Philippine Pool veteran Warren Kiamco obliterated American ace Shane Van Boening 11-3 in the final to win the Johnny Archer Classic in Marietta, Georgia on Sunday.
The 42-year old from Cebu went unbeaten in the double-elimination Ten Ball event at the Marietta Billiards Club in the outskirts of Atlanta and takes the US$4,625 top prize.
Kiamco took an early 3-0 lead in the game and eventually opened up a 9-2 advantage. An out-of-sync Van Boening made too many errors as the man nicknamed “The Warrior” cleaned up for victory.
“I got tired, Warren played great. That’s Pool. You can’t win them all” said Van Boening.
Since he came from the loser’s bracket, the former U.S. Open Champ had far more games to play than Kiamco and even had a match in the morning on the night of the final.
“I really am very happy to win this event” Kiamco told the crowd after receiving his trophy. “I told my good friend Jeremy Sossei before the match, I’m not wishing for Shane to not make a ball on the break. I’m only wishing he doesn’t have a shot!” laughed Kiamco as the crowd laughed with him.
“I really want to thank Johnny Archer , he has such a great poolroom. And thanks to Charlie (Williams) and Dragon Promotions, I hope you do many more events for us.”
The Dragon Promotions event was also sponsored by Ozone Billiards and Championship Billiard Fabric. It was sanctioned by the Association of Billiards Professionals (ABP) and is a ranking event.
Kiamco is in the United States in the lead-up to the U.S. Open 9 Ball Championship coming up next week in Chesapeake, Virginia, and is red-hot.
Earlier in the month he won the Houston Open, upending Danny Lee 9-6 in the final and winning US$3,025. Then he followed that up with the crown in the Predator Pro-Am Tour’s stop in Bayside, New York, where he met legendary Earl Strickland in the final and beat him 9-7.
The field in Marrieta was stacked with big names like Rodney Morris, Thorsten Hohmann, Charlie Williams, Corey Deuel, and of course, tournament host Johnny Archer.
There was one female in the event, Georgia’s Dana Aft.
There was only one other Filipino in the tournament, Israel Rota, but he narrowly missed out on cashing when he was knocked out by American Hunter Lombardo, 9-7.
Kiamco defeated Jeffrey Helie 9-6, James Giorella 9-2, Mark Ritter 9-6, and top American Shawn Putnam 9-6. He then went on to send Mike Davis to the loser’s bracket 9-6 and in the “hot seat” game took out former Jonathan Pinnegar 9-6.
The hot seat game is the last match between unbeaten players in a double-elimination tournament, with the winner going to the final and the loser going to the loser’s side.
Van Boening, currently ranked #1 in the Association of Billiard Professionals ranking, defeated Daulton 9-6 in the loser’s bracket final to make the extended final match.
Kiamco has an illustrious Pool resume, having beaten Efren Reyes in the 2008 Manny Villar Cup in Alabang. He also finished second three times in the San Miguel Asian 9 Ball Tour in the last decade.
Kiamco now sets his sights on the U.S. Open 9 Ball, where only two Filipinos, Efren Reyes and Alex Pagulayan, have won.
Chesapeake, Virginia has not been a happy hunting ground for Pinoy Pool galactics, with Reyes, Amang Parica, Rodolfo Luat, Ronnie Alcano, and Alex Pagulayan all losing finals there. In fact, Parica and Alcano have lost the final there on two occasions.
This year Reyes, Alcano, Dennis Orcollo, Carlo Biado, Django Bustamante, Pagulayan, Rota, and longtime U.S. resident Santos Sambajon are joining Kiamco in the Pinoy contingent for the Open in Virginia.




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