China Open Stream Links
- Thread starter snuuker
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Who was commentating? Might be a visionary.
The difference with the men was Chang played some better safeties and Jeff got a little sloppy a few times. Chang also jumped better. This runner-up finish may be enough to get Jeff a visa to come to the USA. He will clean up over here, just one more monster player coming from the Philippines.
That said, with the popularity of pool in China and 50 cities with over five million people and maybe a hundred more over one million, China is the new Philippines. There must be a 1000 or more great players there now, probably several in every big city. I suspect there is already a gambling culture (i.e. Hustlers) moving around from city to city. With the new affluence, I can only imagine the action that takes place in China today. Very doubtful any foreigner (Filipino or otherwise) could even begin to fade it. They can't even fade all the good player in Taiwan, and it's a fraction the size of China.
P.S. Have you noticed that all the great Chinese player who come here (and travel abroad) have trouble winning as well? Only the Filipinos seem to be able to go anywhere and win. They, as a culture, are very comfortable traveling and working all over the world, and I'm not just talking about pool. They assimilate well in any culture everywhere they go, becoming productive members of their community. Being great pool players anywhere they go is just a microcosm of this wonderful ability to adapt quickly to a new environ. Jeff Garcia (nee Ignazio) is the real feel good story of this event. He traveled there on his own dime to play in qualifiers, where only a handful of players got into the main event. He not only qualified but made it all the way to the finals! I say only a Filipino could have accomplished this feat! And you wonder why I love these guys. By the way on my last trip there recently I watched Jeff defeat Dennis in a Race to Eleven "King of the Hill" type match. There was substantial money being bet on this match. I made a bet on the "overs" meaning at least 19 games would be played. The score had to be 11-8 or closer for me to win and it ended up 11-9.
That said, with the popularity of pool in China and 50 cities with over five million people and maybe a hundred more over one million, China is the new Philippines. There must be a 1000 or more great players there now, probably several in every big city. I suspect there is already a gambling culture (i.e. Hustlers) moving around from city to city. With the new affluence, I can only imagine the action that takes place in China today. Very doubtful any foreigner (Filipino or otherwise) could even begin to fade it. They can't even fade all the good player in Taiwan, and it's a fraction the size of China.
P.S. Have you noticed that all the great Chinese player who come here (and travel abroad) have trouble winning as well? Only the Filipinos seem to be able to go anywhere and win. They, as a culture, are very comfortable traveling and working all over the world, and I'm not just talking about pool. They assimilate well in any culture everywhere they go, becoming productive members of their community. Being great pool players anywhere they go is just a microcosm of this wonderful ability to adapt quickly to a new environ. Jeff Garcia (nee Ignazio) is the real feel good story of this event. He traveled there on his own dime to play in qualifiers, where only a handful of players got into the main event. He not only qualified but made it all the way to the finals! I say only a Filipino could have accomplished this feat! And you wonder why I love these guys. By the way on my last trip there recently I watched Jeff defeat Dennis in a Race to Eleven "King of the Hill" type match. There was substantial money being bet on this match. I made a bet on the "overs" meaning at least 19 games would be played. The score had to be 11-8 or closer for me to win and it ended up 11-9.
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Excellent observation. I saw a small documentary about the Filipino workers who are traveling to Qatar to build stadiums for an upcoming world cup, and many of them are dying while living in horrid conditions. They are extremely hard workers who travel and adapt. Put that mentality behind a pool game and you get the Filipino invasion as we've seen.
I have it second hand that Chao who won the COC probably 3 times, still very much was miserable going there due to the culture shock, food, language problems and the lack of a Chinese community in Hicksville Ct.