 8:30pm. Participants must fork over $15 to enter the double-elimination competition. Progressive pot for 8-ball on a break will apply.<\/p>\n
Both the regular 9-ball and 8-ball tournaments use the rules of the Billiards Congress of America. For more information on the regular Monday 9-Ball Tournament and Thursday 8-Ball Tournament, please contact Ken Phillips at 233-POOL (7665).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Vic S. Hocog capitalized on crucial miscues by rolly polly Erick Santos in the championship game to clinch the Monday 9-Ball Tournament at Corner Pocket last Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86512\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}