Philippines in June
- Thread starter Roy Steffensen
- Start date
Aram Serquiano lost 9-1 to Efren Reyes, and what a performance by the Magician. I will guess that perhaps 500 people were watching on the tv-table, and poor Aram was real uncomfortable playing Efren on those conditions. He missed some easy shots, including ball in hand. Efren on the other hand banked balls, went 5 rails for perfect position, smiled and laughed and the crowd went wild on some of his shots. And when I say went wild I really mean went wild. It was just awesome to get the feeling of the superstar Efren really is here in the Philippines!
Anyway, I was going to play Aram next, and even if I saw his match I didn't know his speed, because the few oppurtunites he had he missed because he was so nervous.
In our match there were lots of spectators too, because Alex Pagualayan and Django played on the tables next to us. We both started out nervous, and I scratched on the 7 in the first game. In the other game I missed an easy 7. Then Aram got the confidence he needed. I was back at the table at 6-0, with the cueball behind the 7-ball, and I needed to kick for the 5. I hit it full, and almost pocketed it, but instead I left him an opening. In the next game we exchanged lots of kick-safeties, and I managed to win that rack. I scratched on the break, and he ran out. At 8-1 he scratched on the break, so 8-2, then the cueball jumped over the table on 8-2 and he ran that rack too, for the win 9-2.
Chris lost 9-6 to Carlo Biado earlier today. He was supposed to go up to 5-2 and put a lot of pressure on Carlo, instead he missed an easy ball.
Chris was down 4-0 now, but he made it 4-3 I guess, when I left. Atleast he had an easy open table after the break.
The match between Efren Reyes and Jharome Pena started at the tv-table when it was 8-2 in our match. In less than one minute there were almost no people around watching our matches, everyone were fighting to see the Magician! :-D Don't know the score there, too many people watching so couldn't even see the table...
Great experience for me to play this tournament, even though I didn't get many chances. I have never played in front of so many spectators before, and I was very nervous in the second match. I was not nervous at all playing Jharome, but I was REALLY nervous at 7-0 in the other match. I did NOT wanted to lose another 9-0, and be remembered as the white donut-man :-D :-D
Will be back to the poker/pool-place tonight, rumour is that Django will play Alcano in a big moneymatch in 9-ball.
I am done playing till I am back in Manila on either Monday or Tuesday. Then I will try to find some opponents that miss now and then...
Will try to give short summaries from the tournament the last 2 days. There has been no real surprises. Gomez almost beat Luat 9-0, but scratched on the break on 8-0 to give Luat a real chance at the table.
I watched a player ran a few racks, and I couldn't see who is opponent was. After a while he played a safety, and Alcano came in and kicked but left a shot, and the player ran that table and 3 or 4 more. I had never seen him before, but it was Ramil Gallego (sp?), who did pretty well at US Open I believe.
What I remember by now is that Alcano, Luat and G. Valle are on the loserside. Orcullo, Van Corteza, Gomez, J. Bustamante are through till tomorrow.
I talked to one of the young players from Manila who are here, in the other group. We bought him some food, because he has almost no money left. He needs to cash in this tournament, with this field, to have food the next days after the tournament...
No wonder why they seldom miss shots - if they miss they will stay hungry..
Anyway, I was going to play Aram next, and even if I saw his match I didn't know his speed, because the few oppurtunites he had he missed because he was so nervous.
In our match there were lots of spectators too, because Alex Pagualayan and Django played on the tables next to us. We both started out nervous, and I scratched on the 7 in the first game. In the other game I missed an easy 7. Then Aram got the confidence he needed. I was back at the table at 6-0, with the cueball behind the 7-ball, and I needed to kick for the 5. I hit it full, and almost pocketed it, but instead I left him an opening. In the next game we exchanged lots of kick-safeties, and I managed to win that rack. I scratched on the break, and he ran out. At 8-1 he scratched on the break, so 8-2, then the cueball jumped over the table on 8-2 and he ran that rack too, for the win 9-2.
Chris lost 9-6 to Carlo Biado earlier today. He was supposed to go up to 5-2 and put a lot of pressure on Carlo, instead he missed an easy ball.
Chris was down 4-0 now, but he made it 4-3 I guess, when I left. Atleast he had an easy open table after the break.
The match between Efren Reyes and Jharome Pena started at the tv-table when it was 8-2 in our match. In less than one minute there were almost no people around watching our matches, everyone were fighting to see the Magician! :-D Don't know the score there, too many people watching so couldn't even see the table...
Great experience for me to play this tournament, even though I didn't get many chances. I have never played in front of so many spectators before, and I was very nervous in the second match. I was not nervous at all playing Jharome, but I was REALLY nervous at 7-0 in the other match. I did NOT wanted to lose another 9-0, and be remembered as the white donut-man :-D :-D
Will be back to the poker/pool-place tonight, rumour is that Django will play Alcano in a big moneymatch in 9-ball.
I am done playing till I am back in Manila on either Monday or Tuesday. Then I will try to find some opponents that miss now and then...
Will try to give short summaries from the tournament the last 2 days. There has been no real surprises. Gomez almost beat Luat 9-0, but scratched on the break on 8-0 to give Luat a real chance at the table.
I watched a player ran a few racks, and I couldn't see who is opponent was. After a while he played a safety, and Alcano came in and kicked but left a shot, and the player ran that table and 3 or 4 more. I had never seen him before, but it was Ramil Gallego (sp?), who did pretty well at US Open I believe.
What I remember by now is that Alcano, Luat and G. Valle are on the loserside. Orcullo, Van Corteza, Gomez, J. Bustamante are through till tomorrow.
I talked to one of the young players from Manila who are here, in the other group. We bought him some food, because he has almost no money left. He needs to cash in this tournament, with this field, to have food the next days after the tournament...
No wonder why they seldom miss shots - if they miss they will stay hungry..
I like the "inside scoop" about everything, especially the humanity side of the Filipino players. In spite of or because of their poverty or maybe some other reason, they are some of the most competitive players in the world. In spite of their ferocious competitive spirit, I find most Filipino players to be humble and genuine.
Thanks again Roy, for keeping us abreast of all the happenings while you are there.
You are doing a GREAT JOB and all of us at AZB appreciate it.
Get us some inside information on the particulars of some of the player's lives. I like knowing about Lolong and his three wives. LOL.
What are some of the hobbies of some of the other top players? What do they like to do in their spare time. Ronnie Alcano if I am not mistaken was a fisherman before he became a famous pool player. (I could be mistaken about this) Does he still fish? For fun or profit?
I'm sure I don't have to tell you that if YOU or any of the players feel a little uncomfortable talking about these things, just let it drop. No problem.
Anyway, did I say you were doing great!
JoeyA
Thanks again Roy, for keeping us abreast of all the happenings while you are there.
You are doing a GREAT JOB and all of us at AZB appreciate it.
Get us some inside information on the particulars of some of the player's lives. I like knowing about Lolong and his three wives. LOL.
What are some of the hobbies of some of the other top players? What do they like to do in their spare time. Ronnie Alcano if I am not mistaken was a fisherman before he became a famous pool player. (I could be mistaken about this) Does he still fish? For fun or profit?
I'm sure I don't have to tell you that if YOU or any of the players feel a little uncomfortable talking about these things, just let it drop. No problem.
Anyway, did I say you were doing great!
JoeyA
Roy Steffensen said:
Roy,
It seems you have this all wrong. It is obvious from your description that Efren isn't really all THAT good, he is just very, very lucky.
Thanks for the great updates. Based on your reports I've decided I'm going to have to make a pool pilgrimage to the islands myself. Good luck.
JoeyA said:
I think it was Orcullo who was a fisherman? I remember Alex telling me in the past.
As for them not having enough money to eat - funny, back when I was playing, I NEVER used to eat before and during tournaments. I just believed that after you eat a full meal you get kinda relaxed...borderline lazy...and I did not want to have that feeling while playing. I wanted to be hungry mentally and literally the whole time until it's over and you've won...lol!!!
Maybe thats why they are so good...the have the hunger to win...literally!!
I am filipino BTW so I say this is in pun....because I know how bad and sad the poverty is over there.
I am pretty sure it was Dennis Orcullo who was a fisherman. (Orcullo is his real name, by the way, but in the passport they printed Orcollo by a mistake, so that's why it is sometimes used instead)
Chris managed to turn around his match from 0-4 to 3-4 with 3 break and runs, and then lead 8-7 in the end. At 8-8 he simply missed the 5 ball after all the hard work was done. He still doesn't know why he missed, he was focused, ready, did his preshot-routine, so he just missed the 5-ball, and his opponent won 9-8 instead. Sad...
After my last report I ran into Jharome again in the venue, and I asked him how did the match against Efren go. "I played very good, didn't miss a ball. 9-1" he said when smiling. I replied of course with congratulations, and then he laughed and said: "no no, I lost 9-1. I didn't miss a ball, but what can I do when Efren had 7 Break and runs? It was too much". Looks like Efren is having a good time on the tv-table...
At night we went to the poker/pool-place again. Efren was of course in action with some foreigners, just fooling around winning more pesos. Efren played them race to 9 with no handicap, so it was more like donating. Or sponsoring, like one of the Germans in the crowd said. This is what is incredible with Efren. Alcano, Django and some more of the best players were there, but everyone just wants to play Efren, and he does not dissapoint anyone. He gives them bankshots, lots of spins, his grins, headscratching, laughing and all the other things with him that makes him so likeable. He cash tens of thousands of pesos a month by doing these small exhibitions, and his popularity just increases by doing this. Because he can practise and perform crazy shots for all the Filipino spectators, while the only time the same crowd will see Alcano play it will be in a real moneymatch with a lot of pressure. He will then stay 100 % focused, and is not entertaining the crowd. I can't see how any other player ever will replace Efren's popularity. Alex Pagulayan is a funny guy, and everyone likes him over here, but he's not playing people for fun, giving of himself the same way like Efren.
After Efren's matches with the crowd, he and Alcano started a race to 15 in rotation for 100 000 pesos. Didn't watch the match closely, but when we left the score was 11-9 to Alcano, after Efren being down 6-2 and 8-4 earlier in the match.
I asked Pena if he could teach me rotation back in Manila. He laughed, raised his hand ready to give me "high five" and then said: "We can play 9-ball, I give you 8 games start to 9" and then laughed a real good laughter. Just like most of the Filipinos he's joking, laughing and smiling all the time.
Jharome is another player here who just lives for pool. Everything he does is poolrelated, and at the bar yesterday he was watching every shot of the rotationmatch, even though he had no part of the action. He is just interested in watching good pool, he might learn something.
At the hotel now. It's a great hotel here in Cebu, called Crown Regency. Here there is swimming pool, massage, poker, internet, restaurants, disco, liveband, coffeeshop + more, in the same building. It's a pity it's raining so much these days, so I haven't got a chance to see much of Cebu...
Got a text from Thorsten last night, who is playing in Palawan. He is still in, even though he struggles with his game. Ralf is also still in, but on the loserside. About 3 000 spectators watched that tournament!!! Here, in Cebu, there were about 1 000 spectators, but that was simply because there is not available space for more people.
I just got a call saying that my name was mention in the newspapers over here. "Jharome Pena demolished Roy Steffensen bla bla bla"....
There's some pretty bad weather up north in the Philippines right now, I think they have cancelled lots of ferry's and flights, and evacuated about 200 000 people. Hope it will work out ok without too many problems for the people in the area...
Time to sleep for another hour, and since the weather is so bad we will probably head for the shopping mall and the tournament again.
Chris managed to turn around his match from 0-4 to 3-4 with 3 break and runs, and then lead 8-7 in the end. At 8-8 he simply missed the 5 ball after all the hard work was done. He still doesn't know why he missed, he was focused, ready, did his preshot-routine, so he just missed the 5-ball, and his opponent won 9-8 instead. Sad...
After my last report I ran into Jharome again in the venue, and I asked him how did the match against Efren go. "I played very good, didn't miss a ball. 9-1" he said when smiling. I replied of course with congratulations, and then he laughed and said: "no no, I lost 9-1. I didn't miss a ball, but what can I do when Efren had 7 Break and runs? It was too much". Looks like Efren is having a good time on the tv-table...
At night we went to the poker/pool-place again. Efren was of course in action with some foreigners, just fooling around winning more pesos. Efren played them race to 9 with no handicap, so it was more like donating. Or sponsoring, like one of the Germans in the crowd said. This is what is incredible with Efren. Alcano, Django and some more of the best players were there, but everyone just wants to play Efren, and he does not dissapoint anyone. He gives them bankshots, lots of spins, his grins, headscratching, laughing and all the other things with him that makes him so likeable. He cash tens of thousands of pesos a month by doing these small exhibitions, and his popularity just increases by doing this. Because he can practise and perform crazy shots for all the Filipino spectators, while the only time the same crowd will see Alcano play it will be in a real moneymatch with a lot of pressure. He will then stay 100 % focused, and is not entertaining the crowd. I can't see how any other player ever will replace Efren's popularity. Alex Pagulayan is a funny guy, and everyone likes him over here, but he's not playing people for fun, giving of himself the same way like Efren.
After Efren's matches with the crowd, he and Alcano started a race to 15 in rotation for 100 000 pesos. Didn't watch the match closely, but when we left the score was 11-9 to Alcano, after Efren being down 6-2 and 8-4 earlier in the match.
I asked Pena if he could teach me rotation back in Manila. He laughed, raised his hand ready to give me "high five" and then said: "We can play 9-ball, I give you 8 games start to 9" and then laughed a real good laughter. Just like most of the Filipinos he's joking, laughing and smiling all the time.
Jharome is another player here who just lives for pool. Everything he does is poolrelated, and at the bar yesterday he was watching every shot of the rotationmatch, even though he had no part of the action. He is just interested in watching good pool, he might learn something.
At the hotel now. It's a great hotel here in Cebu, called Crown Regency. Here there is swimming pool, massage, poker, internet, restaurants, disco, liveband, coffeeshop + more, in the same building. It's a pity it's raining so much these days, so I haven't got a chance to see much of Cebu...
Got a text from Thorsten last night, who is playing in Palawan. He is still in, even though he struggles with his game. Ralf is also still in, but on the loserside. About 3 000 spectators watched that tournament!!! Here, in Cebu, there were about 1 000 spectators, but that was simply because there is not available space for more people.
I just got a call saying that my name was mention in the newspapers over here. "Jharome Pena demolished Roy Steffensen bla bla bla"....
There's some pretty bad weather up north in the Philippines right now, I think they have cancelled lots of ferry's and flights, and evacuated about 200 000 people. Hope it will work out ok without too many problems for the people in the area...
Time to sleep for another hour, and since the weather is so bad we will probably head for the shopping mall and the tournament again.
Cheap transportation
If you want cheap transportation, this option is available. I have been on one of these, together with 6 other people, so we were 7 in total!!!
Another cheap option is to go with Jeepney. (search for Jeepney on google picture) It costs like 7 pesos for a ride, and a Jeepney is a small bus with room for 20-30 people. The recommendation is to not take Jeepney's in Manila if you are a foreigner, but I have had no problems with doing so the few times I tried it. Normally I just take taxi, the price will almost never be higher than a couple of hundreds of pesos.
If you want cheap transportation, this option is available. I have been on one of these, together with 6 other people, so we were 7 in total!!!
Another cheap option is to go with Jeepney. (search for Jeepney on google picture) It costs like 7 pesos for a ride, and a Jeepney is a small bus with room for 20-30 people. The recommendation is to not take Jeepney's in Manila if you are a foreigner, but I have had no problems with doing so the few times I tried it. Normally I just take taxi, the price will almost never be higher than a couple of hundreds of pesos.
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BlowFish said:
I have left it out on purpose becuase I am not sure if it was Bravio or not... It is a real nice place, got about 10 pokertables, 2 pooltables, restaurant, disco/liveband.
This picture is taken just outside One Side. Look at all the cables, it's powercables, phonelines etc, just a few meters over our heads, in every street.
Here in Cebu the power died 3 times during 1 hour. Pretty normal in the provinces, but does not happen so often in the big cities.
In the same street where the picture was taken the pipesystem got broken a few days ago, just outside the hotel, and the street was flooding with water. Rats everywhere, and the smell was really bad.
Here in Cebu the power died 3 times during 1 hour. Pretty normal in the provinces, but does not happen so often in the big cities.
In the same street where the picture was taken the pipesystem got broken a few days ago, just outside the hotel, and the street was flooding with water. Rats everywhere, and the smell was really bad.
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Williebetmore said:
Yeah, he is really lucky. Over and over again...
I just heard that there is a good chance that the World Pool Championship will be in Manila this year too, so that's not a bad time to go. I will not go myself this year, though. (If you want to play the Filipinos for cheap money, it's a bad time, because there are so many foreigners that the Filipinos will be in high action all the time)
phoebe choy said:
Roy Steffensen said:
I have already found one opponent
If we get the time Thorsten and me will try to play some 14-1, for bragging rights, when we are back in Manila. Any run under 75 by Thorsten does not count, race to 150.