BUDDY HALL vs EFREN REYES – 2000 US Open 9-Ball Championship

Two former US Open 9-Ball Champions battling it out at what was easily the most prestigious title on American soil.

“The Rifleman” Buddy Hall and “The Magician” Efren Reyes have both already won every major accolade available in the game. Hall had just been inducted into the BCA Hall of Fame, and would be joined a couple years later by Reyes.

Grady Mathews and Mark Wilson called the match.

– – – – – – – – – –

You can watch matches from the 2018 – 2022 INTL 9-BALL OPEN and 2016-2022 Derby City Classic, 2015-2017 US Open 9-Ball, as well as other Accu-Stats Invitationals on Accu-Stats YouTube Members service: https://www.youtube.com/@AccuStats/join

Website: http://www.accu-stats.com
Members Only Program: https://www.youtube.com/@AccuStats/join
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/accustats/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/accustatspool
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/accu_stats_…
Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/asvod/
International Open Website: https://www.intlopen.com
Roku Channel Name: ACCUSTATS

©2023 Accu-Stats Video Productions

#accustats #billiards

[Music] good afternoon and welcome to Championship nineball we are of course acur stats I’m Grady Matthews in the booth with Mark Wilson and what a contest we have for our viewers to peruse Mark well Grady I’m really looking forward to this match at two of my favorite players of all time going to be playing and this is this is the epitome of the US Open buddy hall and efon R yeah both past winners uh two of our greatest Champions contrasting Styles perhaps oh definitely contrasting Styles buddy a little more uh uh what would I say compact with his stroke and his swing and effort and a little more of a free flowing game and then doing a little pre-match uh analysis there’s uh very little that you could give one player a huge Edge over the other in any area their brakes are relatively similar and uh the only thing that I could see is and it’s the same Edge that efon has over everybody is maybe in absolute uh object ball control he can maneuver the balls on the table unlike any any human that we’ve ever seen and the other Edge I give effort is edging the physical physical conditioning and uh I don’t know how much that will weigh in because relatively early in the day but uh well I was talking to Buddy he’s lost some weight and he’s been um uh doing the things recommended by this book eat for your type which uh means eat for your specific blood type and he been able to eat like he normally does he just doesn’t eat as much and he’s feeling good and playing well and and this should uh be a great match buddy set to make the opening break with the eighth ball on the wing the ball that’s been going in the most often didn’t go directly in and get kissed in but it did go very near the pocket Budd he’s picked up a pretty good offensive opportunity here with the one ball near the corner pocket but he’s kind of straight on this shot and the two ball is down kind of in the middle middle of the lower end rail how does he get back for the two wall well um I’m sure he’d rather use the rails but if we get to see a Pat the Buddy Hall draw shot it’s one of the prettiest Strokes you’ll ever see it’s got that long pause at the end of the back swing and then it comes through doesn’t seem to hit the ball very hard yet the CU ball goes a great deal of distance now here’s a shot that I can reach being right-handed and uh you know fair Fairly slim I can just reach my body across the table and reaches not not play with the bridge I don’t think he can get position here Mark we call that being belly hooked and that’s when your belly gets in the way of the end Rail and you have a hard time getting all the way down to reach that Q I didn’t think there’s no way to do it so physical conditioning actually has come to Bear right away here but now I like knocking the two ball to the middle of the in Rail and trying to put the Q ball behind the 4 five I I really don’t use much in the way of English here uh will he bump the six well maybe but he’s using right English which is another way to kill it a little better oh he’s going to do this okay well that’s a nice shot if he’s knocked off at least half of the ball that e can hit if e can hit the whole Ball but he’s not going to end up liking this outcome I wouldn’t think well you can see the whole ball we’re told but I don’t believe there’s a shot here I think he’ll bring try to bring the Q ball back behind the seven and maybe lock knock the two ball down to the end rail let’s see how he plays plays it just like this right he just hit it too thinly and he’s left buddy a pretty good shot compared to where I thought he would be yeah right he just hit it too too thin well for buddy now I like going up and down the table and he’s going to have to use a touch of right English if a buddy hits this kind of shot about as well as anybody in the world he doesn’t like to run into balls so we not likely to see him do that here I’ve always love buddy stroke it’s pretty to watch comes right through the cuq ball so effortlessly he overcut it just a hair didn’t he gr he was expecting to stay a little more centered well this is okay you know an edge that I would definitely give Buddy to is in banking I don’t know about that Eon when he played in the bank tournament I was amazed by his bank ability now I don’t know if the four five combination is on if not he’ll have to come around the table planning to play the four ball on the side pocket I’m not even sure he’s looked at the combination but we’ll be able to tell by where he’s played position he was able to cut that in yeah I don’t know that this five ball handles easily what with with the Q ball over the seven ball see if he hits the high side of the five is possible scratching the side off of it unless he hits it easy which that’s probably the thing to do is is oh he may all right he can just draw this back he got straighter than I thought and he has room to strike his left part of the cuq ball all right Nice Shot okay I didn’t know he could do that now if he’s straight in he can just draw it back a foot or so just anywhere kind of in the middle of the table it’s okay here he he’s following which means he’s probably got to cut it to his left slightly that’s perfect and now he’ll just float up one that a rail buddy was recently elected to the Hall of Fame and I know he felt very honored by that well you wouldn’t find a more richly deserving man and you know I heard somebody say the other day kind of spitefully that they didn’t think that somebody should be elected to the Hall of Fame while they’re living well I disagree vehemently why shouldn’t a guy who’s earned that right enjoy it while he’s still alive I mean that doesn’t make any sense to me at all I totally agree I don’t understand that either if Buddy Hall wasn’t going to be in the Hall of Fame they shouldn’t have a Hall of Fame is my feeling he’s won tournaments in four decades that I know of and he’s won every big title that there’s ever been he won a US Open the what two years ago yeah no was it two years ago yeah I guess so so he’s still playing the high level okay Buddy’s run out the uh first game here yeah one to nothing buddy was originally from Paduka Kentucky and I think he now lives in sehner Florida uh Metropolis Illinois Metropolis Illinois about 10 miles away home Superman eons from Angeles city in the Philippines and that’s that’s really the the uh the world hot bed of pool Philipp City well the Philippines in general you go to Manila and there’s there’s probably 30 more players that would have a impact in the top 30 uh Pro Tour players here oh I believe that sure these guys play Rotation just night and day all right set to break seven balls the wing ball he’s not hitting the balls hard butd he’s not known for a hard break he doesn’t have a real power break he only breaks in the 21 to 22 mph range he’s on the low end of the average for the pros he might as well shoot at this he doesn’t have to he can play safe though and go over behind the 843 like this buddy might be able to see part of this ball and I think the eightball might CAU a little bit of a problem but he’s for sure going to be able to hit it and do something with it only offense does not look to be a possibility former World former World former World straight former world pool Champion member of the Hall of Fame from Owensboro Kentucky give it up for Nikki Barner please thank you still Frank nothing looks easy here doesn’t Brady no if he could uh get into the low right hand part of the Q ball I might consider knocking the one ball uh towards a two ball one rail then the two ball and try to just kind of come back towards a four and eight ball with the Q ball I don’t know if he has that luxury I think he does uh that seems to be his best chance to get this safe and at the very least get the Q ball on that back rail somehow although he’s hitting with a little higher ball than I thought so he might not be doing that I think he tried to make that I think you’re right judging from the disposition of the uh balls as they finished think he was getting position for the two now does a three ball pass the four Mark if it doesn’t this is a tough position shot to to get from the two to the three well it’s awfully difficult to tell from our perspective it looks like it may well the angle that he played here he could go he could play position for the far left hand corner but if he goes two rails around the six ball then that tells me that it goes okay it does go nice speed too yeah I assume that the four also passes the eight so he’s in pretty good shape here you got to be a little careful with the seven Ball but that shouldn’t be a problem given the LIE of the six ball which is close to it now he can play the five ball in the corner or the side A lot of times I play a shot like this in the corner of the five ball uh like this you try to get perfect for the side pocket you end up getting out of line and uh have to go to the end rail or run into something now this is perfect he can go forward a little bit just like this nicely done perfect angle to get on the seven ball on the side pocket a good speed and he’s making he’s chiseling through this rack pretty nicely he carves these racks up boy I tell you he demonstrates some uh finesse and some touch that is beyond the uh capabilities of the average mortal oh that’s true rampy playing Roger Griffith vagar Christensen playing Nick Varner and this is lovely too this is uh a little more angle than what he wanted but this is okay you can hit this with no English or a little bit of right English if you’d rather Al like hting this with no English at all he looks like he might even go around the 9 three rails think he wanted to use a little bit of pace on that ball just to uh give himself a little a chance to to feel good about his stroke not have to make one of those intermediate strokes but make a a good full swing through the [Applause] [Music] ball okay it’s one each and if there’s an area of eon’s game that’s uh not up to the rest of his levels would be his break area that’s a lot of times the times he loses he just doesn’t make balls on the break we did the commentary on his match last night with Archer and when the match was over Archer had run out five times from his own break efon only once and then not until late in the match the second of the last game I think it was it’s hard to be a top quality player if you don’t really generate some offense from your break and they do because uh well over the years traditionally Mark the the tournament winners have run out about a third of the time from their own break and you have to do that if you don’t do that you’re not going to beat these great players now buddy I’ve always thought that he was one of the best adjusters to not breaking the balls well that I’ve ever seen uh he beat me in the finals of a big tournament in 1986 soft breaking the balls and I’ve seen him do that to other guys if he doesn’t get results boy he will change Eon set to break he’s breaking from closer to the middle of the table than what most of the players have been five balls the wing ball well that’s his power break which won’t hurt our ears he did make the three ball however ball made the yeah made the corner ball now uh do you shoot at this or do you bank at it uh I don’t know matter of individual preference I guess you know I remember a match Grady that you beat buddy 11 to zero when that was when buddy was playing about his well as he ever has yeah I remember that with some fondness too but I’ve lost Nick beat me 11 to nothing once too so no big deal well he played the bank shot he’s showing some banking prowess here in the early going now this angle here I think he’s going to have to float forward he can’t get out very much cuz he’s almost straight in he’s going to take a look at it I think he’s going to go forward and maybe out oh four five Ines and just accept a fairly long shot yeah I think he has to do that if he tries to follow down to the end rail he risk it and snooker behind the five well nine Ball’s a game that plays better that way if you if you go ahead and just accept a proper angle with a longer shot that’s the way to play the shot here rather than run too much risk this should be a just above Center ball a touch of right hand English like this that’s that was the right shot now uh he might be able to draw around the eight ball I can’t tell for sure but I believe he can do that he’s looking at it he what he can’t do is is come out underneath the eightball and have comfortable position well this is boardline this is very sticky situation and this is one of these that the eightball Looms so large sometimes it impairs your focus you end up missing this ball good beautiful shot of eff on the screen there oh he missed the ball and well also the six balls laying because it will only go in one pocket and he came up off that shot awfully quick if you were to watch that again I I would venture to say his body was moving before the tip had struck the Q ball yeah surprisingly he normally does lift up just a little bit on his delivery but that one was a little bit more pronounced it appeared and it looked like he was just a little uncomfortable with the whole shot now buddy doesn’t like to run into balls he just thinks that’s the wrong way to play pool so I you won’t see him going into the nine ball here uh it’s awfully easy easy to end up with a difficult shot or no shot on the five ball he would rather play good position on the five ball and then maybe can get position for that one pocket that the six will go in and if not play a good intelligent safety if he doesn’t run into this what type of a position will he use here well uh he looks like he’s going to just go over there between the nine and the eight and hit the the long rail prior to getting to the side pocket this doesn’t lay comfortable see if he tries to go two rails uh you know Miss the nine and come underneath the eight uh he might accidentally scrape the nine some funny things can happen here so I don’t I don’t know maybe his best shot is to try to go into the nine and hit it thinly I I don’t know now what efon does with stuff like this he loads it up with inside English and uh doesn’t touch anything and he’s got position see that’s what uh that was the shot that well look how nicely he did that Marque he’s got perfect position to draw back for the six ball is that that was a beautiful shot that was a a world class shot right there good judgment he thought it out and then he executed it flawlessly well I always thought Buddy’s creativity when it came to finesse position play was better than anybody’s anyway he finds a way of uh making it simple look at this kn nice touch on that draw shot that was the classic patented buddy hall draw shot now he’s in business so two rails probably out towards the seven ball for the side pocket it’s really exciting to watch these guys manage the balls like this this is H something that you just can’t get with something less than 40 years of practice and the experience experience is not something that’s taught it’s earned yeah it’s a lot of fun to watch buddy Lumber around the table in classic style playing near perfectly well that was one beautiful run out turned in by Buddy absolutely gorgeous I’d love to watch uh technical expertise rather than just running around the table shot making [Applause] already said something to somebody yeah sometimes buddy has gotten a little bit more temperamental and emotional here in his latter years and uh something was bothering him in the audience and he just politely went over and asked whoever it was to refrain from doing it okay two to one buddy hall we’ve said this all week but more than 300 players quite an international tone to things I don’t know how many uh players came from Europe and Asia to here I don’t think we had any Australians this time we had one gentleman from Russia though well England represented Canada Mexico yeah Norway Sweden Finland and you know uh beyond the scope of how many people come you know it’s amazing at the talent level they bring when they come I mean there guys here that you’ve never even heard their names nor do they speak a word of English and they don’t miss a ball that’s true yeah they play very well it’s really a uh a heartening uh thing to see when you see that much enthusiasm and exuberance for pool okay buddy set the break looks like the six ball is the wing ball this time that’s most likely to go in and it’s falling just a little short of the corner pocket he got the one ball go in earlier today the wing ball was shooting in like a bullet now um it’s hard for I can reach this shot I don’t know if Buddy can or not and I like kinning it on uh his left hand side and going trying to go down behind that five ball cluster that being the 34759 that’s what he’s looking at well he plays well opposite handed so we can reach it that way his Str looks so smooth opposite handed if you didn’t know he wasn’t left-handed you might think that he actually is his natural hand well he hit that thicker than he meant to by quite a bit oh I know he’s very dissatisfied with that outcome well he didn’t take quite as much time as as he usually does now for e and uh he can just draw this back a little bit or he can go down to the end Rail and up couple of feet like this well he didn’t get much inside English on that you know uh there a nice he’s dissatisfied with that even though he has a good shot he’s a perfectionist like many of the top players are and he expects to be the have the Q on a string and put it right where he wants to now he’s missed his second shot of the morning here this being afternoon in Chesapeake but it’s pool player morning well I’m buddy has to be delighted after that poor safety that he made just to get back to the table almost instantly but this is not on the easy safety see if he thins the three ball cutting it to his left and tries to come down behind the five and nine uh the six ball is maybe a bit in the way he can’t thin it the other way now there’s a thick hit safety but uh it takes a really good hit and you don’t gain much I think we’re going to see buddy make a three rail safety here and try to get on the long rail over there behind the nine well I like this but you got to try to miss that six ball well he’s played a two rail safety what a slowing down he didn’t get there he left him straight in well efon gets another chance I would suggest he probably should take advantage of this one yeah he’s made a couple uncharacteristic uh little glitches in his swing here where he he stood up one time and then the last shot that he missed he didn’t hit very well either last night he got started a little bit sluggishly as well but he came like Gang Busters and sure and like anything once they get loosened up and dialed into the match I’m sure the quality of the performance is going to rise I see that’s the best way to play that shot no reason to risk trying to use a just above Center ball and finesse the QQ ball forward when it’s an easy shot to play position for the corner if ever we were to fault efon uh it would never be in his shot selection that’s one thing that he just uh you can just whatever you think he should do or whatever shot you think he should play and the one that he chooses it’s always going to be the right one that he picks some of the other players here sometimes you can question your decision making eord makes some execution errors but he doesn’t make very many judgment errors no but every once in a while he has an off day and then he will make errors in judgment but it does Happ chion winners fromy Oliver Oliver thanks didn’t you tell me that his stroke wasn’t due out to the year 3000 yes I said that yeah that’s true Frank here on table number four and not only that if I had have had him when he first came to the United States and uh I’d have made at least a million dollars gambling with him I mean with the stroke that he has there’s a lot of High rolling gamblers that would have played him nonstop at any rate we’re not have up two games a p leer hasn’t played all that well and the the match isn’t really long enough to get a statistical evaluation but uh let’s say something about our statistician Pete Fleming Jr he really does a tremendous job doesn’t he Grady oh they all do it ACC stat they sure do yeah we got our soundman Billy Foster the cameramen they they’re always getting the Glorious treatment from the announcers and they do they they’re deserving they do great close-ups and they uh endure a lot of the hardships of the fans bumping them and getting in the way and the volume of time they have to spend behind the scenes getting prepared for one of these matches nearly the same amount as these guys prepare to play these matches yes you’re sure right do a great job and Eep has fallen short again making a ball on the break and I just wonder if that you know what that portends for his chances of winning this match because if he doesn’t make some adjustments and begin to make balls on the break I don’t think he’s going to defeat buddy hall well we’ve had the benefit of watching quite a few matches on this table and I I maintain that he’s breaking from the wrong side of the table to make balls freely the everybody that’s breaking from the right side of the table as uh you see it on your TV monitor they’re they’re having uh a much greater amount of success than what we’ve seen after half from the left side the towns and thank you love those boots now I’d like to show something on the telestrator here if I might if he has the angle that I think he does um he can Bank this one ball over here try to make it but I like using leftand English Q ball goes one two and back up this direction he’s have he have a great chance to get safe if he doesn’t make it he doesn’t have a good kick hereas one of the Young Guns on tour from oh this is after the break so he’s going to oh he can roll out okay he’s going to give his opponent an opportunity to make a mistake well I when I teach people uh young nineball players I tell them to do that in a tough spot tempt your opponent to take it now he he he’s got to say to himself what’s he going to do if I give it to him uh eons pass this difficult shot back and while there is some chance for Success here this is a very difficult chance yeah of course want see my shot the one ball uh you’re not likely make it but it goes straight back and forth across the table and you do relatively handle the CU ball I’d like it to go on the second rail back towards that cluster of four balls and far right hand part of the table like this but I use inside English he might have scratched on this yeah that’s a really hard shot but this this is a a tough lie of balls the four doesn’t go anywhere Mark look at it and the three is on the lower left hand side rail so it’s tough to get position on it to get somewhere where you can make the four yeah this is one of the tougher run outs or one of the tougher layouts we’ve seen in a while and uh this is going to really be a test of the magician’s ability and it’s beautiful to watch I that I would still despite the fact that I see no way to run out I would say that e’s at least 50/50 to run out from here well it’s not no way I mean the four goes in a couple of pockets but you have to be close to it and there’s no comfortable way to get there for you or I this man here he’s he comes up with some things that can put the cuq in the right place well I see uh he could play position for the lower leftand corner pocket that’s one thing he could [Music] do he maybe got just a little bit straighter than he wanted to and now he’s going to be forced to pop this a little bit how’s his speed gritty that’s that’s a nice shot that’s a nice shot what a shot well his rotation skills help him a lot in situations of this nature now he loaded that oh he had even better he’s the Maestro on moving these balls around be careful about does he separate the eight and nine here or no well if he can go forward and play position for the six and side at the same time then yes but I don’t think so oh he almost missed that he knows it too yeah his confidence seems to be just a little bit shaken here in the early stages I like playing position for the seven ball in the same pocket here and trying to get a little beyond straight end that’s what he tried now this is perfect because he just draws it back and plays the eightball in the far uh left hand corner pocket but the key to that that whole rack was getting on that difficult four ball what a pretty run out we just witnessed here y that it was and he’s going to adopt a three game to two Advantage no he’s still got a little work to do here we’ve conceded this prematurely well he’s laughing because he’s dissatisfied with his position not because he’s not going to have a a a a winning shot here but it’s a little more work than what he really wanted to produce you know he’s one of the most the loved sports figures in the country of the Philippines and when you go over there everybody knows him they they regard him with the same uh feelings that we do maybe a Michael Jordan here wherever you go over there he’s beloved oh why shouldn’t he be well he’s kind of the people’s champion and he’s very generous uh to his fellow man and very kind and uh well I’ve said on occasion sometimes he’ll give a maid $100 which uh that makes him a hero in my mind um I mean I try to uh to be humble about things I have a lot to be humble about but I wouldn’t care to clean up other people’s uh dirty Linens for a living and a guy that would tip a made $100 is a great guy in my opinion yeah I’ve been over there with him when he’s won some uh modest Stakes money games and before we left the pool room he’d given virtually all the proceeds away right all right this time he made a ball on The Brak but he has no shot on the one ball he doesn’t play pool for money he plays pool for the love of the sport and and genuinely so he’s not the only one but uh he’s the one that’s probably the most glaring example and you can you can see it’s reflected in his play he’s always studying and practicing and he’s interested to watch other players and even when you don’t think he’s watching you he will come up with something well now if he can if he can hit the left side of this one ball thinly using left English there’s a good safety here I’ll show you on on the monitor here he can knock this one ball here and here the Q ball with a lot of left in this one and even if it hits a seven or three there kind of dies or it comes above it and back this way I don’t think he’s got a good kick here oh he’s going to roll okay well I sure wouldn’t give this to Efron or anything [Music] else well I if I’m going to play safe here I like hitting the left side of the one ball and using quite a bit of left English the question is can you get long enough to get around the seven ball from this angle I don’t know if you can or he can play off the six ball down towards the other end of the table see he was able to get around to seven he wasn’t really able to come out of that and I know efim kind of had a plan in mind of what he was going to do and he also knew that by pushing out that close proximity he might temp buddy into making a shot that he really wasn’t going to be able to lock Eon up with eran’s kind of an ingenious that way he he plays shots to tempt his opponent that he knows that they don’t have a high success ratio on well there’s a lot of things you can do here you can Bank the one but I would only do that if the two ball pass the four into the lower leftand corner now he can thin the ball cutting it to his right and come down here he’s got the four two uh and nine ball to maybe put the Q ball behind this is a testy situation he’s weighing all the possibilities out and he’s going to come up with the the best choice this going to be a soft speed safety and you’ve already recommended against rolling safeties but uh well I hate those shots they practically always come out bad even when you know if he’s snooker there that’s an easy kick for buddy yeah you don’t want to leave the balls close together for these great players they can just manipulate him too well you need distance for sure does buddy have a bank shot yeah he does but I I don’t think he can get on the two ball so he’ll probably play safe like that’s nice shot super nice shot SES andard a former WPA World Nall Champion former winner of the challenging Champions ladies and gentlemen yeah he had a bankot couldn’t do much with ITN of Theon this a good shot M between the four and a nine oh hit it nicely might make that no not quite he’s got a shot here he’s got a shot he’s got a tough position play but he’s got got a shot well uh yeah and you know what’s hard about this is if you miss the five ball then you have to go between the four and the Seven which means you have to take a long shot and and uh or you might even hit something this is a very tough shot if you accidentally go a little bit too thin this is even missable it’s not right in the Jaws it’s just hanging outside the Jaws so his balls in the way and yeah he bumped the seven well that’s what I meant it was that turned out just as ill- fated as it could have because he hit a pretty good ball there to get it going back up in that direction and if he does anything but lands solid on an object ball he’s going to get some kind of a shot that was just a little unfortunate yeah well that was an incredibly difficult position to play anyway okay I don’t think he can hit anything but his right side of his I think he’s going to thin this or oh he went for the bank okay nice shot nice shot ran played a bank shot a pretty nice shot once again he collided into a ball and was the recipient of kind of a adverse rle well he he’s a favorite to make this bank if he wants to shoot at and he can get position here I like using low right just a little bit of right and and coming down two rails and playing position for the fourball in the right hand side pocket this is imminently makeable and he’s queuing up as if he feels very confident about this bank shot well oh he kissed it yeah he’s but he got a little Fortune yeah he left a pretty testy little shot to initiate this run well this is one of the shots i’ love to watch e shoot anyway if it’s cutable he cuts stuff like this with inside English and uh he’s looking cut it the side but the six Ball’s a problem coming with a Q ball two rails out of the corner pocket there but it doesn’t he can’t cut it in the corner I don’t think there’s no bank if he did try to cut it in the corner the side pocket would be a problem well tried to kill it with inside spin I that’s the first time I can ever remember seeing him miss that that time shot even though it’s difficult he seems to always make it part of the reason he missed that I think was in the avoiding the six ball with the Q ball he was trying he hit a little bit too fat to fting out the Q ball yep you’re probably right now Buddy’s fine here he can just draw back a little bit just to not be over the nine ball but he’s looking good the transfer from the six to seven is the only doubt left in this this rack and if he picks up the proper angle that will be uh you simplified I like going three rails on to get on that seven I like getting up right around the middle of the [Applause] table down no but not from this angle this angle I like going one rail this is fine if you get this but he can’t go two rails or four three rails here this will be just a little top right hand English and uh bring the QQ ball between the seven and the nine to play the corner pocket that the six ball is going to go into with the seven Nice Shot nice shot but he got just a little more angle than he would have ideally liked he’s going to have to work a little bit he was hoping to just kind of Coast through these last two balls and he’s going to have to put the full force of all his mental effort into this stroke shooting to just a half a pocket good shot hit it with a nice speed too he didn’t try to baby that in he struck it in and he’s going to tie this match up three games a [Music] piece maybe we can get uh an average see what they’re shooting in a minute which as always I kind of expected this to be close and interesting anyway well Merlin glodek on the character generator has been having some trouble with our equipment and uh don’t know if we’re able to get those up but it’s all fixed now and we’ll get to see a result of Pete Fleming’s work buddy comes up and gives the rack a little inspection he’s not quite satisfied he’s calling E from Back to the table he’s found that the three ball was just off the back of the rack just a smidgen after a week of play on these tables the the the racking gets to be a little bit of a difficulty there’s the numbers a little low for these two great Champions but it’s early on in the match I expect those to go up considerably as the contest progresses these tables these Breakers really chew up that rack area and it gets hard to freeze those balls as the week goes on yeah it reminds me of the t- box on a par three uh golf course you know what it does get chewed up is right this cloth is new uh 5 days ago and then uh it gets used about 20 hours a day and in a week’s time this cloth is nearly obsolete try it again here e says but’s still not happy you know it’s awfully hard even under ideal circumstances to freeze all the balls and at some point the there has to be kind of a compromise as to what will be accepted or what won’t be accepted as far as the rack goes or they may end up having the tournament director Scott Smith rack the balls you never know but I’m saying even when Scott rack he’s not going to get everything Frozen perfectly either no but whenever that happens I just accept what the tournament director gives me as long as I’m getting the same rack that the other guy gets that’s all I care about I don’t think that there should be any uh question about that I think in the effort of the if the tournament director who’s uh impartial racks the balls I think the discussion’s over at that point if he’s if he proclaims it to be a good rack then it’s a good rack because otherwise you could you could carry this on forever sometimes you can rearrange the balls in the rack and uh sometimes you can rough up the nap of the cloth to get a little better uh settling of the balls but it’s n impossible to get everything Frozen perfect and some of these guys become very uh picky and and and sometimes it’s almost in an effort to get you off your mental game here just to aggravate you a little bit under ideal circumstances we’d have a neutral rack but uh unfortunately we don’t have that capability with the uh state of the sport at this moment Scott Smith is seeing that there’s a little bit of a problem he’s kind of heading this direction so we may in fact get a neutral rer well there have been different things done to to solve that type of situation in the past Mark such as change the spot uh move the spot up an inch sometimes break even from the other end yeah so we’ve tried some different things all good suggestions but uh still nothing would take the place of a neutral racker or an impartial neutral racker that would have the uh all power to just say this is the rack that you’re going to get and break them and this isn’t good for the the fans either it’s not good for AC stats either why don’t do you want to take a short break Pat we’ll come back in a little bit I think the rack is finally resolved at least for one game had I been effort in that circumstance after that lengthy delay I would have rolled two balls out with my fingers as well and said no it’s not going to be satisfactory and carry it on enforcing the issue that somebody’s going to have to make a ruling here as to just how we’re going to do this because otherwise this is just going to go on rack after rack no Scott won’t allow that to happen oh Buddy’s made the n on the break after all that he just shook his the head That’s mighty suspicious Mark yeah look at him look at him that’s funny huh he looks like the cat that ate the canary iame that’s uh and that’s really why Scott needs to intercede and make a call there and and say this is the way it’s going to be because you can’t have a circumstance of that nature to come about well that happened in Milwaukee and Earl forfeited his match in the finals when Scott said that he was going to do the racking for the remainder of the of the match butd he’s being kind of charming about it just moving his beat only halfway over and putting his hand over his face with embarrassment but uh but nonetheless really realistically Scot sh wack the balls and and and that place should commence May second his head now what would you do if he made it twice well that happens and we’ve seen it on this table before it goes right into that left corner pocket the bulk of the times we’ve seen it made oh this last time it didn’t go in direct it was kissed over there before it been going direct over there head it over there that direction now he made a ball on the break sound like that Wing ball went in and Eon really needs to find the right half of the table to break from next time he gets a chance to break now see this shot mark this this is a place where uh if I want to shoot and Buddy loves to shoot I’m going to push the QQ ball like an inch more off the rail and tempt effort to take it I don’t care if he takes it because there’s no easy safety it’s an incredibly tough shot you don’t even have to have position and if he if he makes me take it then at least I’m a little more comfortable in the bridging of the shot and so on I wouldn’t just I don’t like the push out to a shot that I feel my opponent’s going to take yeah but this shot here you can’t comfortably shoot it and get position on the two ball I’d be glad if my opponent took it and there’s even a scratch here Budd he’s planning on running into the seven if he hits it pretty well I think what a nice shot he just whistled past the ball that’s what I told you you don’t get position anyway I didn’t think the two pass at three doesn’t appear that it does but he is down examining it well if it does then he’s got a nice shot here oh that was a smooth stroke that’s a really tough shot yeah he made that look easy there’s a nice shot of The Rifleman drip man oh and there was enough what a boy he really spiked that ball in he’s picked up a little bit at the wrong angle but yeah he’s he seems dissatisfied but he’s got to be elated to pocket the ball from that distance can he draw or follow this and come underneath the seven so I think it lays okay to draw two rails under underneath the seven not to follow it so this is a pretty shot low right hand English he’ll want to hit about the first diamond to the left of the far right hand corner pocket like this nice shot look at the action on that ball right he just looks so smooth going through there and that ball just takes off like it has a life in it own that was one of those patented buddy hall draw Strokes that we spoke about earlier in this match now he can just kind of stop here if he wants to and have the right angle to get on the high side of the six ball and now Buddy’s chiseling through a rack here that had quite a bit of work in front yeah and a tough rack he made a great shot on the one ball the two ball the four ball or three ball whatever that was uh yeah was a three ball and now he’s in business now the optimum mangle here just get back out to the center of the table and play two cushions position for the nine no he’ll play he’ll play one cushion here one cushion I think that’s what he likes here see if he gets in the range of the side pocket or anything beyond that he’s perfect and I like this a lot better than two rails you’ll miss it going two rails once in a while this is not missable for a great player like The Rifleman well the problem going across the table twice two rails is that you spend too much time in no man’s land yeah well he did go two rail okay he must have not got the same angle that we thought he had been roll stra he would have drawn straight back well either way it’s okay turned out ideal all right five to three a is not going to venture up to Rack him again at this point think he’s semi infuriated over the turn of events here I don’t blame him is Scott going to rack the ball oh somebody’s going to I’m sure e is not going to go up there and trouble himself further well I you know I I like a lot of the other guys Mark find it kind of insulting to have somebody like eyeballing every you know every little bit of space in the rack I mean it it’s just kind of degrading I don’t like to go through that myself so I’d much rather just have somebody rck them well you can do it once but you’re not going to be a fool and walk up there and go through that thing where the guy’s going to run you around when you put your best effort forth well I come to the tournament to play pool not to Rack balls anyway buddy doesn’t even give it a cursory glance because he knows that uh to uh seed and uh override what Scott’s decision is as to a fair rack is going to create problems yeah but if he comes up dry a couple of times that’ll change instantly I suspect Fireball didn’t go and that was the wing ball looks like nothing else is going to go either well he’s going to end up I think he’s going to pay a short visit to the seven ball City J that’s not really easy you mean to have the Q ball Lodge on the seven yeah well or he can better shot really is to bring the C ball down around uh you were correct seven ball City Jail is exactly where he is and he’s he’s confronted with a pretty difficult one rail kick yeah sure is I know reference game and I know how I like to play safe the style of game uh and so on and that was the best shot he saw it instantly no reason to waste time this is this particular angle coming out like this that ball really tends to Skid long and it’s that makes for a tough hit and it’s a pretty small ball being it’s out in the middle of the table it’s something just less than three balls width the has area wise see this is better this is easier to see easier to hit it might go in the side off the four ball I I’d try to hit the inside of the ball and he used English to create that very effect and that was one of those percentage plays that these top players putting their Arsenal weapons that well I would have whacked it though you know to give it a chance to to get some distance I think uh when uh buddy was going to decide to elected to play it with English when you when you use warp drive that makes hitting the ball so much tougher than if you can use that nice smooth delivery you feel but I didn’t mean real hard just a nice medium speed so E’s got a little chance to play offense here he’s got a fairly thin cut into the side and but that again is his Forte and he has not achieved the ideal Optimum angle to pocket the two ball anywhere he’s faced with another very difficult cut into the opposite side pocket and only unlimited reward there’s no Assurance of getting in position for the three well the three doesn’t go anywhere he’s shooting this like it passes to four which I kind of thought it might you are correct maybe the three passes the six then as well it must because he wouldn’t have played a shot to get to nothing okay yeah it didn’t look like that would go from this angle but oo graze the rail but he use good speed and these Pockets uh they’re accepting balls generously accepted that one now he’s in pretty good shape here he can just draw this back a little bit you know for the viewers at home that want to improve their game that just goes to show you why you should use soft speeds the pockets are far more forgiving on a slightly errant hit um well it gives you a chance to get away with a bit of a bad hit he hit that with any volume of speed whatsoever that would have banked away from the pocket or rattled the pocket and spit out that was a nice shot he had to go forward used little bit of high rightand English and brought it the QQ ball around three cushions now he can just kill this with inside English I think like that nice he for how soft he hit that he’s got about a foot and a half a Bridge length out there and only a one or two in in back swing he’s working the q ball nicely here well he would have liked a little more angle he’s got to hit just just a shade harder than he would have desired it’s kind of a flat ball hit maybe just below Center ball hit slightest little bit of English uh well um isn’t that odd how sometimes the simplest of physical things or of basics can can cost you buddy comes to the table with a a free win I don’t know this afternoon thus far in this in this contest Mark Buddy’s technical game has been perfect I mean he yeah he’s making great shots and I mean he’s been on the don’t you think he’s been on the right side of every ball and and every creative position play he’s done perfectly and and when you teach somebody you’d tell them well you know when you make that whatever that ball was you come out two rails and get in the middle of the table then all you have to do is lag the eightball in and you’re out he got the awkward angle yeah that was a very stiff angle and that just as I spoke uh he fell short on his position he didn’t really achieve the angle when the balls are close to the pocket sometimes you can’t take it for granted you think you got enough there and that angle was kind of tricky and he hit a bad ball cost him the game and like like you said Buddy’s not been falling on the wrong side of balls or just a little bit too straight in to now notice he came up he came up dry only once and he he eyeball that rack yeah I think Scott’s made a decision in his own mind to just put the rack down and walk away and go on okay we it looks like we have the four ball as the wing ball here the one that’s most likely to go in RM the pocket buddy nearly scratched but the eightball pushed the Q ball out the way and went in the side pocket itself now do you think that that happened because e missed that really easy eightball do you believe in in karma of that sort well uh what happens is you expose yourself to more bad things when you miss the eightball now the guy makes the game and he’s got the first offensive opportunity the subsequent rack and uh it does seem to avalanche on you when you kind you know kind of compound your mistakes I don’t know that the one ball goes here if not he’s going to have to play the combination or the bigot on the two ball or Bank the one that’s his three options well The Bard doesn’t really look on no I agree with you he’s looking at the combination I believe I think the one ball passes though okay well if it does that would be a shot combination’s pretty tricky from there okay good shot he knew he had to hit the right hand part of the pocket he kind of hung in there and gave it a little body English once it was on its way well he’s just just performing splendidly it’s a real pleasure to watch him this afternoon he’s fallen into a real nice mode here and uh he’s putting on a little buddy hall nineball clinic for you yeah he’s not happy with this angle it’s just one of these little uh just these little things that boy there’s a lot more work to it had the difference being if had gone one more foot further it’ been very simple I like drawing this back to the short side the five ball I think the seven Ball’s a little bit of a problem for him somebody’s got a camera there and I think it’s distracting him well as I said earlier in last couple years Buddy’s become very emotional and very temperamental about some of these aspects of the game that he used to just take for granted and go ahead and play through Mina could be just kidding course made a nice shot there oh that was a great shot played it right into the seven rather than try to take the seven ball out of the picture by going around it he used the edge of the seven as an aid to help stop the Q ball from going too far where would you like to be being a right-handed player to to shoot this six ball in and I assume play position for the side pocket you want to be able to reach it but you don’t want to be too far from it I kind of like to be on the long rail there and uh then I can use a little bit of inside English and kind of concentrate on coming off the nineball maybe a almost like a two rail okay but what he has to what he’s got to watch here now see if he hits the in rail first he wants to hit the six and then the nine not I think he’s going to be able to just draw he’s going to hit pretty full ball no he came off the inside well that’s the right way to play it but you got to make sure you don’t hit the rail first the C Ball just dies on the rail if you do anyway that nice left-handed stroker here stands him in good stad once again he’s going to take a lead here of seven games to three if he clears off these last two balls uhoh uhoh well I think he’s going to Grumble and growl and then I think he’s going to bank it in one rail yeah I agree I agree with you this is a onep pocket type Bank uh but I don’t know if we can reach this uh well we do know that he can reach it left-handed and he hasn’t elected to use the bridge in any of these circumstances before he’s overcut it a little bit E’s going to get an opportunity Al be a difficult one well I’m really surprised we we crowed uh about his technical Perfection here this afternoon and he got a little out of line you know those shots like he had on the seven ball it’s so easy to catch it a little thicker a little thinner and you you still make the ball but it changes the direction the C ball goes well he was a have a little funny angle he just tried to do it with speed that got away from him now efon had to kind of straighten that bank up and he overdid it a little bit can’t really fault efon for the shot it was just that difficult and these tables on Bank shots I noticed it seems like they’ve been grabbing or banking a little bit shorter than we’re accustomed to at these new tournament tables well sure when I did my pre-match um kicking system checks they they were coming off 2 to 3 in shorter than is normal for new cloth conditions now do you like to side what a nice shot on the screen there I think that’s where he’ll play it nice shot and Buddy didn’t really have to pay the price for a mistake he now takes the lead seven games to three as we previously stated although we didn’t know there was going to be yet another inning involved let’s see if we can get some updated numbers and see what they’re currently shooting yeah Buddy’s Bank missed short as well as eons did and uh buddy was of the much simpler variety well but not left-handed that’s a tough shot to shoot left-handed even if you have a little ability opposite-handed like he does yeah Bank Shot there’s just no such thing as a dead Bank as the amateurs will forecast them to be you know you can miss any type of a bank oh s surprisingly low Mark yeah there they are in the screen and both players shooting in the 800 to 804 range and that’s uh vastly sub their average Buddy’s going to give the rack another cursory glance leading seven games to three if he can get some offense generated from his break he can go ahead and close this match out pretty yeah if he put easily if he puts a rack or two together here E’s going to be hard pressed to make a comeback although as you suggested earlier he did that very thing last night getting the 10 all from a 5 to 10 deficit another the wing ball shot in like a bullet but he let the Q ball slip away and that wasn’t the intentional cut break that he used the reason it went to the rail he just m hit the headball just a fraction but he’s going to play a push out well he’s not going to get this e gratefully accept I wouldn’t have put it here uh he’s going to thin this to his right and the CU ball back down here behind the 67 and the 23 you got to be careful not to make the 8 ball or the one you snule yourself if you do that well this is not the customary Eon re of safety here he’s uh no he’s he’s missed that ball by a fair margin by comparison to where he would normally have it now buddy can thin the one ball on the left side also when it comes a natural two rails down here behind the 67 yeah I don’t think playing offense here has much of a a dividend oh he’s hitting downward on it like he wants to play offense well the combination uh I don’t think it’s combin I think I think it passes by there I just think it’s that difficult well but he can’t get on the two ball if he does well he’s going to spike down and draw across the way he was queuing up but I don’t think that’s going to be advised I think he’s going to refrain from shooting that shot he’d like to play offense it’s just not available well he is playing offense if he shoots at it like this see how still he keeps his body on this delivery of the stroke yeah he tried to play offense but that three ball was a huge impediment there he’s he’s pretty much sacrificed the whole game on this shot well I can’t make that shot that he just attempted when I’m practicing there’s no pressure on me in tournament conditions is almost impossible in my opinion spry difficult chot but he really doesn’t want to get into a protracted safety battle with the likes of eon Reyes despite Eon performing way below his normal standard yeah he’s made some poor safeties in this match hasn’t he uh uncharacteristically so I can’t recall a match that I saw efon perform as poorly as he has here in this match right now it almost seems like every ball is in doubt well it’s that way when you’re struggling yes it is just like pulling teeth every shot looks tough okay now he’s going to play the 68 combination and he’ll be careful to control the six ball as he does so you know eon’s not really a uh chronic practicer like many of these uh young guys are he kind of more like an artist he just comes up and performs he would warm up for 20 minutes a half hour before his match and go or some of these guys I tell I kid them they might as well just go ahead and weld their queue together they never take it apart anyway you know yeah yeah yeah that might account for a little bit of this disastrous match here he’s got the great bilard knowledge and that never leaves him that doesn’t really need much honing but uh execution wise he’s fallen short of the Mark here more than once one rail around a seven here just like this good shot now a couple racks could uh really do something for his confidence here if he get a little something going he can get his pocketing power and his confidence back up right away well making a ball on the break and having a shot at the lowest numbered ball would be a big help at any rate our score is narrowed uh somewhat it’s going to now read seven games to four buddy hall and I firmly believe it’s essentially he get over to the red side of the rack you know uh sitting next to us here in the booth is Jimmy wtch and he’s pointed out that Eon ran out the rack with his break que now and that is not that uncommon when ef’s playing bad he’s very super ious and he will switch cues around and change configurations with do you remember when he first came to this country he had a $9 queue I never saw anything like it uh I mean the thing was in tatters U it was stained from who knows what coffee or or uh well um the queue that you’re talking about he still plays with that queue and uh I kind of like to describe it as like a eighth graders wood shop project that would have gotten a c grade only I mean it was fairly crude on the fits and the joint but the the thing has the densest Maple shaft you’ve ever seen that that shaft must weigh 4 oz and uh like I said he’s kind of superstitious and he just believes that that shot that that Q has good luck in it all right he uh if I see this right the one two and then he’s going to have to play the 395 combination trying to get the you he wants to lay right on the three ball so that he can control a three ball when he does this or if it lays right he might be able to play the three into the underside of the nine and then make the five and in that fashion the three ball would stay there score is now 7 to four and I think you’ve made a real good assessment of the whole rack Grady I wouldn’t add anything to what you’ve said well I like the Ticky Mark don’t you and that’s TI K accent mark on the E uh and that’s where a ball hits one rail exactly hits another object ball and then continues on to achieve some desired result well he had to rub off the seven he really didn’t want to have to go in the seven ball there well now from here he’s got to play the combination doesn’t he he’s oh yeah and he’s got a little longer distance here it be make controlling the three ball just a little bit tougher that’s a gorgeous shot gorgeous shot now he’s going to be rewarded with a 39 combination he’s going to extend his lead back to four games now you be careful here take his time hit at the nice slow speed kind of a just below ball just kind of float that nine ball in like that good jot eight to four eight to four that was the thing that efon least needed was an unforced air on the break buddy right back into the match well despite how great a player Effron is Mark I’m surprised he’s still in this star stud of the event given the way he’s broken the balls the entire tournament it uh you just can’t beat great players unless your your break percentages or relatively High you know one of the guys was sizing up his match against Archer last night and they were saying that uh they wanted the one game spot with Archer and uh I kind of thought about that for a minute and I said well geez he’s already giving you guys the break you know yeah right right he has struggled mightily with his break at this event and a couple of the tables earlier in the week weren’t breaking well and he struggled there and then he really hasn’t uh produced much on offensively on this match on this that is allowing balls to go in on the break it’s just not hitting him real good and he’s kind of he’s kind of a little bit defeated then like that last break he let up on it and and let in letting up on it you would think you would gain control of the Q ball and he lost the Q Ball even at that he probably didn’t hit those balls last Rec less something less than 20 mph which is a little bit below the lowest average pro yeah and one of saying is that that it wasn’t his most powerful break we’re going to take a short break also now as I was saying Mark Efron on his soft break isn’t even avoiding scratching one of the tenants of soft breaking the balls is you never scratch well he certainly seems a little dejected in this match and maybe even a little mentally detached I don’t know the turn of events hasn’t lent itself to having a good attitude either but uh this not the classic Eon Reyes no it’s not he can regain that though I’ve seen him down when the chips are down before and make Mighty comeback so he’s not completely out of it but he really needs to hope that buddy starts making some mistakes here harford’s now re-entering the arena Bud he set to break here in the 13th game leading the match eight games to four but he keeps going back to that same old good spot the three ball will be the wing ball the one that’s most likely to go in Breaking from there well you remember how you mentioned earlier that you didn’t think efon was even breaking from the proper side of the table that’s something Buddy never does wrong n ises Varner they know which side of the table yields the best results e see that nine goes towards that pocket n with was heading but uh nothing else went into the pocket so no it might have gone if it hadn’t hadn’t got a kiss on the fireball now uh this is eon’s last a ra if he doesn’t run out here this match is over with pretty much well he’s attempting to regroup and I notic he’s changed shafts on his playing queue he ran out last time with his Brak queue and uh he’s kind of superstitious and sometimes he just likes to change the configuration of things just to try to generate a little more feel or or just to change something up but I happen to agree with you this is a Musto rack as he almost overcut the one ball to initiate it he’s picked up poor position and this is just not classic Eon Reyes Pool right here but it’s hard to miss the four and seven here how do you do that well I think that’s the problem that’s why he’s weighing it out you certainly want to be careful not to get too much focus on that 4 and seven or you’ll end up missing the two ball here what if he was able to hit the e that was okay but uh not easy and this isn’t getting any easier he can’t follow this he’s got to elevate the queue or roll it that looks to me to be his only two reasonable options yeah he’s digging into the uh match here and like you said it’s subsequently getting more difficult as we go along just making the ball will be enough of a challenge without having to try to warp the Q ball out of there somehow if he digs into this well now this is I don’t think he can miss the nine ball can he doesn’t look like it well he’s going to have to accept a tougher shot and I think that’s by the speed that the Ed the nature of the shot I think he realized that himself well this is a very difficult shot trailing 8 to four and on top of that he can’t just completely roll it in what’s he going to do shoots the five ball in between the eight and nine I guess he’s going to use some power and try to get to the middle of the table now the six balls loomed in there quite large and we have another adventure well we’re going to see uh maybe a rail first or just a rail first with a little bit of massay here looks like he can get around it and the FES proximity to the pocket makes it pretty reasonable to pocket now he’s maybe over thinned the ball and he’s picked up a pretty pretty tough shot these guys right here I he’s elevated out of the pocket and he’s going to have to spike down on this ball a little bit and this is real challenging shot and he grazed the nine this whole thing is just gone completely to Pieces as you said before that was kind of a Musto rack to get back into this match and have a a shred of Hope of pulling this off oh Buddy’s outplayed him clearly as evidenced by the current score and Buddy’s a great closer and I believe this match is over with eon’s body language suggests it the score reflects it and Buddy can see a uh a weakened opponent here and he would like to go ahead and draw blood as much as possible while he can he even has kind of picked up his Pace here a little bit and he’s looking a little more chipper about the outcome occasionally he kind of portrays a uh a kind of an adverse or negative attitude during his matches and he shows some displeasure and some emotion and somehow he’s uh his high degree of technique overrides sometimes a little bit of negativity in his attitude see he’s such a perfectionist he’s unhappy at being this far from the Aiden straight in it it means that he’s got to follow it down uh well he’s not accustomed to having to play from back here he’s generally when he’s on his a game he’s right up there another foot closer right well these tables from some angles come off a little slow that’s a nice shot yeah he fought that right on in there and made a terrific shot all our score is going to read nine games to four buddy hall and Buddy will be breaking from his favorite spot in the table’s favorite spot and uncharacteristic of most of these Top matches we really haven’t seen too many uh break and run outs in this match I don’t know if we’ve seen But one no but Buddy’s play has been really excellent you know when he’s uh thinking uh great like he is now and he executes just like he wants to I mean he’s a an awfully pretty player to watch an action he wiped off the Q ball I think and he’s far from in his prime he’s he’s down a good half a notch from when he was really at his Peak still playing well I don’t mean to take anything away from him but just if he was at his absolute prime this match would have been over some time ago there’s only one been one breaking run out that by Buddy Hall well his best year I think he won eight out of 10 tournaments and finished second in the other two or something of that nature well he’s had some longevity I believe he’s won tournaments in four decades there’s a cut break that was the intentional cut break and he’s affected a good result here I don’t think he can get on the two ball here mark look at this well I think he’s going to show us a patented buddy hall Back Spin shot well he can only get on the two ball drawing the drawing the shot if he can cut the one ball just slightly to his left and it looks a little straightish to me now what he might do is try to get kind of in the middle of the table he huffed and he puffed a big breath and now he’s attacking this shot and I think he’s going to go for the big stroke this will be pretty to watch if he catches a good one no see he had to cheat the pocket to do that he got oh thought he was going to get lucky he had to cheat to pocket just a hair to come down to the right side of the nineball I think and this isn’t easy to get position for the two ball from here due to the proximity of the rail and the Q ball let’s take the telestrator here and I’ll show you what I see is the only route to to this ball the one ball one rail right here two and and here or here that’s the only way I see to get to that H the wheels have just completely come off yeah he’s uh he’s not thinking clearly and not executing properly and U and this is no disrespect against efon cuz I’ve done this plenty of times in my career he’s already given up the way I perceived the match well you know the balls have not cooperated he’s struggling mightily and then every shot he comes to the table it’s one of these things where there like you diagram there’s one way to get there and you that requires the Supreme perfect execution to even dream of getting there now if Buddy straight in on this see I think he can maybe draw that out of there with low left English and go a couple of rails I think he’s looking at that like he might be able to cut the two ball to his left and just float out above the five ball straight away well he’s got some work in front of him and I tell you if worst comes to worst I’d just go ahead and roll ahead in in and play a stop shot on the five ball and Bank it down table and stick to Q ball right on the six supposed to take a wild chance well he wants to run out here this puts him on the hill oh he slipped around the nine there pretty nice well but how did he avoid the six he’s not going to be able to I don’t think I think he’s going to have to play to bang the six across table a little bit hope for the best outcome he can’t use outsid in this here um comfortably might SC cross side and if he hits the six he’s got to be careful he doesn’t knock the six to the end Rail and he could scratch off the six in the side pocket well it’s hard to tell sometimes they’ve surprised us before I’m not sure what English it looks like he might be able to try to slip around that six ball yeah yeah I thought he might be able to barely miss it but it was so beautifully done let’s see if he uses his left-handed stroke here now he’s feeling mighty good about this uh 10th Victory on his side of The Ledger Now watch how The Rifleman draws his back with his left-handed stroke beautiful yep near Perfection he’s a pretty player to watch I’ve always liked this stroke and admired to the tempo that he plays at it’s a very uh it’s a distinguished style That You Don’t See very many guys use I he just pull this back in the middle of the table if he has a bit of the wrong angle okay he was able to get back to hitting before the side this is ideal okay 10 to four buddy hall and Buddy’s really starting to have some fun out here finally isn’t he yeah well the match is over with I mean he he’s capturing every game the match was over with a few games ago to uh just judg by the general General M of things you know a seven game deficit isn’t insurmountable but uh certain given the way that efon has performed and even his General demeanor it would seem to be just insurmountable at this time well the odds uh are 127 to1 less than the break figures making it roughly 100 to1 but I think it’s more than that the way Eon is playing and just the way he’s kind of uh I don’t know just woodenly going around the table not staying down on balls I make it about 3 million to one against him winning this match if he won this match call it the greatest comeback in the history of all sports you know it’s got to be difficult to be up for every big match week after week uh traveling about the country and that’s all that you do I’ve often marveled at the fact that he can get up for as many as he does yeah you’re right a lot of pro teams and athletes have poor performances after they’re on the road for three days and they come home and say they’re wore out you know this guy’s on the road for 6 months of the crack so uh I think what we’re seeing is just just the the the tail of the tape as far as the uh what it takes out of you physically to travel persistently be expected to perform at your absolute finest and is using that cut great break the N ball went by the pocket there and not going to have an easy shot on the opening two Ball but he got a couple balls down there’s the acat numbers but you know this time I don’t think that they’re uh you know they’re uncharacteristically not really accurate I think Buddy’s played a lot better than 88 you know you know how a pitcher sometimes will uh uh you know he’ll pitch a game and U oh how can I say it his team his team only scores one run and he gives up uh uh you know like two runs over an entire game on four scattered hits or something I mean that’s a good playing and buddy has uh everything that he’s tried to do I mean he’s done very very well now he tried to get on the other side of the fourball I would I I would liken this more to a team that has the pitcher out there that has a eight-run lead and he decides to just throw strikes and gets hit a little bit get ends up giving up five runs I mean uh buddy hasn’t really performed flawlessly but he’s had the lead chronically and uh but now we’re right back to what you you you touched on now nothing easy no matter where he gets he’s got it’s tough you know yeah he’s got his work cut out for him now the 59 billiard is fine but he didn’t even make the three ball so uh that that’s what I mean uh uh now Buddy’s dissatisfied with the outcome of this shot then uh I would be elay to get to C to the table again had I been buddy yeah yeah listen I I know buddy real well and I promise you that you you he can have uh 10 good rolls in a row and get one bad one he’s still going to grou and Grumble and and stare at the balls uh evly he forgets those good roles does that have any effect or is that purely something psychological for your opponent to chew on is that the idea well it doesn’t make one feel great when you when you play and then he plays great on top of that so it’s not all as cracked up to be but at any rate he’d make a nice fat hit on this threee ball after contacting the second rail just like this that was a nice shot executed pretty well and he’s left e offensive opportunity but a difficult one at that and that’s just about the story of this match ‘s been confronted with a lot of difficult challenges and now uh he’s just not hitting the balls well at all at this juncture he hit it a little bit fat but he didn’t even come close to getting the Q ball back out there no well even if he’ have made the three ball just the way the match is going I don’t think he would have gotten out at this point it’s kind of like he almost wishes for Dr cavor and to come into this match and go ahead and shut her down yeah yeah do you are we going to do an interview okay well I think if it again if the three passes the eight I think this match is is over probably we’re not 100% you know E’s coming off back-to-back tournament wins he won the one pocket event in Kalamazoo and then a week previous to that he’d won the eight ball in Los Vegas so he’s had a couple big wins and uh he just may be burned up now that happens to all of them all of us to everybody that’s a good point too Mark I never understood how Varner’s done it as long as he has yeah he’s another another testimonial to longevity Budd he’s hit a terrible shot there he whacked that almost straight into the object ball that was half in the way all right e has a chance here to to to run out if I see the angle correctly he wants to float just above the eightball like this well these outs have been far from routine today well this is not there’s nothing easy about this one he’s got to be a little careful here when we see his a game there’s something routine about it because he gets out every time from these places oh right right right yeah I think he’s kind of fighting with himself and I know that he’s unhappy with this yeah this is not like the F and rers that we love to watch play Championship nineball as soon as the nine ball is pocketed we will change tapes we’ll be right back you never know too you know sometimes you you just don’t feel well physically and you can catch a cold or anything as uh even some of the announcers have had happen to [Applause] them well e now shifted over to the optimum spot to break on this table but he didn’t get a good result Budd he’s going to Mark a score for him crowd appreciates that okay had that happened and Buddy been losing he probably wouldn’t have been so gracious well I don’t know I don’t either I’m only joking but little easier to be nice when you’re way ahead yes it is okay now uh the three to the four requires some special attention the twoos on the far left hand side rail he needed a little angle on it to uh to come back down the table for the three the problem here is that if he’s got to cut that one ball to his right a little bit there’s no way to to get the the right position so if he can draw out and stay above the nineball he’ll be fine well he may have been using the N Balls a little bit of a blocker there to help slow the Q balls progress down well now that he got here though uh there’s no way to get on the three ball here without executing a trick shot there just is no way to do it well it looks like if he get out there just on top of the four or the five in that area they squeeze between the 69 I’m not suggesting that that’s an easy shot [Applause] however I don’t know that it goes from there I think the six ball blocks quite a bit of him being able to make the three ball there’s no way to this doesn’t draw pass side it’s hard to go four rails and like with inside Spin and flatten your ball out a little bit there you really can’t try to snatch it all the way back cuz that side pocket’s so large over there very good chance for a scratch he tried to go punch it across two rails and I think he’s going to fall short of the Mark here yeah I really didn’t think that he could do that tough shot had they have awful good speed control when you’re hitting the ball that full that eats up that much energy to still punch it that far I think he’s going to have to take an easy kick at this uh rightand English and he’d like to have the Q balls stop behind the six and eight and he’d like to knock the three ball not far or he can see it well I’m blind that he made a great position son boy well you want to talk about stereotypical optical illusion I I didn’t think he could any part of that nor did I [Music] well now he’s in position the uh yeah there’s really nothing stopping him now if he just plays good position from here on out he’s out the six to the Seven’s a little touchy but the seven so close to the pocket he can get away with virtual murder if he Pockets the six yeah you don’t look at where and see where he’d like to be right now he’ll play position and just Coast out but if he had to be a shot maker he get out from out of position I think he’s just going to come up to the middle of the table on this [Music] one I think he wanted an angle where he could come one rail out of there underneath the nine and I don’t know if he got that or not if not he can draw this um back he’s okay he’s going to draw it which is fine well many of the people that watch this tape at home are going to feel a little bit of relief when they see that the likes of efon re could play a match up here that they could probably defeat well I think you’re right he’s probably just tired he’s been playing a lot and traveling quite a bit at some point a guy’s got to break down right now Buddy’s about ready to euthanize this match he’s one long stop shot away from cinching virtual completion to the whole match and he’s going to win this 11 to5 and in the process solidify his chances to to win this great event too but he’ll be doing it from the loser side certainly is a tough road to hoe he’s going to have to play a lot of matches well Mark I want to tell you what a lot of fun has been to work with you and no well Grady you’re the most uh loquacious commentator we have and it’s always an honor to work with you I don’t know if that’s any good that’s nice of you to say my friend uh that windiness has never helped me in marriage however so well behalf of acats I think we’re going to close up this match we might wait a minute and get a final average just for the heck of and see how they did it’ll be on the screen here moment there it is 821 and 780 but again even though Pat Fleming doesn’t agree with me and the rest of the staff I think Buddy played better than the 821 reflex I really do all right uh from all of us at ACU stats we say thank you and a special extra thanks for me and Mark Wilson we’ll see you uh on another great Championship nine ball match [Music] a e