An Efren forum?

[Vahmurka]

After a few minutes Rolando came back and as he handed me back my one hundred dollar bill he said, "Efren said you don't pay".

I read this as "Efren said you don't PLAY" - therefore he rejected any kind of reward

Thanks for the story!

 

[Cornerman]

Challenge is that when people who know start writing on how often Efren lost, new fans never believe it. We had a recent thread where someone asked if Efren was the GOAT of 9-ball. New fans couldn’t believe how many old schoolers who actually watched professional pool back then didn’t put him in the Top 5.


But I’ll add links here, so keep coming back because I’ll keep editing.

Anito Kid’s blog: Anito Kid on Efren - History

AZB post from Anito Kid: Efren's Cues

A few articles in my Drive: Efren Articles

Efren end of year results his first several years after "arriving" onto the major pool scene in 1985. Information is gathered from Billiards Digest clippings. Titles are based on MPBA sanctioned events or whatever the sanctioning-of-the-day was. Non-sanctioned events are sporatically available. Ranking in general is whatever I could find (money rankings). For tournament 9-ball (admittedly his weakest game) Efren was often known as Mr. Bridesmaid and Mr. Second Place. Sigel, Strickland, Varner were collecting titles like baseball cards. Sigel, Rempe and Varner were probably the top 3 in 14.1 in those years. Maybe I'll get around to doing this for the 1990's. Allen Hopkins was often considered the top one pocket player.

1985

Efren Major Sanctioned Titles:

Red’s, Tar Heel Classic, Sands Regent II
2 small other tournaments

End of Year Ranking:

Wade Crane #1 Ranking
Efren #5
McCready got the highest payday - $25000

1986

Efren Major Sanctioned Titles: Sand’s Regent I

Money Ranking:

Sigel #1 Ranking. (5 Major titles)
Rempe #2 after the one big tournament win
Efren #3 Ranking (played 4 tournaments vs 8 for Sigel If we double everything for Efren, he would have been #2 behind Sigel)
Highest Payday - Sigel $40,000, Rempe $35,000 (Last Call for 9-ball)

1987

Efren Major Sanctioned Titles: None

Sigel #1 Ranking or Strickland depending on what list to look at
Efren #6 Ranking (played 6 tournaments vs 9 for Sigel. If we interpolate, Efren would maybe climb to #4 that year)
Highest payday - no big payday tournaments of note


1988

Efren Major Sanctioned Titles: McDermott Masters (defeated Sigel - so it is false that Efren never beat Sigel in a finals prior to IPT)

Strickland #1 Ranking (6 Titles including MPBA Brunswick World 9-ball Open)
Sigel #2 (4 Titles including World 14.1)
Efren #4 Money List (unclear how many tournaments he played)
Highest payday - Strickland $15,000. Efren won $12,500 for his McDermott Masters titles

1989

Efren Major sanctioned Titles: None - it doesn’t seem like Efren played in the USA at all)

Varner #1 (8 major titles plus a handful of other professional, non-sanctioned tournaments)
Davenport #2
Sigel #3, despite talking about retirement to do more fishing
Highest payday - Varner $15k MPBA World Brunswick Open

1990

Efren Titles; none. (He is shown in some California tournaments, so he is in the States for some kind of time)

Rankings:
Strickland #1
Davenport #2
Efren unranked
Highest payday - Strickland $!7K+ for his WPA 9-ball in Germany over Jeff Carter "The Monster from the Midwest."