Lee van Corteza: Long overdue recognition

pool whiz

pool whiz

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
:) He recently capped the Philippine Nationals Championship whipping Marlon Manalo. Weeks ago, he was All-Japan Open Champion ...But, this silent cue master has been in the international pool for quite sometime and carved his way to the top without nobody noticing it.....is his stars overdue?:)
 
pool whiz said:
:) He recently capped the Philippine Nationals Championship whipping Marlon Manalo. Weeks ago, he was All-Japan Open Champion ...But, this silent cue master has been in the international pool for quite sometime and carved his way to the top without nobody noticing it.....is his stars overdue?:)
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Id think so, If that isnt enough I dont know what is.

You know the players he's facing are tuff, now that he finaly has his head above water, in a manor of speaking Im thinking he'll stay there. A web site would help?

SPINDOKTOR
 
Not to forget he won a leg on the 2004 San Migueal Asian 9-Ball Manila tour stop over Francisco Bustamante.
 
Instead of Orcullo vs. Yang, maybe it should be Corteza vs. Yang. :eek:
 
He is more of a action player

pool whiz said:
:) He recently capped the Philippine Nationals Championship whipping Marlon Manalo. Weeks ago, he was All-Japan Open Champion ...But, this silent cue master has been in the international pool for quite sometime and carved his way to the top without nobody noticing it.....is his stars overdue?:)
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Lee Van has been more of a cash player. He is a known action man for quite some time. I recently witness LVC giving Chris Bartrum two wild balls ( 7 & 8 i think) playing 10 ball at the US open this past fall. How strong is that ? They had several K on the 10 ahead set. I beleive after a all night match they quit even. He also gave Tony Watson the same spot and beat Tony in about an hour, 10 ahead!!Maybe some other can chime in on his action. I don't think his stars are overdue. He has just been under the radar for along time!!!:cool:
 
all i can say is that i'm glad our match at this past us open happened before i got to see him gamble.... i actually felt like i could have beaten him until i saw him run over watson and kuo gambling... then i didn't feel so bad for losing to him. he's definatley a wolf in sheeps clothing... so nice and friendly, but on the pool table he will murder you.
 
kevin s said:
Lee Van has been more of a cash player. He is a known action man for quite some time. I recently witness LVC giving Chris Bartrum two wild balls ( 7 & 8 i think) playing 10 ball at the US open this past fall. How strong is that ? They had several K on the 10 ahead set. I beleive after a all night match they quit even. He also gave Tony Watson the same spot and beat Tony in about an hour, 10 ahead!!Maybe some other can chime in on his action. I don't think his stars are overdue. He has just been under the radar for along time!!!:cool:
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In the Philippine Money Game circuit, it's just the big three: Pagulayan, Corteza and Orcullo. Those three are considered an even match against each other in a high stakes money game.

I've known Lee Van for quite some time, since late '99 when he was the hot young up and comer alongside Orcullo (whom I only saw from footage at the WPC). Marlon Manalo was still learning the ropes then under the National team. Antonio Lining was the street consensus best player in the Philippines at the time. It was nice to see them go to the top four of the PNPC. Alcano then was a hard luck rising pro who was overestimating his abilities and constantly beaten down in money games. At the time, I felt Corteza's star would rise the highest eventually.
 
LVC was like Corey in '99. both are young potentials. I saw some of VanVan's earlier games. he got some very nice pocketing skills back then but seems to have trouble controlling the CB and often choke. he must have improved a lot since then. same can be said of Corey.
 
Hail Mary Shot said:
LVC was like Corey in '99. both are young potentials. I saw some of VanVan's earlier games. he got some very nice pocketing skills back then but seems to have trouble controlling the CB and often choke. he must have improved a lot since then. same can be said of Corey.
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van van pockets balls better than any other filipino...
 
branpureza said:
van van pockets balls better than any other filipino...
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Yes,
By the way, Kuo got his revenge later on in the Wrold Pool Championship when they matched up again.:)
 
branpureza said:
haha good for kuo... he's a class act as well
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Yeah, he is cool. I hope he can make it to the US Open again this year.
You will be there, right?
Richard
 
X Breaker said:
Yeah, he is cool. I hope he can make it to the US Open again this year.
You will be there, right?
Richard
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i'll probably be there... i'm not sure if i'll be playing though. i feel like i got lucky to win a qualifier last year especially since i only practiced for about 2 months. but either way i'll be there to sweat the late night action at q-masters with you.
 
branpureza said:
i'll probably be there... i'm not sure if i'll be playing though. i feel like i got lucky to win a qualifier last year especially since i only practiced for about 2 months. but either way i'll be there to sweat the late night action at q-masters with you.
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Alright! I would love to sweat matches with you. Do whatever you feel comfortable regarding playing in the tournament.
Kuo really liked the steak at Q-Master last year, he pretty much ordered one every night.:) May be we can have steak and sweat matches together this time then.
 
Here's my post to rec.sport.billiard in 2000. While visiting Dau, Philippines, Cesar Morales told me that Corteza was going to be their next world champion.



Newsgroups: rec.sport.billiard
From: Yukon Ed
Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 05:12:10 GMT
Local: Tues, Nov 21 2000 12:12 am
Subject: Here's the next Efren Reyes!


You'll see the next Filipino world champion. He's a class act just
like Efren. Ask any top Filipino player about Lee Van Corteza; they
all know he's the next great player ready to be unleashed on the rest
of the pool world. Many players and backers will soon be looking for a
picture of this guy; you better bookmark that page now. Do a search on
the net and you'll see he won the Southeast Asian Games 9-ball event
last year.


Yukon Ed
 
branpureza said:
all i can say is that i'm glad our match at this past us open happened before i got to see him gamble.... i actually felt like i could have beaten him until i saw him run over watson and kuo gambling... then i didn't feel so bad for losing to him. he's definatley a wolf in sheeps clothing... so nice and friendly, but on the pool table he will murder you.
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Hey Brandon, what you been up to? Me and the boys were down at Louisville last January at the Derby. We had no luck getting Van Van into action. I guess Dennis spoiled all the action after his two action nights, nobody would even look our way to get into action. Stalev came up to Van and asked what he would spot him and Van asked him what he wanted. Stalev asked for the eight and nine playing ten ball. I guess Van answered a little bit too eager when he said yes, and Stalev backed out and said " let me think about it" and never came back. I even had one of my boys to announce in the action room that we would spot anybody.

Nobody accepted the challenge so we went up to Efren's room and ended up playing cards all night.

The kid is scary because he does not know the meaning of the word "miss"

He will prevail!!!!!

Bayawak aka Tirador

PS: Bran, you can ask your dad the meaning of bayawak.....
 
kaduku said:
Not to forget he won a leg on the 2004 San Migueal Asian 9-Ball Manila tour stop over Francisco Bustamante.
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Actually, he beat both Efren and Busta to win that one. It sort of put him over the top, but set him up for the fall.

He signed a big contract with a promoter as the new young gun to replace Efren. Lo and behold, his shot deserted him in 2005. He couldn't join the Philippine Open because that was against his contract. It made him less competitive in a way. In the 1st Phil. National Championships, I didn't expect much from him because I could tell he wasn't in form.

But slowly and surely he got his shot back. He now has a new Manager, Jonathan Sy, who also manages Luat. Hopefully these two victories signals his intention to stay at the top.
 
Back in 1999 i think, Lee Van and another then up and coming player, snooky villanueva made news winning in the ASEAN games. Now we're hearing from a lot of new filipino players -- orcullo, kiamco, corteza, manalo, gabica, valle, etc... Whatever happened to that snooky villanueva?
 
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