Yes I was there at reds and I have been lucky enough to be at a few events where Efren had alot of fun.
My father was a top player years and years ago and Rafael Martinez and Little Al Romero are two of his good friends. I went to the Reds tournament with my dad and Little Al. I remember everyone thinking that kid aka Cesar Morales was just lucky at Reds. Just like nowdays you have some players winning big tournaments that you have never heard of. Huidji See is an example, my friends at the pool hall who do not have internet, YES, THEY DO NOT HAVE INTERNET!!!. None of them have ever heard of Huidji See. Looking at See's AZbilliard page tells me he is a top player but just somebody that has been under the radar until now. It was years later that I figured out what happened at Reds.
A few years later there was a huge tournament near Chicago and I went there with Rafael Martinez. By this time Efren was a known player and it turns out he and Rafael were decent friends. It sort of looked like all of the American players hung out together and all of the foreign players hung together at that time, now I see them all hanging together. At that event in Aurora, Illinois they had an 8 ball tournament too. Efren was asked if he was going to play in the 8 ball tournament and he said he had NEVER played the game. But Efren entered and WON it. After he got his check he said, hey, I like this 8 ball, hahaha.
At the Aurora Illinois tournament I talked to Efren a few times, he is not much into talking, maybe because of the language barrier but at one point I asked him if he would take a photo of me and him with it looking like he was handing me cash. I pulled out a wimpy five hundred dollars or so and Rafael and some other guys from Texas were all laughing, I told Efren what I was going to do, tell my friends I won cash off of Efren and Efren thought it was funny. Some friend of my dads from Houston, a big gambler tells me, BOY, THAT AINT NO CASH, HERE DO IT WITH THIS and he pulls out a big wad of cash and I use that to take the photo.
Then about six months later I am at the 9 ball tournament in Chesapeake, Virginia and I have the developed (yeah, remember when you had to use real film) photo from Illinois with me and showed it to Efren and he turned it over and wrote on it. THANKS FOR THE POOL LESSONS, EFREN REYES. That is one photo I need to have a shirt made with, hahaha.
My next run in with Efren was when he as a CJ's in Dallas and played Slim for the 40k one pocket match.
The last time I talked to Efren was last year at Galveston and when I asked about that cue he used at Reds he told me that now the best cues are made in the US and he told me to get a Judd which I ran out and ordered the next week.