A MUST read on article on Efren Reyes and more
23m...@my-deja.com
middle son of nine children -five boys and four girls. His family was
poor and his father worked as a barber. When Efren was five years old,
his family sent him to stay with his uncle, who owned the Lucky 13 pool
hall in Avenida, Manila. Efren was put to work as a billiard attendant.
This is where he picked up the nickname "Bata" (The Kid). Efren did not
actually pick up a pool cue until he was eight years old, but for the
first three years at the Lucky 13, he still learned a lot about the
game. Not only from watching the hustlers, the movie stars, and the
celebrities that frequented his uncle's place, but also from his dreams.
Efren's bed was the pool table. "When I slept on the table, I dreamt
about pool," he said. "I learned about pool from my dreams." No wonder,
I thought, he is nearly unbeatable. He must have learned the incredible
shots and the impossible angles that he is famous for from all the
spirits of the old players who visited him while he slept on the table
night after night. Then at eight years old, he began living out the
dreams. "Just to be able to shoot," he said, "I stacked cases of Coke
three high so I could play pool." After a shot, he would move the cases
around the table so he could take another shot. Even though his uncle
did not want him to play pool, Efren would play two hours in the morning
and two hours in the evening, when nobody was around. "I liked sleeping
on the table because when I woke up I could play pool." He started
gambling at nine years old. At 12, several of his rich Chinese friends,
whom Efren met at the Lucky 13, tagged him along to different places
like Bulacan, Olongapo, and Angeles for vacations. While there, they
would pick up games. The friends would finance Efren against some of the
best players in the Philippines. Once he beat the number two guy in the
country. "I watched all the good players and the weak players, too," he
said. He practiced every shot. He had no teacher. "I learned the simple
shots from the good players. English, draw, follow, how to put the cue
ball in position. But what about the other shots? The good players don't
know the invisible shots. A lot of times the weak players make these
impossible shots. I learned a lot of trick shots from watching bad
players." He said that at 16 he was the best player in the Philippines.
"At 18, 19, 20 years old," Efren said confidently, "nobody could beat me
around the world. Even if you could run the table everytime, still, you
could not beat me. When I was 20, I was strong." Interestingly, he said
this having never even been abroad at the time. He realized that he had
been the best all along, when in 1985, he first went to America and
finally watched all the best players. Efren dropped out of high school
after two years in order to support his family by playing pool. He had
financiers and he would play for maybe P100. Another source of income
was the American GIs on nearby Clark Air Base. But he had developed a
reputation and nobody would bet high with him. Because he had trouble
finding competition, he stopped playing pocket billiards in 1976 to take
up carom (three cushion billiards), which used to be popular in the
Philippines. But he became so good at carom that, like pool, nobody
wanted to play him. So he returned to pocket billiards. He found a
sponsor in 1979 and made his first trip abroad to Japan, where he won
$3,000 hustling and playing in tournaments. Six years later he made his
first trip to America. His sponsor then was a local Filipino with
connections in the States. He wanted Efren to hustle. By then,
however, the word about Efren Reyes had reached the pool halls of
America. But nobody in America knew what Efren looked like. So while in
the States, Efren used the name of his friend, Cezar Morales. He played
in and won the Red 9-Ball Open in Houston, Texas, which netted him a few
thousand dollars. Then over the next three weeks, playing big money
against all comers, Efren won $81,000. But he never saw his promised 50%
share. His financier stole the money. In 1986, he returned to America at
the invitation of another financier, a Filipino from Chicago. This man
also cheated Efren. In 1987, he had another financier, but they did not
get along. In 1988, Efren was financed by an American named Archibald
Mitchell. This time Efren finally made money. "The American didn't
cheat me," Efren said laughing. "Only the Filipinos." It was about this
time that Efren teamed up with long-time friend, Rolando Vicente, his
manager until this day. "Efren's a gifted guy," Rolando said. "Maybe the
guy upstairs gave it to him. Efren's the kind of guy who creates shots
that nobody knows how he did it. Also many people cannot do in a game
what they do in practice. Efren is different. He can play in a game the
way he practices. "He's better when he plays for money than he is at
tournaments. In tournaments, you can be beaten because you play only one
set. But for money, over the long run, Efren's the best." Efren
explained that what makes him and so many other Filipinos so good in
pool, especially under pressure, is the gambling. "Because Filipinos
like to gamble and play for money. They don't practice. The practice is
gambling. A lot of pool players don't have jobs. Their job is playing
pool." IT WAS NOT until 1989, however, that Efren finally stepped beyond
the world of hustling and on to the international stage. Jose Puyat, the
former congressman who, among several family businesses, also owns
and operates the AMF-Puyat billiard and bowling centers in Manila,
became Efren's first real sponsor. Puyat's sponsorship has nothing to do
with gambling. He pays the expenses for Efren, Rolando and sometimes
other members of the Philippine team, which Puyat formed, to travel from
tournament to tournament in the United States. Puyat has also promoted
several billiard events in the Philippines, pitting Efren against such
superstars as Nick Varner and Johnny Archer, and Team Philippines
against Team America. Efren still gambles, but when he does, he puts up
his own money. **
*******************************************
Efren has won the World 9-ball and World 8-ball titles. He won the World
8-ball two times in a row and placed second on his third run. Oh, by
the way, up until winning the first one, he has never played on an
international level of 8-Ball tournament. He did not even know the
rules.
Efren also won the first Straight-pool championship he attended in
1995. He also went to the finals of U.S. Open 9-Ball four times in a
row. He has also won 3-cushion and Balkline tournaments. He once beat
Bloomdahl on a Balkline match in Japan
Of the ONLY two 14.1 tourneys Efren participated, he ran 136 and 141.
Both tourney high runs. He won the first one he played in. The FIRST one
back in '95 in Portland, Maine.
************************************
HE ONCE RAN 5 RACKS OF FIFTEEN-BALL at Hardtimes on a Gold Crown WITH 4
INCH POCKETS. THE CUE BALL, BY THE WAY DID NOT TOUCH ANY BALL BUT THE
OBJECT BALL..
Efren has given more weight and won the most on money games EVER. That
line came from Grady Matthews. Matthews was the biggest money player
back in the eightees. Efren has slaughtered Mr. Matthews on one-pocket
matches. His backer from Alaska went broke on him against Efren. Efren
has also beat Hopkins and Incardona for a lot of money. They both got
the 8 ball against Efren.
** these last 2 info came from a friend ***
Sent via Deja.com
http://www.deja.com/
23m...@my-deja.com
************************************
** these last 2 info came from a friend ***In article <
barenada
23mark wrote...
> Of the ONLY two 14.1 tourneys Efren participated, he ran 136 and 141.
> Both tourney high runs. He won the first one he played in. The FIRST one
> back in '95 in Portland, Maine.
I'm not sure how old this information is, but in the BCA 14.1 tournament this
past Spring Efren ran 141 against Dallas West, and I'm almost positive that Tony
Robles ran 148 or 149 during the same tournament. Perhaps the "tourney high
run" of 141 was in an earlier tournament?
With such a long and supposedly fact-filled article you should probably at least
mention who originally wrote the thing and when. It not only avoids potential
copyright issues but it lets the rest of us know how many grains of salt we
should take when we read it.
--
Dave
cue...@my-deja.com
anything about Efren that you have to come and waste bandwidth with this
drivel. Quit wasting everyone's time and tell us something we don't
know? As a a matter of fact, if you spent as much time playing pool as
asking annoying us with stupid crap, you might develop a game.
In article <938erh$h11$1...@nnrp1.deja.com>,
whoda
cue...@my-deja.com wrote:
> And you tell us this bullsh*t why? You think we don't know about
> anything about Efren that you have to come and waste bandwidth with
this
> drivel. Quit wasting everyone's time and tell us something we don't
> know? As a a matter of fact, if you spent as much time playing pool as
> asking annoying us with stupid crap, you might develop a game.
Well Cuedude listen up.
Don't be jumping on the man when you come in here quoting his entire
post and then bitch about wasting bandwidth.
You would have to list everything everyone knows in order for him to be
able to discern what information to pass on to us.
As to your last remark - who knows. Get a life man.
Whoda
--
No more BSing!
donald tees
do you not want me to be able to read it?
cue...@my-deja.com wrote in message <93b3ro$f1p$1...@nnrp1.deja.com>...
RWMCT
and I went up to watch it. Reyes played very well, but not, in my opinion,
well enough to have won a major straight pool tournament in the late 70's or
early 80's. None of the real straight pool players (Rempe, Lisciotti,
Ervolino) who showed up played well. My recollection is that Nicky the Indian
came in second after a classic psyche job on Strickland, who I seem to recall
talking to people between matches on how you could "improve" straight pool if
you changed the rules(!) I really got the sense from that tournament that,
while there are still players that can run lots of balls, there is nobody that
really plays straight pool well anymore.
Otto
"donald tees" <don...@willmack.com> wrote in message
news:93b8p3$4gv$1...@news.igs.net...
> I do not understand your anger. I quite enjoyed the article. Why
> do you not want me to be able to read it?
I'll pile on.
I liked it too.
So did my bride.
I'm glad it was posted.
Well worth the bandwidth.
Otto
Otto
"RWMCT" <rw...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20010107214022...@ng-fp1.aol.com...
>I really got the sense from that tournament that,
> while there are still players that can run lots of balls, there is nobody
that
> really plays straight pool well anymore.
Too busy trying to master 9 ball.
They can conquer one or two disciplines but they can't master the game.
It's too complex.
Otto ;>)
RWMCT
impression is that even the guys who came up playing straight no longer play it
as well as they used to. To be clearer, todays player may run as many balls as
yesteryears (though I am not sure of that) but they do not manage the game the
way they used to. As a result, they are always at risk that the other guy will
get up and hit them with a run. When the game is played at its best even a
very good player can be left with nothing to shoot at for a whole game.
lfigueroa
Lou Figueroa
"Otto" <nospamOtt...@worldnet.att.net> wrote in message
news:qW966.20890$7f3.1...@bgtnsc07-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
mias...@my-deja.com
Roseland Ballroom... That honor went to NYC's own Tony Robles who
busted a 148 on Johnny Archer
In article <938fce$hes$1...@nnrp1.deja.com>,
Bob Jewett
> Liked it too... though attribution would have been nice.
A more complete article is at http://www.theville.com/efrenreyes.html
which says:
This article was first published in Business World, a national daily
newspaper [ in the Philipines?], on Saturday April 13th, 1996. It
is reprinted here with the permission of the author. Ted Lerner.
--
Bob Jewett
w e i
> Efren did NOT have the high run in the most recent 14.1 in NYC at the
> Roseland Ballroom... That honor went to NYC's own Tony Robles who
> busted a 148 on Johnny Archer
(please remove NOSPAM to respond)
Ryan9ball
the tournament before Tony Robles broke it. I could be wrong.
Ryan :o)
Jeffrey Weiss
> i thought he started with -2, and run 150 balls
You probably forgot that you asked the question, since it's been so long, but
the answer is:
Tony started at -2 and ended at 146 for a run of 148 which was the high run for
the tournament. The shot he missed was to a top corner pocket from around the
rack area and would have left him with three easy rack area shots for a US Open
record run of 152. But, alas, it wasn't to be. This was my report on the game
from April (surprisingly available in Deja):
] This run was pure straight pool. Grady would have been proud. Tony came up
] 4 balls short of an all-time BCA Open record 152 that probably would have
] stood for quite a while. All ten break shots were from the side of the rack
] in more-or-less perfectly classic position. In the last three racks, Robles
] had to work hard to get that break shape. In the last two, he had to
] manufacture a break ball. In one, it took two attempts, and in the other he
] had to place himself perfectly on the last ball to bump out the break ball
] and leave the cue in the rack for breaking position. This run was
] watch-and-learn time for all of us (Reyes should have been watching).
--
jw (Tournament Reporter)
srs...@my-deja.com
Zuglans opening break. I think he got in trouble once and had to try a
second time at a break out. The most solid display of consistency I
have ever seen. You can get the tape from Accu-Stats a must have.
Scott
RWMCT
lovely. Did you see Mizerak go 150 and out on Margo in the Eastern States a
few years back? Margo was on fire, running 70s every time he got to the table,
beat the Miz first time around, opened the second game with another 70+, and
Miz gets up and goes out. I get chills thinking about it.
Rich, who really, really misses straight pool.