JG-in-KY said:
Well you know the Buddy Hall matchup that took place in Houston at Red's tournament in 1985 is going to come up. Per Buddy's biography, they played a 10 ahead set for 10K and Buddy won in less than two hours. I'm sure Grady could fill you in on this match.
I actually refereed that match. For the life of me I can't recall if they played ten ahead or a race to eleven. I thought the bet was 5K each for a 10K total.
There is a back story to that match. Efren and friends had won over 50K that week already, between the tournament, heavy side betting and after hours play. Efren seemed to be constantly in action with matches and gambling for the whole five days.
There was a lot of heat on Efren and his crew (all filipino outlaws) and some talk about someone possibly heisting them. Remember this is the heart of Texas and these guys were very much outsiders.
Whatever, Efren and friends may/must have been tipped off and realized the best thing to do was to give a little money back and take some heat off.
Efren did not play well in that match, certainly not close to the way he had played for five days prior. I DO remember that. He missed balls and failed to get out numerous times.
Buddy played his normal game which was good enough to win. And Efren and the crew paid up and quickly disappeared that same day, not to be seen again. One of the filipinos said they would be back to play some more, but that may have just been a cover story to buy some time.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.