Efren playing 3C in SEA games.

RabbiHippie

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Efren playing Vietnamese Champion.

Thanks for posting this. Prompted me to search YouTube and found a bunch more videos of Efren playing both 3-Cushion and Cushion Caroms at SEA, but what really blew me away way was finding this video posted just three days ago ...

EFREN "BATA" REYES MOBBED LIKE A ROCKSTAR BY VIETNAMESE FANS AT SEA GAMES VENUE

What I'd really like to see is video from when Efren played snooker at the SEA. He said in an interview that he made a break in the 130's despite never playing it before.
 

mr3cushion

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Thanks for posting this. Prompted me to search YouTube and found a bunch more videos of Efren playing both 3-Cushion and Cushion Caroms at SEA, but what really blew me away way was finding this video posted just three days ago ...

EFREN "BATA" REYES MOBBED LIKE A ROCKSTAR BY VIETNAMESE FANS AT SEA GAMES VENUE

What I'd really like to see is video from when Efren played snooker at the SEA. He said in an interview that he made a break in the 130's despite never playing it before.
Do U have a link to the interview? If he indeed did that, He's been playing the wrong game his entire life!
 

RabbiHippie

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Do U have a link to the interview? If he indeed did that, He's been playing the wrong game his entire life!
Snooker is discussed in this interview with Mark Wilson around the 22 minute mark.


This interview (with SVB standing by) may be the one where he specifically mentions high break.


Could be another interview, though, where he says an exact number because I seem to recall Efren speaking though a translator. I'll post that one when I find it.
 
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RabbiHippie

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Efren says in the second interview that his high break was 132 and that he beat Ronnie O'Sullivan for the money getting a 25-point spot.
 

RabbiHippie

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I think Efren is a pool machine, but snooker is an entirely different animal, I would have lost my money if he did beat Ronnie with only a 25 point spot.
O'Sullivan has confirmed it happened in interviews. They matched-up during the 1991 World Amateur Championships in Thailand. Ronnie won eight straight matches in the tournament before being eliminated in the Final 16 while Efren lost three matches and won four before withdrawing. That tournament and the 1987 SEA games are apparently the only times Efren ever officially competed at snooker.

Ronnie was only 15 at the time, but was already a formidable player with a 147 maximum break in the English Amateur Championships that year before turning pro the next season. The excellent CueTracker stats site (wish pool had something similar) doesn't show Efren making any century breaks in '91 and doesn't have data for the '87 SEA games, so I'm not certain whether Efren's 132 break happened then or some other time in a less formal setting.

CueTracker shows some other pool players from the Philippines who've tried their hand at snooker as well. Marlon Manalo has made a 136 and Alex Pagulayan (under Canada) a 134.
 
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gulfportdoc

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No buzz saw, the Best player in Vietnam! Number 12 in the World.

The score was in line. The guy stalled for the last few innings trying to give ER a little slack.
I wondered about that. Most of the Vietnam guy's points hit the second ball square in the face, whereas some of his misses almost seemed intentional. Hard to say why ER played him, except that he may have gotten some nice appearance money. Dunno.
 

RabbiHippie

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I wondered about that. Most of the Vietnam guy's points hit the second ball square in the face, whereas some of his misses almost seemed intentional. Hard to say why ER played him, except that he may have gotten some nice appearance money. Dunno.
Efren was representing his country in a kind of mini-Olympics, the Southeast Asia Games, which he has done many times since 1987. Athletes from multiple sports are chosen by their governments to be on the national team. Efren might have received some financial incentive from the government or possibly indirectly from one of his sponsors, but I wouldn't completely rule out the element of national pride.

According to this guy's analysis, Efren is probably the best the Philippines have to offer at Carom Billiards even if he's not up to the standard of world class players who average 1.5-2.0 at 3-Cushion. For the same reason, he was asked to represent his country in Snooker at the 1987 games despite having never played before. They have to send somebody and since neither Snooker or 3-Cushion are common in the Philippines, they chose the pool player most capable of adapting.
 
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mr3cushion

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O'Sullivan has confirmed it happened in interviews. They matched-up during the 1991 World Amateur Championships in Thailand. Ronnie won eight straight matches in the tournament before being eliminated in the Final 16 while Efren lost three matches and won four before withdrawing. That tournament and the 1987 SEA games are apparently the only times Efren ever officially competed at snooker.

Ronnie was only 15 at the time, but was already a formidable player with a 147 maximum break in the English Amateur Championships that year before turning pro the next season. The excellent CueTracker stats site (wish pool had something similar) doesn't show Efren making any century breaks in '91 and doesn't have data for the '87 SEA games, so I'm not certain whether Efren's 132 break happened then or some other time in a less formal setting.

CueTracker shows some other pool players from the Philippines who've tried their hand at snooker as well. Marlon Manalo has made a 136 and Alex Pagulayan (under Canada) a 134.
This is a video of 15 year old Ronnie playing in Junior Championship when it's been alleged he spotted ER 25 points.


What year did ER allegedly score a 132 Break and never played snooker before?
 

RabbiHippie

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This is a video of 15 year old Ronnie playing in Junior Championship when it's been alleged he spotted ER 25 points.


What year did ER allegedly score a 132 Break and never played snooker before?
I think Efren made the 132 break at the 1987 SEA games in Jakarta, but I can't say that for sure because CueTracker doesn't have any data for that tournament. What is known for certain, though, is that Efren won the gold medal for snooker at the 1987 SEA games. He had never played snooker before but practiced for three days to get ready.

It was four years later when Efren matched up with O'Sullivan on a table in the practice room at the 1991 World Amateur Championhips in Thailand. Ronnie was on the verge of turning pro the next year and had already made a maximum when they played.
 
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Dennis "Whitey" Young

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This is a video of 15 year old Ronnie playing in Junior Championship when it's been alleged he spotted ER 25 points.


What year did ER allegedly score a 132 Break and never played snooker before?
This is interesting for me. At 16 in '67, I started stopping in Brighman's Pool Hall in Long Beach, ca. as I walked home from school. It had two snooker tables, one being very old from France 1700's I heard, a real snooker table that no one 'ever' played on, the pockets were two tight, a 5x10 pool table (later to be my table) and an old 4-1/2 x 9. I liked the other snooker table and the 5x10 pool table. It had a card table, old guys 60 -70 playing cards, and they played golf once in awhile.

I would play an hour once in awhile, hardly at all, and never played before that age. One day a son (about 35) of one of the old guys in there, ask me to play some Snooker. I said ok, but I said; "I've never played it, so you have to show me".
I had a break run of 76. He said astonished; "no one's ever done that to me before". That was the first and last time I ever played snooker.

I never knew if that was good or not, so now I have something to compare it with. So Ronnie had me by one year, no comparison in training/experience, and 16 points. But the table he is playing on has 'HUGE' pockets, wow! The antique I was on had much tighter pockets.

Later, I worked out a deal with Curly, the owner, that if I cleaned his tables, he'd let me play for free. So I'd clean up the snooker table for the old guys for their golf games, they did not let me play. So after the deal, I'd played a little longer, then on my way home, from school. It worked out for both of us.
Later Curry went out of business, I got his 5x10, and he wanted me to go on the road with him to Texas, where he was from. Man I was green, knew nothing about hustling, I did not go. Wish I had!

Later on, my best table was the 6x12 at the Bellflower Palace, tight pockets. In playing Popcorn, pay pool, after a couple of hours of watching, Jimmy Reid, paid me a compliment, "I just have to say this, I have not seen shooting like this in a long time'. I was continually stoning in balls on long shots from either frozen on the short rails or over balls. That compliment now means a lot to me!

So when someone asks you to play, step up and play, you just never know what might happen. Wish I'd stepped up some more!

Makes me feel good about a moment in time, oh so long ago, for now I have a comparison!
thanks mr3c for posting this! Whitey
 
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