The Reyes Cup and the Philippines Open were welcome additions to the Pinoy Pool calendar. But they could use some tweaks.
Matchroom Pool came to town recently and threw two pool parties. The second Reyes Cup, pitting an Asia team against the Rest of the World, was a blowout, with the Asians romping to an 11-3 rout in a team event held in Ninoy Aquino Stadium. In the Philippines Open staged in Gateway Mall, Spaniard veteran David Alcaide bested a huge field, prevailing in a lopsided 13-3 final against Finland’s Arseni Sevastyanov.
Here are my thoughts on each event and how they could be improved.
Reyes Cup: A yearly shuffle
I was able to catch the last two nights of the Reyes Cup. The organizers made a great call in slashing the price of the cheapest ticket from P1200 to P600. That meant the crowd swelled to several hundred and created a fantastic atmosphere in the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
The final score of the team event was a bit of a laugher, with the Asians, namely Carlo Biado, Johann Chua, Aloysius Yapp, AJ Manas, and Duong Quoc Hoang, overwhelming the players from the rest of the world. There is not much Matchroom Pool can do about this, except try and get Joshua Filler, the amazing German former world champ, into the side. The relationship between Filler and Matchroom, the biggest pool promoter in the world, has certainly had its ups and downs of late.
The Reyes Cup changed its format in its second iteration. Instead of pitting Asia against Europe, like they did last year, they instead widened the net for the opposing team to the rest of the world. Obviously, Matchroom has seen the success of the long-running Mosconi Cup event that pits Europe against America and wants to replicate some of that magic in Asia. They were thus willing to make a change early to amp up the drama.
I say, why not go all the way and make a change every single year, then?
Make the Reyes Cup a kind of fun exhibition of pool for the Asian market that involves some kind of Asian representation, but throws up different flavors of teams every year? Last year, it was Asia vs Europe. This year, Asia vs the Rest of the World.
Next year? It could be anything. Asia versus the USA. Asia versus the rest of the world, with men and women. Philippines versus Taiwan. Philippines versus Vietnam. (Imagine Duong captaining his underdog squad against the Filipinos.) ASEAN versus the rest of the World. Asia’s best lady players against the legends of Asian pool, like Django Bustamante and Efren Reyes himself. The possibilities are endless. If one format works, have them do it two years in a row, then try something else after.
We don’t have to go far to see a precedent for this. The PBA All-Star Game has taken numerous forms through the years. In some years, it’s young players against veterans. Then they have done North vs South. The national team has also played against the league’s best. They have also just gone with teams selected by captains who get the most votes.
The Reyes Cup can steal this idea, and it might just make the event even more fun.
The Philippines Open: Bigger pockets, bigger fun
It was one of the great tragedies of my sports media career that the International Series Philippines golf tournament was held on the very same days as the Philippines Open, with the exception of the first two days of the pool tournament. I was only able to attend the billiards on Wednesday at Gateway Mall in Cubao.
It was fantastic to see professional pool back in a mall. Over the years, we have seen countless big international billiard events take place in Galleria, SM North EDSA, and Robinson’s Manila, among other places. It is a brilliant way to expose the sport to a bigger audience, thus growing the game.
But the pool I saw in Gateway didn’t impress me. I was there for several hours, watching many different matches. I swear I never saw a run of more than five balls. What I did see were plenty of balls rattling out of the pockets and staying up.
There is even a video compilation of some of the big misses in the tournament. Fedor Gorst bludgeoned an easy cut on the nine. Django missed an easy eight ball trying to cheat the pocket and hold for position on the nine. And Jayson Shaw saw the pocket spit out an easy nine-ball on hill-hill. I reviewed that last one; the shot was straight and along the rail. He seemed to get the object ball to brush the rail just before the jaw, and that was enough to miss.
One seasoned professional told me that the pockets were akin to what Matchroom uses for all its events, but with the humidity of the Philippines, they played extra tight.
There are three factors that go into how forgiving the pockets on a pool table are. The first is the width of the jaws; the distance from point to point. If two balls fit cleanly in the throat, then that is a very large pocket indeed. Most tournament pockets will not accommodate two balls. The second is the angle of the jaws formed by the rails in the pocket. Are they parallel, or “open,” making the opening narrower in the back of the throat? I think jaws that are more parallel are more forgiving. They guide the balls into the back of the pocket, as opposed to non-parallel jaws that cause the balls to hit the other jaw and not drop. The third is the shelf of the slate in the pocket. Is the shelf deep into the pocket, or does it fall off shallow, or close to the edge of the mouth? A shallow shelf is way more forgiving. Any ball that crosses passes the jaws is likely to find gravity.
The tables in the Philippines Open had tight pockets and deep shelves. The jaws were also “open.” A triple whammy. No wonder the play was attritional and not flowing at all, from what I saw.
Yes, in theory, tight pockets favor better players who are more precise. And Alcaide is a worthy champion. But in my opinion, nine-ball has never been primarily about potting accuracy. If that is what you are into, games like snooker, heyball (Chinese 8 ball), or the esoteric Russian variant called pyramid, are more to your liking. Nine-ball’s generous pockets encourage creative, bold offensive shots. Banks, caroms, combinations, kicks, kisses, and the like. It is what makes the sport so interesting and spectator-friendly to me. Excessively tight pockets don’t help.
So for sure, tight pockets are fine for the best players in the world. But in my opinion, these were too tight, stifling the joy of the game for everybody. These athletes are heroes, and in my opinion, we should want them to look good most of the time. They will make mistakes even with the friendliest of equipment.
Filipino players made up a large chunk of the field, but they were all gone by the semis. To me, the Filipino style of pool is characterized by audacious, creative play often requiring copious amounts of side spin, which, in my opinion, is better suited to bigger pockets.
I could not get close enough to the table on the Reyes Cup to inspect the pockets, but there seemed to be more run-outs in that event than what I saw in the Philippines Open. Looks like that table was set up to be more forgiving.
Having a national open in pocket billiards is a great thing. It is awesome that Matchroom Pool has brought the Philippines Open to the World Nineball Tour, and I hope it remains for years on end. Just widen those pockets a tad to make it an even more appealing spectacle.
Banner image from Matchroom Pool on Facebook.