When did Efren FIRST come to the USA?

[merylane]

I have heard that too about Efren donating that $10k back to Buddy. The other thing to take into consideration is that it is only one match. Buddy might have been playing lights out at that point and Efren may have been off. All that I was saying is that nobody could stay with Efren back then, and I believe it is still the same now!

is that why buddy continued to beat him the next 16 times in a row?

 

[Grady]

OK, I have nothing else to say on this subject. It's worse than the people who believed that Mosconi played better 9 Ball than Wimpy. I will close by stating that it's awfully chickenshit, in my opinion to take away from Buddy's stellar playing back then by suggesting that that match was "business".
I cannot talk pool history with people who don't recognize fact.

 

[cuetechasaurus]

People forget that I won the One Pocket at Red's in 85', 83' too for that matter. Most memorable to me was Buddy beating Efren 10 ahead for $10,000 in about an hour. You can't say that Efren robbed everybody. At that time I would play anyone in the world One Pocket but there were no takers around Red's.

Recently alot of people have been mentioning the fact that Efren had been up for days after beating champion after champion, when they threw a well rested and in dead-punch Buddy on him. I wonder why you left that small fact out?

 

[cuetechasaurus]

OK, I have nothing else to say on this subject. It's worse than the people who believed that Mosconi played better 9 Ball than Wimpy. I will close by stating that it's awfully chickenshit, in my opinion to take away from Buddy's stellar playing back then by suggesting that that match was "business".
I cannot talk pool history with people who don't recognize fact.

Incardona and DiLiberto seem to agree on alot more facts than you. We all know you don't like Efren and never have.

 

[BillPorter]

Grady back in those old, old days!

OK, I have nothing else to say on this subject. It's worse than the people who believed that Mosconi played better 9 Ball than Wimpy. I will close by stating that it's awfully chickenshit, in my opinion to take away from Buddy's stellar playing back then by suggesting that that match was "business".
I cannot talk pool history with people who don't recognize fact.

Grady,

Maybe this image will bring back a few memories and cheer you up. Hope so!

 

[sniper]

Recently alot of people have been mentioning the fact that Efren had been up for days after beating champion after champion, when they threw a well rested and in dead-punch Buddy on him. I wonder why you left that small fact out?

I've heard the same thing from several credible sources, to this day Efren continues to gamble into the wee hours of the morning during a tournament, I hope I can do that when I'm in my fifties!

 

[JoeyInCali]

Didn't Efren fire his backer after Red's b/c he was cheated with a lot of money?
Then the ex-backer reported Efren/Cesar Morales to the immigration.
Efren was never seen again until '89?
Btw, I wonder how many players back then were on speedball.

 

[BillPorter]

Efren was around the next year (1986)

Didn't Efren fire his backer after Red's b/c he was cheated with a lot of money?
Then the ex-backer reported Efren/Cesar Morales to the immigration.
Efren was never seen again until '89?
Btw, I wonder how many players back then were on speedball.

Efren appears in my pics of the 1986 Clyde Childress Memorial Tournament: http://billporter.smugmug.com/gallery/1388452/2/65649061

 

[JoeyInCali]

Efren appears in my pics of the 1986 Clyde Childress Memorial Tournament: http://billporter.smugmug.com/gallery/1388452/2/65649061

WOW! Thnx.
Jeesh, Murrey tables.

 

[jay helfert]

People forget that I won the One Pocket at Red's in 85', 83' too for that matter. Most memorable to me was Buddy beating Efren 10 ahead for $10,000 in about an hour. You can't say that Efren robbed everybody. At that time I would play anyone in the world One Pocket but there were no takers around Red's.

No offense Grady, but Ronnie won the One Pocket at Red's in 1985. I was his backer and he beat Jeff Carter in the finals. You may have won it in 1986. I didn't go back the next year.

 

[jay helfert]

Don't mean to stir the pot, but this is where it was originally posted...

http://forums.azbilliards.com/showpost.php?p=350138&postcount=10

I like the "sweat off their n*ts" quote BTW.

Once again, I saw Efren (Caesar) play all week, night and day. He did NOT play well against Buddy! Maybe he was just worn out or disgusted with his cut on the money. Something affected him and caused him to start missing balls that he hadn't missed all week.

Yes, Buddy won quickly against Efren who looked like a shadow of the man who had been playing everyone all week. I have a clear memory of this match, because it was such a contrast to the way Efren had been playing all week.

 

[jay helfert]

Fred, in the book, "Billiards" by John Grissim, Grissim mentions playing Efren in the Phillipines on a trip he had taken "a few years back." Since the book has a 1979 copyright date, you have to assume that he played Efren no later than 1975 or 1976. At that time, Grissim was told that Efren was the second ranked player in the Phillipines. Maybe Parica was number 1? Anyway, Grissim certainly knew his way around the world of pool and surely passed along this information about super players in Manila to people in this country. It seems plausible that sometime between 1978 and 1984 Efren was brought over here to play a match or two. But maybe not. I just threw the question out to see what might surface.

I remember talking with John Grissim in Lake Tahoe at Richie's tournament at Caesars Tahoe in 1982. He reiterated what he said in his book. He said there were players in the Philipines that could give ANY American player the Eight ball. I just laughed quietly behind his back, thinking this guy is nuts. C'mon, Sigel, Hall, Mizerak. Surely he wasn't serious.

Like everyone else, I assumed the American pool players were the best on the planet. Little did I know. John, wherever you are, you were right!

 

[ironman]

People forget that I won the One Pocket at Red's in 85', 83' too for that matter. Most memorable to me was Buddy beating Efren 10 ahead for $10,000 in about an hour. You can't say that Efren robbed everybody. At that time I would play anyone in the world One Pocket but there were no takers around Red's.

I was at Reds at this time and yes, Buddy handed him his butt. If I remember correctly, Buddy had been up for 2 days.
Grady was also trying to play anybody in the world at that time too.
I was one of the ones who got escorted to the lovely Pasadena City Hotel and a $105.00 tab for gambling. I was $120 ahead in the ring game.

 

[ironman]

Honestly, the things some people believe and say! Efren throw the match to Buddy? C'mon, for 7 or 8 years after Buddy beat him some close friends of Buddy's and mine offered to let Buddy play Efren for $100,000. I was there and privy to the attempted matching up. Then, for another two or three years they didn't play because Buddy wanted to play roll-out.
IMHO, in Buddy's salad days, he played as close to as perfect 9 Ball as it was possible for a human being to play. He was no sweetheart to play against either. In other words, an opponent could play perfect or near perfect and not win. Others tried playing him for money and all failed except maybe me and I only would win about 20 per cent of the time.
Buddy is another one who just wouldn't stand still for a beating either.

I was in Guys-n-DOlls in Shreveport when Buddy beat Louie so badly. Loouie didn't leave Sport for about 3 months.
This was years ago about 72-73 and there was a spot involved and I believe it was the call 7. Buddy played like a robot to the point that it was almost boring.

 

[Grady]

Ronnie won it in 84', Jay.

 

[Grady]

Ironman, Do you remember that I played Buddy to a draw after 6 grueling nights there in Shreveport? That match has always had a special place in my memory.

 

[JG-in-KY]

WOW! Thnx.
Jeesh, Murrey tables.

Actually they were Brunswick Centurions, joey

 

[rackmsuckr]

I asked my friend, whom we affectionately call The Mayor (because he is running for Mayor over there) the timeline and if Efren was over here earlier than 1985. He is pretty sure he was, but said he would ask. All he remembers is that Efren went to jail back then because his backer reported him to Immigration.

He also states that Efren would never dump to anyone. The only player from the Philipines with that reputation he says, is Parica. The other players value their managers and they know if they got that reputation, then they would lose their managers. He said they all play from the heart and always try to win.

Those days of even needing a manager may be in the past for Parica. He gave his wife $95,000 to save and she invested it in real estate (not sure whether in CA or the Philipines) and made $20-30 million from it. She gave him a Mercedes and a lot of cash to gamble with (casinos and pool) and he went through it too fast, so she took the Mercedes away and put him on an allowance. (Luat told me once that whatever they win, their wives get the bulk to manage the household. I like that idea!) Parica told Mike that he is probably the richest pool player in the world.

My friend attended Efren's son's wedding in March. A derivative of Efren's name, his son is called Frennie. Efren also has 2 daughters. Frennie plays just below Efren's speed, because he has always had money and never needed it to live on his earnings. Instead, he was always fat from Efren's winnings, lol.

 

[Andrew Manning]

Frennie plays just below Efren's speed...

What does "just below Efren's speed" mean? If I said "just below Efren's speed" I'd be talking about Archer, Varner, Hohmann, Pagulayan; players of that calibre. Is he that good?

-Andrew

 

[jsp]

I asked my friend, whom we affectionately call The Mayor (because he is running for Mayor over there) the timeline and if Efren was over here earlier than 1985. He is pretty sure he was, but said he would ask. All he remembers is that Efren went to jail back then because his backer reported him to Immigration.

He also states that Efren would never dump to anyone. The only player from the Philipines with that reputation he says, is Parica. The other players value their managers and they know if they got that reputation, then they would lose their managers. He said they all play from the heart and always try to win.

Those days of even needing a manager may be in the past for Parica. He gave his wife $95,000 to save and she invested it in real estate (not sure whether in CA or the Philipines) and made $20-30 million from it. She gave him a Mercedes and a lot of cash to gamble with (casinos and pool) and he went through it too fast, so she took the Mercedes away and put him on an allowance. (Luat told me once that whatever they win, their wives get the bulk to manage the household. I like that idea!) Parica told Mike that he is probably the richest pool player in the world.

My friend attended Efren's son's wedding in March. A derivative of Efren's name, his son is called Frennie. Efren also has 2 daughters. Frennie plays just below Efren's speed, because he has always had money and never needed it to live on his earnings. Instead, he was always fat from Efren's winnings, lol.

Great stuff Linda.

I don't know too much about Frennie, so I decided to do a google search on him and it came up with this old AZ article. Enjoy...

http://www.azbilliards.com/2000storya.cfm?storynum=1636