Former world No. 1 player Dennis Orcollo, the major awardee for billiards in 2008 by the Philippine Sportswriters Association, is hell-bent on regaining his lofty ratings in 2009.
Honored during last Friday’s San Miguel Corp.-PSA Awards Night at the Manila Pavilion Hotel, the 30-year-old Orcollo said he was grateful to the association for recognizing his achievements last year and vowing to try his best in 2009.
“Being ranked No. 1 definitely added to my self-confidence,” once said Orcollo, a lightly regarded pool player from Bislig, Surigao del Norte, before he made the big league and joined a handful of true billiards greats.
Orcollo is not out of place with the likes of Hall of Famer Efren “Bata” Reyes, Ronnie Alcano, Francisco “Django” Bustamante and Alex Pagulayan. Undoubtedly one of the most dynamic shooters on the tour, Orcollo is a mainstay of the Negros Billiard Stable of sports patron Jonathan Sy.
Said Orcollo in an interview: “I know that people are watching me and I have to live up to my being world No. 1.”
In 2008, Orcollo won four international titles and finished remarkably well in several others. He started the year with a bang by winning the San Miguel Beer-Quezon City 9-Ball Championship. The following week, Orcollo beat some 200 world-class players in the Japan 9-Ball in Tokyo, including Japanese idol Ryoki Aoiki, whom he humbled in a one-sided finals, 9-2.
The Filipino hero later crushed veteran campaigner Niels Feijen of the Netherlands, 13-5, during their championship showdown at the inaugural Qatar World 9-Ball Open Championship in Doha. Orcollo capped the year by bagging a leg of the Guinness 9-Ball Tour in Guangzhou, China, last September.
However, Orcollo could only earn a semifinal berth in the Guinness Grand Finals held in Jakarta in October. The Grand Finals was won by Taiwan’s battle-scarred Yang Ching-shun.
During the 2008 Party Poker.net World Cup of Pool played in Rotterdam, Holland, Orcollo teamed up with veteran internationalist Francisco “Django” Bustamante and settled for a share of third place with the 2007 winners Fu Jian Bo and Li He Wen of China.
Earlier in the semifinals, the Orcollo-Bustamante tandem, considered by pool experts as the pre-tournament favorite, unexpectedly lost to the American pair of Rodney Morris of Hawaii and Shane “The South Dakota Kid” Van Boening, who eventually emerged champions.
But the soft-spoken Orcollo offered no excuse after the shock defeat. Instead, he showed true grit and character by blaming himself by saying, “I’m very disappointed that we weren’t able to fulfill our mission of winning the World Cup, and I blame myself for it.”
In gaining the nod of the PSA, Orcollo’s achievements in 2008 stood clearly above the rest. But other than that, it was a bleak year for the controversy-wracked Philippine billiards.
To illustrate. Philippine Olympic Committee president and former Tarlac Rep. Jose “Peping” Cojuangco recently directed the Billiards and Snooker Congress of the Philippines, headed by chair Yen Makabenta and president Ernesto Fajardo, to conduct their much delayed election.
Unhappy with the way their sport was being handled by BSCP officials, the country’s world-ranked players, led by Reyes, Pagulayan, Bustamante, Alcano and Orcollo, renounced their membership in the BSCP and formed the Billiards Managers and Players Association of the Philippines.
Members of the Philippine women’s team also complained against the unkind treatment they had suffered at the hands of billiards officials. They said they were unceremoniously removed from the national team and their allowance from the Philippine Sports Commission cut off despite giving honor to the country. They claimed they were being punished by the BSCP for joining tournaments organized by the breakaway BMPAP.
Former world 9-ball champion Alex “The Lion" Pagulayan and former World No. 1 Dennis Orcollo will banner the field in the 2009 PartyPoker.net World Pool Masters on May 8-10 in Las Vegas. 
