Thorsten Hohmann, recent winner of the World Pool Championship in Cardiff, Wales, last July, was present, defeating Bob Weimar in the first round 11-0 and then losing to Danny Barouty 11-10 and ultimately was eliminated by Jimmy Fusco.

Rodney Morris had a great event at the Big Apple.  After he vanquished Niels Feijen of the Netherlands in a hill-hill nailbiter, he went o­n to defeat Jose "The Giant Killer" Parica in the match for fourth place, after Parica had knocked him into the o­ne-loss bracket the evening before after a hill-hill match.  The Rocket as always put o­n a stunning show:  down 2-8 to Parica, he turned the tables and won their match 11-8. 

Reyes made his way quietly through the winners' bracket, with a notable match against Taiwan's Ching-Shun Yang.  Reyes ran the first four racks of their match and looked unstoppable, but Yang fought back to bring the score to 7-6 in his favor.  The two giants fought a mammoth hill-hill battle, but it was Reyes who was still standing at the end of it, winning by the score of 11-10.  Reyes went o­n to challenge current UPA president Charlie Williams in the hot seat match, with Williams triumphing over the Filipino master 11-9. 

Reyes, who was recently inducted into the BCA's Hall of Fame last July, and Morris faced each other in the match for third place.  "The Magician" gave Morris all he could handle, however, and Reyes won their match by the tight score of 11-8, with Morris settling for third place. 

With Williams and Reyes in the final match, the crowd was tense and ready for anything.  After a snafu o­n the airplane, Williams was forced to borrow cues all weekend for tournament play, but that didn’t seem to make a difference at this point.  After a monumental struggle between two great players, it was Williams in the end who came out o­n top, winning by the score of 13-8.  Williams did what most would consider an impossible feat -- he defeated Reyes twice in the same event.

1st - Charlie Williams $12,000

2nd - Efren Reyes $7,000

3rd - Rodney Morris $4,500

4th - Jose Parica $3,000

5th/6th - Francisco Bustamante, Alex Pagulayan $2,000

7th/8th - Hsiao-Lan Fang, Ching-Shun Yang $1,400