Moore reverses split Filipino decision, take first Derby City Classic belt

Moore reverses split Filipino decision, take first Derby City Classic belt
Stinging pocket slaps and floating two-railers propel banks lightweight over “The Kid”

If you hadn’t been in the southeast for the past half decade or so, you would think four-time All-Around World Champion (back to back reigning) Efren Reyes would blister Steve Moore at anything. And if you’re the infamous regional billiard player who is swiftly becoming a top name in the game, you might not think you could bank balls this well either. With a monstrous Louisville crowd awaiting the third match between the two during today’s play, Moore had this to say to a fan he met in North Carolina. The impressed spectator said, “I didn’t know you could bank like that Stevie.”
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“I didn’t either,” Moore replied, as he re-entered the BCn television ring with eyes on a shot at the Ninth Annual Derby City Classic’s first of three major titles. Moore had just finished routing Reyes 3-0 with three identical ball counts of 5-1, and that in his first bank pool tournament ever. To find one, he had to come Louisville, the birthplace of Cassius Clay and the forge for Muhammad “The Greatest” Ali. While Efren “Bata” Reyes had another name on his entries into the ring when he first arrived in the states, he is known as the greatest when he steps into the DCC pit. Moore looks nothing like Joe Frazier tonight, and Reyes is still all smiles.
The culmination of a march through 470 players in a scant three days came swiftly, while the chaos of pool’s greatest party swirled around. With seven players remaining after ten rounds of drawing names at random, with first-time losers given the option to buy back in once, every match was a gem. The monster match of the eleventh draw was the first Reyes/Moore tilt, with both still operating with the buyback option. Reyes took the first game on schedule with the expectation of the crowd, but Moore had already faced some great bankers. In an amazing display of will and shot-making, Moore came from the deepest hole possible to beat the formidable Brian Gregg. Gregg shot at his case ball with a chance to hand Moore a bagel, but the speed of Moore’s banks melted the butter as he came roaring back to win 3-2.
Facing Reyes, he converted a minor safety error by Reyes on the last ball available into a clutch 5-4 equalizer in the second game. Reyes went four banks and out to win the next, and Moore went three and out to bring it to the hill. Moore faltered there, as Reyes picked him apart ducking around a wall of spotted balls in a 5-0 win. The advanced moves and good two-way shot decisions Reyes has learned while dabbling in banks on the way to many DCC One-Pocket and 9-ball titles showed the contrast in the play of the Filipinos and the great Americans. The slammed straight-back and cross-side style of American position play is starkly different from the spinning, soft, and cautious style of the Pinoy contingent.
Rounding out the last group of seven, Rafael Martinez-Chavez caught a bye, which would happen each round to follow because of the amount of players and the buyback situations amongst them. Owenton KY’s John Brumback is still without a 9-ball banks crown here, despite consistent near misses. His 3-1 victory over Kankakee IL’s noted banker Ike Runnells was revenge for Kentucky’s loss to Chicago in the sixth round. This battle in the regional war for banking supremacy turned on a key two-rail in the side bank that Brumback opted for over a cross-side for the safety of the cue ball to score a 5-4 win and tie the match at one. Another consistent cash-maker in this event, Rodolfo Luat of the Republic of the Phillippines stopped the improbable run of Salem, IN’s Michael Collins in a 3-1 win.
Reyes received the bye the next round, leaving him with a guaranteed third place if he lost his next two matches in a row, and the chance to get two straight byes into the finals ala David Matlock in 2005. It left for some tense matches, but Martinez-Chavez was overmatched by a determined and lethal Moore, who took three racks straight in convincing fashion after losing the first. Brumback and Luat had a considerably more competitive match.
Brumback struggled mightily at the outset, but after losing the first game, Brumback maneuvered a victory out of a 3-3 tie then went five and out, a thrilling occasion in short races of banks for podium spots. Luat capitalized on a Brumback scratch that if avoided, would have put Brumback on the ball to win the match. Instead, Luat converted the 3-2 lead, and then one upped Brumback with a break and run that sent the Kentucky crowd into disbelief.
The runner-up in this year’s US Open 9-ball Championship would have had a hard time following that show up without a breather, and Luat indeed got the buy. Reyes trotted back out of the deep Filipino stable to the reception he is accustomed to, but came out flat. Perhaps watching Moore blast a half dozen banks in without a miss while he warmed up tired the affable “Magician” out. Moore laid down the first 5-1 whipping, and continued to capitalize with fearless long straight-back banks for position on his way to two more of those. Suddenly the playing field was leveled, and doubts that a second banks champion from the Philippines would claim Parica’s dusty throne from 2001 began to arise. Moore cemented those doubts in the next round.
Luat came out like the same champion he left Brumback scratching his head over, breaking and running four, capping the opening inning with a two-railer and an absurdly angled one-railer in the corner across the side pockets. When Luat jarred his case ball, Moore rocketed the first straight back in he saw, but Luat was too much with a two-in-the-side shot to get out of the blocks 5-1. Game two showed that Moore can move, but a few overly aggressive plays cost him, and Luat took a 2-0 lead. Moore had been in a worse spot with DCC 10-ball Banks Ring Game legend Gregg, and reset himself to climb back and get a tie-breaker with Reyes.
The crowd was clearly with Moore, responding slowly and with slight dismay despite appreciation for Luat’s successes. Down 2-1, the houseman from Mr. Cues II in Atlanta ran two basic banks with deliberate address. He then went and adjusted the score beads mid-inning, showing that he had learned since starting this endeavor on Friday that it’s impossible to play great banks (or one pocket) without adjusting your shots to the ball count. Moore was slightly unorthodox in how he decided to play the score however. He finished the four and out fearlessly, double-crossing a one-railer in the corner with the cue ball and landing position for an ably converted straight-back.
That 5-2 loss shook Luat, despite his 2-1 lead in the set. The next game, Luat managed to get a 4-2 lead as Moore suffered many scratches making reckless banks, but squandered shot after shot that Moore left him on the way to a 5-4 win that put them on the hill. Moore came with a stirring four and out that brought the crowd to frenzy, the 5-1 rack and 3-2 match victories propelling him to a third round in the ring with Bata.
Reyes won the first game, playing a cautious, one-and-stop style of bank pool. Moore won the second with a five and out after Reyes nearly scratched breaking and played a feeble safety from the cue ball’s nasty home between the jaws of the side pocket. The tone was set, and the undeniable Moore took the next game 5-2, shooting his way out of mistakes when Efren would offer him a chance the next shot. Moore tried to initiate a defensive duel with Efren down 4-2 in the fourth rack, and as each player hung up or rattled bank after bank, Reyes seemed to be waiting for the inevitable hanger. It came, and his 5-2 retort to more put them on the hill, a final rack to determine the bout of two accepted heavyweight on this day.

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The rack broke ugly, which seemed to favor Efren, who was not playing at the same level as he had throught the weekend, but still was a heavy favorite in a contest of safety play. A brutal scratch pocketing a cross-side with a 2-0 lead left Moore seemingly in trouble, but he battled well as Reyes left openings. With the score 3-3, Efren lost a tickling contest on the 2-ball, where each player safely fanned the tied up set of balls remaining while waiting for the other to err. Reyes sold out first, and Moore pounced, firing a bank cross corner and simultaneously knocking the hanging 8-ball in with the cue ball. Moore shot the previously tickled 2-ball straight back, but it hung up, a fraction of an inch from ending the tournament. Reyes rattled the spotted 8-ball straight back, drawing a second consecutive exasperated reaction from the crowd, but Moore knocked the tension out of Louisville’s lungs with a soft jab to Reyes’ ribs, coaxing the 2-ball two rails into the corner.
Reyes laughed the ribbing off, having started his annual trek to the top of the DCC All-Around points list better than he ever has before. Moore will add this title to his 1995 World Bar Table Championship and start a 2007 off that may make his remarkable 2006 seem like a slow day at the gym. Train up and try him some next year in Louisville, and stay tuned to InsidePOOLmag.com as coverage carries on through the rest of the Derby City Classic. A special Tuesday night event is the OnePocket.org Hall of Fame banquet, which will honor backroom legends including Strawberry, Youngblood and Lefty. A third day of competition in the start studded straight pool challenge, a second and third round robin USBA US Open Three Cushion qualifier, the 470-player one-pocket division, and more gamble than you can bandolier a bankroll at are all on the menu at pool’s smorgasbord.

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