Bata, Amit Clinch 1st World Mixed Doubles Classic

EFREN “Bata” Reyes and Rubilen “Bingkay” Amit of Philippines "A" bagged the 1st World Mixed Doubles Classic title after edging out Korea in an exciting final match late Thursday at the Nuvo City Lifestyle Center in Libis, Quezon City.

Reyes and Amit, the two world champions from Puyat Sports of Aristeo “Putch” Puyat, posted a 9-7 win in their race-to- nine match against Koreans Charlie Williams and Eun Ji Park. They took home the top prize of $6,000 in the event presented by Nuvo Land Philippines, Inc. and Dragon Promotions and supported by Puyat Sports, ABS-CBN Sports, ESPN-Star Sports and the Philippine Star.

The Koreans, on the other hand settled for the second place prize of $3,000.

" We would like to thank the organizer (Dragon Promotions) and the sponsors for staging this event," said Reyes, who became the First Filipino World 9-Ball Champion in 1999 in Cardiff, Wales.

The Philippine B Team of Lee Van Corteza and Shanelle Loraine defeated the pair of Mika Immonen and Borana Andoni of Team Europe, 7-3, in the battle for third place and received the $2,000 prize.

“At least we finish third,” said Corteza, who lost to Immonen in the finals of World Ten Ball Championships.

Earlier, Team Japan of Hayato Hijikata and Kaori Ebe defeated Team USA of Shane Van Boening and Amy Chen, 5-3, to finish fifth in the six teams competitions.

By Marlon Bernardino - 2009-12-03

Amit Women's World 10-Ball Champion

Give me a break
By Frank Lacambra

The title won recently by Rubelyn Amit of the Philippines in the JBET poker.net Women’s World 10-Ball Championship was a thrilling and a most satisfying news, coming as it did in a year marked by trouble and dissension on the Philippine billiards front.

For Ms. Amit the victory came as some kinds of redemption after a sorry lose in the 2007 Amway Women’s World Championship. She was so close and yet so far away. That was a real heartbreaker for someone so young who had to carry on her shoulders the hopes and expectations of the whole nation.

In the 2007 event, if you remember, Amit started out hot in the early going, But somewhere in the middle of the game, her game suddenly sputtered. She missed too many easy shots that ultimately did her in.

This time around, Rubelyn came to fight. She was more focused. She was relaxed. And learning from her disastrous experience two years earlier, she not only practiced a lot but also prepared herself mentally. In the end her poise and skills—and knowing that the hometown crowd was behind her—made all the difference in her world-class performance.

What made her win all the more memorable and priced was the fact that she topped a star-studded field graced by reigning champion Lien Shin Mei of Chinese Taipei, World No. 1 Kelly Fisher of England, and European 9-ball, 8-ball and straight pool champion Jasmine Ouschan of Austria.

Rubelyn, indeed, deserved to win a tough, high-caliber championship. Something we cannot say of the recent major Philippine men’s tournament (without taking anything away from the eventual champion Ricky Yang who played masterfully) held just a week before the women’s world 10-ball event.

As billiards aficionados ruefully observed, the Philippine Open 10-Ball Championship attracted some of the biggest names in men’s pool (Souquet, Hohmann, van Boening, Deuel, Petroni, Appleton plus strong contingents from Chinese Taipei, Japan, Indonesia and Malaysia) but what an embarrassment that the Philippines could not field its cream of the crop.

Internationally known players came all the way from all over looking forward to battling the cream of the crop of Philippine billiards, but they ended up playing against second- tier players, except for a few formidable players like Manalo, Gabica and de Luna.

How can we have a major billiards event without the likes of Bata Reyes, Django, Alcano, Pagulayan and Luat, just to mention a few? Unthinkable! But unfortunately, that’s what happened. And unless the people running the country’s billiards affairs wake up to this sorry situation, we see trouble ahead.

Perhaps it’s about time the POC—if not President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo herself—took a direct hand and look into what’s bugging our billiards community. The squabbling among our billiards leaders and top players, as we have said in an earlier piece, is not doing the country any good.

The whole world looks at the Philippines as the “new epicenter of international billiards” and we had better take this matter seriously.

This image is a tremendous asset that we should build on and not destroy just because of the narrow selfish interests and greedy motives of a few. The image is good for business, tourism especially. And it’s good for the game, too. Because of it the Philippines has become a powerful magnet, attracting the best and the finest billiards players to our shores.

But if we don’t fix the problem soon, we will fritter away our edge as a billiards mecca in no time.

Philippine Billiards: Commentary

Give Me A Break
By Frank Lacambra

The Philippine Open 10-Ball Championship came and went with Filipino pool fans wondering: What’s happening to Philippine billiards?

The question dogged the event even long before it got off the ground. Announcements of the tournament mentioned just about all the important details, except the names of the Filipinos who were participating. Big names add star power to an event and it’s good for the gate. But this time the superstars didn’t show up.

Rather unusual, considering that in times past a tournament like this would have seen a virtual parade of the biggest names in Philippine billiards. After all, the 10-ball is supposed to be a Filipino “invention”, or at least the Filipino variation on the game.

It’s supposed to be a game where Filipino players excel in, given their penchant for complications. And the event was something that shouldn’t be missed. But how come the biggies of the game were auspiciously absent?

Judging from the roster of participants, the Open looked more like a world tournament than a local thing, what with a formidable cast of famous and familiar faces that came from all over to play in the Philippines.

We saw and met, informally, on the sidelines, such pool stars as former 9-ball world champion Thorsten Hohmann of Germany, Corey Deuel and Shane van Boening of the US, Fabio Petroni of Italy and Ricky Yang of Indonesia. We also spotted World No.1 Ralf Souquet (Ger,), Darren Appleton, the reigning 10-ball world champion, women’s world No.1 Jasmin Ouschan, Marcus Chamat of Sweden, Radoslav Babica of Poland, several players from Taiwan, Japan, Malaysia and Indonesia. Well-known women pool players like Kelly Fisher and Melissa Little also showed up to try their luck with the men.

Those folks came all the way to the Philippines, perhaps looking forward to tangling with Filipino big guns. But they never got to see the stars.

What they encountered instead were the would-be stars. Ok, Marlon Manalo, Tony Gabica and Jeffrey de Luna were there, as well as a few guys on the way up. But let’s face it, these new blood are not yet in the league of the Magician, Django, Alex the Lion, or the Alcano the Volcano.

It was Petroni, watching from the sidelines beside me, who asked the question that I’m sure was on every billiards fan’s mind: “How come Efren and the others are not playing?”

The fact that a foreign player noticed something amiss about the tournament should give our billiards leaders food for thought. Again we ask: What gives?

Is Philippine billiards racked with so much disagreements and bad blood that our pool leaders and players cannot even declare a truce for the sake of the game and for the sake of upholding the reputation of the country as the “new epicenter of world billiards?”

This is a sad and unhealthy situation. Because of the squabbling within our billiards establishment, our image as a united, pool-savvy country could take a beating. And it could set back the country’s efforts in drumming up tourism, among other things.

The problem of Philippine billiards recalls an event that happened to chess a few decades back. Almost 40 years ago, the American chess genius Bobby Fischer almost abandoned his world chess championship match with Boris Spassky of the then USSR. Fischer was throwing tantrums in the run-up to the match and making “impossible” demands on organizers.

The US government saw red flags in Fischer’s conduct. In no time, Henry Kissinger, the US Secretary of State, was talking to Fischer. In so many words, Mr. Kissinger told Bobby to “cool it and just take care of business.” Fortunately for the sporting world-at-large, Bobby got the message and simmered down. He agreed to play. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Maybe the Philippine government should step in and get our warring billiards leaders to stop fighting and start playing—for flag and country. But I’m not sure if the chairman of the Philippine Olympic Committee is the right person for the job. He’s got problems himself. But that’s another story.

The thing is, more and more, foreign players are noticing the cracks in our billiards establishment. This is not doing us any good. And certainly, it’s not good for the game.

Note: Readers’ comments are welcome.