Efren Reyes aka Bata aka The Magician

Bayawak

Bayawak

Tirador
Silver Member
Efren Reyes beats Fong Pang Chao with a 7 game margin at the $10K Challenge Match in Manila. They played a race to 50 to be finished in two days. On the first day Efren was down seven games; on the second day, I believe he won 13 straight games and never looked back. Final score 50/43 Efren.

This is the man that rises to the occasion. He played and beat one of the legends of pool in Asia. No wonder he is the greatest pool player alive. I can never say enough accolades to this man.

He is greatness personified!! I am so lucky that I was able to compete with him during my younger years when I was in college. I used to go to Lucky 13 with my school uniform on and Efren would be practicing on a table wearing flip flops. Oh, don't get me wrong, I won some games but it's because he wanted me to keep playing. Hey, I was young and stupid at the time so I didn't mind it.

But the lessons and the experience that I got out of it was priceless. After some time, we stopped gambling and I would just practice with him until I left the country in the early eighties.

I was playing pool in one of the local poolrooms here when I heard these guys talking excitedly about this Asian player who "took Texas by storm".
I started asking questions about this guy and found out that it was Efren.

And as they say in most narrations, "the rest is history".

Congrats Pareng Efren for a job well done. Hey, that was some expensive cheese, $10,000.00 to be exact, right?
 
Bayawak said:
Efren Reyes beats Fong Pang Chao with a 7 game margin at the $10K Challenge Match in Manila. They played a race to 50 to be finished in two days. On the first day Efren was down seven games; on the second day, I believe he won 13 straight games and never looked back. Final score 50/43 Efren.

This is the man that rises to the occasion. He played and beat one of the legends of pool in Asia. No wonder he is the greatest pool player alive. I can never say enough accolades to this man.
Click to expand...

This reminds me of the 100K winner take all match in Hong Kong with Efren vs Earl Strickland and Efren was down by 17 games on the 3rd and final day and he came back and beat Earl Strickland. What a player Efren is! I missed getting to see him this year at the US Open in Virginia and I hope he makes it to that tournament next year so I can see my favorite player play.......

James
 
Bayawak said:
Efren Reyes beats Fong Pang Chao with a 7 game margin at the $10K Challenge Match in Manila. They played a race to 50 to be finished in two days. On the first day Efren was down seven games; on the second day, I believe he won 13 straight games and never looked back. Final score 50/43 Efren.

This is the man that rises to the occasion. He played and beat one of the legends of pool in Asia. No wonder he is the greatest pool player alive. I can never say enough accolades to this man.

He is greatness personified!! I am so lucky that I was able to compete with him during my younger years when I was in college. I used to go to Lucky 13 with my school uniform on and Efren would be practicing on a table wearing flip flops. Oh, don't get me wrong, I won some games but it's because he wanted me to keep playing. Hey, I was young and stupid at the time so I didn't mind it.

But the lessons and the experience that I got out of it was priceless. After some time, we stopped gambling and I would just practice with him until I left the country in the early eighties.

I was playing pool in one of the local poolrooms here when I heard these guys talking excitedly about this Asian player who "took Texas by storm".
I started asking questions about this guy and found out that it was Efren.

And as they say in most narrations, "the rest is history".

Congrats Pareng Efren for a job well done. Hey, that was some expensive cheese, $10,000.00 to be exact, right?
Click to expand...

That is very interesting. THanks for sharing. So you personally were playing with Efren in the 70's and early 80's? Were his mannerisms the same (scratching head on miss, smiling, etc.?). Was he regarded as the best player at that time? Maybe you didn't know what you were witnessing, being "young and stupid", but it is nice to have someone here who knew Efren before he came to the US.
 
iusedtoberich said:
That is very interesting. THanks for sharing. So you personally were playing with Efren in the 70's and early 80's? Were his mannerisms the same (scratching head on miss, smiling, etc.?). Was he regarded as the best player at that time? Maybe you didn't know what you were witnessing, being "young and stupid", but it is nice to have someone here who knew Efren before he came to the US.
Click to expand...

As far as I can remember, his mannerisms were the same as it was during the 70's and 80's. The head scratching was not very pronounced as he rarely missed, and I mean "rarely".

If I remember correctly, Amang Parica and Boy Bicol were the best during the 70's. We all know that Efren and Parica were good and that very few players can beat them even with a big spot in rotation. I can't exactly remember when Boy Bicol got killed but he used to spot Efren at least 50/70 in rotation for a long while. When Parica left for the US Efren became the "primera tirador" in the country.

It was during these years that Efren played his best games. As a matter of fact he retired one of the local hustlers here in Manila. His name is Boy Quiapo, a well know money player. Efren went to his pool hall and said that he was gonna spot him some points playing rotation. The other guy became so mad and insulted. He swore that he is going to play him even and will retire from pool if Efren beats him. Well, three or four hours later he became " officially retired". At that time we were not aware of what we were witnessing or experiencing. All I remembered was we took their money and we went drinking afterwards.

We know the meaning of the word 'champion" but we never referred to Efren or Bicol or Parica as "champions". We just know that they were good, very good! One thing I remembered was Efren practicing with two sets of balls at the same time and running them out most of the time.

During those years, we had a lot of good players who stayed in their pool halls most of the time. It was Efren who was doing most of visiting various pool halls and challenging them. The only difference in the way we played back home is this, you have to beat everybody in the pool hall otherwise you are not leaving with the money at all.

Efren always took home the cheese!!!
 
Bayawak said:
If I remember correctly, Amang Parica and Boy Bicol were the best during the 70's. We all know that Efren and Parica were good and that very few players can beat them even with a big spot in rotation. I can't exactly remember when Boy Bicol got killed but he used to spot Efren at least 50/70 in rotation for a long while.
Click to expand...

First of all, thanks so much for your interesting story.

Sorry for asking this stupid question, but can you please explain in more details what you mean of "50/70 n rotation". Also, from what I heard, Efren did won many more times than Patrica when they met each other during the 1980s and early 1990s, is it a correct statement?
 
haminh said:
First of all, thanks so much for your interesting story.

Sorry for asking this stupid question, but can you please explain in more details what you mean of "50/70 n rotation". Also, from what I heard, Efren did won many more times than Patrica when they met each other during the 1980s and early 1990s, is it a correct statement?
Click to expand...

there are 120 possible points in rotation.

for a player to win they must make 61 points or better.

50/70 is spotting your opponent so they only have to get to 50 points instead of 61.

kinda like giving them the 10 ball.
 
branpureza said:
there are 120 possible points in rotation.

for a player to win they must make 61 points or better.

50/70 is spotting your opponent so they only have to get to 50 points instead of 61.

kinda like giving them the 10 ball.
Click to expand...

Hi Brandon,

Good to hear from you.. Glad you're still around. Missed you at the Open.
 
Bayawak said:
As far as I can remember, his mannerisms were the same as it was during the 70's and 80's. The head scratching was not very pronounced as he rarely missed, and I mean "rarely".

If I remember correctly, Amang Parica and Boy Bicol were the best during the 70's. We all know that Efren and Parica were good and that very few players can beat them even with a big spot in rotation. I can't exactly remember when Boy Bicol got killed but he used to spot Efren at least 50/70 in rotation for a long while. When Parica left for the US Efren became the "primera tirador" in the country.

It was during these years that Efren played his best games. As a matter of fact he retired one of the local hustlers here in Manila. His name is Boy Quiapo, a well know money player. Efren went to his pool hall and said that he was gonna spot him some points playing rotation. The other guy became so mad and insulted. He swore that he is going to play him even and will retire from pool if Efren beats him. Well, three or four hours later he became " officially retired". At that time we were not aware of what we were witnessing or experiencing. All I remembered was we took their money and we went drinking afterwards.

We know the meaning of the word 'champion" but we never referred to Efren or Bicol or Parica as "champions". We just know that they were good, very good! One thing I remembered was Efren practicing with two sets of balls at the same time and running them out most of the time.

During those years, we had a lot of good players who stayed in their pool halls most of the time. It was Efren who was doing most of visiting various pool halls and challenging them. The only difference in the way we played back home is this, you have to beat everybody in the pool hall otherwise you are not leaving with the money at all.

Efren always took home the cheese!!!
Click to expand...

To this day Efren still considers beating Boy Quiapo his biggest bragging right.
That and spotting Andam 5 points or so. Dodong beat him 57-63 ( Efreng giving up 6 points ) one time. THey kept playing until Dodong could no longer beat him with that spot.
 
Reyes

His last name means KING(s).

He is the GREAT ONE! Bata will always be THE KING.

Efren in spite of his greatness remains a humble man and a treasure not just to the Filipino people but to the world.

If you are ever near a pool tournament where Efren is playing, do yourself a favor and go to it. Spectate even if you can't play. You will consider yourself a winner. Maybe then, you will say, "I just got lucky".

Me? I got lucky just being a member of his kingdom.

All hail the HUMBLE, BUT GREAT & GENEROUS KING! :smile:
JoeyA
 
Many thanks for sharing, kabayan!

:)


Bayawak said:
As far as I can remember, his mannerisms were the same as it was during the 70's and 80's. The head scratching was not very pronounced as he rarely missed, and I mean "rarely".

If I remember correctly, Amang Parica and Boy Bicol were the best during the 70's. We all know that Efren and Parica were good and that very few players can beat them even with a big spot in rotation. I can't exactly remember when Boy Bicol got killed but he used to spot Efren at least 50/70 in rotation for a long while. When Parica left for the US Efren became the "primera tirador" in the country.

It was during these years that Efren played his best games. As a matter of fact he retired one of the local hustlers here in Manila. His name is Boy Quiapo, a well know money player. Efren went to his pool hall and said that he was gonna spot him some points playing rotation. The other guy became so mad and insulted. He swore that he is going to play him even and will retire from pool if Efren beats him. Well, three or four hours later he became " officially retired". At that time we were not aware of what we were witnessing or experiencing. All I remembered was we took their money and we went drinking afterwards.

We know the meaning of the word 'champion" but we never referred to Efren or Bicol or Parica as "champions". We just know that they were good, very good! One thing I remembered was Efren practicing with two sets of balls at the same time and running them out most of the time.

During those years, we had a lot of good players who stayed in their pool halls most of the time. It was Efren who was doing most of visiting various pool halls and challenging them. The only difference in the way we played back home is this, you have to beat everybody in the pool hall otherwise you are not leaving with the money at all.

Efren always took home the cheese!!!
Click to expand...
 
All true! And I kid you not!

Congrats to Efren!


.


JoeyA said:
His last name means KING(s).


He is the GREAT ONE! Bata will always be THE KING.

Efren in spite of his greatness remains a humble man and a treasure not just to the Filipino people but to the world.

If you are ever near a pool tournament where Efren is playing, do yourself a favor and go to it. Spectate even if you can't play. You will consider yourself a winner. Maybe then, you will say, "I just got lucky".

Me? I got lucky just being a member of his kingdom.

All hail the HUMBLE, BUT GREAT & GENEROUS KING! :smile:
JoeyA
Click to expand...
 
tigerseye said:
I tried to watch it but i cant stand to watch that poke stroke....
Click to expand...

It may not look pretty but 2 World Championships and 2 Mohegan Sun Victories (back when it was 8 of the best-not 4) tells me he beat the best with it.

Allen Hopkins and Grady too-Nothing pretty there.
 
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