The Young Efren

[victhestick]

Is there anybody out there who knew Efren before he came to the states? I first saw him play in 1976. He had taken up 3-cushion about a year earkier and had a high run of 14. We used to go to the base sometimes to play, (Harold, Jim). I used to go aroud with Mario Parras. Does anybody know how to get in touch with Mario? Hung out at the Trophy Room (upstairs). Would like to hear any stories that you might have.

 

[Terry Ardeno]

Is there anybody out there who knew Efren before he came to the states? I first saw him play in 1976. He had taken up 3-cushion about a year earkier and had a high run of 14. We used to go to the base sometimes to play, (Harold, Jim). I used to go aroud with Mario Parras. Does anybody know how to get in touch with Mario? Hung out at the Trophy Room (upstairs). Would like to hear any stories that you might have.

Efren was born on Aug 26, 1954. He came to America for the first time in January 1985 at the "Red's 9 Ball Open" in Houston, Texas. He was sponsored on the 1st trip by a Manila businessman named Nonie Ortega, who ran a travel agency.

How Efren's trip came about was that Jose Parica (the leader of the invasion, as Scott Smith is fond of calling him) had came to the USA in 1984 and won lots of money gambling on pool in Lake Tahoe. When Amang returned home, he was the #1 ranked Filipino player at that time, with Bata being #2. Word was exchanged about how much $ was available in the good ol' USA, and so Efren went to that tournament in Houston, Texas.
The rest, as they say, is now history.

Something else that may be of some interest. Reyes started his pool career at age 8 with Rotation. In the December 1985 issue of Billiards Digest, on page 22, Efren is quoted as saying "Rotation is the main game. They never played 9 ball or one pocket in the Philippines." By 1977, Reyes switched exclusively to 3 cushion billiards. The reason was simple. By that time, he could only get money games if he played 3 cushion. Nobody wanted to gamble with him at Rotation. In 1981, he switched back to pocket billiards (read rotation) and supposedly, there was no loss of his speed.
By the time Efren came to America, him and Parica had already pretty much taken the torch from the first generation of Filipino pool greats, such as Boy Bicol, Ramon Brobio, Boy Baguio and Jun (or Juan, I've seen it spelled both ways) Quiapo.
When Efren and Parica returned home, they brought back to the Philippines a new game called 9 ball, which really wasn't played much, if at all, prior to Bata & Amang's "pilgrimage" to America. That, in turned, spawned another generation that included Leonardo Andam (one of my all time favorite players), Rudolfo Luat and Fransisco Bustamonte.

 

[JoeyInCali]

Is there anybody out there who knew Efren before he came to the states? I first saw him play in 1976. He had taken up 3-cushion about a year earkier and had a high run of 14. We used to go to the base sometimes to play, (Harold, Jim). I used to go aroud with Mario Parras. Does anybody know how to get in touch with Mario? Hung out at the Trophy Room (upstairs). Would like to hear any stories that you might have.

Two childhood friends of him are here. Lori de Leon and Alex Laoingco.
Also former backers Dick and Mang Jose .
You can PM Bandido here as he was around there during Efren, Boy Bicol, Boy Quiapo, Amang, Totoy Dacer and co.'s days.
Were you at the Lucky 13 when Ben Tumbling had a shootout there?

 

[frankncali]

I am friends with some of Efrens best friends. Maybe I can ask one of them something for you. I know two of them have known Efren since he was very little.

Let me know if you want me to ask anything specific.

BTW-- when they talk about him playing in the 70s they talk like he never missed. Its consistent every time. Even Efren said that the old Efren could give the current Efren the 7 easily.

 

[JoeyInCali]

I am friends with some of Efrens best friends. Maybe I can ask one of them something for you. I know two of them have known Efren since he was very little.

Let me know if you want me to ask anything specific.

BTW-- when they talk about him playing in the 70s they talk like he never missed. Its consistent every time. Even Efren said that the old Efren could give the current Efren the 7 easily.

That's what I heard too.
Dick said, if Efren could see the 1-ball, he was out.
IN ROTATION.
Efren said he thought in 1979, he would play anyone in the world.
Problem was he could not get a US visa.
Hence he used Caesar Morales's passport.

 

[victhestick]

I only went there a few times. I still remember the small cue balls (worn down by years of cleaning I guess). The first time I played Efren he blasted me of course. Some guys were playing chess and I wanted to get my self respect back so I challenged him. Bad mistake.

 

[JoeyInCali]

I only went there a few times. I still remember the small cue balls (worn down by years of cleaning I guess). The first time I played Efren he blasted me of course. Some guys were playing chess and I wanted to get my self respect back so I challenged him. Bad mistake.

Don't say you played him some dama too.

 

[victhestick]

One of the reasons he never missed was because he played such perfect position. I never saw him bank a ball. Always played safe. I saw him play numerous times and only remember him missing two shots. Unbelievable, unless you realize the average player could make the shots he took almost every time.

 

[PoolBum]

Efren was born on Aug 26, 1954. He came to America for the first time in January 1985 at the "Red's 9 Ball Open" in Houston, Texas.

How Efren's trip came about was that Jose Parica (the leader of the invasion, as Scott Smith is fond of calling him) had came to the USA in 1984 and won lots of money gambling on pool in Lake Tahoe.

Does anyone know why Efren decided to immediately play in a big tournament when he first came over? I would have thought that he could make more money as an unknown just matching up, considering that he could match up with just about anybody. But once he won that tournament and was on the cover of Accu-Stats he would never again be the unknown "Caesar Morales".

 

[Scott Lee]

The U.S. players who would bet the highest were already at the pool tournament. Efren went to gamble (and DID!), but also ended up winning the tournament too.

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com

Does anyone know why Efren decided to immediately play in a big tournament when he first came over? I would have thought that he could make more money as an unknown just matching up, considering that he could match up with just about anybody. But once he won that tournament and was on the cover of Accu-Stats he would never again be the unknown "Caesar Morales".

 

[asn130]

I only went there a few times. I still remember the small cue balls (worn down by years of cleaning I guess). The first time I played Efren he blasted me of course. Some guys were playing chess and I wanted to get my self respect back so I challenged him. Bad mistake.

Everyone Knows that Efren plays chess, does anyone know how good he is?

 

[powerlineman80]

I remember seeing him on my best friends Primestar Satellite when I was about 12 (around 92 or so). I immediately fell in love with pool (I was already hooked) and found a new favorite player when I watched him and how he shot. It was the first pool match I ever watched on t.v. If it wasnt for that I wouldnt be as hooked to Efren as I am today.

 

[sharpshooter]

Do any photos exist of Efren pre-1984 playing pool? Even rarer, any video of Efren ever taken from the 70's??

 

[Big Dave]

Do any photos exist of Efren pre-1984 playing pool? Even rarer, any video of Efren ever taken from the 70's??

Request seconded... Rep waiting for the earliest video!

 

[gopi-1]

Does anyone know why Efren decided to immediately play in a big tournament when he first came over? I would have thought that he could make more money as an unknown just matching up, considering that he could match up with just about anybody. But once he won that tournament and was on the cover of Accu-Stats he would never again be the unknown "Caesar Morales".

That was the plan, to hustle from room to room/town to town/city to city/state to state and play all comers, including shortstops, class As and top tier pros. But his backers got greedy when their next stop happens to be Texas, and it coincides with Houston Red's Open 9-ball Championship back in '85. His backers entered him and placed huge bets on him to win it all, including his cut from all of his hustling tour. He had no choice but try to win it all, which he did and stayed there long enough to wipe out all the other placers' winnings in the back room. His backers made a killing by giving 4 games on the wire, race-to-11 to ANYBODY for 2 to 1 odds or close to that.The best score against Efren from the said tournament was 4 games against Efren's 11.

I knew Efren since 1972, when I used to skip my high school classes just to see him play. His boyhood chum cum manager/translator/traveling companion here in the US, Rolando Vicente is a dear friend. He told me a story about a certain John Grissim, a reporter who dabbles as a sportswriter, who saw Efren play/practice first hand back in the early months of 1972. For all the Filipinos, this period was known as the "First Quarter Storm" as there was civil unrest all throughout the archipelago that led the then President Marcos to put the country under Martial Law (Proclamation Act 1081, 09/21/1972).

There was a huge rally on the streets of Sta. Cruz, Manila, where we can find the famous Lucky 13 Billiard Hall were Efren grew his horns playing pool. Grissim was driven through this old dilapidated 4 (or 5?) story building as he sought refuge from the anti-riot baton wielding police and firemen who were shooting away with their water hoses towards the unruly crowd.

Grissim went up 2 flights of stairs and ended up ordering coffee from this canteen inside the pool hall. He was watching all of the action from the streets from the safety confines of the building's windows when he heard a thundering break from somewhere. It was Efren playing the ghost (played the CB where it lies after the break) the game of Rotation. Grissim decided to watch this reed thin guy as the chasing was driven elsewhere (Plaza Miranda), and out of his view. The guy ran out rack after rack, after rack without missing a ball. He was amazed at what he saw and he knew he was seeing something special. He's been around the best pool playing Americans (Hall, CJ Wiley, Lassiter, Crane, Fats and Mosconi) and he never saw anything close to what this guy did. He got the guy's name and bade him good luck.

Grissim went back to the US and told everybody about this kid from the Philippines. Nobody took him seriously until Jose "Amang" Parica showed up on US shores in the late 70s and started winning against the best of them.

The Americans asked Grissim if this was the guy he was talking about, because he was really that good. Grissim said, "Nope... The kid was taller and plays much better!".

to be continued...

 

[charlieb]

I didn't realize that Boy Bicol was before Efren. I heard a pretty scary story about his demise.

 

[gopi-1]

I didn't realize that Boy Bicol was before Efren. I heard a pretty scary story about his demise.

A far worse fate happened to very promising young player named Eric Lagui (mid to late 70s), who dumped and was found the next day in a dumpster.

Here's some pics from the book of John Grissim himself, with the young Efren ( white T and jeans):

 

[DeadPoked]

Back when I was stationed in the Air Force in Mountain Home, ID, I used to frequent a sports bar/poolhall that was owned by a Japanese guy who loved pool. He would tell me stories about Air Force guys that would come in and there would be pool on TV by chance, and guys would look up and say "Hey, that guy hustled me at pool when I was stationed at Clark Air Base" which was a permanent base in the Phillipines for many years that is now closed. Who was that guy? Cesar Morales of course.

A lot of people may not know but if it wasn't for the Air Force having a base in the Phillipines we may not have ever had a filipino invasion. Pool was brought to the Phillipines by GI's and the filipinos started playing pool to hustle as much money as possible off of them.

 

[sharpshooter]

Cool photos!! Maybe the earliest Efren photo in a poolroom? I can see why early filipinos would pick their legs up when leaning over the table as spectators are nearly on top of them while shooting LOL! Can't imagine many other photos would exist of Efren during this time or do they!

BTW, why are they writing on the felt? No chalkboards??

 

[jay helfert]

A far worse fate happened to very promising young player named Eric Lagui (mid to late 70s), who dumped and was found the next day in a dumpster.

Here's some pics from the book of John Grissim himself, with the young Efren ( white T and jeans):

Andam is in the middle of the first photo. Short sleeved white shirt and dark pants.