better than Efren

thebighurt

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I was talking to one of my friends last night who is a solid player and he was telling me about when he went to the Phillipines in 1989 for 3 months to play pool. Every town he went to he only played the best player in each town $ 5.00 american money per set. Usually 15 ball rotation race to 21 games. He did this to get better, if somebody missed some balls against him he would quit. He only wanted to play against the best players so he could learn. The point of this is that everyone of each towns best players beat the hell out of him. One of the people he played was named Ramon Chan. Everyone he asked everywhere said Ramon was better than Efren back than-1989. Everyone said he was the best player there and my friend said what he did was just like playing Efren. My question is has anybody ever heard of Ramon Chan? I told my friend in all the stories and players I have heard about over the years from the Phillipines I have never heard that name mentioned. He said the guy has been arrested for felonies and he is not allowed into the U.S. and could not get a visa. The other reason he said is that he is not full Phillipino he is half Chineseand maybe they don't want to recognize him because of that. He said Ramon is about 10 years younger than Efren. If anybody has heard of him please respond.
 
Best way to find out about this player is to send a PM to Bandido - he seems to have the bead on every great player from the Philippines for the past 30+ years. I'm hoping he sees this thread myself as I'd love to hear about this guy!
 
I have also heard many years ago that efren has a cousin who was sent to prison for murder(i think) that had to give efren, parica, etc.. weight playing ratation before he got into trouble. anyone know about this ?
 
theres always someone better than someone else. but efren has done it all ! this ramon guy sounds like folklore to me but wat do i kno...
 
The BEST talent is unfounded talent.somewhere in the halls of say New York and South East Asia there are people playing pool that could care less about gambling,trophys or tournaments.they never leave their neighborhoods because they could care less about traveling and the fanfare.they care about and enjoy the game just for the game.(play play like Vincent would say).the same with singers or music instrument players.37 years ago when i was in S/E Asia i seen the talented Phillapino bands..they would sing the top American songs just as good and most of the time better than the original artists..so if someone says there may be a person just as good or hard to believe better that the great Efren i would have to believe it..it is the unfounded talent that will never be found that are truely enjoying pool playing for what it is,a challenging game..:)
 
Back when Jose Parica first came to the US, he came through Houston and ripped everyone a new one. I had never seen anyone play like that before especially in the kicking department.

I told him he was the best I had ever seen.

He said where he came from (Manila), there were 5 guys that played as good as he did and 3 that were better.

He said one player spotted him 25 points in 61 (15 ball rotation) and the guy's name was Bata. At that time, I thought Bata was his last name.

Looking back, I wondered who the other 2 players were. He never said.
 
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Quite a few good players then but most are known by their monickers. Ramon Chan? You may have misheard the last name. it's probably Ramon Champ which is the monicker of Ramon Ancaja. He has been and still is the trainer and coach of the national team since BSCP first came to being and his number 1 product is Marlon Manalo. He's now called "Coach Ramon".

Boy Bicol is the other ace player that was above Efren and Parica. Another good one is Totoy (Totoy Kaliwa) Dacer who was the one who first brought Alcano to Germany.
 
jayburger said:
I have also heard many years ago that efren has a cousin who was sent to prison for murder(i think) that had to give efren, parica, etc.. weight playing ratation before he got into trouble. anyone know about this ?
I have a hunch that you're referring to the original Cesar Morales.

New champions and legends will be made but Efren is in a league of his own. Why is this? Carom was one of the big games in his formative years and it contributed a lot to his kicking magic. Magic because most viewers nowadays, including myself, haven't seen or watched a lot of real Carom championship caliber play. The kicks that he comes up with, in today's game formats, are nothing to what he does when playing Carom.
 
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bandido said:
Quite a few good players then but most are known by their monickers. Ramon Chan? You may have misheard the last name. it's probably Ramon Champ which is the monicker of Ramon Ancaja. He has been and still is the trainer and coach of the national team since BSCP first came to being and his number 1 product is Marlon Manalo. He's now called "Coach Ramon".

Boy Bicol is the other ace player that was above Efren and Parica. Another good one is Totoy (Totoy Kaliwa) Dacer who was the one who first brought Alcano to Germany.



Whatever happened to him (Totoy dacer), he was a good player and also his older brother. Djanggo (Busta) and him play even back in the late 80's. I remember watching them play almost every night in Farmer's (Coronado lanes). I talked to Lining in Hardtimes during an IPT qualifying tour and asked about Totoy, he said "everybody's beating him nowadays, even Danny here can beat him, i think" I was with Danny Petralba at the time.
 
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Last time I saw Totoy Dacer was on tv. He was playing Antonio Lining in the semis of a San Miguel tournament back in 1999.
He could not make a ball.
 
JoeyInCali said:
Last time I saw Totoy Dacer was on tv. He was playing Antonio Lining in the semis of a San Miguel tournament back in 1999.
He could not make a ball.



bro, where in cali do you play?
 
rotation said:
bro, where in cali do you play?
Nowhere now b/c I have no time but I'm in OC.

But, I wasn't kidding.
Nicoy beat Totoy like 11 zip.
The face of Dacer after missing a 9-ball to win just one game was pretty sad.
It was really sad b/c Dacer was looked upon and was once regarded as better than Efren and Parica.
But, somehow he got derailed. I don't what his story is but I think he became an old soldier ( I can name some players in the US that became that way too ).
Nicot beat Gabica in the finals of the tourney btw. Nicoy wun't missing against Ga Ga.
 
This thread reminds me of "I heard a guy who caught a fish as big as a whale."
 
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JoeyInCali said:
Nowhere now b/c I have no time but I'm in OC.

But, I wasn't kidding.
Nicoy beat Totoy like 11 zip.
The face of Dacer after missing a 9-ball to win just one game was pretty sad.
It was really sad b/c Dacer was looked upon and was once regarded as better than Efren and Parica.
But, somehow he got derailed. I don't what his story is but I think he became an old soldier ( I can name some players in the US that became that way too ).
Nicot beat Gabica in the finals of the tourney btw. Nicoy wun't missing against Ga Ga.

Totoy Dacer still hangs out at Farmer's and it's true that he doesn't shoot close to what he did back then. He was at Rack N Roll during the WPC as he was giving lessons to the Middle East players. I still get to talk to him every so often and the next time I see him I'll try and get some interesting "war stories" of old. I have no idea of Jorge Dacers whereabouts but I'll ask Totoy.
 
parvus1202 said:
These old stories remind me of Bruce Springsteen's song, Glory Days.
Yes it does but why is it that people are more accepting and interested when it's the former American greats that are talked about? Every country has former champions that the rest of the world wants to know about too. And am pretty sure that the former greats of the Philippines is of interest to many because its just unbelivable that there was somebody better than a Legend of the sport, ER.

Like I said in another thread, the bar of excellence when it comes to playing is constantly raised through the passage of time. Todays youth are better than youth, of the same age, of yesteryears. Their future will depend on how battle hardened they'll be.
 
bandido said:
Quite a few good players then but most are known by their monickers. Ramon Chan? You may have misheard the last name. it's probably Ramon Champ which is the monicker of Ramon Ancaja. He has been and still is the trainer and coach of the national team since BSCP first came to being and his number 1 product is Marlon Manalo. He's now called "Coach Ramon".

Boy Bicol is the other ace player that was above Efren and Parica. Another good one is Totoy (Totoy Kaliwa) Dacer who was the one who first brought Alcano to Germany.

Oh, now it all makes sense. I've asked previously about the top players in the Philippines when Efren was younger, and the name Ramon "Champion" came up, but they gave the last name Brobio. Ramon Brobio is a golfer, isn't he?


Other names I got was Jun Quiapo in the 60's and Bagiou Boy in the 70's. What was their story?

Fred
 
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