THREE more players have qualified for the June 8-ball championship of New Bamboo Bar at Saipan Vegas: Nolan Cultura, Lito Pangilinan and Senen Pangilinan.
Nolan Cultura joined the elite after topping the qualifying event on Monday as he blew through the preliminaries easily.
Cultura defeated Danny Miranda and Jesse Guerra before sending Jerry Soriano to the pit.
Senen Pangilinan lost his round 3 match but made his way back to challenge Cultura in the finals by eliminating Miranda, Cesar Sangalang and Soriano.
In his first match against Cultura, Senen Pangilinan was simply on fire, pocketing ball after ball to hand Cultura his very first loss of the night and forcing one more game to decide the winner.
But Senen Pangilinan’s fire started to lose heat in the deciding match as Cultura had the better placements and connected at tough angles to outperform Senen Pangilinan and claim the fourth spot in the championship round which will be held later this month.
On Tuesday, it was Lito Pangilinan’s turn to qualify for the championship.
He notched three consecutive wins but Ray Matsunaga shut him down in the third round.
Lito Pangilinan then made sure that he was not going down a second time as he fought his way out of the pit by beating Rey Hermogenes, Cesar Sangalang and his round 3 tormentor, Ray Matsunaga.
In the finals, Lito Pangilinan met the undefeated Jerry Soriano.
Lito Pangilinan kept the rhythm flowing, picking each ball stroke by stroke as he trounced Soriano twice to earn a ticket to the championship round.
The third contender to join the crème de la crème was Senen Pangilinan who secured a championship spot with a near-flawless performance.
Senen Pangilinan powered through the qualifying tournament by besting Ray Matsunaga, Jess Farinas and Jesse Guerra.
After defeating Cesar Sangalang, Guerra earned a rematch against Senen Pangilinan.
Guerra delivered in game 1 of the finals but failed to maintain efficiency as Pangilinan stepped up in crunch time to sink all the balls and seize the sixth championship spot.
Lito Pangilinan aims for the 8-ball during a tournament at the New Bamboo Bar of Saipan Vegas.
