competing with the real sharks: http://www.azbilliards.com/2000storya.cfm?storynum=5356 
Philippines in June
- Thread starter Roy Steffensen
- Start date
Day 1
Departure from Norway was at 0645 so I decided to stay awake all night playing pool. When I arrived in Schiphol Airtport in The Netherlands I had about 5 hours to kill before my flight to Manila.
For this visit to the Philippines I decided to bring my laptop with me, so I can easily add pictures to the posts here on AzB, I can watch movies and poolmatches, and I can use my excel-file to do stats on the matches I will play here. I could already use the computer at Schiphol Airport
I started with watching a match from the 2003 World Pool Championship, against Efren Reyes and Fransisco Bustamante. Great play from both players, and it helped me through 1 hour, 40 minutes and 11 seconds.
The chairs at the quiet areas at Schiphol were quite comfortable, and I tried as hard as I could to stay awake, because I wanted to sleep on the plane instead. So to keep me awake I played BubbleBreaker on my phone, and a game on www.trendz.co.uk/game, which is very addicting. The purpose of the game is to beat a biker with a bat, and see how far you can make him fly. You got to try it, but don?t blame me when you?re addicted and can?t do anything productive but playing this game?
I didn?t get to sleep much at the plane, watched 3 movies, so when I arrived Sunday morning it was time for breakfast, check-in at the hotel and then a few hours of sleep. Slept for about 2 hours, so that?s all the sleep I had since Friday morning?
I texted Lolong, a local poolplayer: ?Hi Pangit. Mukha ba yan? 9-ball tonight? Love you my friend. Roy D?Fish?. Got a text back within 10 seconds, and I had a match planned for the night with one of the most laughable persons in Manila. He smiles and laughs all the time!
At One Side there was not much action going on, it was a quiet night, but everyone was talking about Monday?s big match. Dennis Orcullo ? Fransisco Bustamante race to 31 in 9-ball for 200 000 Pesos. Will try to keep you updated about this matchup!
Me and Lolong decided to play ?series?, which means 2 sets. If 1-1 in set, we will double the money in the third and last set. We played 9-ball, race to 7 for 1000 pesos. He fired away and didn?t miss a ball before it was 6-1 to him. I lost 7-2. In the next set I went from 1-0 behind to 6-1, and then managed to win 7-3. In the last deciding set for 2000 pesos he went up to 6-1 pretty quick. I tried my best, but failed and lost 7-5. Lolong played good, missed only 2 easy shots and scratched on the 8 once, and both the easy misses were after he had done all the hard work in the racks. I am sure we all can relate to that feeling, when we?ve just finished the hard shots and are faced with couple of easy shots and the focus is not 100 % anymore, because we are so revealed that we managed to get past the first part of the rack? That?s the only shots he missed.
After the match I went over to Pool Fusion, the other action room, just a couple of hundreds of meters away. Here I talked to the owner, who told me that Jeffrey De Luna will play a big money match here Monday against #3 in China. He also told me that Alcano recently lost 2 matches to Pagulayan in 10-ball for a total amount of 2 900 000 Pesos, at One Side. One set was for 800 000 pesos, and the other one for 2 100 000 pesos. In total about 65 000 $ in Pagulayan?s pockets, which is not bad at all for 2 money matches. (Edit: some people said the match was for 200 000 only, some said 2 million, and 1 more confirmed it was for 2.9. I don?t know what is correct, perhaps a local Filipino can educate us?)
Everyone here seems to be excited about the tournaments going on, and then especially the tournament in Cebu, the Manny Villar Cup 2nd leg. They all seem to go to Cebu for the qualifiers there, so it will be one hell of a field trying to get the last spots in the tournament of 64 players. Will be exciting!!!
Before I went to bed on Sunday I watched a 14 year old kid play series, 10-ball for 5000 pesos, race to 12 against a 20 + year old. The kid, nicknamed ?Monkey? had won the first set, and won the second 12-8 when I left. That kid impressed me with his shotmaking, his focus and his solutions. I taped half a rack of them before my battery on the cellphone died, and I will try to put it up on youtube during the next days.
For your information, it?s common to play matches for as low as 1000 pesos here. It seems very low for us from Europe and America, but for 1000 pesos you can for example get your hair cut 6 times, or you can buy almost 25 San Miguel?s at One Side. Rice for one month for a family costs about 1500 pesos, and monthly average salary is between 6000 ? 12000 pesos for people who works in restaurants and shops.
Departure from Norway was at 0645 so I decided to stay awake all night playing pool. When I arrived in Schiphol Airtport in The Netherlands I had about 5 hours to kill before my flight to Manila.
For this visit to the Philippines I decided to bring my laptop with me, so I can easily add pictures to the posts here on AzB, I can watch movies and poolmatches, and I can use my excel-file to do stats on the matches I will play here. I could already use the computer at Schiphol Airport
I started with watching a match from the 2003 World Pool Championship, against Efren Reyes and Fransisco Bustamante. Great play from both players, and it helped me through 1 hour, 40 minutes and 11 seconds. The chairs at the quiet areas at Schiphol were quite comfortable, and I tried as hard as I could to stay awake, because I wanted to sleep on the plane instead. So to keep me awake I played BubbleBreaker on my phone, and a game on www.trendz.co.uk/game, which is very addicting. The purpose of the game is to beat a biker with a bat, and see how far you can make him fly. You got to try it, but don?t blame me when you?re addicted and can?t do anything productive but playing this game?
I didn?t get to sleep much at the plane, watched 3 movies, so when I arrived Sunday morning it was time for breakfast, check-in at the hotel and then a few hours of sleep. Slept for about 2 hours, so that?s all the sleep I had since Friday morning?
I texted Lolong, a local poolplayer: ?Hi Pangit. Mukha ba yan? 9-ball tonight? Love you my friend. Roy D?Fish?. Got a text back within 10 seconds, and I had a match planned for the night with one of the most laughable persons in Manila. He smiles and laughs all the time!
At One Side there was not much action going on, it was a quiet night, but everyone was talking about Monday?s big match. Dennis Orcullo ? Fransisco Bustamante race to 31 in 9-ball for 200 000 Pesos. Will try to keep you updated about this matchup!
Me and Lolong decided to play ?series?, which means 2 sets. If 1-1 in set, we will double the money in the third and last set. We played 9-ball, race to 7 for 1000 pesos. He fired away and didn?t miss a ball before it was 6-1 to him. I lost 7-2. In the next set I went from 1-0 behind to 6-1, and then managed to win 7-3. In the last deciding set for 2000 pesos he went up to 6-1 pretty quick. I tried my best, but failed and lost 7-5. Lolong played good, missed only 2 easy shots and scratched on the 8 once, and both the easy misses were after he had done all the hard work in the racks. I am sure we all can relate to that feeling, when we?ve just finished the hard shots and are faced with couple of easy shots and the focus is not 100 % anymore, because we are so revealed that we managed to get past the first part of the rack? That?s the only shots he missed.
After the match I went over to Pool Fusion, the other action room, just a couple of hundreds of meters away. Here I talked to the owner, who told me that Jeffrey De Luna will play a big money match here Monday against #3 in China. He also told me that Alcano recently lost 2 matches to Pagulayan in 10-ball for a total amount of 2 900 000 Pesos, at One Side. One set was for 800 000 pesos, and the other one for 2 100 000 pesos. In total about 65 000 $ in Pagulayan?s pockets, which is not bad at all for 2 money matches. (Edit: some people said the match was for 200 000 only, some said 2 million, and 1 more confirmed it was for 2.9. I don?t know what is correct, perhaps a local Filipino can educate us?)
Everyone here seems to be excited about the tournaments going on, and then especially the tournament in Cebu, the Manny Villar Cup 2nd leg. They all seem to go to Cebu for the qualifiers there, so it will be one hell of a field trying to get the last spots in the tournament of 64 players. Will be exciting!!!
Before I went to bed on Sunday I watched a 14 year old kid play series, 10-ball for 5000 pesos, race to 12 against a 20 + year old. The kid, nicknamed ?Monkey? had won the first set, and won the second 12-8 when I left. That kid impressed me with his shotmaking, his focus and his solutions. I taped half a rack of them before my battery on the cellphone died, and I will try to put it up on youtube during the next days.
For your information, it?s common to play matches for as low as 1000 pesos here. It seems very low for us from Europe and America, but for 1000 pesos you can for example get your hair cut 6 times, or you can buy almost 25 San Miguel?s at One Side. Rice for one month for a family costs about 1500 pesos, and monthly average salary is between 6000 ? 12000 pesos for people who works in restaurants and shops.
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As warm-up for the weekend’s tournament, ESPN sent the final of the Manny Villar Cup 1st Leg, and I got the chance to watch Warren Kiamco beat Efren Reyes. This was the third time I saw Efren on TV, in one day, and it was 3 different programs. I can’t remember the third, but the second was a movie, and in the scene I got to see a guy had challenged Efren for 50 000 pesos. Lots of spectators around the table, and everyone went crazy after every shot from Efren, even the easiest balls. When Efren came to the 9-ball, which was a hanger, a girl just in front of the pocket did the “Sharon Stone move” from Basic Instinct, when Efren was down on the shot, and Efren miscued badly. The other guy came in, didn’t take ball in hand, but kicked 3 rails to pocket the 9 and the specators went wild, cheering the winner. It was pretty stupid to watch, but at the same time very funny too.
I headed for One Side just about 30 minutes before the scheduled match on Monday between Dennis and Django, just to hear that Django was sick and couldn’t make it.
The action was pretty slow at that time, still too early at night, so I decided to play again with Lolong, just to kill some time. We played 10-ball, and I lost 7-5. It was pretty hard to focus in the end of the match, because Alcano and Efren came in, and they took place just few feets away from the table, sweating our match. In between shots Efren started to negotiate a one-pocket game with me, but I told him that I had heard that he would play Lee Van, so perhaps we could play after that match, or in Cebu. He said ok, watched some more of our match, and then picked up 3 of the balls we didn’t use and used them to play some 3-cushion on the table next to us.
Lee Van entered One Side short after, and after a while Efren and Lee Van started on a 50 000 Pesos match in 10-ball, race to 26. Efren was up 7-1, and then 13-8, before I went to the other poolhall, Pool Fusion.
Here Carlo Biado, another upcoming young player of Bugsy Promotion, was playing a 25 000 match against a Chinese, and Dennis Orcullo was beating a Taiwanese 13-4 for 25 000. Both matches were in 10-ball. The Chinese and Taiwanese were both here for the tournament in Palawan, while Dennis and Carlo will join the tournament in Cebu.
I managed to get a 10-ball game myself here, don’t remember my opponent’s name, but I lost 9-10, after being up 7-3. We played by the “real” rules, while Carlo’s match was being played with called shots after the new WPA-rules.
Lee Van soon entered Fusion. I heard he had just lost to Efren, but he didn’t look affected by losing for a double World Champ, and he just put his eye on a little kid watching the Carlo Biado match, and started to negotiate a game with him. Lee Van wanted 10-ball and a long set, the little kid wanted 9-ball and a short set. They ended up with 9-ball race to 13. I am not sure of the bet, but some kid said it was for 25 000.
The kid was 7-1 up against Lee Van when I left Fusion.
Oh, the kids name? Chia-Ching Wu, double World Champ
Around 20-30 people were sweating the match between Wu and Lee Van, and it was real noisy in the room. Suddenly Wu came up with a monster shot on a half-hidden 1-ball, long distance, maximum power and right spin, to get perfect position on the 2-ball. Remember that this is tight-pocket tables, with slow cloth. It’s one of the most incredible shots I have seen, and I will try to put it on the wei-table one of the next days. Immediately after that shot there was no more noise, and you could only hear silence and heartbeats. All the spectators just looked at Wu, surprised and shocked by the shot he had just performed so perfect, and everyone was quiet when watching him running out that rack. It was truly amazing, and I am glad that I got to see that shot, and I guess Wu felt really comfortable after that rack.
At the hotel I got a text from Oscar at One Side, telling me that Dennis Orcullo now had started to play rotation with Ronato Alcano, race to 15, for 100 000. If it wasn’t because I had just hit the bed, I would have gone back to One Side to sweat that match too…
My impression after the first nights here is that the money matches between the top players seems to happen more often, and for amounts much higher than during my last visits here. It also looks like the rest of the players are playing matches for 5 000 and 10 000 more often now, than before. Still it is possible to get cheap action for 500 and 1000 pesos a set, there are more than enough people who are willing to give you their best game for action like that, and even the top players are willing to play you cheap if they have some time to kill. It sure is wonderful to be a poolplayer in Manila!
I headed for One Side just about 30 minutes before the scheduled match on Monday between Dennis and Django, just to hear that Django was sick and couldn’t make it.
The action was pretty slow at that time, still too early at night, so I decided to play again with Lolong, just to kill some time. We played 10-ball, and I lost 7-5. It was pretty hard to focus in the end of the match, because Alcano and Efren came in, and they took place just few feets away from the table, sweating our match. In between shots Efren started to negotiate a one-pocket game with me, but I told him that I had heard that he would play Lee Van, so perhaps we could play after that match, or in Cebu. He said ok, watched some more of our match, and then picked up 3 of the balls we didn’t use and used them to play some 3-cushion on the table next to us.
Lee Van entered One Side short after, and after a while Efren and Lee Van started on a 50 000 Pesos match in 10-ball, race to 26. Efren was up 7-1, and then 13-8, before I went to the other poolhall, Pool Fusion.
Here Carlo Biado, another upcoming young player of Bugsy Promotion, was playing a 25 000 match against a Chinese, and Dennis Orcullo was beating a Taiwanese 13-4 for 25 000. Both matches were in 10-ball. The Chinese and Taiwanese were both here for the tournament in Palawan, while Dennis and Carlo will join the tournament in Cebu.
I managed to get a 10-ball game myself here, don’t remember my opponent’s name, but I lost 9-10, after being up 7-3. We played by the “real” rules, while Carlo’s match was being played with called shots after the new WPA-rules.
Lee Van soon entered Fusion. I heard he had just lost to Efren, but he didn’t look affected by losing for a double World Champ, and he just put his eye on a little kid watching the Carlo Biado match, and started to negotiate a game with him. Lee Van wanted 10-ball and a long set, the little kid wanted 9-ball and a short set. They ended up with 9-ball race to 13. I am not sure of the bet, but some kid said it was for 25 000.
The kid was 7-1 up against Lee Van when I left Fusion.
Oh, the kids name? Chia-Ching Wu, double World Champ
Around 20-30 people were sweating the match between Wu and Lee Van, and it was real noisy in the room. Suddenly Wu came up with a monster shot on a half-hidden 1-ball, long distance, maximum power and right spin, to get perfect position on the 2-ball. Remember that this is tight-pocket tables, with slow cloth. It’s one of the most incredible shots I have seen, and I will try to put it on the wei-table one of the next days. Immediately after that shot there was no more noise, and you could only hear silence and heartbeats. All the spectators just looked at Wu, surprised and shocked by the shot he had just performed so perfect, and everyone was quiet when watching him running out that rack. It was truly amazing, and I am glad that I got to see that shot, and I guess Wu felt really comfortable after that rack.
At the hotel I got a text from Oscar at One Side, telling me that Dennis Orcullo now had started to play rotation with Ronato Alcano, race to 15, for 100 000. If it wasn’t because I had just hit the bed, I would have gone back to One Side to sweat that match too…
My impression after the first nights here is that the money matches between the top players seems to happen more often, and for amounts much higher than during my last visits here. It also looks like the rest of the players are playing matches for 5 000 and 10 000 more often now, than before. Still it is possible to get cheap action for 500 and 1000 pesos a set, there are more than enough people who are willing to give you their best game for action like that, and even the top players are willing to play you cheap if they have some time to kill. It sure is wonderful to be a poolplayer in Manila!
Today, Tuesday, I went to Fusion to practise with “Buddy” on daytime. I was his sponsor during some money games during the World Championship, where he beat Jonni Fulcher 11-4 in 9-ball, and Karl Boyes 7-1 in 10-ball. (Boyzi forfeited at 7-1)
We played race to 11 in 10-ball, and I lost 11-6. Didn’t have a chance, he played awesome. I tried to negotiate a better game for me, I mentioned one-pocket, 14-1, 8-ball but he would only play 9-ball or 10-ball. I then proposed one-pocket even, race to 4, and we ended up playing double or nothing race to 3 in one-pocket, even. He went up 2-0 pretty quick. At 2-0 I put him in a big trap, and his reaction was to grab his phone, laughing out loud and say: “I’ve gotta call Efren on this one”.
I managed to turn the one-pocket around to win the last three racks, and in the last 2 we both needed only 2 balls. I’m happy with that win, because Buddy certainly knew how to move around the table in this game too.
Buddy was also the middle-man for Alex Pagulayan this afternoon, trying to negotiate a game with Chia-Ching Wu who practised on the table next to us. Alex offered a long race 10-ball, Wu could name the amount, time and where to play. Looks like they will play 9-ball later tonight, but I don’t know for sure yet. Buddy will text me if it happens.
Got a text from Hohmann earlier today, he was wondering if we were at Cebu already, because he was there now. He is coming to Manila tomorrow before leaving to Palawan the next day, so perhaps we will meet him tomorrow.
We played race to 11 in 10-ball, and I lost 11-6. Didn’t have a chance, he played awesome. I tried to negotiate a better game for me, I mentioned one-pocket, 14-1, 8-ball but he would only play 9-ball or 10-ball. I then proposed one-pocket even, race to 4, and we ended up playing double or nothing race to 3 in one-pocket, even. He went up 2-0 pretty quick. At 2-0 I put him in a big trap, and his reaction was to grab his phone, laughing out loud and say: “I’ve gotta call Efren on this one”.
I managed to turn the one-pocket around to win the last three racks, and in the last 2 we both needed only 2 balls. I’m happy with that win, because Buddy certainly knew how to move around the table in this game too.
Buddy was also the middle-man for Alex Pagulayan this afternoon, trying to negotiate a game with Chia-Ching Wu who practised on the table next to us. Alex offered a long race 10-ball, Wu could name the amount, time and where to play. Looks like they will play 9-ball later tonight, but I don’t know for sure yet. Buddy will text me if it happens.
Got a text from Hohmann earlier today, he was wondering if we were at Cebu already, because he was there now. He is coming to Manila tomorrow before leaving to Palawan the next day, so perhaps we will meet him tomorrow.
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Roy Steffensen said:Departure from Norway was at 0645 so I decided to stay awake all night playing pool. When I arrived in Schiphol Airtport in The Netherlands I had about 5 hours to kill before my flight to Manila.
For this visit to the Philippines I decided to bring my laptop with me, so I can easily add pictures to the posts here on AzB, I can watch movies and poolmatches, and I can use my excel-file to do stats on the matches I will play here. I could already use the computer at Schiphol Airport
The chairs at the quiet areas at Schiphol were quite comfortable, and I tried as hard as I could to stay awake, because I wanted to sleep on the plane instead. So to keep me awake I played BubbleBreaker on my phone, and a game on www.trendz.co.uk/game, which is very addicting. The purpose of the game is to beat a biker with a bat, and see how far you can make him fly. You got to try it, but don?t blame me when you?re addicted and can?t do anything productive but playing this game?
I didn?t get to sleep much at the plane, watched 3 movies, so when I arrived Sunday morning it was time for breakfast, check-in at the hotel and then a few hours of sleep. Slept for about 2 hours, so that?s all the sleep I had since Friday morning?
I texted Lolong, a local poolplayer: ?Hi Pangit. Mukha ba yan? 9-ball tonight? Love you my friend. Roy D?Fish?. Got a text back within 10 seconds, and I had a match planned for the night with one of the most laughable persons in Manila. He smiles and laughs all the time!
At One Side there was not much action going on, it was a quiet night, but everyone was talking about Monday?s big match. Dennis Orcullo ? Fransisco Bustamante race to 31 in 9-ball for 200 000 Pesos. Will try to keep you updated about this matchup!
Me and Lolong decided to play ?series?, which means 2 sets. If 1-1 in set, we will double the money in the third and last set. We played 9-ball, race to 7 for 1000 pesos. He fired away and didn?t miss a ball before it was 6-1 to him. I lost 7-2. In the next set I went from 1-0 behind to 6-1, and then managed to win 7-3. In the last deciding set for 2000 pesos he went up to 6-1 pretty quick. I tried my best, but failed and lost 7-5. Lolong played good, missed only 2 easy shots and scratched on the 8 once, and both the easy misses were after he had done all the hard work in the racks. I am sure we all can relate to that feeling, when we?ve just finished the hard shots and are faced with couple of easy shots and the focus is not 100 % anymore, because we are so revealed that we managed to get past the first part of the rack? That?s the only shots he missed.
After the match I went over to Pool Fusion, the other action room, just a couple of hundreds of meters away. Here I talked to the owner, who told me that Jeffrey De Luna will play a big money match here Monday against #3 in China. He also told me that Alcano recently lost 2 matches to Pagulayan in 10-ball for a total amount of 2 900 000 Pesos, at One Side. One set was for 800 000 pesos, and the other one for 2 100 000 pesos. In total about 65 000 $ in Pagulayan?s pockets, which is not bad at all for 2 money matches. (Edit: some people said the match was for 200 000 only, some said 2 million, and 1 more confirmed it was for 2.9. I don?t know what is correct, perhaps a local Filipino can educate us?)
Everyone here seems to be excited about the tournaments going on, and then especially the tournament in Cebu, the Manny Villar Cup 2nd leg. They all seem to go to Cebu for the qualifiers there, so it will be one hell of a field trying to get the last spots in the tournament of 64 players. Will be exciting!!!
Before I went to bed on Sunday I watched a 14 year old kid play series, 10-ball for 5000 pesos, race to 12 against a 20 + year old. The kid, nicknamed ?Monkey? had won the first set, and won the second 12-8 when I left. That kid impressed me with his shotmaking, his focus and his solutions. I taped half a rack of them before my battery on the cellphone died, and I will try to put it up on youtube during the next days.
For your information, it?s common to play matches for as low as 1000 pesos here. It seems very low for us from Europe and America, but for 1000 pesos you can for example get your hair cut 6 times, or you can buy almost 25 San Miguel?s at One Side. Rice for one month for a family costs about 1500 pesos, and monthly average salary is between 6000 ? 12000 pesos for people who works in restaurants and shops.
Thanks for doing all of these posts Roy. I am enjoying them all. Good luck.
JoeyA
I went to One Side just to say hello, but when I opened the door I just heard the word "one pocket" being shouting out loud. It was Efren Reyes, in the table in the corner showing some shots to spectators, and I went over to him.
I said I only wanted to play very cheap, and he said 1000 pesos only, that's ok. He then said he had forgot what he gave me in handicap last time (10-5), and said "I saw you play, even this time, ok?". Haha. I just laughed and told him it was 10-5, and then he laughed and said no no no no, and offered me 10-6 and the first break. I didn't negotiate anymore, cause the action was so cheap.
The first set he played awesome, and he actually told me what he wanted to do and what he thought on some of his shots. It was pretty cool. At 2-0 he needed only 2 balls, but they were all up-table except 1, and he showed me the exact spot he wanted the cueball to end. I had no idea how he was going to put it there, but he cheated the pocket, hit maximum draw with lots of left spin. Managed to not hit the longrail, which I thought was impossible, and when the cueball finally hit the shortrail it changed direction so dramatically and went for the spot he had showed me. He got unlucky, and missed by a length of about a chalk's distance, and then behind a ball. He banked another ball instead. lol
Another memorable shot was after my break. It was a "perfect" break and he was scratching his head, and after thinking for a while he pointed with his cue how the 4-ball was gonna carom into 3 different balls, lying apart from eachother, and move them away from my pocket. He executed it almost perfect, missed the last ball by a hair, but the cueball went 4 rails and hide behind it. He then started to laugh really loud and say "magic". He was in a very good mood :-D
In the next 2 sets we played 5 games went to the last ball for both of us, which was quite entertaining. One game lasted for almost 30 minutes. In that game I tried for a crazy combination, and Efren laughed before I made the shot saying "all balls will move to my pocket". I managed to make the ball I aimed for, but Efren almost went roling on the floor laughing, because not one ball was on my side of the table. All 14 balls were close to his pocket, and 5 of them were so close it was almost impossible to get the cueball past them.
I stopped his laughing, cause I managed to move one ball at the time, keeping him in traps. He ended up with making 2 of my balls and deliberate foul 3 different times during the game, so at most he needed 12 balls.
After one of my shots where I 2-railed a ball, made it hang in the jaws, drew the cueball to the shortrail with lots of spin and made it spin behind 2 of his balls and freeze it, he just said "what is this???". I won that game, but lost the set 3-2 and the next 3-0 too, but they were all close, so felt good.
Alex Pagualayn didn't have a game with Wu tonight, looks like Wu backed out, so he ended up playing race to 32 in 9-ball against Dennis for 50 000. 2-0 to alex when I left. Django was at one table, Alcano on another one, so lots of action. I am done with pool tonight, so no updates on those matches :-(
I said I only wanted to play very cheap, and he said 1000 pesos only, that's ok. He then said he had forgot what he gave me in handicap last time (10-5), and said "I saw you play, even this time, ok?". Haha. I just laughed and told him it was 10-5, and then he laughed and said no no no no, and offered me 10-6 and the first break. I didn't negotiate anymore, cause the action was so cheap.
The first set he played awesome, and he actually told me what he wanted to do and what he thought on some of his shots. It was pretty cool. At 2-0 he needed only 2 balls, but they were all up-table except 1, and he showed me the exact spot he wanted the cueball to end. I had no idea how he was going to put it there, but he cheated the pocket, hit maximum draw with lots of left spin. Managed to not hit the longrail, which I thought was impossible, and when the cueball finally hit the shortrail it changed direction so dramatically and went for the spot he had showed me. He got unlucky, and missed by a length of about a chalk's distance, and then behind a ball. He banked another ball instead. lol
Another memorable shot was after my break. It was a "perfect" break and he was scratching his head, and after thinking for a while he pointed with his cue how the 4-ball was gonna carom into 3 different balls, lying apart from eachother, and move them away from my pocket. He executed it almost perfect, missed the last ball by a hair, but the cueball went 4 rails and hide behind it. He then started to laugh really loud and say "magic". He was in a very good mood :-D
In the next 2 sets we played 5 games went to the last ball for both of us, which was quite entertaining. One game lasted for almost 30 minutes. In that game I tried for a crazy combination, and Efren laughed before I made the shot saying "all balls will move to my pocket". I managed to make the ball I aimed for, but Efren almost went roling on the floor laughing, because not one ball was on my side of the table. All 14 balls were close to his pocket, and 5 of them were so close it was almost impossible to get the cueball past them.
I stopped his laughing, cause I managed to move one ball at the time, keeping him in traps. He ended up with making 2 of my balls and deliberate foul 3 different times during the game, so at most he needed 12 balls.
After one of my shots where I 2-railed a ball, made it hang in the jaws, drew the cueball to the shortrail with lots of spin and made it spin behind 2 of his balls and freeze it, he just said "what is this???". I won that game, but lost the set 3-2 and the next 3-0 too, but they were all close, so felt good.
Alex Pagualayn didn't have a game with Wu tonight, looks like Wu backed out, so he ended up playing race to 32 in 9-ball against Dennis for 50 000. 2-0 to alex when I left. Django was at one table, Alcano on another one, so lots of action. I am done with pool tonight, so no updates on those matches :-(
And this is how it always is in the PI. The great players stay great by playing each other. They don't just sit around and bemoan their fate and complain about never getting a game. They do something quite creative. They play each other!
And this is one reason why the filipino players remain the best players on the planet. Yes, we have some great players here and there are certainly some champions in Taiwan and Europe. But my opinion remains that if each country made a team of say six top players, I would pick the filipino team every time.
Shane is arguably our best player right now, and look what happened when he started fooling around with Alex. The little guy wouldn't quit until he beat him, and he did. And guess what, Alex would play him again in the drop of a hat. That's how they roll over there.
Shane alone can't defeat their country. There are so many great players in the PI, they just wear him down. Shane needs about five to ten more just like him to assert some U.S. dominance again.
And this is one reason why the filipino players remain the best players on the planet. Yes, we have some great players here and there are certainly some champions in Taiwan and Europe. But my opinion remains that if each country made a team of say six top players, I would pick the filipino team every time.
Shane is arguably our best player right now, and look what happened when he started fooling around with Alex. The little guy wouldn't quit until he beat him, and he did. And guess what, Alex would play him again in the drop of a hat. That's how they roll over there.
Shane alone can't defeat their country. There are so many great players in the PI, they just wear him down. Shane needs about five to ten more just like him to assert some U.S. dominance again.
Roy Steffensen said:
Roy,
Please go to www.cuetable.com and show us the situations as you described above. Great stuff. Keep it coming. Let me know when you play Lee Van Corteza. I'm watching out for you.
Thanks,
JoeyA
yobagua said:
US-type plugs are used in most places (you might run into a few Euro-type round plugs). Voltage is 220V, but most laptops are made for worldwide use (check the power supply to see if it says "100v-240v"- if it does voltage is not an issue).
I bought an adapter for my laptop, it was really expensive. 24,95 pesos
JoeyA, I will try to play Lee Van if I get the chance! Did he give you handicap?
I just heard that Efren lost to a local guy yesterday, giving the wild 7 in 10-ball race to 25. Dennis Orcullo managed to win 32-30 against Pagulayan. The day before Dennis lost to Alcano in rotation, 15-13.
Yesterday Alcano had been playing a guy 10-ball race to 11, giving the wild 8. Plus Alcano had to use the mechanical bridge on all shots
Chris arrived from Norway today, so we will head for One Side tonight.
Sitting on a cafe outside One Side now, together with Lolong. We just bought him some coffee, and he is telling lots of jokes and laughing all the time.
JoeyA, I will try to play Lee Van if I get the chance! Did he give you handicap?
I just heard that Efren lost to a local guy yesterday, giving the wild 7 in 10-ball race to 25. Dennis Orcullo managed to win 32-30 against Pagulayan. The day before Dennis lost to Alcano in rotation, 15-13.
Yesterday Alcano had been playing a guy 10-ball race to 11, giving the wild 8. Plus Alcano had to use the mechanical bridge on all shots
Chris arrived from Norway today, so we will head for One Side tonight.
Sitting on a cafe outside One Side now, together with Lolong. We just bought him some coffee, and he is telling lots of jokes and laughing all the time.
Roy Steffensen said:I bought an adapter for my laptop, it was really expensive. 24,95 pesos
JoeyA, I will try to play Lee Van if I get the chance! Did he give you handicap?
I just heard that Efren lost to a local guy yesterday, giving the wild 7 in 10-ball race to 25. Dennis Orcullo managed to win 32-30 against Pagulayan. The day before Dennis lost to Alcano in rotation, 15-13.
Yesterday Alcano had been playing a guy 10-ball race to 11, giving the wild 8. Plus Alcano had to use the mechanical bridge on all shots
Chris arrived from Norway today, so we will head for One Side tonight.
Sitting on a cafe outside One Side now, together with Lolong. We just bought him some coffee, and he is telling lots of jokes and laughing all the time.
Say hi to Longley for me Roy (that's how I call Lolong) and tell him you're not "D Fish" anymore but a "tolongges or tolong-gatong"!
At SM Mall in Cebu now, internetcafe 15 meters from the venue, so that's nice.
Yesterday evening there were still the qualifiers going, and around 50-75 spectators for the qualifiers.
After that we were invited to a place with 2 pooltables and lots of pokertables. Lots of the players in the maintournament were there, just chilling, some played pool and some played poker. Efren challenged me in one-pocket again, but I handed him Chris instead. Christ got 10-6, and Efren played AWESOME. It was a pleasure to watch, and Gomez went screaming hallelujah after some shots... hehe... Chris lost 10-0, 10- -1, and 10-1. Efren made the only ball in Chris' pocket too... hehe... Chris had a chance to bank a ball twice, that was his only oppurtunities, and Chris hanged the balls in the jaw both times...
I decided to try against Efren too, same handicap. I also lost 3-0, but once again I managed to get 2 of the games to the last ball. Tough luck playing Efren, he is just incredible... I asked Alex if he wanted to play Efren, and Alex just responded, "No, I am working hard for my money, one pesos at the time. I will not play Efren, he's only cheating, because he makes balls all the time"
Oh, by the way, since Alex lost 50 000, 32-30, in 9-ball against Dennis he challenged him for 200 000 in rotation race to 21. They played at Side Pocket in Quezon City, and Alex managed to win 21-20. Close race!!! Nice one Alex.
Anyway, getting ready for the tournament now. The maintournament will start in 1,5 hours. They have divided the players in 2 groups of 32. I have only got a copy of my group, which goes like this:
Alex Pagulayan vs Godofredo Ducanes
Carlo Biado vs Chris Johannessen
Warren Kiamco vs Johann Chua
Joven Bustamante vs Benjie Guevarra
Ronato Alcano vs Allan Abuhalim
Ramil Gallego vs Russian Petiza
Fransisco Bustamante vs Renemar David
Gandy Valle vs Manolo Tanasas
Lee Van Corteza vs Ronnie Aying
Jundel Mazon vs Elmer Haya
Dennis Orcullo vs Danny Otacan
Ricky Zerna vs Roberto Dy
Roberto Gomez vs Jomar Deocampo
Rodolfo Luat vs Benson Palce
Efren Reyes vs Aram Serquiano
Jharome Pena vs Roy Steffensen
I don't have the other group, but looks like all the top players came in this group...
Yesterday evening there were still the qualifiers going, and around 50-75 spectators for the qualifiers.
After that we were invited to a place with 2 pooltables and lots of pokertables. Lots of the players in the maintournament were there, just chilling, some played pool and some played poker. Efren challenged me in one-pocket again, but I handed him Chris instead. Christ got 10-6, and Efren played AWESOME. It was a pleasure to watch, and Gomez went screaming hallelujah after some shots... hehe... Chris lost 10-0, 10- -1, and 10-1. Efren made the only ball in Chris' pocket too... hehe... Chris had a chance to bank a ball twice, that was his only oppurtunities, and Chris hanged the balls in the jaw both times...
I decided to try against Efren too, same handicap. I also lost 3-0, but once again I managed to get 2 of the games to the last ball. Tough luck playing Efren, he is just incredible... I asked Alex if he wanted to play Efren, and Alex just responded, "No, I am working hard for my money, one pesos at the time. I will not play Efren, he's only cheating, because he makes balls all the time"
Oh, by the way, since Alex lost 50 000, 32-30, in 9-ball against Dennis he challenged him for 200 000 in rotation race to 21. They played at Side Pocket in Quezon City, and Alex managed to win 21-20. Close race!!! Nice one Alex.
Anyway, getting ready for the tournament now. The maintournament will start in 1,5 hours. They have divided the players in 2 groups of 32. I have only got a copy of my group, which goes like this:
Alex Pagulayan vs Godofredo Ducanes
Carlo Biado vs Chris Johannessen
Warren Kiamco vs Johann Chua
Joven Bustamante vs Benjie Guevarra
Ronato Alcano vs Allan Abuhalim
Ramil Gallego vs Russian Petiza
Fransisco Bustamante vs Renemar David
Gandy Valle vs Manolo Tanasas
Lee Van Corteza vs Ronnie Aying
Jundel Mazon vs Elmer Haya
Dennis Orcullo vs Danny Otacan
Ricky Zerna vs Roberto Dy
Roberto Gomez vs Jomar Deocampo
Rodolfo Luat vs Benson Palce
Efren Reyes vs Aram Serquiano
Jharome Pena vs Roy Steffensen
I don't have the other group, but looks like all the top players came in this group...
DAMN!
Roy say hello to Edwin for me.
After the tourney, I hope you guys head south to the Davao gulf.
Roy say hello to Edwin for me.
After the tourney, I hope you guys head south to the Davao gulf.
Roy Steffensen said:
LOL, you got fitted against your horse that's cruel.
Jharome handed me a "donut", 9-0
Since I had the last match in the bracket, I thought we were gonna play after all the other matches, but the organizer didn't think so. On my way out of the arena to go to a cafe I got called up on table 4, so had to change my clothes and get ready.
Went to the table, few warm-up shots, felt good.
Lost the lag, Jharome broke and ran, 1-0
Jharome broke a ball, not an open table. He played the cueball frozen behind the 7, I had to 2-rail to hit the 2-ball. Missed by about a diamond. 2-0
Jharome broke dry. Open table, but still difficult. I managed to play good till the 7, lost position to the 8, played a great recoveryshot to get position on the 9, but I simply dogged the 9. 3-0
Jharome broke a ball, then safed me, I had to kick. Kicked, and made the ball, made another ball and opened up a cluster, then safed him. He kicked, gave me a long draw shot. I missed. 4-0.
Jharome broke a ball, ran out. 5-0
Jharome broke the 9. 6-0.
Jharome broke a ball, missed the 5, but it ended up near the middle of the shortrail, about a diamondlength outside the rail. The cueball near the other shortrail. I decided to try the thin cut instead of the bank, since if I would miss the thin cut the 5 could end up behind the 9 and the cueball behind the 6. Missed the cut, the 5 went just passed the 9 and the cueball just passed the 6. 7-0
Jharome broke a ball, played safe on the 5. I kicked, hit it, left him a long pot. 8-0
Jharome broke a ball, ran out for the win. 9-0.
Well, atleast I FELT good lol
Wild guess is that there are about 700 spectators for the matches here, lots of media, and there will probably be even more people here when Efren will play in about 1 hour, but I honestly don't understand how they can get more people in here though... It's really crowded, but the spectators act very nice. They reckognize good shots and safeties when they are made.
Chris was down 6-4 when I left to the internetcafe. I had no chance to get a seat or standing place to watch his match, so decided to go here instead.
I was talking to Jharome after the match, and he really, really wants to play Efren next match. That's what I love about these players, instead of hoping of an easy draw, they are not afraid of anyone, and can't wait for a chance to knock out the country's number 1 player in front of 700 spectators and the media!!!
Since I had the last match in the bracket, I thought we were gonna play after all the other matches, but the organizer didn't think so. On my way out of the arena to go to a cafe I got called up on table 4, so had to change my clothes and get ready.
Went to the table, few warm-up shots, felt good.
Lost the lag, Jharome broke and ran, 1-0
Jharome broke a ball, not an open table. He played the cueball frozen behind the 7, I had to 2-rail to hit the 2-ball. Missed by about a diamond. 2-0
Jharome broke dry. Open table, but still difficult. I managed to play good till the 7, lost position to the 8, played a great recoveryshot to get position on the 9, but I simply dogged the 9. 3-0
Jharome broke a ball, then safed me, I had to kick. Kicked, and made the ball, made another ball and opened up a cluster, then safed him. He kicked, gave me a long draw shot. I missed. 4-0.
Jharome broke a ball, ran out. 5-0
Jharome broke the 9. 6-0.
Jharome broke a ball, missed the 5, but it ended up near the middle of the shortrail, about a diamondlength outside the rail. The cueball near the other shortrail. I decided to try the thin cut instead of the bank, since if I would miss the thin cut the 5 could end up behind the 9 and the cueball behind the 6. Missed the cut, the 5 went just passed the 9 and the cueball just passed the 6. 7-0
Jharome broke a ball, played safe on the 5. I kicked, hit it, left him a long pot. 8-0
Jharome broke a ball, ran out for the win. 9-0.
Well, atleast I FELT good
lolWild guess is that there are about 700 spectators for the matches here, lots of media, and there will probably be even more people here when Efren will play in about 1 hour, but I honestly don't understand how they can get more people in here though... It's really crowded, but the spectators act very nice. They reckognize good shots and safeties when they are made.
Chris was down 6-4 when I left to the internetcafe. I had no chance to get a seat or standing place to watch his match, so decided to go here instead.
I was talking to Jharome after the match, and he really, really wants to play Efren next match. That's what I love about these players, instead of hoping of an easy draw, they are not afraid of anyone, and can't wait for a chance to knock out the country's number 1 player in front of 700 spectators and the media!!!
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