A Man called 'Django' - Easy Pool Tutor

It didn't take him long to cross cue sticks with the game's best. In 1988, he faced the venerable Jose "Amang" Parica in the San Miguel Beer 9-Ball World Open finals, a competition peppered with foreign competitors. Django was as confident as ever. "I knew I could beat him," he still maintains. "But I had an appendectomy the week before, and he had a twice-to-beat advantage. I went ahead but then he caught up and beat me 8-9." Django wouldn't lose much after that.

That year, he took up the itinerant life of the traveling pro, flying off to Japan where he continued to win. The next year, he flew to Switzerland and finally landed in Germany. In 1990, Indonesian businessman Yongki Purwita was so impressed by Django's performance in money games that he hired the Filipino as the house pro in his bar called Rick's Cafe. Located in the small town of Kiel, Germany, it remains Django's primary base outside the Philippines for most of the year, a lair where he faces off against visiting challengers and represents the cafe in pool leagues.

By 1991, he had joined the ranks of the world's best, downing American Mike Lebron in the Brunswick Open in Munich. The next year, Django continued his ascent by invading the United States. "Back then, I already knew my shot was so good and I was winning so much in Europe that other players began dodging me. I felt like I could beat anybody."

True to form, Django would put together a rack-busting record as he blew away opponent after opponent, winning all over the world. He's won so many times since then that he's lost count, though the 1998 Camel US Player of the Year says he's won "over 200 tournaments in Europe alone." In 1993, he was named to the national team for the first time. These years also featured a rising dominance by Filipino cue artists on the world stage, with Django at the front of the line. Soon, teenagers were hanging from the back of jeepneys with cue stick cases slung over their shoulders throughout the country.

"When I first left the Philippines, there were hardly any tournaments here although billiards has always been popular. But recently, it became really big."

Beyond his focus and titanium-tough nerves, Django possesses one of the ultimate weapons in billiards: the game's best break. Like the Big Bang itself, Django's break sends those colorful spheres of matter careening across the board to their proper places in a stunning combination of precision and power.

"When I'm in a tournament, I really concentrate," Django says of his style. "I don't listen to anything at all when I'm playing. I don't talk to anyone." One of the game's more fit competitors, Django's only past time away from the sport is taking in the occasional cockfight.

Django feels that it's the fact that you can begin playing billiards for very little money and the Filipinos' traditional game of "rotation" -where the number on each pocketed ball is added up until a player beats 60-that has helped make local cue artists the toast of the world. "And I think this isn't a passing thing. We'll be the best for a long time. Even when Efren ("Bata" Reyes) and I fade away, there will be others to take our place."

Interestingly enough, Django has always played the more serious one between the country's-and indeed the very sport's-best two players. He has always been the grim professional to that sly, smiling rogue Efren "The Magician" Reyes, whom Django considers a friend and mentor in many ways. "Even if I manage to win more tournaments than Efren, he will always be number one because he's my idol," Django smiles. "When we're abroad, it's like he's more than my brother." The two play together often under the aegis of Puyat Sports. Django is quick to praise the Puyat brothers, Jose and Aristeo, who have sponsored him since 1993 without earning a peso from him in exchange for carrying the Puyat Sports logo into battle. "But when Efren and I battle, we know it's all business."