Alex Pagulayan playing snooker NOW!

Cameron Smith

is kind of hungry...
Silver Member
It's a shame I missed it. I guess this answers how well Alex plays snooker. A 131 break and a 99 break so far. It'd be pretty strong for him to win the event, but I'm still not sure he can get through Zieglar, Finstad, Golan or White.
 

church66

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I didnt know that Alex Pagulayan played snooker until The Canadian Billiards tournament . I hope he wins as it could put your tournament and Alex under Barry Hearns radar.Lets hope so ! :thumbup:
 

predator

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Saw the stream. Very very high level amateur stuff. Big breaks, decent safeties, quick tidy frames. Could hold his own in any high level amateur tournament under EBSA/IBSF organization.

You also have to take into consideration that he's also playing 9ball/8ball/10ball at the same time, so that's a lot of game switching back and forth. Not easy thing to do. I hope he wins both competitions. This year he's got the best chance as Alain Robidoux is not there.
 

wayner147

Registered
Wouldnt anyone else say that Alex is just simply playing magic snooker. The kid does not play it at all, buys the cue at the start of the tournament and has the high break and is in the final. If someone gave that guy 1 year on the table in my mind doing what he is doing now, he could prob turn into a pro....with the right ppl around him. This has captured the imagination of an entire pool world to see what Alex is doing on that snooker table. He has made me want to be a better player just by watching this tournament. This is great for are game in Canada and its great for pool as well. Who knows maybe Alex is going to inspire some young pool players to play snooker.

I would love to see Alex win. You could not write this stuff in a book and have anyone believe it. This stuff is the stuff of legends!!
 

Scaramouche

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Yesterday Alex was interacting with the audience, the ref, and the competition.

Today they stuck him away from the railbirds surrounded on three sides by a pillar, a wall, and a table he shared with the 2010 champion. He did come to visit the audience at the interval. :D

With nothing but the table to concentrate on, Alex won 6 - 0, with three centuries.

At the end of the fifth, a guy offered to buy him a drink if he could get a whitewash. The term had to be explained to Alex.:D

Alex had a $200 bet that his high break of 131 would be exceeded by the end of the tournament. He had two opportunities last night and two today, but it was one sucker bet Alex didn't win.
 
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church66

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Alex Pagulayan Canadian Open Snooker Championships Winner !

Hi All,

I took in as much as I could of the coverage of the Canadian Billiards & Snooker tournaments and I thought it was great entertainment!

To be honest when I seen Alex Pagulayan had entered the snooker I was intrigued as to see how he would fare as Ive seen snooker players try pool but couldnt think of any pool players that have tried snooker and before I knew it I was rooting for Alex to win the competition.

Well ,Alex didnt let me down and to win the final 6-0 v Floyd Zeigler was to me sensational and well done to the wee man.:thumbup:
 

levka

Registered
Actually Alex played snooker for a very long time. He started playing snooker before he got to a pool table. Growing up in Canada, with abundance of snooker tables there was plenty of opportunity to practice.

I played him few racks back in 2001 when he was hanging around VIP Snooker club in Scarborough, Ontario. We played 3 frames and i was just spotting the balls first 2 frames. He ran a 93 and 126 on me. Last frame i had a decent run of 46 before i missed a fairly hard black and left it hanging with reds all spread out. He cleaned up from there.

Either way, great showing for Alex and grats to him.
 

Cameron Smith

is kind of hungry...
Silver Member
Well, I admit I grossly underestimated Alex. He didn't just win, he dominated. He only had two matches that gave him a difficult time. Right after I said that he may not be able to fade the likes of John White and Floyd Zieglar, he beat John and blew out Floyd. Not to mention winning the high break prize (if there is one) and putting three centuries on the board.

Very very strong showing. I wonder if there are any other pro pool players capable of that kind of snooker. I'm guessing Darren Appleton would be one. (I wouldn't count Daryl Peach, because we know he started as a professional snooker player).
 

gordml

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Actually Alex played snooker for a very long time. He started playing snooker before he got to a pool table. Growing up in Canada, with abundance of snooker tables there was plenty of opportunity to practice.

I played him few racks back in 2001 when he was hanging around VIP Snooker club in Scarborough, Ontario. We played 3 frames and i was just spotting the balls first 2 frames. He ran a 93 and 126 on me. Last frame i had a decent run of 46 before i missed a fairly hard black and left it hanging with reds all spread out. He cleaned up from there.

Either way, great showing for Alex and grats to him.

Im sure your story is true but Alex started playing pool in the Philipines.He moved to Toronto,(or run out of town for winning too much money) when he was about 15, that would have been about 1993. Back then Canadian pool halls were in transition from snooker to pool. I remember it well. So Alex caught on to snooker then but most of his time in Canada was spent playing nine ball.
 
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predator

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I'm sure as a child he learned both games pretty quickly. Doesn't matter if he played more pool. His cue action is very smooth piston like...low head position, front pause, back pause...very consistent, should work everywhere.

But more importantly, his mental strength, stamina and fighting qualities are beyond this world. Almost every player in the world, no matter what cue game he plays could learn something in that department from Alex.
 

DangerousDave

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I'd be interested in finding out what his background was in both games early on in his playing career. He absolutely looks like a converted snooker player rather than the other way around. I wonder if snooker was ever his main focus early on?

I don't think any of the American pool pros could get near Alex on a snooker table. I think John Schmidt would probably come closest, running so many balls in 14.1 on Diamonds. He also mentioned in an old thread that he played some snooker a couple of years ago (see Quinten Hann threads!) and was making a lot of big breaks - albeit on a pretty loose table. Some of the UK pool players like Darren Appleton, as Cameron said, may be around Alex's level at snooker.

I hope he plays in the World Amateur event anyway. Would like to see him do well, but it would be a lot to ask playing against full time snooker players.
 

pt109

WO double hemlock
Silver Member
I'd be interested in finding out what his background was in both games early on in his playing career. He absolutely looks like a converted snooker player rather than the other way around. I wonder if snooker was ever his main focus early on?

I don't think any of the American pool pros could get near Alex on a snooker table. I think John Schmidt would probably come closest, running so many balls in 14.1 on Diamonds. He also mentioned in an old thread that he played some snooker a couple of years ago (see Quinten Hann threads!) and was making a lot of big breaks - albeit on a pretty loose table. Some of the UK pool players like Darren Appleton, as Cameron said, may be around Alex's level at snooker.

I hope he plays in the World Amateur event anyway. Would like to see him do well, but it would be a lot to ask playing against full time snooker players.

When Alex came to Canada he was already good for his age at pool.
He played a bit of snooker, only to make himself a better pool player.

However, when he won his first title,the Jnr Canadian 9-ball Championship,
he was using an 11mm Dufferin snooker cue....never liked 13mm.
So, a snooker cue was no stranger to him.

As for American pool players, I think only Jim Rempe is in his class.

But on 5x10 tight snooker tables there has been a few Americans that
would have been hard to beat even by world class snooker players.
From my personal experience I'll mention a few......
..Freddy Salem - Sam Bleumenthal - Dick Huntsinger - Norman Hitchcock
- Denny Searcy - Ronnie Allen - Cornbread Red.....
Jimmy Moore ...but he would've played them on a 6x12

Jose Parica and Efren Reyes have beaten world ranked pros on a 5x10.
 

snarzberry

Registered
Congratulations on Alex for the win, didn't think I'd ever be staying up late to watch the Canadian snooker finals but I was so intrigued to see his standard that I made the effort. I also hope he plays in the world amateur and would love to see him do well just for the story, but I wouldn't rate his chances highly in that event.

He is fluid and confident and yet I do detect the mark of 'pool player' in his snooker cue action, not meant to sound at all derisive just an observation. Bit of body, shoulder and head movement and a general whippyness to his cueing that none of the snooker pros have.

I'd love to see him test his mettle in a long match against a good tactician. Hope he puts in the practice hours if he does decide to play more snooker.
 

seb1899

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I watched some of it - hard to say anything bad about watching snooker but the light was a little harsh.

What kind of table were they playing on? It looked to me like an old Canadian Brunswick but maybe National Billiards or?

The pockets seemed a little forgiving??
 

pt109

WO double hemlock
Silver Member
I watched some of it - hard to say anything bad about watching snooker but the light was a little harsh.

What kind of table were they playing on? It looked to me like an old Canadian Brunswick but maybe National Billiards or?

The pockets seemed a little forgiving??

They're Burroughes & Watts....possibly 100 years old.
But not the original rails..pockets are bigger than world regulation....
..but not much..and the slate cut is original.
 

Scaramouche

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
the light was a little harsh.

It was their last minute first attempt at streaming. The camera was on a very short tripod. and close to the table. The pool matches had the camera well away from the tables about 8 ft or more above the playing surface.

I found that the snooker matches stream that I happened to catch were unwatchable when viewed on the TV (a lot brighter than my computer screen).

One guy recording the final on Saturday had his camera beside the streaming camera but at least 3 feet higher using a full size tripod sitting on the commentator's table.
 
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