The beginning of the legendary efren reyes caused billiards to enter a new era

The time when 'The Magician' was on his way to being one of the sport's greats Efren Bata Reyes' 1994 US Open Pool title But what many may not know is that The Magician's victory at Chesapeake, Virginia nearly three decades ago wasn't just historic in its nature, but also showed that the Filipino cue artist from Angeles was indeed on his way to being one of the sport's greats.

Accu-Stats Video Productions dug its archives and released the full video of the match on its YouTube account last year and it showed a younger and slimmer Reyes slugging it out against Nick Varner, who was then considered as the top-ranked professional pool player in the world.

At that time, Varner's reputation was already sealed as the 1989 World 9-Ball Champion sought his third US Open crown after winning in 1989 and 1990.

The American gained a bye in the first round yet had to repeatedly pull off come-from-behind victories, a road that saw him also take down Filipino Leonardo "Dodong" Andam, 13-12, in the round of 16.

By the time Varner got to the semis, he was as lethal as they come, shutting down Tommy Kennedy, 13-3.

For Reyes' part, pundits still doubted his abilities to win a major event despite playing at his best for the entirety of the tourney as none of his opponents got to within four racks of him. 

The closest match "Bata" had was in the quarters, slipping past Steve Mizerak, 13-9, before dominating Tony "Hurricane" Ellin, 13-4, in the semis. But early on, Reyes proved that he's in it to win it.

An impressive kick shot to sink the 1-ball to the side pocket in the first rack allowed the Filipino to seize control of the match, taking a 5-1 lead in this race-to-9 championship.

However, Reyes could not fully capitalize on his turns as he strung three straight dry breaks to keep Varner alive. He committed two big errors, first in rack 12 when in the middle of a safety battle on the 1-ball, Reyes tried to add a bit of a right english but scratched the cue ball that allowed the American to a runout.

After a Varner dry break in rack 13, Reyes also left the 2-ball open which the American easily pocketed in the corner and trim the lead to just one rack behind, 7-6. Fate, however, works in mysterious ways as in rack 14, Varner took his second straight dry break and allowed Reyes to clean the table out to get to the hill.

Reyes saved his best for last, adding more power in his break to sink the 6-ball as he got an open table and easily pocketed the balls one-by-one to take the 9-6 victory and come away with the $15,000 cash prize.

"He's really played hard and he's come out and he showed a great hard fought match with Nick," 1992 World 9-Ball Champion Johnny "The Scorpion" Archer, who was on commentary for the final, said of Reyes.

"He followed a couple of errors there in the middle of the match, but he really showed a lot of heart to really stay in there." The Magician became the first Asian and first international player to win the US Open (not counting cue artist Mike Lebron as Puerto Rico is treated as a US territory).

Since then, eight players have followed his lead, namely Ralf Souquet of Germany (2002), Canadian-Filipino Alex Pagulayan (2005), Mika Immonen of Finland (2008 and 2009), Darren Appleton of England (2010 and 2011), Cheng Yu-hsuan of Chinese Taipei (2015), Jayson Shaw of Scotland (2017), Joshua Filler of Germany (2019), and Biado.

Reyes came back in the following years, but settled for runner-up honors for three straight tournaments to Reed Pierce (1995), Rodney Morris (1996), and Earl "The Pearl" Strickland (1997).

Other Filipinos have also attempted to win the title but ended up as bridesmaids, namely Jose "Amang" Parica (2005), Rodolfo Luat (2006), Ronnie Alcano (2007 and 2008), Dennis Orcollo (2012 and 2014), and Lee Vann Corteza (2013). It wasn't until this year when Biado snapped that streak.

More than anything, it's a timely reminder how good Filipinos are in the game of pool, and how great Reyes really was at his peak -- dentures included.