Reyes pockets trophy in Galveston One Pocket

Efren "Bata" Reyes edged Shannon Daulton 3-2 in Galveston to pocket the trophy and the $15,000 cash in the One Pocket event of the inaugural $1,000,000 Galveston World Classic in Texas.

He also pocketed $5,000 in a challenge match against his old rival Earl "the Pearl" Strickland wherein after a slow start he once again claimed the scalp of the temperamental American 15-11.

Surely, the old magic is back for the Magician as he now won his third major event in the last month or so.

Here's the third and deciding match of the One Pocket event in Galveston between Reyes and Shannon Daulton that I was able to watch live via InsidePOOLmag's UStream.



video credits: InsidePOOLMag

The Shootout at the SM Annex Corral

The Magician Efren “Bata” Reyes dug deep into his bag of tricks and Francisco “Django” Bustamante did not blink in their nerve- wracking showdown with the pair of Ralph Souquet and Thorsten Hohmann as the Filipinos won over their German counterparts in a classic shootout at The Annex of SM North Edsa Mall in Quezon City, the Philippines to win the 2009 PartyCasino.net World Cup of Pool and the $60,000 prize.

I watched the finals on live stream and was on edge for the entire game as both teams battled for every shot. It was a nip and tuck affair with a lot of safety battles that would test one’s wit and patience. The Filipinos were down early and had to play catch up as they found themselves trailing 9-7 in the race to 11 championship match.

But Django and Bata rose to the occasion as they finally regained their bearings to the delight of the highly- partisan crowd and frustrated the Germans with their superb shot making and safeties to tie the match at 9-9 and never looked back on their way to the championship as the expected blitzkrieg from their fancied opponents never materialized.

Django was in his usual steady self as he sank one ‘hard’ shot after another when his turn at the table came up and when he’s in his element he’s virtually untouchable. On the other hand, Reyes’ skill at making nearly impossible shots possible was a joy to watch. He was the same old jolly magician all over again. I am glad that slowly but surely Bata is getting back into the groove.

It was only fitting that Reyes took the last 9 ball out for the championship win to announce his return in the winning circle on the world stage. He was out of luck the last couple of years in various tournaments that he participated in and was mostly under the radar because of varying reasons. But 2009 proves to be a fruitful year for him as he earlier won The Manny Villar Cup Kadayawan Leg in Davao two weeks ago.

The win for the dynamic duo earned them another record into billiards’ history book as the only two- time champion of the elite tournament having won the inaugurals in 2006.



video credits: rvsicuan21/ CS9
photo credits: Joey Mendoza/ Philstar

Portrait of Artest as a Filipino

Ron Artest, the NBA Bad Boy more famous for his rap sheet (the infamous Palace brawl with the Pistons, remember?) than his rapping ability and now suiting up for the LA Lakers this season recently visited a Filipino family and guess what happened?

Not only did he liked the food and that old Filipino hospitality but also experienced the Filipino people's favorite past time- Karaoke.

And He did his time on the microphone with gusto, with a titanic effort of Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On.

Here's what he said of his experience from his old Twitter account, 96TruwarrierQB-

"the dinner with angelica and annmelissa and her family was good. the filipino food was unreal.:) tomorrow i will be choosing another fan!!"11:55 PM Aug 28th from web

"Go to thugraider37 to see Ron Artest singing Celine Dion but rapping it wit his Filipino family:)" 10:34 PM Aug 31st from web

And here's his tweet at his new Twitter account ThugRaider37-

"Should I let yall see me singing karaoke wit my Filipino family?"3:53 PM Aug 31st from TwitterFon




video credits: annamelissa