Alex Pagulayan going to UK to try pro snooker

[JAM]

Seriously, you cannot actually feel that playing the poor martyr in this is now the way to go.

In the very thread you quoted (and we all know you can read very well) I stated



So that kind of negated your whole "woe is me" "bleeding heart" post about no one reading your contributions or seeing their value prior to your even writing it.

Stop with the forum equivalent of "ok I will go cry in the corner until someone comes up and tells me they love me" every time you might have a disagreement with people on this forum, it is childish and silly and you are better then that Jam. Me and you agree about a lot of things on this forum and I do respect your thoughts on most things on here, but at times you can go too far on threads like this when people are discussing Alex's actual realistic chances of making it in pro snooker.

Guess what, 99% of the people saying Alex cannot likely do it would LOVE to have Alex prove them wrong, myself included. Because we think he is going to have a tough time does not mean we do not like the guy or his game, he is one of my favorite players ever and I have NEVER routed against him and I am not in this endeavour either.

My interest in AzBilliards, pool, and social media in general is waning, truth be told. Trolls like Thaiger and his insults are just not worth hanging out here. It's not all about you, Celtic, or your remarks about my posts relating to Keith, a photo, and him playing Thorburn. It's me not wanting to partake in this kind of negativity anymore. It doesn't cost anything to be nice, but some members here seem to enjoy ripping others apart, dissecting their words, attacking them for no damn reason other than for the entertainment factor for themselves

I just turned 60 years old, and however many years I have left on Earth, I would rather embrace joy and happiness.

And I won't be going in a corner. LOL I'll be increasing my income and maybe, just maybe be able to retire when I'm done. AzBilliards is like a speed bump when it comes to me being productive. :embarrassed2:

I can get more news on the Main Page these days than I can on this forum.

 

[JAM]

Seriously, you cannot actually feel that playing the poor martyr in this is now the way to go.

In the very thread you quoted (and we all know you can read very well) I stated



So that kind of negated your whole "woe is me" "bleeding heart" post about no one reading your contributions or seeing their value prior to your even writing it.

Stop with the forum equivalent of "ok I will go cry in the corner until someone comes up and tells me they love me" every time you might have a disagreement with people on this forum, it is childish and silly and you are better then that Jam. Me and you agree about a lot of things on this forum and I do respect your thoughts on most things on here, but at times you can go too far on threads like this when people are discussing Alex's actual realistic chances of making it in pro snooker.

Guess what, 99% of the people saying Alex cannot likely do it would LOVE to have Alex prove them wrong, myself included. Because we think he is going to have a tough time does not mean we do not like the guy or his game, he is one of my favorite players ever and I have NEVER routed against him and I am not in this endeavour either.

And one more thing. I know you're Canadian and utilize the British spellings of some words, like "endeavour," et cetera, but it's "NEVER rooted against" not "routed." There is no "u" in root when you're rooting for somebody to succeed. :grin-square:

 

[yobagua]

Jim Wych. Since youre posting on here I just want to say that the snooker commentating in the UK is exceptional. Ive been following snooker for over 10 years. Spending a lot to get DVDs of all that comes over the Beeb. John Virgo, Clive Everton, and company are some of the best commenting and reporting in the world today. The journalism on the mass media is first rate as well.
Its obvious that the UK take cue skills as a true sport seriously. The rest of the world is following along. Too bad we in America lag so far behind.

 

[yobagua]

"Have to say this too, kind of back on topic, Corey called me a couple days ago to ask me what I thought about his snooker endeavors. He said something to me that I passed on to Alex yesterday, (to which Alex reminded me what an intelligent guy Corey really is). I already knew that Alex didn’t have to remind me.
Corey said he wanted to go over and play snooker because he knew that in playing with all these top young players that he might pick up two or maybe three shots from the snooker world that he could apply on a pool table. That made the trip worthwhile in his mind. And folks, he most definitely will pick up two or three shots that he can use when he gets back to the pool table.
When you have an attitude like that you always leave yourself open to improve.
You just have to admire Corey’s philosophy behind this move".J.W.

It is said that one of Efrens favorite game is Balkline. A billiard game highly revered in Europe. Efren's extraordinary skill might be attributed to that game. Certainly his love of 3 rail billiards.
Maybe Corey has the right idea.

 

[J.W.]

Snooker commentating

Couldn't agree more!
All are very good friends of mine too.
Willie Thorne, Davis, Hendry, Virgo, Hallet, Neil Foulds, Ken Doherty, Joe johnson etc etc the list is endless, but they are all former top players for the exception of Clive and Phil Yates and the one fellow on Eurosport who I believe is also a journalist. Journalists make great commentators by the way.

One thing about it that is a fair comment though, we had about 20-30 media personnel at our beckon call. We all went into the comm box loaded with material such as head to heads, current money lists, career earnings, almost anything and everything the listener at home would be interested in. That makes for great viewing. Sadly we don't have that resource in most of the pool events I am involved with. Matchroom Sport is the one exception. They provide material re bios and player info as they get the players to fill them all out beforehand. It helps with the production value.

I was taken off the snooker in 1997 after 6-7 seasons. My North American accent meant that SKY Sports wanted me to head up their pool interests. So there was no more snooker for me even though that was my background. I sure miss all the guys but every now and then we run into each other. I'm still in touch with a good number of the players and commentators involved in professional snooker, it was a long standing lifestyle that we will all carry to the grave.

Great memories..........

 

[dkleather]

"Then say that." See?

The issue today is that break-building, unlike in the past with the older conditions, is even more of a staple foundational skillset over the days of old. Reardon happened to be one of the few who put the "break-building" and "heavier nap cloth / non-phenolic balls" things together in two-and-two fashion. Today, if you don't have good break-building, you don't have the heavier nap cloth and non-phenolic balls to fall back on (i.e. leveraging it as an obstacle for your opponent), and thus, you don't stand a chance.

Unlike you where you feel you have to insult (I guarantee you have no idea how fast I read or type), I will further indulge the "let's see if I can explain things a little differently" way of doing things.

-Sean

Perhaps it is not the speed of your reading that is the problem. Perhaps it is your ability to absorb what you read. That's not an insult, it's an observation based on your inability to accept the truth.

The issue is that whatever you may say and whatever you may think or however you wish to try to lessen the achievements of the greats of the past, break building is easier on faster cloths with lighter balls.

You may wish to attribute today's greater feats of break building to today's players being better than the greats of the past but that is not entirely the case.

I read earlier that Hendry "invented" going into the pack off the blue. He did not. However it became a more productive shot in his day because conditions allowed the pack to open easier. Hendry in my view would have been a great in any era but he would not have recorded the break building exploits that he did had he played in an earlier era.

In ANY ERA if you did not have good break building skills you did not stand a chance, however as time has gone on and conditions have improved, the points accumulated via those skills have increased. Just as times have improved in athletics, averages have improved in darts etc etc.

Horace Lindrum, who is not regarded as an official world champion by many, made 1000 public century breaks in a career beginning in the 1940s, he could not beat Joe Davis, I have a cue commemorating Joe Davis 600th century break. ELEVEN times in world championship play, Joe Davis broke the pack, flukes a red and made a total clearance, that's eleven frames without his opponent getting a shot. These guys could play and break build, it was just very hard to do.

Watch his century on YouTube, see how hard he has to hit everything.

If you have any evidence or information to back your unfounded, ill-informed opinions, I'll be happy to read them. These guys of the past could play, were GREAT players, Reardon was in a world final in his fiftieth year and to have people who have clearly made no effort to find anything out make statements like the ones on this thread is frankly an insult to an era that contained some of the greatest cueman ever.

 

[dkleather]

You are clearly unable to follow narrative or understand logical propositions, like many others around here, so I'll show some restraint and leave that line of thought where it is, but can you tell me when Higgins beat Hendry in a major final?

Irish Masters 1989, it's on YouTube.

I enjoy proving trolls wrong as much as the next man but it's more difficult with a troll who knows the subject. Sadly, you are not that troll.

 

[dkleather]

The game of snooker has improved by leaps and bounds as have the conditions they all play under today. It all makes for improvement in standard of play. Statistics don't lie but they can be jaded when the conditions are not equal. So all we can do is look at what the players of the past could and did do given the conditions they all played under. And we have to accept the fact that the top ones could have easily adapted to whatever conditions they were faced with.

Any great player of the 70’s through to the turn of the millennium would most definitely be competitive with today’s players. Maybe not the upper echelon of them but most certainly the mid range of ranked players and the majority of the 128 that are currently ranked. I had a quick look at the top 64 and a player the caliber of an Alex Higgins on song would own at least half of these guys. No disrespect intended, just my opinion based on what I know, what I have seen and of course some of the great players that I have had similar discussions with.

I can certainly tell that in reading almost all of the posts on this thread that a good deal of posters have a handle on this.

The only two that had me spurting out my coffee back on to the keyboard were the Alex Higgins couldn’t beat the top 1000 in today’s snooker and the Alex Pagulayan would beat O’Sullivan for the cash in a long snooker match. Hey, it’s my coffee and my keyboard but these two comments are too funny.

Jim

Thank you very much.

Ps. You were better than a journeyman, you could have had White in 1992.

 

[Dave714]

Ready to see Alex play some snooker.

 

[sfleinen]

Perhaps it is not the speed of your reading that is the problem. Perhaps it is your ability to absorb what you read. That's not an insult, it's an observation based on your inability to accept the truth.
[...]
If you have any evidence or information to back your unfounded, ill-informed opinions, I'll be happy to read them.

Is this really necessary? Not once did I ever insult you, yet you seem hell-bent on insulting me, just because I have a difference of opinion. "Not an insult" evasive maneuvering is just that -- evasive. I won't insult you, and instead show you respect and courtesy in asking that you reciprocate.

These guys of the past could play, were GREAT players, Reardon was in a world final in his fiftieth year and to have people who have clearly made no effort to find anything out make statements like the ones on this thread is frankly an insult to an era that contained some of the greatest cueman ever.

And you know something? I respect that opinion. I just happen to think that the game evolved, and the skillsets of yesteryear aren't as pivotal as the skillsets of today are. Powerful strokes on nap cloth aren't needed today in lieu of precision and touch on faster cloth. That's my opinion, and seems to be shared by a few here. That's not to say that if we plop a Ray Reardon or Alex Higgins into the same cauldron that forged the likes of Stephen Hendry or Ronnie O'Sullivan, that the former wouldn't be at least of the same caliber as the latter. If YOU would read my posts above -- and I mean really read them instead of firing from the hip because I don't agree with you -- you'll see that I said that.

-Sean

 

[SakuJack]

And one more thing. I know you're Canadian and utilize the British spellings of some words, like "endeavour," et cetera, but it's "NEVER rooted against" not "routed." There is no "u" in root when you're rooting for somebody to succeed. :grin-square:

Now this is classic trolling.

 

[JAM]

Now this is classic trolling.

No, this is not classic trolling, but your highlighting my post is a case of trolling, SakuTroll.

I put a big green SMILEY face the end of my post, so as not give the appearance of any illwill or negativity towards Celtic.

I can add a bit more, since you brought it up.

The Space Shuttle Endeavour -- spelled with a "u" -- was NASA's fifth and final space shuttle, built in 1992. NASA was honoring the HMS ENDEAVOUR, the first ship ever used by the British explorer Captain James Cook; thus, NASA, an American entity, took on the British spelling.

To get back on topic, I'm sure Alex could care less what this forum believes about his ability to play snooker. The most important thing is what Alex believes. End of story.

 

[dkleather]

Is this really necessary? Not once did I ever insult you, yet you seem hell-bent on insulting me, just because I have a difference of opinion. "Not an insult" evasive maneuvering is just that -- evasive. I won't insult you, and instead show you respect and courtesy in asking that you reciprocate.



And you know something? I respect that opinion. I just happen to think that the game evolved, and the skillsets of yesteryear aren't as pivotal as the skillsets of today are. Powerful strokes on nap cloth aren't needed today in lieu of precision and touch on faster cloth. That's my opinion, and seems to be shared by a few here. That's not to say that if we plop a Ray Reardon or Alex Higgins into the same cauldron that forged the likes of Stephen Hendry or Ronnie O'Sullivan, that the former wouldn't be at least of the same caliber as the latter. If YOU would read my posts above -- and I mean really read them instead of firing from the hip because I don't agree with you -- you'll see that I said that.

-Sean

Pass me a hanky. I don't think I have insulted you at all. My point was not an insult, I made that clear. You may feel insulted but sometimes the truth hurts.

I think you are getting confused between opinions and facts. For example the part I highlighted is a fact. Plain and simple. Yet you consider it your opinion. It's not, it's black and white.

Just as what you consider to be my opinions are actually for the most part facts.

You have failed to grasp that or to back, in any way the actual opinions you have. I have backed mine. We are all entitled to our opinions, I prefer opinions backed by some kind of reasoning.

 

[JAM]

Alex the last day of the IPT in Vegas in 2006. His feet were killing him.

I wonder if still has the same hairdo.

Just thought I'd add yet another photo. Don't want to lose my reputation or anything.

 

[JAM]

This is my favorite Alex photo, shown here with Ronnie and Keith.

Another Alex photo from JAM.

 

[JAM]

!

His smile is infectious whever he goes. Everybody loves Alex, shown here with Michael Coltrain. :grin-square:

Yet another photo. They are so annoying, aren't they?

 

[sfleinen]

Pass me a hanky.

I think you are getting confused between opinions and facts. For example the part I highlighted is a fact. Plain and simple. Yet you consider it your opinion. It's not, it's black and white.

Just as what you consider to be my opinions are actually for the most part facts.

You have failed to grasp that or to back, in any way the actual opinions you have. I have backed mine. We are all entitled to our opinions, I prefer opinions backed by some kind of reasoning.

You have not "backed your opinions by facts" -- not once. Show me where. Just because you say something "is a fact," doesn't make it so.

Anyway, this is tiring. We'll just agree to disagree (or agree to agree on the same things spun differently, but just not know it). However, or whatever.

-Sean <-- I'm out, unsubscribing

 

[Island Drive]

His smile is infectious whever he goes. Everybody loves Alex, shown here with Michael Coltrain. :grin-square:

Yet another photo. They are so annoying, aren't they?

Jen, his smile will tell the tale after a couple years of snooker, I hope it shines bright, as this aspect of his game is what Shane said was not as prevalent as he. Be a great litmus test of character for the long haul.

 

[Bbutler]

Just saw this posted on another forum, pretty good story...

Funny story from last night. Alex was doing a little snooker practice and he made a cheap side-bet with a friend. He was breaking the balls hard pretty hard (for snooker) and then taking ball in hand. He had 6 attempts to run 100 points for 20$. He failed the first 6th by dogging some pretty easy balls. The second set, on the first attempt he gets to 91 and gets nice shape on the black ball. The two reds are really close to each other, but getting shape on either of them is kinda difficult. He plays the wrong shot by trying to slip behind the reds and the rail to make one of the reds in the corner. He hits both reds and now neither of them go in a pocket. (They were like 3 inches off the side-rail and halway between the pink and blue spots if that helps). So he looks and goes "oh, I think I can combo bank the red off the yellow in the corner". He looks again and says "oh, I got it, the first red planted into the second one is going to bank back into the side-pocket". He hits the combo and makes both shots he called. One red long banks up the table, kisses the yellow and goes in and the other doubles off the side-rail and comes back in the side pocket for the best 100 run ever.

He ran around the table hi-fiving everyone like it was his birthday; it was great.

 

[Snuden]

"...best 100 break ever..." ehm...

I watched a few pool videos of AP last night, I must admit that his fundamentals are much better than I initially stated. He might be able to win a game.