Billiards, a lifetime sport
Billiards is one of my two lifetime sports; the other is poker, on which I may (or may not) do a column sometime. Today’s piece is on billiards, for two reasons, one being the recent Legends Cup held in town, featuring Efren “Bata” Reyes and Francisco “Django” Bustamante of the Philippines, Earl “The Pearl” Strickland of the United States, and Ralf “The Kaiser” Souquet of Germany, all hall-of-famers.
The Legends Cup was a special exhibition, sponsored by the Matchroom World Nineball Tour and Puyat Sports, to promote the 2026 Reyes Cup, which is Asia’s version of the Mosconi Cup, where Team USA and Team Europe play each other. It continues from the 2024 inaugural of Team Asia versus Team Europe, and the 2025 event of Team Asia versus Rest of the World. In both years, Team Asia, with two Filipinos among its five players, was the winner.
The second reason for this topic is to honor Jose “Popit” Puyat Jr. (1935-2025). Popit, who passed away last Oct. 22, and his brother, Aristeo “Putch” Puyat, are the godfathers of Philippine billiards. The Puyat family’s billiard rooms go back to the Spanish times, in Intramuros. What such rooms looked like was put into watercolor, “Billiard room in Manilla (sic)” by the artist Charles Wirgman (British, 1812-1891), and published in the Jan. 2, 1858 issue of the Illustrated London News (ILN). In my office is a framed hand-colored clipping from the original ILN, showing spectators seated Pinoy-style, one leg raised, on a gallinera, which is surely the abode of the fighting cock ambling under the billiard table, on which are balls and strange obstacles resembling chess pieces.
I’ve been a lifelong pool player from the University of the Philippines college days, when I was the only campus egghead who played a good game—not for money but for table time cost of two centavos a minute (when the minimum wage was P4 a day). Since owning my own cue, from my mid-20s, and my own billiard table, from my 40s, I have no more material desires. From my survey research, I know the importance to Filipinos of sports in general, and billiards in particular (see “Sports and national pride,” 12/7/19; “Pride from international sports,” 8/3/24).
Putch is my high school batchmate, hence I am his ally (“Billiards: I side with Bata Reyes,” 4/4/09). The late Popit was my regular poker host from the 1990s. Of course, we played for money, but no one really lost since the cooking of his wife, the late Isabel “Bingle” Razon-Puyat (coauthor of the Assumption Cookbook) was excellent.
One night in 1996, Popit invited the quorum to go to Hong Kong with him to watch Reyes and Strickland play for $100,000, in a three-day race to 120, winner take all. None of us was able to join him for this most legendary of all matches. Bata was down by 32-35 (Reyes-Strickland) after Day 1, and at 63-70 after Day 2, and was thus only down by 7 after two days. On Day 3, he sank to a 17-rack deficit of 87-104! Yet Bata fought back, and dramatically tied the match at 111-all! Then Bata raised his lead to 117-113, but Earl evened up at 117-all.
Finally, Bata cleaned up at 120-117; he had won Day 3 by 10 racks. Watch the match to see Bata at his modest and dignified best—the epitome of sportsmanship. (see the video at https://bit.ly/4rlB6uI; the data are in “Stats—Efren Reyes vs. Earl Strickland ‘Color of Money’ 9-ball race to 120, November 1996,” forums.azbilliards.com.)
Popit’s inside story to the pokeristas, repeated for 30 years, is that Bata, in his loose short-sleeved cotton shirt, was hampered by the very chilly November weather in Hong Kong. It was after Popit (who was wearing a barong) gave him a camisa de chino to put over his sando undershirt that Bata warmed up and recovered his style, at one point doing a streak of nine consecutive racks.
Another insider story is that the players may have had a private advance agreement to share a portion of the prize, and let the winner take the balance; this accounts for the term “ostensibly” in the online commentary. Well, if so, I wouldn’t blame them; it’s their livelihood.
The game is evolving. In nine-ball, it’s the 9, instead of the 1, that’s going on the foot spot, making it easier to sink the 1 in the side—but that’s somewhat offset by having a break box. The jump cue—disallowed in the “Color of Money”—is here to stay.
Billiards is good for all ages and sexes. I’d like to see it taken up in schools as a physical education subject, with facilities, teachers, and scholarships, just like the athletes and musicians, for example. At present, Filipinos are highly feared competitors in international billiards. Let’s raise our standards even more!
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mahar.mangahas@sws.org.ph.
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