1995: FINALS - Efren REYES vs. Earl STRICKLAND - The SANDS REGENCY OPEN XXI (feat. Efren's "Z-Shot

Pakistan Video Productions presents from Reno, Nevada, Sands Regency number 21. I'm Bill and Cadola along with uh, listen, by the way, it took us seven years to get you to this booth, say a couple of words and see if the spectators can do it. You must not have discovered what it was yet. I'm Jim Rempe and Billy has been trying to convince me to do this for seven years and well, this time he cornered me and made me promise to do it. I almost escaped out the door but he caught me anyway so I'm fine here needless to say it was jim rippy he has a very recognizable voice anyway the tournament started with 70 players it was reduced to just two Earl Strickland came from the unde

feat

ed side jim excuse me jim rippy is effort high effort raise on the unde

feat

ed side sorry or we can come from the last side and raise on the undefeated side but that doesn't make any difference because we are going to play a championship game that will be a race to 13.

Unlike I think last year was the year before or the year before, it was two out of three sets, wasn't it more than a couple of years ago? I think there were three, four years ago two were playing. out of three outfits I changed it because I had to catch a plane, that's right, you know the reason they changed, which everyone started doing now because we took that red-eye flight back, left it for the night and came home heading east in the morning, so they actually changed it because it was getting too long and two games in the crowd gets bored.

You know, it's not good to play two games. Everyone knows that coming in, so you know everyone agreed to that rule. Well, in the previous match between CJ Wiley. and Earl Strickland, David Maddox and I were discussing the importance of being together mentally for Sunday's games because Sunday is different, a totally different flavor than Saturday, the atmosphere is different, I mean, you just have a totally different feel. Tell us how you feel coming into Sunday's game. Well, I mean the semi-

finals

were really a bad move. I hate to say that because they are great players, but you have to mentally prepare yourself when you get to the game that you should be at.

Otherwise you wouldn't have made it this far and I think the key for winners is when they start playing in the semi-

finals

of the final, Billy, is that they go out and have fun rather than let the pressure get to them, because if you let the pressure get to you, pressure gets to you, so you just have to get out. You already made some money. You're in the finals and have some fun. Go for the

shot

. Well, I'll tell you that's it. exactly i think the reason was why wiley didn't take advantage of the opportunities he had because it seemed like he was a little stressed and he couldn't really take advantage of the opportunities he was given because he wasn't having fun, it was very serious for him and that was possibly his downfall .

He let the pressure get to him. You know, CJ has been on tour for about five years and he's never won. I mean, that has to be a big one. mental block in his mind when he got there thinking this was his chance again and he just left, let it go, I mean what he did there was scratch in the side pocket and what was the seven ball or something like that was just unbelievable. uh and he just didn't prepare himself you just gotta go out there and have fun like I said if you're going to lose you're going to lose anyway so don't let the pressure get to you sometimes it's a lot easier to do than to say, especially when it comes to a veteran player and a seasonal player like you, who has found himself in the final so many times.

In fact, some people like you thrive in these types of situations and for you it's kind of It's easy to say, but for most it's not right, it's the truth, the hard thing, the hardest thing to win is the first one. I mean, I remember when all the races started coming out. He couldn't win a tournament. He came in second, second, second. second until he finally broke the ice, in fact this match here is a rematch of the 1994 world championship and the efforts were defeated yes, he did, no, now you have been watching both players play all week, if you had to choose a player to win this championship, who would you decide?

I would choose to go up in this match. uh, Earl, even the same set, he wasn't playing that well, but he says that all the time, unless he plays a perfect set, uh, but he's just me. I think everyone is in a better mood right now going into this match. I mean, he's doing things like his nickname for the wizard. He did some things in this period that were just incredible. Well, he certainly did bare statistics. He has tapes that he played on many of the tapes that existed and are worth watching, especially the ones that are augmented, and last night he played a match against Archer.

It was amazing the massive

shot

he had or something like that with the eight ball where he had it. To get him up, he made a shot for the nine ball, which was just an incredible shot, but he does that kind of thing a lot. Now let's talk a little bit about the table they're playing at this particular table, he leaves balls on the break and I think that will favor Reyes because of the two players out there Strickland obviously has the better break. If the table was stingy about giving up balls on the break, then I would favor Strickland because he would probably win more chances with The biggest break now at this table has more balls on the brick.

I think that's kind of an equalizer for Reyes because he'll have opportunities that he wouldn't have had on a tougher break table. I definitely mean Earl is hitting it a hundred. mile per hour and Reyes has found a speed, he is a little off speed and he is making the corner ball every time, let's see if the three goes to three, it wasn't that moment and he didn't do anything else either, therefore, in the game number one very quickly efr and ray is the player who comes out of the chair has the first opportunity to get on the board and that is very important, isn't it? this is the big one, you gotta concentrate, concentrate, concentrate, concentrate, you gotta win this game if you miss this rack, I mean your whole mental state for this particular match goes downhill from there on out, needless to say yes You win this first game and then you break the balls, you get another chance, you'll win a couple more games per series. more games then the incoming player your opponent may be a bit tight and then if he makes a mistake at that time then it's all yours exactly, that's why this first game is so important, he has a pretty easy run here, I mean, he is, he is.

I'd probably just draw this nice roll instead of hitting it, move it two bands closer to where he is, and return to the center of the table. Note the position of the six and eight near the right side pocket. You'll have to have a pretty good shot on the six considering the position of the seven cross tables and so that may be the crucial area of ​​this particular wreck, yes, but the balls will be well placed if you get to the four. he'll just bounce more in the middle of the table for the five and just go to the side question to make sure you get the angle of the six to go to the seven, you don't want to be in the middle. of the table throwing the six ball because then you can't come back for the seven, you want to be on the right side of the sixth ball, now he chose to play the four o'clock position to the other pocket, which he really was. "It's not a bad idea considering there was a slight error with that particular shot, in fact it was a better pick than the one I chose because I couldn't see the angle there because if you went two wings he could have gotten a little further behind the seven, a bit abrupt, but, uh, sorry, you have the pocket, except with the shot, now you need to be somewhere to the right behind the sticks, playing position for the top right corner, right, it will be closer to the. band is going to bounce here, let's see how far it bounces, he's in a little trouble, okay though, now he's on the wrong side of the 6th ball, he's showing some signs of displeasure with his body language, he picked you up look at the one.

I should apologize, but you see the angle on this shot here, you have a good view on the screen here, if he serves the ball, it's a dead scratch, so he's going to have to force the draw to get out of scratch, here it is. you're going to have to get it out, force it to the side rail under the eight ball, in other words, the rail on this side of the eight ball is following your ball but you're going to hit the eight, it can't follow the ball, you have to force the draw just missed the side pocket and then twist two risers for the seven on the side, well the other option you have is to just float down a couple, maybe 12 inches or so, and just accept the angle of the seven because it's the natural position, well, he goes To do this, he's now deciding on a percentage basis what's best for him at this stage of the game if he feels confident he could roll, but he's doing what I said, he's forcing a draw, observe the force in the tie, no, it continued. well, he feels confident hitting a shot like that, you feel confident because the seven ball is like one of the hardest shots on the table, you're crossing the ball, the ball could skid off you, anything can happen, you're hitting this with a central ball maybe just a little bit of spin with the right hand.

It is perfect. He is playing with a lot of confidence. Anyone who attempts that shot

earl

y instead of backing away is playing with a lot of confidence. Well, he is the only undefeated player in the tournament. and there is no one who has beaten him and he is confident that they can go on and win the title and if that shot is any indication of how the rest of the game will play out, I don't think they will stop him well. That's why I picked him at the start of game number one for Reyes and he gets on the board first leading the game one to zero.

By the way, this is a race to 13 unlike the semi-finals where they went to 11 and in the matches before that where they were, everyone went up to 11. This is a race to 13, so you have a little more time to overcome a lead, there will be some racks around here, Billy, I mean, the pockets are playing generous like you said and they are breaking, usually the corner ball has been working, the first racket hasn't sounded, but like I said, it's been running almost forever and the pockets are generous, I mean, throughout the tournament, you've been seeing a lot of twos and threes and four racks run, I mean, if a guy has a five or six game lead, you're still in the game absolutely, there is actually no leader that is not beatable for the same reason that describes the forgiveness of the pockets and the balls

open

quite well, the cloth is quite fast, therefore, all that is conducive to the offensive game and that's what we've seen throughout the tournament and there's no reason why we shouldn't see it here in this match, yeah, look at it.

You're not going to hit this at full power, I don't think I mean especially starting here, you'll see where the two of you are going, you've been hitting the corner ball with about three-quarters or maybe around 80 percent speed and you'll see if hit about 80 percent here about 80 and once again you were right, the corner ball straight to the right has the perfect low velocity for that shot, what do you do, how do you stop that if you're the person accumulating the balls, I mean? If the corner leg starts to come in, that's fair, you can do it right.

I mean, some guys would try to cheat if they're smashing for themselves or on the racket for each other, they'd split the back two balls behind the nine, but the players don't let them do that and once you find a way to groove in that clot because this is 860, the smallness forms grooves uh, it just seems to slide no matter if you place the balls high or low, whatever, so when you consider that There they have someone setting the balls for both players, that corner ball It can come in very regularly. No, I've seen it. I mean, if they played 21 games, I've seen it 20. 20 times.

He has a pretty easy run here. things are going to start working out for him things are going well for him of course things have been going well for Earl I mean he played the luhan luau he missed the ninth it was 10 10 luh I missed nine in a row and the Things have also gone well. Well for Efrén here too, he has a very easy run here, I mean the balls just connect the dots, I mean the five, six, seven in the corner, yeah the sixes play quite conveniently for the city for the second, considering the position you seem to have.

The drama may have to come and go, but it's a simple shot, yeah, he's going to jump the two-nothing lead here and then, uh, I mean, if he gets a four or five game lead here, well, even a couple of three-game advantages. I mean, if Earl loses when he gets this chance the first time, then it will be a landslide. The shot and the angle he has now suggest to me, at least from my point of view, that he doesn't need to come off the table. very far he doesn't want to lower the table as to where the nine is, he wants to come up short because he has a good shot on the eight and the nine is very far, uh, from that railing, he to play, uh, yeah, look, he I did.

It's not like he would have done it, he would have stopped me before nine, but he isplaying with so much confidence that if you don't play with confidence you'll stop here, but if you play with a lot of confidence you can control that cue ball in a matter of inches and that's what he's doing right now. He has excellent control of the cue ball. Own this table when you know how. a table plays, the speed of the table, how the rails play, then the caliber of players like Efrén Rey's Earl Strickland, they just hold the table and the magician right now is showing us how easy it is to play the table.

If you feel comfortable playing in game number two, it goes to Reyes who is now leading the match to buy the score from two games to zero and I made a statement in the semi-finals that you know when you go into a match like this you don't No you play against your opponent, you play against the table because by the time you are in the semi-finals you should know how the table was playing and therefore you will just play against the table if you have low speed on the table. and you play it well, therefore you are beating the table and will probably win well.

Most people ask me how you get rid of pressure and one thing you just said is that you never play against the player, this is one on one. -a sport, but you're not actually at the table at the same time as him, so what he does has nothing to do with you, you have to play yourself, just play the game and focus, focus, focus, like I said , that's the best way to get rid of the pressure and I mean, if you're playing, if you're confident, that takes the pressure off anyway, that takes a lot off, yeah, Arians, look at this again. 80-speed corner ball, two balls in the corner pocket, well, what happened? there I don't know when the ball broke the side ball that we were looking at the two balls were barely moving no, it seems that the balls separated at that moment as if it were like a lead grid but he offered it anyway and hit the side of the single ball, that's why the keyboard would fly off the table if I had hit the single ball squarely.

I'm curious how he would have reacted to that two ball, because even though he didn't hit the single ball squarely. I thought he should have moved a lot more from the side ball. The balls weren't exactly frozen. That's what happened to me there. It would have seemed that the two balls in front of the nine ball were not touching. nine ball or maybe the single ball went well, that gave Earl a chance to get back into the game quickly here, here's a good shot Billy, I think he has to go under the five and go up, no, he could play the three. straight to the corner too, but if you want you can go, I'll see the way he hits the bucket, it looks like he's going under five and two up, no, he's playing three and a quarter, like I said, I think he chose the best route , yes, because of the position for the four and also if you play the position for the three in the top left corner, all you need to do now is follow the ball and you have much better control of the speed of the cue ball with this shot in particular because it needs an angle to get back to the table for the five, yes the less you make the cue ball travel the better off you will be, this is directly down the table for the five, yes I desperately needed a break there like first. that he received to get back into the game, he can play this ball, well, play in position for the six on the side or in the corner, I don't think he went high, yes, he did, it's okay, he is falling short of the mark .

I mean, the ideal angle would naturally have been straight on the seven or an angle slightly favoring the top of the seven, but then he'll play the position for the eight in the bottom corner or, excuse me, the top corner, but he's fine. , you're right, okay, I think there's a shot here, billy, I mean, a lot of players would go straight to the eight ball, the best way to play this shot is with two cushions around the table, well, the egg goes in the side pocket. I didn't see it come in on black, but if they couldn't go in the side pocket, you better go around two cushions because you can't go wrong with the speed, oh wow, oh, I hit that width very, very fine, I did.

I don't think so, I thought for a moment there was a chance the ball wouldn't follow, but that wasn't the case. Game number three goes to Earl Strickland and he is now one game behind in the two game match, that of a run to 13. Let's take another look at the break when one of the kings broke the balls and take a look at the contact from which hit the one that will surely hit the one on the left side because that's why it flies. off the table, look at it, that could have been the only reason the balls didn't pop, billy, I mean, he really hit it left and I really can't stress enough the importance of controlling the cue ball on the break, especially when you get to the tournament stage because every time you get to this stage of the tournament, the semi-finals or particularly the final, you're obviously up against another player from the upper echelon and mistakes like that can turn out to be quite costly at times, maybe even too much. expensive, oh sure, because like you said at the beginning, I mean, if Ephraim kept him in his chair for a couple of three games and then he had to hit a difficult shot, he's probably going to miss a difficult shot on that particular cue ball. .

The table gave him the cue ball and his hand allowed him to regain his rhythm. We had tremendous action thanks to the offer of that particular break. The sixth ball could have entered between the cue ball and the only one that prevented him from pocketing the one in the upper right corner from my point of view, I can't really tell looking at the monitor, I don't think he can pocket that one, I don't think so either. that you can, I mean, you're probably going to beat the bank with this ball but you're looking to see if you can position yourself on ball two, I mean, you could if you could cross this and get into ball two or go three-cushion, you're getting into both. , looks like he made a good shot on one. excellent speed of the cue ball finally stopped in a near ideal position on the table for the two no, he hit that bank with a lot of confidence, billy, I mean, most guys would have been trying to play a two-way shot and doing the one end involved a snooker at the same time he just went for the shot and made the shot which is a really aggressive offense back and forth across the table for the three and all of a sudden this game could be tied at a time when kings was leading. in game two games nothing in preparation derrick and breaking the balls in game number three what he did was he already committed a foul at half time jumping off the table

strickland

has been on the table since this is a cosmo as we used to call Still They call him Cosmo, well the older players call him Cosmo because the younger players don't know who Cosmo really is, you want to tell them who they want, who he was, no you can do it, that Cosmo was a guy I used to come to.

Around Johnson City he's a funny guy with big-rimmed glasses and he used to bring a suitcase full of all these tricks that he did exhibitions with and he was a Balor-type professional ballet dancer and he used to place the balls. the table to hold nine balls as far as he could stop the cue ball on each shot and then when he finally made the nine ball he would stop the 100 bill but as he punted he did a ballet dance around the table and just spun around off the table and just spun the cue on the shot, stopped the cue ball and did all the talking, so it was a really easy out, except for the dance thing, right, and that was a cosmos, but the meaning of the dance.

This design is so easy I can dance hey, yeah, you know, I mean, and it was like starting to collect the thoughts, so whenever an opportunity arose where a player had to connect an exhausted thought, they would refer to him exactly like Cosby. Game number four goes to Strickland, he ties the match at two games apiece, let's see if you can get some top speed here, look, look, the eight doesn't go when you hit it at full speed, all the balls are on the table , looking at the side of the table and uh, but he didn't do that here, next he's going for a combination of two and nine, I think so, okay, right away, Jimmy picked that up, you know, I would have myself taken much longer.

I noticed the three balls against the cushion with the seven blackeners so you look for the combination first you see that the three ball is tied anyway very unusual in the way he plays kings he went out of line two nine comments I didn't like it that positional shot because it came on a cushion where you have like a small area to stop and if he didn't take the cue ball to the left pocket, two cushions came on both, you have a lot more area to stop to position yourself, but it doesn't matter as well as he gets into the pocket. the balls, I mean, go anywhere, however, he did the job probably not as easily as he should have, but anyway he did the job and with that hole out the nine he led the match with a score of three games to go. two. and on shots when you're playing position, a lot of guys ask how do you play position when the cue ball you don't want the cue ball to cross an angle for position, in other words, cross the table and cross the angle of the next shot. you always want to get into the angle of the next shot so you have a bigger area to stop, so you want the cue ball to follow the line, it follows the line exactly, you draw the imaginary line from the pocket through the ball and if you can make the cue ball approach that object ball on that line then you're in the right angle position here we go he's not going to hit this nine ball nine behind now he's hit the nine ball quite often in his match against Earl's Earl Strickland last night he did the nine ball three times at halftime three times and by the way he beat Strickland last night eleven games to eight I know uh and Earl asked me why that ball was going.

I can't believe Earl asked me that. Ask because the reason nine goes when you're breaking from the left side of the table, he's breaking from here, you have to break the balls between the, let's see where he puts this rack and I'll show you. Meanwhile, that was game number six, Reyes now leads by two games in a four games to two match, I think it's a three ball here, Billy, look at the three ball, yes, if it's separated from the nine ball and the other ball next to it, I think. is the four ball, it freezes on the nine ball and breaks from the left side of the pocket, the nine always comes towards this pocket, therefore the ball that is behind the nine either with the right or with the left if it is loosened somewhere you break from the opposite side or the same side same side as the curve loose the ball will go to the side yes it is always loosened yes look at it that time I went to the right so apparently they were frozen well let's take one look at the break look at the four there it is separated from the nine that's why it's going to go away or the seven what is this on the left side oh that was two I couldn't make out the color seven now the seven kisses him on it no It wasn't direct and I thought that went straight in but it didn't go straight in but it doesn't have to be sprayed for that, for that little right so that the space is there, the mistake is effective right in the Meanwhile, Strickland approaches the table with a very difficult shot not only in one, but also in a difficult position to play so that the two fall for the three that are at this end of the table.

I see he was trying to shoot. He knows he can. He has to follow the shot to position himself but he doesn't want to because he shoots at this guy better raised. What he wanted to do was try to make the four, that's why he tried to get up so he wanted to see if he could do the Force to see the position of the three almost frozen in The lower rail makes the shot much more difficult because you have to get a good angle between the two and the driver for the three position, so maybe I was asking too much. playing position for the two, perhaps it would have been better if he tried to put the snooker in the one four and then he could well have played for the angle.

Eddie Taylor showed me how to play most of those shots in other words and I can't try to get the angle for the two to go straight down. I played it for the two angle as if it could have gone under the five and come three questions. It is always easier to go three lanes than to judge the speed starting from one. you still had a lot of traffic there, you had to deal with the five and also the eight or choose that particular route to access the three on that particular route, you know, the front p

earl

is quite dangerous, but you didn't do that and all are on the table, yeah, you have a six nine combination after these three balls and you're just going to take out these two cushions and make sure you don't go over four.

Okay, cliff four is very close to the loopholes. close and it looks like the six nine is dead, well you win a lot of games faster, you get a one on the break, then another combination and another combination, I mean look how many games it won so fast here, I guess tonight is dead, No? Well, Billy, I mean you have a lot better eyes than I do. You were talking about how good your eyes were the other day. You know how bad mine are. I bet he's going to shoot. I'm sure he won't try to play inposition.

That's for sure, well, if you're betting on something, I want to bet too. Okay, yeah, you like my style. that's why he positioned the cue ball slightly behind the six feeling like maybe he had to cut the knight in the pocket a little bit and oh, he cut it too well, he shot so fast he didn't even look like that, the combinations are so difficult Look at every little thing you're doing with English with speed, everything you just can't get up and pull off a combo, no matter how easy it seems, it was a big middle ground area that could change the entire flow of this game, well , any mistakes. by any of the players could change the entire flow and outcome of the match, but that was a careless mistake, yes it was, he was definitely a favorite to bag that combination, so you know Earl didn't even have a chance to overcome it . the eight ball thought he was playing well enough to judge the speed and just go up and down the table with the eight, sometimes you can do that it makes the shot easier, you have to watch, okay, hit perfect, sure He got the position of the world right that suggested he knew exactly the reaction that was going to take place from the bottom wing and he did so in game number seven.

Earl Strickland now trails by just one game in the game four to three. Yes, I was very surprised to see it. Reyes missed the nine particularly because by the margin that he missed, he missed it by a good three inches, but he didn't even stand up and look at it, I mean, he just hit the ball and thought it was a dead shot. or something like that, you have to look at those combinations it was a great game 5-2 him breaking now it's 4-3 Earl breaking Great Earl was dying to go look at the rack but he didn't go to look at it, suddenly there was a light that came on went out on top of the table and what we're going to have to do now is we're probably going to have to take a break in the action and go up there and put another light bulb in there, I think either a whole one side went out or maybe it was just one. or two of them, but there were definitely some lights that went out well so far no one is shooting the lights.

Are you saying the reason the light went off wasn't because of the players, oh here we go, someone wants to turn off the light switch, there's a, there's a spectator, there's a spectator who was watching the game to the other side of the room and inadvertently pulled the plug out of the wall, which then turned off the lights. Rick Bulling fixed that in Earl's change of location for the break and is telling the umpire that the one that is separated from the top two balls but is going to change location is going to break from the center of the table, that's right like we used to do. break all the time we were playing with a heavier cloth we were playing with that on the deck, you know 88 20 pretty much what it used to be 80 20 no, he moved it to the side, he's going to try it one more time here.

I think so far he hasn't made the corner ball he's going to watch to see where it's going eight high shots, I'm sitting well because he's still breaking at exactly the same speed and it's very, very difficult, he's getting a lot of force and in the balls and he's not getting the action he wants from the goal, I guess he'll have to take a bit of his break or switch sides, he'll definitely switch sides after that break, so even though he was able to score the ball on the break he wasn't too happy with the results, sometimes when you get good results you don't have to be happy with it considering the type of action you want to achieve and you're not doing it right it stopped that cue ball on a dime there you have the perfect position on the three ball it will just slide a little towards the four shoot the four hit the ball up and into the same pocket now he will follow this play up to five in the opposite pocket now let's connect the dots again old cosmos shot straight at ball six out of bounds seven eight nine right there is no reason to play the position from the side pocket there because you are in line playing it towards the corner and once you are in line in the six goal, connect the dots like Jimmy said, so once you have positions , there's no reason for you to play and that's what we're talking about coming into the angle, look when he shot the six coming in. the seven or when he shot the five entering the six he was in a straight line towards the angle of the shot which is exactly correct this is game number eight with the bagging of nine this match will once again be tied now with the score being four games for every player we have a good crowd here Reno always has a good crowd knowledgeable fans 11 years we have been coming here billy yes this is the 21st tournament 11 years there is a gentleman out there who has a headset his name is paul guy with a beard teddy how are you paul you're on tv so now you have to buy this tape here we go I can't believe he went to the same place he relaxed a little like you said it could be actually the eight was going to hit on the lower rail, but he gets kissed on the way and is unlucky not to get a shot, although it's really surprising how perceptive players are on tour today, I mean about intricate things like picking up speed.

Your brake shot changes the action of the balls enough to pocket the corner ball. It's surprising that players can solve things like this very well. Let's see, let's get into a security game. I think he can kick behind. and kick him up or he's just going to, oh, I don't know, he just tried to cross. Yeah, it was a pretty good shot. He just tried to cross over and put it over the seven ball where he couldn't make the ball, I think. I could have left you a bank here maybe I don't know if he has or not because his body language certainly hasn't given me an indication that one way or another it seems like he hasn't left you a bank. he may be pretty close but I don't think he'll be available if he can't get to the bench, there's hardly any kind of shot here unless he, unless he shoots the bottom cushion, tries to cross the ball and send the cue ball up of the table. he's going to try to massage this ball, he's concentrating it well around this ball, whether he can move or not, he played it safe, he just tried to pot the cue ball, that was the best he could do on that shot, just make sure separate the balls. balls but then put the I mean put the cue ball on the pad at least if there's one thing going for it it's the position of the cue ball against the pad yeah Earl is just going to roll this one onto the pad and bounce the that comes out and behind the two and put the cue ball behind the tuba if he has the angle to do it, that's what he's doing, he's going to roll this ball.

Good pool players hate the roll, he just rolls the cue ball because you never know when he's going to do it. roll or lean to one side or the other. Look, he has to hit this very soft shot up here and that's fine. He has left Rey as a kick under the two to hit the ball, but it is quite difficult to get a safety. shed, we can kick him on the side because that side pocket is quite big so this no, he won't go on the side, he will try to hit the only ball on the bottom side and see if he hits the only ball on the bottom. side with English pattern on the angle it looks like it's going towards the one it's going to go into the six ball the cue ball is going to come back down behind the nine ball look at this shot can it go in that deep to do it? yes, that's what he tried to do he did exactly what he used to describe he could do if he needed a little more strength to hold her up.

Oh, he came right behind the nine ball and I think he was rewarded for it because the three can prevent him from pocketing the ball. one in the upper right corner and if that's the case, I don't know if he has a very good safety, he's going to cross the ball, he's just going to throw the ball down the table, let the cue ball float to the right cushion. and he put it behind the seven ball and let the keyboard let the one ball go down the table, that's exactly what he's doing up and down the table, but we hit the seven on the way, he hit the one, two, the three complete balls that it should have. he hit further to the right which would have allowed him to avoid contact with the seven and obviously that's then finishing the pool, yeah it was a three ball, I thought it was a seven two, it's a tough shot here. it means it's really hard, it's elevated over the three balls that you have to elevate and you have to use a little bit of spin with your right hand makes the shot really difficult, you're aiming for the full ball here because the ball is going to deflect to she very difficult shot, she got lucky here, she got lucky, she's right because the position of the one is not even in the pocket two or three inches from the pocket and hooked behind the four, yes, Earl is going to dough, say this a little , I think, or play with that one. the band unless he can make this ball can he make this ball?

Yes, he can make the ball. He played it from the wing. There's no loophole around here. Well, he'll get lucky here, but he still has a lot of work to do to pocket both. It will probably go for the top left corner plus the four uh it only has one pocket here it is here is the shot it will play the two balls in the corner it will bounce to center the table then it will go three way with the three balls back for four and the in the bottom left pocket okay, that's a route he can choose or that's an option, another option is you can possibly place the cue ball behind the six hit, he's not taking any chances, he's playing it safe, yeah, behind the six hitting the The left side of the two is going to try to go behind the six.

Now there is an example, for example, that he knows that he is not playing with a lot of confidence because I have seen good players go for that shot. because the percentage is in your favor if you are playing well and he could because now he can lose the game, but by shooting both and having the confidence you can make both balls, it was easy to get out after that, it was not easy, but I want say it was good here, you may get lucky here, you definitely played the two there, yes ok, now you face the problem of getting the cue ball back on the table for the four position, but if now after to play the position of the four. the lower left corner the five are placed at the other end of the table there the head point and the seven on the way two bands he will follow this ball I don't know if he would have followed this ball he played band first that's an old crane shot Irving when you make a long shot like that the ball is just a hair away from the sideline it's much easier to get the ball into the sideline first and he put himself on the right side of the four where he didn't have to play with the ball seven, so there are only two rails up for the fireball, so the first rail shot was ideal perfection.

A couple of different respects, yeah, follow up to the rail of the five ball if you can, so you've got the angle on the sixth arc, just go down a cushion for the seven, yeah, once again, you don't want to really get away from the seven, two questions are outside the top right corner, would you rather go under the playing position six from the sideline to the sideline seven or a wing even to the side pocket here would you like to go to the side pocket, which uh, you're not going to two bands on this because it's just going to come down right on the table. and he takes the shot no, it goes to both sides oh, I don't like that no, no, I don't like that at all no, I would never have played it like that, I would have played close to the near side there and I would have taken that shot. on the seven rather than take the risk of putting the cue ball behind the nine, but if you're that confident in the speed of the cue ball, well, that's what he did before he did it, that was the second time he did that He remembers the other shot where he had landed, the ball went under the nine for position, the same thing he did there, so after the number nine effort, Reyes takes the lead once again by a score of five games to four, but I'm still fine for my game in most cases.

In other games, I think it would work better more often if he played the position for the seven differently, staying above the nine, rather than moving two wings away from the ball and coming back well, maybe from this angle we have Seeing the wrong angle on the seven ball, maybe the seven was closer to the rail than we thought, if that was the case then he did it the right way because when you ask three questions on the lower rail like that, I mean English. The reverse is off the second rail when it hits the third rail and dies on the cue ball, so you have a large area to stop it.

There is a crowbar on the left with the red shirt on. Reed Pierce in the blue shirt. the man with the bear on the right and the guy in the middle we don't know I think he's from Minnesota he's a friend of Jimmy's okay here we go with the break again look at the ball seven hit high one two on the side three on the corner four is

open

in clear I don't know if you can make the ball oh he can't make the other one no, I don't think so, so I could go to the sideline and try to make this ball with the sideline so big that these pockets play, no It's a bad shot because there's no other safety there or anything good, he's like he's deciding the percentage of whether to play safe on this shot or go for the sideline kick toperformance, well, I have never seen anything like this, I have not played this battle 30 yearsNever all the attendees thought, especially if they had knowledge, that he was dead in the water and then, as if there was no chance and, as you said, two golden bands on that shot, he wasn't going to have any movement at five and he did.

Didn't you have enough four to five to get to the hole? Oh my gosh, what a wonderful, wonderful ending, oh this is going to be a great ending for people to buy. I hope you enjoy this anyway, it's a pleasure doing this with you, billy. I'm glad you hired me on this one this is a caravan here it's certainly been a pleasure and we've been trying to get you here on the stand for seven years and luckily you know we were able to get you for this. match and what an exciting and exciting match it was and I don't know if we're going to do an interview, but uh,

efren

,

efren

's got the right, we gotta catch him right now, right now, yeah, see if you can put in the effort here.

Okay, Chris, Chris, well, Rick Bully, tell our friend to come here, Ephron, that would be great, that would be great, I'm sure Howard, what a wonderful photo we have there, although in the freeze frame, I mean, It's just wonderful. in the freeze frame, yeah that's sportsmanship, oh that's a great shot, oh I was dead in the water here, I only had two options, one that Jimmy and I didn't agree with, but we were obviously wrong , especially when you look at the result of this shot. this is hill, hill in a race again, no better than this look at this perfect, oh my god what a shot and what a moment to come with a shot like that, it was really an amazing match, an amazing shot and an amazing finish that I've seen. many things, but that was one of the most spectacular things I've seen in this game, well, Earl is on his way here now and also with Efrén and I'm going to stretch this microphone here, now we're outside the booth uh, Earl and Effin are here, Earl Earl, I'll tell you what I really congratulate you on your sportsmanship, that is, when you made that kick, the life should have been drained from your body, but you were still happy.

Well, I'll tell you what, I've been playing pool for 25 years and I've only seen that shot taken on me twice and one of those times was tonight, Keith McCready hit me with that same shot in 1984 when we were playing pool shots. called at the Clyde Shoulders tournament in Richmond Kentucky and I was sitting there watching him and I said he can't go for one wing, he has to kick two wings. I told him that Keith made this shot for me once in 25 years and I said it was possible that he could make the same shot that Keith made 11 years ago and he did, I'm excited for him, it was a great shot, well I know you were excited for him and you were really excited for him.

I have you on the monitor. He is absolutely fantastic sportsmanship and I commend you for that. What a great tournament you are playing! I'll tell you. You know I'm very lucky. Thank you. Thank you so much. I'm very lucky to be in it. In the final I didn't play well this week, some guys passed out on some shots for me and but overall I feel like I did a good performance, I made a few mistakes here and there, I think I could have won the match. If I had corrected some safeties or something, I played a poor safety in the last game, but you know, for the end like that, I'd rather do that than win the tournament.

It was actually an exciting ending for everyone who was here. The attendance can attest that it was an exciting finale, we couldn't have asked for anything better than that, you played very well, believe me, Efrén and I have played many games around the world and I can speak for him, you know? I'm playing and I'm not making many simple mistakes. He knows that he has it worse with me. That's right, I'm sure he does. He respects everyone. He knows I had a hard time this week. He could see it in my blow when the Poles. they are not pocketing well, he is struggling with the position, he knows there is a different man from the world tournament to listen to, but Afrin is, you know, he is a dedicated player, I think he practices a little more than me, but you know I played all. he is the best as far as i am sure he appreciates it especially coming from you once again we appreciate what you have said here and congratulations on a great tournament thank you billy thank you very much and now the magician the man who he was dead in the water we all thought you were dead in the water where you walked to the table well you were at the table where you played a safety on Earl but without realizing it you put the eight in the corner pocket and we all thought that you were dead, how were you?

Thinking about it, I was missing, I thought I just lose, you know, it's very difficult to kick that, but I need luck for that kind of thing, you know, on the monitor we have the ability to show it one more time so that everyone here can see it. including you so what we are going to do is what were you thinking about now? Tell us what I can do. It can hardly go both ways. He had to turn the ball a lot. Wow, what's going to happen here? He pockets very finely and hits the ball. five and it will hit the pocket, who knows, you did it again, that was a great shot you know, and a tremendous end to a wonderfully played tournament, the way you played magnificently throughout the tournament, you were the only undefeated player that Earl came back.

In you, he tried to win it, but it wasn't meant to be, it's hard to read, uh, you know, I'm thinking about some of the best shots I've made in my career and believe me, Martians don't shoot. more direct than me, but it will probably go down as one of the best shots I think I've ever seen. It's definitely a classic situation. What I'm saying, the circumstances. 10 10, I mean, 12 12, I can't think about it. a better opportunity and I have won millions he is right, he is right, well anyway, congratulations to Efrén on your victory here at the Sands and you are a great champion and you play like the great champion and once again we congratulate you both.

People here for a great performance. Well thank you very much. Well, Jimmy, I'll tell you, it doesn't get any better than that. I really couldn't have picked a better place to sit and I know I'm glad I did. Did you know this is coming back to the Philippines? They're going to call Pat Fleming and say: send us that tape. Yes, let's mention it as three hundred and three thousand. There are many Filipinos there. It was great. It was great. Enjoy it. Billy, thank you very much, it was a pleasure working with Jimmy, you are a very skilled player and I really enjoyed sitting next to you listening to your ways of playing and how you think, and I am sure that anyone listening to this tape will really appreciate the way you play and will reflect it to the people here who are watching it anyway on behalf of james rippy this is bill and caron are saying thank you so much for supporting ackee's stats. and we really mean it from the bottom of our hearts because if it weren't for you, there would be no accustats and we wouldn't be able to carry most of the best players in the world. nationwide on the night of the world, so thank you very much for supporting ecostats, call 1-800-828-0397