Myself and Jay Helfert were the sole witnesses to the single best rack of pool I have ever witnessed in my life. Chris melling's circus shots on Youtube have ZERO on this game.
Jay Helfert trapped Pagulayan in a One Pocket proposition game where Pagulayan had 5 racks or something to run 50 balls or thereabouts against the One Pocket ghost. Break the rack and run them from where they lie, until you miss, then go for the next rack.Alex was getting something like 3-to-1 on the money?
Pagulayan was in a stone cold trap. He was down to his last rack and needed all 15 balls! He then ran the most incredible runout I have ever seen, and I have watched thousands of hours of pool. At one point, he twist-banked a ball that had gotten kicked uptable, and was on his side of the table, about 4 inches off the side rail. The incredible thing about the shot was the cue ball was in the quadrant of the table, close to his opponent's pocket! A twist bank from this angle might be the single hardest shot in pool. And he pulled it out when he needed every ball on the table.
The sheer mental strength I saw during that single rack was one of the most awesome sporting accomplishments I have ever had the privilege to witness. It'd be nice to hear Jay Helfert's side of this story, to get more accurate numbers on the bet/proposition. He was pretty salty about it at the time, but he should be proud that he was able to contribute a relatively small amount of money to this legend of a player, and create the opportunity for history to be made, even though it was not filmed..
Short Bus Russ
Nice. I wish I could have seen it.
Btw, in my previous post I said Alex has bad days, well, I finally remembered one I witnessed.
It was in Huntsville, Alabama at goodtimez billiards. It was the Rocket-city-open.
Sky W. won the bar box tournament that day.
But, "Hennessy from tennessee", put a beating on Dennis O in bar box part of tournament but both ended up being outed.
But, they had a midnight madness winner take all 10 ball on 9'. Alex and hennessy from tennessee was last two standing. Alex had Hennessey by a game or so and then dogged a couple balls two games in a row.
Hennessey made him pay for mistakes when Alex had very, very, very easy out that ANYONE could have pulled off, but.....alex had object ball ~6" from side with Cue ball about ~6" from object ball. It was a very easy out that more or less determined the match to me.
Anyway, Alex raised up on shot and missed. He never got back to table. Hennessey ran out, then broke and ran next/final game for win.
That was the worst I ever seen Alex play. Not just with Hennessey, but with several others. He lost a couple sets to some nobody that, to be honest, most any A player could beat.
That is the only time I remember Alex actually playing really bad.
Think about it, world class player gets beat by local A player. Of course, it was a tournament and short races but it was even up, no spot.
Efren, busti, Dennis etc.... It seemed they all play a hair below their norm that day.
Cohen, sky and Hennessey was the only three players that actually played well that two or three day stretch.
Btw, Cohen won the 1hole part.
I believe that was 2016.
Also, I seen Dennis lose a couple ghost sets that night. It was 10ball, wood rack, ball in hand and 12ball ghost ball in hand. He lost both. Can't remember the bet but It was cheap. Something like 1 to 2k a set, fuzzy on the amounts.
Anyways, yep, anyone can have a chatty day and lose to a lesser player.