What is the thier website?

I think Ol' Lou Figeroa spins an awful good yarn.

In the Philippines Open, nine of the 64 unseeded players won their first-round match. They are listed below. I add who they beat if it was a notable seeded player.

Fargo numbers are placed in front of their names. Almost all of them have very low robustness.

801 Paul John Ladao - beat Denis Grabe.
737 Jaybee Sucal
801 Mark Jerick Leyva - beat Lee Van Corteza
774 Albert Espinola
809 Yves Cabrito - beat Johann Chua
825 Eric Navarrete - beat Duong Quoc Hoang
707 Joshua Santino Arevalo - beat Roberto Gomez
753 Jerwin Capili Samia
773 Bryant Saguiped - beat flu-ridden Billy Thorpe

Of those nine, four won their second round matches.

Paul John Ladao
Mark Jerick Leyva
Eric Navarrete (beat Jeffrey de Luna)
Jerwin Captili Samia (beat James Aranas)

After that, Eric Navarrete was the only one to advance. He beat Anton Raga 10-6 in the round of 32.

He finally lost in the round of 16 to Roland Garcia, 10-6.

maha said:

but the amateurs can also knock out each other as they will when the play each other . which in turn leaves more pros to crush the remaining ones. so their real chances of winning does not go up.
as in all the tournaments structured as they are, the very top players take off all the money.

Bob Jewett said:

If the structure is the same as the Philippines Open, if you win your first match, you get $500, at least. That was the entry in the Philippines Open. Some players there got a bye in the first round and lost the second, so they broke even.

Roughly half the prize fund is added money. That's far, far better than the traditional US pro tournament that was mostly fodder-financed.

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As Bob noted, you get $500 if you win your first match. You get $1,000 if you win your second match and finish in the top 32.

Payouts go up to $2,500 for 9-16, $4,250 for quarterfinalists, $7,000 for semfinalists, $12,000 for the runnerup and $30,000 for the winner.

Love this post, thank you for sharing. A few questions:

How does the elite division work logistically? It covers the entire country so I'm assuming a good amount of travel is involved. How often do they play?

Do the regional divisions play each other? Or is play concentrated within each region?

Finally, what is the structure for competition - are they mostly tournaments or weekly club match ups or something else?

gregcantrall said:

View attachment 886306
It's not a show cue it's a working cue.
View attachment 886307
The shaft with stitches in the ring came with my wife's Joss. The other shaft was made from a broken bar cue by Roger Petit. That's my playing shaft. The shaft is slightly fatter as I played a lot with the big cueball. Changing shafts would give a completely different hit.
Cole had 6 shafts and 2 butts when I purchased the cue from him. 200 bucks.
The butt was broken by Cole while it was across his shoulders with hands draped at both ends. Too much Stolies And slightly crooked grain.
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Repaired by a competent wood worker. (Cole ).
The off color butt extension is my own invention. Adds minor weight and gives just a tad more reach. The chip in the old butt piece occurred dropping the butt to floor when the rubber bumper was worn out. Shrug .

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I love it.

Here's the link: https://shop.aeschmidtbilliards.com/collections/cues-400-and-over/products/a-e-schmidt-cue

Simulating competition is easy. Simulating the pressure you could feel being center stage at the Big show is harder to do.
Control of the cueball mastery can be easier than Control of the mind.
My personal progress through the development of my pool game started with the physical. My study of the sports with a Willie Mosconi book and included many more, with Billiards As It Should Be Played by Willie Hoppe getting extensive study.
The weakness in my mental game showed when I started playing in the White Spot weekly 9 ball tournament. I recall thinking, "I will be fine as soon as my hands stop shaking." Then the thought hit me with, "they ain't gone stop shaking Until I Make A Ball." Well learning to shoot with them shaking was my first goal.
The Fight or Flight emotion can generate a focus that the users of cocain find through chemistry.
My personal experience with that emotional distress came when I was first courting the gal that's been my wife ever since. It was at the H bar B Saloon in the cowboy capital of the world. I had long hair and a beard. And was riding a full dresser Harley. We were playing a game of partners 8 ball with the bull dogging Champions. (You know the guys that jump off the back of their running horse to grab the horns and wrestle the steer to the ground). So anyway it was last call on Friday night and I had spent every dollar I had. As I prepared to break she told me, "This is for a 6 pack of Michelobe to go." Well I was young and dumb and preceeded to break the balls without reply. The visions of sugar plums in their heads was in the Christmas song. The visions of blood were in my mind as I broke the rack. The fight or flight emotion was real and I broke and ran the rack. My first win For Money Ever.
Well looks like I am in Novela mode now.
So my training playing the Big Guns in the 9 ball weekly tournament took a while. After a year and a half I won a beer for 7-8. Eventually I was able to win it. Which led to my personal best performance in the twice a year White Spot Big Show 9 ball event.
I was playing for The Point of the two day event. I went down 6-2 going to 7. I had run to the 7 or 8 multiple times and didn't finish. So as I was racking for my opponent On the Hill my self to self talk went something like this. " You have handed him game after game. This IS The Big Show and perhaps this guy has never been on this stage before (either). So how about if I just quit handing it to him and make him earn his final game." The chances of me winning 5 before he got 1 more was so slim that I had accepted the loss but just endeavored to go down with Honor. You know that martial arts, "die with honor" attitude that could be oh so powerful. Of course my friends $5 token bet on me at the start of the match had me, uh well not giving up.
Sure enough accepting the inevitable cleared my mind of any negative or nervousness. The next thing I remember is the score was 6-6 and I had a combination on the 9 directly after my last break. My extensive practice of the break shot (the most important shot) paid a dividend. Well there were a few early 9 balls in my comeback but my focus on each task left no brain cells available to remember afterwards anything other than the final shot.
Edited: for clarity.

AtLarge said:

Hmm; the Diamond Professional leg pedestals used to be different. I wonder why they changed that (or maybe the old type are still available, too).

Diamond Professional Cherry Pool Table - 7ft, 8ft, 9ft | Free Delivery & Installation!

The Diamond Professional Pool Table is exclusively available from Home Leisure Direct. Huge choice of customisation options. Free Delivery and Installation.

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Free delivery and installation..... Of course it's free.... No refunds on hack jobs