In the Philippines, we call this indoor sport simply a billiard game. Pinoy pool players have been dominating pool billiards worldwide for more than two decades now. In fact, the best top ten in the world are Filipinos, led by none other than the living legend in pool: Efren Reyes, Francisco Bustamante, Dennis Orcollo, Ronnie Alcano, Alex Pagulayan, Marlon Manalo, Lee Van Corteza, Warren Kiamco, Antonio Lining, and Roberto Gomez.
Some good players went abroad, and most of them migrated to the U.S. The first player to migrate to the U.S. was Jose “Amang” Parica, which is why they always call him the “Leader of the Invasion”. Santos Sambajon followed him in 1998. Both are now based in the U.S. Amang Parica lives in West Covina, California, while Santos moved to Chicago from New York last year. Yours truly is also a pool player, but not as good as them. I started playing pool when I was seven in Kiamba, South Cotabato, now Sarangani Province, a small town just a few miles southwest of General Santos City in the island of Mindanao.
The first player to migrate to the U.S. was Jose “Amang” Parica, which is why they always call him the “Leader of the Invasion”.
I moved to Manila when I was in high school and met most of the best pool players the Philippines had to offer. I became a better pool player when I moved to the capital city, playing against these world-class cue masters. Every year, a bunch of young pool players in the Philippines are making their own name in billiards, including Jeff de Luna, Carlo Biado, Jerome Sema, and Renemar David, to name a few.
On the women’s side, world champion Rubilene Amit, Mary Anne Basas, and my good friend Iris Raniola are among the top players.
I would like to greet everybody a Happy New Year, especially my pool buddies here in Los Angeles, California.
Good pool players, too, in their own rights include:
Jose Manaloto, Lori de Leon, Alex Laoingco (owner of Stix Billiards in Rancho Cucamonga), Nestor Binauhan, Jose Parica, Danny Petralba, Tonton & Romy Miana, Andrew, Joel A., Ver, Trudy, Daniel Sauler, Boyet Rutgardo, Mark Tiu, Deo Alpajora, Jaynard Orque (aka: Angelo Yap), Gerry Jamito, Ken Mendoza, Jeff of Shooters Riverside, Terry N. (owner of Hotshots in Cypress), Noel & Skip Miller from House of Billiards in Sherman Oaks.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!