Lee Vann Corteza vs Anton Raga | Shark's Rotation Showdown | Day 2 Game 1

[Music] [Music] [Music] good afternoon from the philippines this is the semi-final round of the sharks rotation showdown our first match-up for this afternoon features anton raga versus levan corteza and we are off and running here in the final day of the sharks rotation showdown our first semi-final matchup we only have four players remaining it will be the dragon anton raga against the guy who just won the lag lee van corteza and good afternoon from the philippines my name is alongside mr safe to say himself aj all and good afternoon [Music] [Music] or the 23 year old anton raga we will find out in just a few moments race to 5.0 rotation again it's a race to 60 and two points again paradito hey leaving cortesa on the break and you can see the one ball [Music] but of course in the second semi-final i should be speaking in english i'm sorry we know that our second semi-final match-up will feature no less than the greatest billiard player in the history of the sport i would have to say efren reyes going up against former world champion ronnie alcano that is the second semi-final so right now levan cortesa at the table and again this if you're new to the word rotation this is actually just a race to 60 each ball has corresponding points and levan corteza made the two on the break now the one that gives him three points total it's a race to who hit 60 first that person wins the rack this is a game that's probably more famous in the philippines than anyone else in the world russia russia yeah here in the philippines this is where most of these players actually started out playing rotation especially those who come from the far-flung provinces like this man levan corteza from davao and his young opponent from cebu so that gives levan cortez six points now he's really very deliberate about the way he goes around here at aj from the four to the five because the five is stuck in traffic yes that's right this could have ended up winning a mistake on that safe to say when he gargled the eight ball and left the open i know for leaving cortes who does not land well on this five but he does have ten points total the counter safety by uh anton raga but that counter safety aligned the five with the 14 therefore now levan cortes has got 24 points here in rack number one and the five is still an issue at this point so once again you are joining us live a partner a little technical difficulty earlier levan cortes are now eyeing the five the voyage from the five to the six and you'll have no problem with this [Music] glitch yeah now it looks like everything's back on yes we are back and we are live yeah so levan cortes and now up to score to 29 after making the five online here with the six going on 35 for the 42 year old from davao good speed control knocks the 15 out to prepare for the 7 ball as well so 35 going on 42. next object ball will be the eighth ball so this from the seven to the eight rather the going up table using a lot of top probably two rails nicely done and 42 now going on 50. so he is on his last three now i could actually also play this two riddles if he's not straight he's just gonna try to draw it back now here's the the shot that he prepared for so now at 50 going on 59 if the 9 goes the 10 would be automatic and looks like the 9 does fit yeah it goes past the 10 yeah last two balls now for lee van cortezza sit at 59 just needing one more point he's going to get all of it with this 10 ball this is a race to five of course in the semifinals levan cortez strikes first there we have it first point comes to levan corteza and yeah looks like we're still trying to get all of the technical stuff up but it is the confirmation of our score there from indonesia levan cortes strikes first here so just to greet everybody who's been watching us right now this is day two of the sharks rotation showdown that is claudine and my name is noel with aj hello technical difficulty i hope everything is okay we are live and the odin sana is okay yeah we are broadcasting of course live to everybody around the world my name is noel zarate speaking in english doing the english commentary and aj ong over here will be handling the vernacular the filipino side and uh one of the rare times we're gonna actually hear a bilingual broadcast but if it works it works and we just want to greet everybody watching us from around the world and again we've had some questions about how rotation is played it is 15 balls and you still hit the ball in sequential order but each ball has a corresponding point according to the number of the ball like one ball is a 1.15 ball is 15 points and the object of the game is to hit 60 whoever gets the 60 first wins the rack and this is a race to five now in the in situations where a safety is played and you cannot make contact with the object wall what you can do is actually just say you spot just re-spot the object ball at the spot area where in the middle of the table and the cue ball is brought back behind the head string and you may attack from there in cases of fouls it's not ball in hand they return the you have the option of either taking the ball where it lies or returning the object ball back to the spot and again bringing the cue ball back to the top of the head string and our referee is not a professional referee he's a professional architect yeah that's right eric salud yeah who almost won in last night's uh sharks nine goals that's right if he had won that we would have been done before midnight well looks like we all went home a little past 2 a.m last night of course we will have cuban yeah the sharks nine ball showdown again tonight the cue ball did go down along with the two ball now in this instance the two ball does not remain down the two ball is actually brought back to the spot or the one ball was actually behind the head string so the one and two now will align yeah because the object wall cannot be behind the head string on the foul and now anywhere behind the head string i'm not quite sure if anton draga is behind the head string right now it looks like our referee is going to take a look at this well apparently he's okay so he's just gonna roll this now we are underway zero zero here in rack number two levan cortesa back at the table he did take the first rack i think he was trying to make a safety behind the 10. well this is going to be a safety behind the 12. is this the 12 or is that the 10 balls getting colorblind that's why green that's why stop lights or traffic lights are red yellow and green not red yellow and blue that's right two rails it's a legal contact and a counter safety yeah but he can see part of the one now i asked about swerving or playing massey shots here as long as part of the ball is seen a masse shot is allowed like this one that's a massive shot but if it's like completely covered the massey shot is not allowed so one of the quirks also in the rules of rotation is there are no jump shots allowed no jump shots and if the ball is completely covered masses are not allowed but if you mess a kick it's allowed mass a k yeah kick is allowed so i hope that um that illuminates some questions about the gameplay for the sport of rotation or the variant of rotation in the sport of pocket billiards you have a safety here played by anton draga our 23 year old from cebu province in the philippines there's gonna be a kick here coming from levan cortesa right beside the nine ball good contact it's an offensive shot made the one yeah but gets a good result because there is now a full cover from the 12 ball and this is one of the reasons why filipinos are such great kick shot artists because most filipinos most filipino pros actually did start with rotation where jump shots are not allowed and you can only escape by kicking and this is a another safety that yeah and our referee eric salud is looking at it if there's a cover he has to actually say it's covered but this is also a message because there was yeah part of the one ball was seen and levan cortesa winces as the one ball is re-spotted once again and the cue ball goes back behind the head string and i'm serious you know this is one of this this is the variant of a pool that's actually the most popular in the philippines i would still think it's more popular than nine ball or ten ball although yeah because this is still played in the province yeah yes yeah where they don't really have access to television or live coverages of events it's still rotation because that's how it was passed on from grandfather to father to son so the first point of this rack goes to anton draga and he's off and running because he does see some open shots here including the two to the three bearings yeah especially in the 90s when nine ball came came around the most popular nine ball player we had in in the 90s actually the most popular rotation player of all time efren batarae that's right because efren did win the world championship in 1999 and after efren won in 1999 here in the philippines lots of billiard halls just sprouted out that was of course followed by jungle bustamante in 2001 making it to the finals against earl strickland and alex pagulian in 2004 and of course another world champion produced in ronnie alcano who you will see later on ooh a miss by raga on the floor ronald khan of course won that on home soil world championship in 2006. so this is a lucky break actually for anton because the four ball is not seen so what levan corteza can do if he cannot kick at this four he can just say spot and return the four ball to the spot and give anton raga the shot from behind the head string but if liva and contessa actually does see an opening here he's going to see this it appears z shot yeah z kick doesn't work yeah so anton draga now has the option of shooting it where it is or returning the ball to the spot which is exactly what happens yeah because it's from a foul so you know very [Music] yeah and only the referee can see it and the players of course now i'm not sure if there's a three foul rule in rotation i did not ask that i did not ask that i'm i'm in the dark if there is a three-foul rule maybe some of our filipino fans would be able to answer the three consecutive files towards the rack i'm not sure if that applies in rotation might not it might not apply in rotation and missing the open four open free throw yeah he missed it he missed a layup actually because usually filipinos would be good at hitting from the spot from behind the head string especially the pros in fact when you're practicing here in the sharks uh the sharks then before the sharks nine ball showdown when they do the practice rack when they just you know roll out all the balls they put the one ball on the spot and then your first shot is from behind the head string no three foul rules thank you very much for clarifying good contact on the four however levant is going to come up short on the five and there is traffic when he if he's going to try a kick shot here is english well he can't hear us so and it's dual commentary so aj's gonna be in charge of the vernacular we can switch if you want it's gonna be a lot of spin on this cue ball makes contact with the short rail going to the five that's a power shot nice contact and this eight is not gonna make it five is seen anton ragana with command of the table he has a seven nine combination after making the six and he is ahead on the scoreboard as well six to four here in rack number two so the five rolls into the corner can draw it back for the six and just follow the six over to the seven nine combination [Music] came up short he doesn't like it he doesn't like it he came up very short on this it's still a makeable shot on the side yeah but the preparation for the seven is now thrown out the window it's going to be farther yeah or he can probably just control this with a controlled roll probably still aligned with the seven [Music] he wasn't happy with this result he's putting a lot of right on this cue ball so he's gonna try to force this through and it's just it's a longer shot as aj said anton draga now at 11. of course the first the 60 takes the rack and ivan cortez already achieved that in rack number one here's the long 7-9 combination no problem a shot on the seven as well easy preparation for the eight going on 33. going on 41. last two balls fronton draga our last three balls rather 33 to 41. last two balls now ten ball is already near the corner pocket yeah you tried to push the eleven space yeah [Music] yeah he makes it he makes it just barely got there [Music] this will be the game ball for anton draga we are tied to one racket tonight at one rack a piece of kinetics and italian [Music] [Music] [Music] one of the nicest guys oh yes guys in pool yes of course i know he's a left-handed player he's also an architect and i believe his organization as an architect we're talking about eric salud is the uap or united architects of the philippines graduated from the u.p college of architecture and i believe his student number's 96 so he must have graduated in 2000 or 2001 because architecture is a five-year course in up and has been competing as a in college as far back as college competing as an amateur in many many tournaments are winning a lot of tournaments and now here a member of the sharks community very elite group of amateur players that's right and that's anton drago on your screen it's a 23 year old from talisay cebu sir ramel sherbreed felix ferol ferroline and this break is brought to us by origin carbon fiber shafts ropa commercial and hard time sports bar now open that's right at speaking of uh roppa commercial i mean katana wanted to see grandeur balsarza usa [Music] this is actually a dry break for anton draga we are tied at one rack a piece this is a race to five ivan cortez attacking the one ball into the side and creates enough room to get to the two ball however the three is caught in traffic and he has to land perfectly on the three to get that three-eighth combination unless he can go around the six ball to get the three into the side this is not an easy layout by any stretch of the imagination because after the three the four is also stuck in traffic ivan cortesa hoping to advance to the finals which will be a race to seven that's this afternoon as well he does try to attack it from another angle may have overshot this three but he does have a look into the corner or even the side pocket aj yeah yeah so the corner should be his choice and he gets there nicely done and place 12 combinations yeah 412 combination 412. [Music] [Music] 19 after making the 12 ball 4 to the 5 is not an issue it's going to be now from the 6 to the 7. so 19 already now for lee van cortez going on 23. 19 19 now going to 23 but he's gonna land into a problem spot because the cue ball disappeared and that's also going to bring the five ball back to the spot and anton raga slowly seeing daylight with this layout hello neil steeman from northern germany welcome to sharks yeah leaving cortez already actually at 23 points for this rack so we will adjust that score and here's the problem with the spot it's behind the eight ball and look at what the eric is doing right now he is trying to really nail that five ball and that's a legal shot it does not have to hit another rail so snooker rules apply here as well all right double checking the score apparently it should be 22 and it is 22. yeah this is another difference of course in other pocket billiards variants aj that once you make contact uh with the object ball another ball or yeah one of the balls has to hit a rail that's just the case here in rotation so you have bottoms of snooker yeah snooker you just make contact with the ball [Music] yes the five is still seen and if anton can control the speed of this cue ball he's got a lot of hiding places for the cue ball see mr over and under i don't know if there's an over and under for this one that's an offensive shot though and uh and this will sell out well he sees the fight yeah lee van sees the five ball almost scratches almost scratching i'll leave and still scoreless here in rack number three so we've just gotten confirmation that it is 22 points for leva and cortesa shout out all the way from the comfort room you don't see robin hood cruise oh my goodness he's uh it's already like almost 6 p.m where he is here's a z-safety and the five ball is also gonna show itself as you can see here this is actually makeable from where it lies for the guy they call the dragon hello vans cabigon and benedict carrillo good afternoon good afternoon five ball goes down avoided the traffic to get to the six and anton raga slowly unraveling this rack very small landing spot for that seven though he's gonna squeeze in between two balls and the cue ball is gonna stray away after making contact with the six looks like he's gonna play a kill shot here there's gonna be some speed control made it squeeze between those two balls 11 now for anton draga not in the afternoon this is going on 18. now going on 26 to take the lead and the layout has just opened up for anton draga so this is a possible 9 11. this is a possible s2s from you really yes is it then it is safe to say there you go it is a possible safe to say i'm saying but aj already declared it so who are we to debunk the curse the jinx and just for the record aj actually jinxed five pros yesterday anton draga and levan cortes among them uh oh okay he's still good yep 911 yeah combination this will give him 37 if he makes this 911 combination you may lose the nine though so better be careful on how he follows this going on 37 on the combination and he did lose the nine aj you're saying about safe to say i'm so sorry i'm done second time he's done the safe to say on anton draga in two days oh my goodness when he lined up with the combination this was going to always be a possibility so anton can actually see part of the nine he's gonna try to whisk it up table does he get safe behind the ten no he does not you can do the same to me okay he just said that aj just said it's safe to say actually the layout dictates that you that it is going on thirty-one and uh hello to cash and will fuentes abordo watching from indonesia no good afternoon not only did leva and cortesa make a tough shot on the nine he lands perfectly on the 10. this to reclaim the lead up to 41 now going on 52 last two balls now oh rather going on 54. this 14 ball to give levan cortez a 2-1 lead what if the score ends up 60 60. then it's whoever gets the 61. actually if you do the math it's almost impossible for them yeah it's almost impossible for that to happen that's why in some circles they play until 61 just to make sure but make sure i've never seen a match go 60 60 before so two to one yep two to one for levan cortez in favor of levan corteza and of course we would like to thank our sponsors bugsy promotions origin carbon fiber shafts billy's resort in oslob cebu aqua v mud kicks by v v lugo anglugo nakubao kikarex on target on airs at easy me 15 30 kilohertz bounce apparel music avenue vehement all about the process lulu's apple pie since 2000 the hadista and llamadista sports bar in quezon city outsville magic chalk jb cases thoroughbred layered tips billiard planet hard times and the ropa commercial and so now architect eric salud our acting referee for today very meticulous in the way he racks hello to rob kitanar [Music] a world-class pool player is actually from the same barangay or the same i don't know if it's county it's really the same barangay the same area wherein another famous world-class filipino athlete hails from in the person of roger pogoy a professional basketball player yeah two world-class athletes coming from the same barangay that doesn't happen every day so from neither does this happen to leave headquarters every day a dry break from saklaiyan norman sabine ordering an origin carbon fiber shaft so that's a vibrant number zero nine nine five one seven five six six four five that number again is zero nine nine five one seven five six six four five for all your origin carbon fiber shafts concerns one ball was made on a wild shot there by anton draga on the two tried to force the action to get to the three ball hello there this is zima tarzi oh my gosh she's here we have a zebra sighting virtually would you would you like to have a zimatarsi um emoji that would be great it's like that billy idol song called eyes without a face nine ball drops for levan cortez and he has a shot on the two but getting to the threes gonna be quite challenging with all of the traffic you may have to settle on a tougher cut shot than he bargained for on this two to center [Music] that's the problem yeah he didn't hit it hard enough to actually achieve the break so i was thinking he would play this inside and just go go for a cut shot somewhere between the five and the 6 but and now anton says spot and the spot is obscured by three large balls yes this is predator arcus 2 yeah from raw commercial we've been only using this for about less than a week actually you notice the colors of the balls are back to the traditional colors the seven is no longer teal and the green is really solid green the seven is back to the usual brown color that we're used to seeing that we grew up seeing at least yeah that's right nothing uh cyclops yeah cyclops i think that's been moved elsewhere though yep so three ball is seen from the spot it's actually makeable from the spot anton draga does do it nice shot and the four moves a bit so it looks like it could now pass the six into the side or if it may be a combination yeah if it doesn't the combination is possible and again anton when he played a combination earlier he lost the object ball well if not he can do a safety that's another consideration it's 11 to 4 here in rack number four leaving cortes leading two racks to one this is a race to five the winner moves on to the final and we'll be facing either ronnie alcano or efren reyes that's a safety as you suggested aj look at this but maybe the four ball is seen a bit yeah seen a bit here so if it is seen a bit you can masse she decides to go offensive that's a really really tough shot there made by the slayer lee van cortezza he plays into a bank shot now on the five that ups levi and cortez and out to 15 or make that 11 or 15 right that's right 15. look at the cutter that he just played there did not have to do the back shot now up to twenty levan corteza made his name as a nine ball and a 10 ball specialist in fact is the reigning nine ball champion in the derby city classic where he uh won over joshua filler so the slayer prevailed over the killer forces the action to get it back to the seventh ball however did not make contact with the seven to split it up he's gonna have to do a very slow roll to get the seven into the corner pocket because he may have to cheat the pocket a bit wow yeah it cleared and look at where he lands on the eight perfect this is a lot of experience we're seeing now from the pocketing of lee van cortez and now up 33 to 4 here in rack number four going on 41. after this eight the next ball is the ten yeah going on 41. you get the 51. yeah he's on his last three balls and it's right there last two balls according to architect eric salud our referee we think we can hear him a bit now i told him to speak up boy we can hear him a bit now [Music] yeah just tap it it's almost straight he is playing his q extension so he wants to manipulate the cue ball here that's a pretty nice q extension look at it what van livan cortez has it's a pretty cute extension from troy nj pool players new fancy uniforms today i would say dressed up but that would be an oxymoron well let's just say that it is a little cold now downstairs i think this is their their backup uniform yeah it's called perot rapunzel rapunzel has the hair so oh and so you're gonna go over in english on the 11 to take a three to one lead in this race to five slayer 3-1 three games to one and remember during the shark's nine ball showdown you're we're asking each other who your pick was if it wasn't efren who would it be and you said anton raga yeah i said anton and i said leave and cortez we're both here yeah three to one for levan cortez against anton draga and he will be breaking here in rack number five claudine and angel having fun and so are we we hope you're having fun here with us the guy who's having the most fun of course is architect eric salud getting the best of both worlds being inspired and working as a referee [Music] foreign you guys just came in all at the same time so do it again send your message again and the aj is at the calm he's got the calm now so he can actually just read off your messages if you want to resend them sometimes we do miss some of the messages because you you guys come in at the same time you know it's it's a problem so we have a question from manzie mendoza sir noel hindi i don't remember it happening at least any such combination of numbers 1 to 15 won't give a 60 60 score it won't yeah yeah i i'm not that's why i've never seen it happen before i've i've seen games decided by the 14 or the 15 ball that's as close as it can yet rob kentana i actually do work in the uap and the pba so yeah thank you for uh bringing it up this they actually do work for both leagues and we have this break brought to us by origin carbon fiber shafts rope a commercial and that's a lot of balls that went down the orange stripes part-time sports bar yeah 14 no but there's one that was a wing ball that went down so 114 was it 14 or 13. architect eric salud is going to announce that so 17 total on the break for lee van corteza now up to 19 is he going to get to the four no overshot this and he's disgusted with himself so it was the one the 13. and the three that went down on the break and that's levan corteza with a pat dibny q yeah from iowa he can just call for a spot really bring the cue ball there it is he just did that spot means he gives up his turn to anton raga anton's going to have to shoot the object ball from the spot which appears to be occupied by the 15 ball so our referee architect eric salud has to make sure it comes as close to the 15 ball as possible without dislodging the 15. is he gonna need the assistance of another ball to just nail it i i love the way eric salud is really meticulous about his job here he's doing a good job and so we had the look of our orchestra yeah that is [Music] and create another safety yeah with these pros they've seen it already before good contact and the eclipse it is covered so when the referee says covered you cannot mass a anymore you can only kick and he's going to ask for another spot this is anton raga returning the shot not to levan corteza and the four ball will return although the 15 did move a bit it looks like it's harder to return at this point from good afternoon to everybody supporting our feed of course these are the pros in action tonight at 9 00 pm it will be the amateurs once again as we move closer and closer to the tournament of champions on march 2. five members of the tournament of champions halfway full already so do we get another member that's the question this is a stronger shot and this is a sellout i think levi and cortesa tried to make the 15 ball that would have put a lot of pressure on anton rakatu clean this up but anton's got openings for the four the five the six the seven everything yeah everything [Music] and at this point he may cut the lead to just one that's right that's his first point is his first score here in rack number five up to nine going on fifteen shout out to michael malone also to christian paul obelia or billy up down to 15 going on 22 to take the lead john paul de vera ayan a solid shark examination good afternoon 22 going on 30 now for anton draga oh but missed the eight had to manipulate the cue ball to get good position for the nine levan cortesa can get on the hill he's now at 19 going on 27. so 27 now for levan corteza going on 36. very clean pot going on 46. he's two balls away i'll make that three balls away 40s did there just say 44 it's supposed to be 46. when he says 44. interesting it's 46 really 57. he gave the point six points that's okay we're all we're all human here last ball now for levan cortez but it doesn't matter it doesn't matter now because he's gonna go over yeah yeah he'll be breaking for the match [Music] that will all depend on him because i asked both gentlemen who do you think is ahead coming into this matchup uh levan cortez said it's anton raga because he's the younger guy he's the more aggressive yeah that must be okay i have to correct myself we're on a race to six now it's no longer a race to five oh okay so that's an oversight on our part we apologize so it is a race to six so still an opportunity for anton jacobs yeah when i talk to when i talk to anton raga he says what do you think who do you think is head he says levan cortez because he's got the advantage of of number one being more mature in the game but at the same time also a safety guy so right now the scoreboard does say that levan corteza is at four now trying to break for the hill so officially correcting ourselves earlier that is angel going on trying to break for the hill this is a race to six here in the semi-finals and i also love the way that the players are very patient also waiting for architect eric salud to actually make sure that the rack is the most ideal under the circumstances for them there's a joke yesterday among the sharks actually that eric salud should be given the shot clock while he's wrecking i don't remember who said that but that was funny because you know of course he's doing a good job [Music] during the night competition eric salud's one of the more deliberate players that we have right yeah he works against the shot clock a lot you might imagine if you turn on shot clock while he's refereeing that's going to be a lot of pressure another dry one here coming from levan cortesa he's done one successful break so far but that's been about it there is no push out here as well that's another quirk here for rotation you have to hit it as it lies there is no push out and no contact made but since the one was behind the head string it has to go back to the spot and the cue ball goes behind the head string falling in love with this game yet guys it's one of the most beautiful variants of of billiards yes actually [Music] [Music] especially when you go to the provinces yes this is what they're used to that's a rare miss on the spot here for levan cortessa but gets a good result looks like he's going to try again anton draga may return this to him [Music] well anton did not return this to divan cortesa instead play the safety but levan can have a an easy kick shot from downstairs fins the one and look at the result he just pins the cue ball behind the four and this is one of the beauties of course of rotation is that there's a lot of safety involved yep that's why some of our older players some of our veteran players like we bet we did mention efren reyes francisco bustamante jose parika um lodolfo luat the late dodo gundam when they were they would dominate really because of the way they knew how to kick and that they know how to make safety shots happen because of their rotation training so this is now passed back to anton draga shooting from the spot it's got to take a breather just stops just in time now the three ball is buried he's looking for an avenue for the three madeline puntanto well unless he goes behind it to on the side with ink with inside look at this that's a small landing spot does he get there yes he got there it's a very small landing spot [Music] that's a great touch from the 23 year old yes [Music] yeah it really didn't land correctly now leaving cortes can actually kick at this three and because of the weight it's going to spin off the rail he can land well on the four to get it in the uh either the side pocket or the corner pocket upper right corner pocket does not have to replay this from the spot he may be in fact able to see all of the three ball doesn't even have to to kick at this just use the spin to go around just like that yep a lot of right yeah so he could see the three maybe a bridging issue now yes because of this uh as you can see the seven and eleven are not practicing social distancing so we have a comment from mark jen if you're good in rotation nine ball will be easier for you you bet yeah i hope rotation games will also be included in shark's amateur games well that's that's this might take a lot longer nine ball is actually the fastest variant that's right i missed by leva and cortesa though nine ball is the fastest variant because yes yeah and and there there are really no call shots here in the in in in rotation this is 15 balls you're talking about it's not like an eight ball where you own just seven balls and the eight yeah right good bank shot there and so the five ball does pass the six what is our score again no that's not correct because the four ball went down somebody's gotta have four now i would think it would be anton draga at four right now now at nine and check that now 12. so from nj pool player among spent some time in new jersey yes yes he did great player i'm just one of the nicest people you're ever going to meet as well actually for everybody who you interview and you say well this is not going to work for anton raga he's eclipsed by the 15. for a lot of players that you would talk about who was your first billiards influence like in your case aj who was your first filipino billiards idol of course effort right and that's just kick i mean how many balls did he make there wow we're gonna have to investigate what went down one of them was the 15. yeah is yet now what 31 is that what he said or 41. sounded like 40 yeah it is 41. wow just like that the power of the hike the high scoring balls going down now at 48. and you got last two now 48 going on 56. and the nine ball if it passes will give this rack to anton raga it does and anton draga because of a wild combination with the two high colored balls will bridge the gap here four to two the lead is still with lee van cortezza yes and going back to that that conversation i was trying to start you said that you your first filipino billiards idol was efren reyes reyes he's not filipino filipino yeah filipino i understand mika because he's he's part filipino already yeah because he he does spend a lot of time here so efren a lot of players would actually say either airframe or django actually my first billiard's influence was among really really because there he had he had a commercial back in the day with with uh he had a he had a beer commercial with some comedians before and then okay and some some famous some other celebrities so he's the first person i saw oh you're a billiard player so he was my first very very very first influence in fact i got to meet him as a kid way before like 10 years before i met the champ okay and when i met efren i was already almost well on my way into the industry in the broadcasting industry already so i had met among parikha first and he was my first um billiards idol okay and that's why yeah that's what that's why rotation was like something that i tried to be good at because that's what you saw when they were televising it on um very very dark televised games back then in black and white yeah you would see among parika go up against guys like rodolfo luat before was still a very young guy at the time then of course efren took center stage in the in the 80s and and of course put the philippines on the map in the 90s i don't know when your first time going in or naked is [Music] our prayers go out to genetically of course and her family janet lee if you haven't heard is actually fighting stage four ovarian cancer they're starting a fundraiser that's actually on facebook right now so the black widow has been a visitor to the philippines many times is this break is brought to us by origin carbon fiber shafts ropa commercial and of course hard times sports bars she's been here many times in fact we had an event before called the battle of the sexes well it was efren going up against jeanette lee and she's been here on many occasions for several women's tournaments i did get to meet her i believe this was in 2005 i believe when when there was an event over at the galleria mall where there was an all-women's event in 2005 with the guys like guy with ladies like guy and kim coming over and uh jasmine ocean was also in the field i'm not sure if allison fisher was was with us at the time allison or kelly fisher yeah and that's where i met jeanette lee for the first time very lovely lady our thoughts and prayers go out yes to to jeanette and miracles do happen and hopefully it does happen to jeanette lee [Music] exactly so there that was that's my early influence release more of among parikha before efren but of course efren went on to become the greatest that's right and we will see efren later on in just a few minutes yeah i had a long conversation with everett just just uh today about coffee yeah he's like he's a coffee guy okay he loves his coffee he always likes his coffee warm what kind of coffee he just got i was telling him about the coffee across the street where your dad buys coffee and um over there the sandwich place okay yeah he he had this he had his boy his i think that's uh one of his awards uh get coffee at the 7-eleven he said the coffee there is really good yeah and everyone said i'm gonna have the coffee there if it comes with a sandwich [Laughter] i started to walk away and he was laughing when he said that so yeah we had a conversation about coffee i mean his love for coffee i treat him sandwich yeah very long sandwich yeah not after you got to the bank yesterday there's nothing left it's there so levan corteza now trying to get on the hill i mean he had this opportunity in the last rack with anton raga with that vicious combination on the 13 and the 15 ball just rocketed to some place where he couldn't make it now made that one look easy no i think that's a 12 ball beside the eight oh he missed this he was hitting the rail too hard you can see from the way he released it that he was trying to cheat the pocket to get good position on the six but treated it too much that it hit the rail early and left the five ball like a sitting duck there this is a real first shot now fronton draga get away from the nine actually you can see the whole five ball and anton raka practically has an open table here but the position on the 7 to play the 7 14 combination will be the key that's another beauty about uh rotation is that you learn how to make combination shots uh-huh yes yeah i remember when my cousins and i were playing with after the break we always look where's the 15. because you're trying to combine with the 15 the 15 or the 14. that would be the target ball and he is beside the 15 right now but it's more of the 7 14 that presents itself and the 7 actually cleared the 14 so he's going to do this in sequential order now there is nothing going to stop him now except a miss because the eight does pass the 12 and he can have get the cue ball back near the center of the table for the nine and go two rails back for the 10. so it looks like he's uh pretty much in cruise control here talking about anton draga and he's going to cut this lead down to just one barring any catastrophic mistake and he's had a couple of unforced errors already today he's had one safe to say as well he did survive that and this one aj looks like you can declare this too yeah so it's safe to say there you go doesn't care when it's the pros really oh what the heck sir noel asked efren about his q details oh okay yeah yeah i think it's the same guy who asked about it yesterday actually aj is more of the billiards nerd among the two of us i mean he sees cues he identifies them on site nah not all not all yeah but most of them like like there are some guys who who like look at rubber shoes they look at sneakers they can identify like the other day i was wearing nikes and aj just spot on identified my shoes no me me you did you said my the nikes i was wearing oh yeah yeah yeah yeah and and uh who's this other guy um [Music] ryan bocobo identified the the nikes that was where i said okay i don't know what you're talking about these are nikes yes so 35 going on 45 for anton draga to the patriarch of the mariano familia yeah that is so that is so true we greeted the boss last night so we're going to do it again happy birthday yes yeah we greeted him as soon as the clock struck midnight last night and anton dragano on his last ball here in this one so happy birthday to mr perry mariano and the you don't even have to have a party to know that you are loved by everybody here in the billiards that's right so yeah happy birthday to mr perry mariano and anton raga is just one back-to-back rex he is breathing down the neck of levan cortez with just a point no we're just a rock so much sponsors lester celestino [Music] if you can come in here of course you're a member of sharks yes you can we're going to mine so in fact yesterday this place was loaded yesterday yeah champagne guys like gary arago larry lim ryan bocobo arnold oui who else was in this place rafael rafael um romel labrador i mean this place was crawling with sharks yes and now it's just me and me literally was there earlier so yeah it's just me and aj up here right now you know we're watching one of the biggest uh collection of talents in the philippines and there's that's right like 10 people in this place [Music] and at the same time of course we're we're also being very mindful about the ongoing pandemic which is still right yes so social distancing you know we don't want too many people in this place uh it's not a big place actually so one day when we are allowed to do live events again i'm pretty sure that bugsy promotion and sharks gonna bring this out to the public as they always do santondraga who's won back to back racks is trying to tie things up now with levan cortes and this race the six semifinals oh i don't believe anything wrong nothing went down so indeed [Music] he's outside having a coffee yeah efren was actually here early very early wow look at that that's double to rail kick nicely done oh yeah now this one actually he can spin this off the rail this looks a lot easier too yeah this looks like the two it's not possible yeah i think well this is liva and corteza [Music] with reverse spin no less he was queuing on the inside when he hit that so levan cortes has to do a lot of work for this rack he's working on a three-seven combination right now this will give him 10. no that was actually the easiest of the three shots yeah three seven combination and he's given the table now to anton raga there are a few issues here but for anton hopefully he doesn't have to get to the 13 ball to put this away do balls made on the break count yes they do yes yes they do from mark o'brien yes they do they go to the ledger of the person who made a break now if there is a ball mate on the brake and the cue ball scratches that ball is redeposited on the spot so the ball comes back up anton went for a double shot it was an offensive shot to the side but in case he missed there was a backup now levan cortesa can kick at this three which he does and does not sell it out and look at the result of this yeah he's gonna force anton to kick this one again once again we're doing two commentaries at the same time aj's handling the vernacular commentary and i'm handling the english commentary so oh that was close almost made the three and still comes up with a cover shot although now the three is partially seen good contact well nice safety yeah i mean the safety i think the three scene though from the gap yeah three might be seen a bit yeah a bit i'm not quite sure if if anton raga can park this but yeah i'd seen he can actually pot this sometimes you have to adjust to it already like sort of we've been here a few months already so you know it's lying to you he's gonna take this into the lower right corner and play wow look at this three rails to get to the five after i draw two rails to get to the five after a draw it's a lot of advanced thinking for the 23 year old i mean aj what were you doing when you were 23 23 when i was when i was 23 i was actually pretty much becoming a bum in college i was over overstaying already at the time i believe that was my sixth year in college maybe just overstayed enjoyed college life but of course there was a little bit of pool in between of course this guy's 23 years old he's already a professional professional pool player anton draga 12 he's not 12 years old he's 23. he's uh looking to make the sixth ball doesn't pass the seven so he may have to play a combination of swords or safety behind the eight yeah that's that's another idea oh he played it to the knight shot yeah yeah and he can actually still see the six so he could cut this on the side yeah he's anton ragas switched gears here 21 going on 20 7. on 27 going on 34. is it gonna get there though no it's not gonna get there he wanted to hit that a lot harder he wanted the cue ball to roll a bit more i think one of the the rails took away his spin and there is a funny rail here on this table i'm not quite sure which side it is but there is one funny rail that killed spin and there's one rail here also that actually adds spin that should yeah not all tables are created equal and it's not just an entire rail it's a certain spot on the rail you know it's like when you're playing basketball it's not all flat when you're playing so anton's kick shot is gonna sell out this eight and since levan corteza is stuck at three points he's going to need most of the balls remaining at 23 i was repeating 10th grade mini troy and j pool i find that hard to believe i think you're a pro already at 23. yeah ivan cortesa started his career when he was 18. so 11 going on 21. going on 32 is the 13th ball gonna become a factor here yeah he'll need the 13 ball 32 last three he's now inspecting this 13 looks like it does separate from the 14 unless he does something with it he does not 44 going on 57 almost left that and this will put levan corteza on the hill on the hill there we have it five games uh five games to three yeah in favor of levan cortez and he will be breaking again the break has not been kind to levan cortez in this match as claudine confirms our score cortesa on the hill five racks to three against anton raga this is semi-final number one yeah at 23 i don't know how to play billiards yet until now see mr over under yeah you sort of start young in the philippines but you don't really know the science of it until somebody really takes you in and starts to teach you the science that's right and aj had the advantage of having a great uh player in in his dad george oh that's interesting never taught me that's interesting to play so how who who taught you how to play myself even all the answers even certainly yeah everything that's part of it but somebody has to say no you can't shoot that this way you have to shoot it this way because you're preparing for the next ball hello yeah i had a cousin of mine teach me edward guzman he had he had taught me a bit uh at the onset then went up to baguio and there are a lot of people my so my cousin's also there and uh then slowly you start playing regularly and like uh you know the pool halls here we had raw miles billiards uh gutson at the time was also around uh over green lanes um so a lot of places also and then in in places where the cushion's so thin you can actually see through it you know the felt is too it's so thin already i mean yeah you go around you go around really and again the brake is not kind to leave van cortez but that break is brought to us by origin carbon fiber shafts rope a commercial and hard time hard time sports bar long distance shot on the one safety in the making now for anton draga that is ten thousand balls there between the cue ball and the one ball and despite all of that the one ball is still partially seen a little bit a little bit past the sixth wall not leaving oh yeah well levan's just gonna try to kick at this two rails it appears oh music nicely look at mixed one ball wow however the two they might still be able to get through to the two from the 14. he's measuring it right now he can't decide he can't make contact i'm not quite sure if he can make it into the side but he can make contact with the two mark kimbrough who taught efren actually everyone just grew up on the streets really himself that's why he's called bata really because he was oh look a great shot on the tooth and to the side he was a street kid he just picked up the sport and and became good at it and they called him hey kid and and filipino that's bata that's where he picked up his name the kid the story yeah you can you can probably look it up as well i mean there's so many urban legends of why these players picked up their name yeah uh i believe john go bustamante he fell in love with a with a western character by the name of jango uh django western uh from one of the westerns uh you i know you're moving the canton tarantino no no way way back way way back there's westerns you know when jungle was growing up in thailac they were showing reruns of old western films there was one guy named jango who he took a liking to and that's why he picked that as his moniker of course some of these names are also given some of these monikers are also given to some of our players like um cortez i mean he actually chose the name the slayer and uh anton draga was given the name the dragon i believe when he was playing in either china or japan he was given the name the dragon and the robocop for denis orkulio was actually given by perry mariano not very many people know that because he used to be called dennis surigao or kulio which represents the province that he was from then the guy who actually discovered him mr perry mariano said why if we just call you the robocop and he's used that robocop and he's been known as the robocop one of the best players in the world now [Music] this is gonna need some legs yeah he's okay on the four the machine by the way is oliver ortman oliver orton yeah yeah that guy plays like a machine is that a big dude yeah the big german dude yeah oliver ortman who knows leonardo da dong yeah i've met him actually i've covered him on several occasions passed away a few years ago actually in a motorcycle accident ooh yeah see franco nero and jungles there that's a familiar name yeah yeah we have so many stories to tell about some of our players here yes and he's campaigning there diamond is there who else is there um the bull is there they're all campaigning there they're not running for office or anything like that they're just plying their trade in the united states right now ivan corteza has a sort of an open table right now and barring any mistake anton draga is officially in trouble they want to see a levan corteza and efren bata reyes final that would be fantastic and if levan wins i win a bet with aj because what we were selecting who do you think is going to win all the bets off on efren nobody's nobody would bet on efren because he's like seated in the finals in our minds already you see that in the finals so the question was besides efren who do you think is going to be efren's opponent in the final now with all due respect to ronnie elkin if he wins later on he's going to deserve to win later on in the second semi-final against efren reyes but so the pick between myself the bet between myself and aj is who would be advancing it just so happens that he chose anton draga and i chose levan corteza and this was like weeks before weeks before so i don't have a fight with them and you're in trouble boy yep because leaving cortez is on his last two going on 55 for the win for the win on the 11th ball to advance to the final of the sharks rotation showdown lee van cortez has done it and up next i will go down to interview these guys you stay right there all right and of course we would like to thank our sponsors bug c promotions origin carbon fiber shafts billy's resort in oslob music avenue vehement all about the process lulu's apple pie since 2000 the hadista india madison sports bar in quezon city outsville magic chalk jb cases thoroughbred layered tips billiard planet hard times raw commercial and of course thank you to puyat sports for this event for supporting this event and now please stand by for the post game interview we will be right back semifinals number one is done in our shark's rotation showdown congratulations to levan cortez defeating anton draga and he will be going up uh against whoever's gonna win in our second semi-final in our finals [Music] um [Music] [Music] um find out is it going to be ronnie alcano or will it be efren reyes the action resumes dito paul starting sharks rotation showdown [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Sharks Billiard League

Views: 15,813

Keywords: billards, pool, 9-ball, 9 ball, 10 ball, sharks billiards, billiard showdown, billiard game

Id: gWHXwJVByVo

Length: 93min 15sec (5595 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 20 2021