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Young cue artists like Heloise Llenares are expertly using social media to carve out their place in the billiards world.
It’s a late Saturday afternoon and Vector Billiards in Marikina is heaving with activity. There are more than 20 tables in this pool joint, and today every one of them is occupied. It’s the April leg of the Amit Cup, the premier amateur pool league for female billiards players in the nation.
The tour attracts shooters from all over Metro Manila and beyond, but one young lady has traveled the farthest to be here.
Fourteen-year old Heloise Llenares, from Jasaan, Misamis Oriental, is competing in her first Amit Cup, and when we arrive at Vector she has a tough assignment at the livestream table: former national team player Phoy Andal.
It’s a see-saw affair, quite attritional. Amit Cup follows a rating and handicap system, and even with one rack as a handicap, Llenares succumbs to the vastly more experienced Andal, 7-4. Fortunately she would bounce back with a string of wins to eventually finish top eight in the Advanced category. The Novice Category is for lower-ranked players.
After the match there are selfies and the odd autograph signing, because Heloise Llenares, is, well, kind of famous.
Her official Facebook page, Lady Cub/Tigress, has 291,000 followers as of the writing of this article. And what is even more remarkable is that it only started last September. This is the world of the modern Filipino pool influencer.
Shayne Acebar seems to enjoy the biggest following among Mindanao’s pool queens. The Gingoog City native has 591,000 adherents on Facebook. Jillian Gracia and the outstanding Rhaki Roj Constantino are other Mindanaoan pool players who have sizable numbers of online fans.
Llenares said she intentionally tried to grow her social media following, but that the many Facebook billiards vloggers have helped boost her popularity.
The likes of Acebar or Llenares pop up on my Facebook feed regularly, and it’s almost always short reels of certain shots or run outs. Usually it’s in a humble poolroom, often open air, with dozens of pool enthusiasts huddled around the table. You will also see many of them holding up phones as video cameras, and even more stuck on tripods around the table capturing the action.
Informal billiards content has really become a cottage industry in the Philippines, with many relying on income from Facebook and presumably other platforms to earn a living. In turn, it helps ratchet up the stardom of these budding shooters.
Acebar even has vlog posts of her off the table, doing mundane tasks like having a meal with family or traveling to events.
Social media has, in my opinion, had a mixed effect on the world. But for up-and-coming pool players, it has proven to be a lifeline in their drive to become elite players.
Social media has helped stoke this newfound cue sports wave, especially with these players on the rise. But is it all good news? Some observers argue that when the line between serious player and content creator is blurry, focus on the sporting part of the equation drops off. It’s a valid concern.
But right now Llenares is straddling the line very well. She started playing pool at the age of eight, learning from her father Jonas and an uncle at a pool venue near her house. Jonas says that even from an early age, her talent was evident.
Heloise has excellent technique, standing low on the shot, with a silken back swing and long, piercing follow-through. She is capable of executing shots of a very high degree of difficulty, like long pots and extreme-spin shots for three-rail position. But like many pool players of all levels, she can also miss shots that she surely feels she can make.
Llenares says she struggled with the unforgiving pockets of the Rasson table used in Amit Cup, and that they play very differently from the Maxima 7s and 8s commonly found in Mindanao. It’s all part of the education of a young pool player.
Speaking of education, Llenares is still studying at the Bobontugan Elementary School in Jasaan, just north east of Cagayan de Oro. She is in Grade 9. She also yearns to study university one day, following in the footsteps of multiple world champion Rubilen Amit, a UST grad.
But her favorite player is none other than rising Pinoy star AJ Manas, who is already making waves against seasoned pros at the World Nineball Tour. Llenares hasn’t met Manas, and when asked if she has messaged him, she admits she hasn’t because “na-ulaw ko kaayo.” (I am very shy.)
Manas himself has a strong presence on Facebook with more than half a million followers.
Llenares did meet a Filipino icon a few days after the Amit Cup. At the launch of a poolroom in Bulacan the 14-year old played Efren Reyes in an exhibition match. Reyes came up on top 20-14 with the young lady enjoying a three-racks on the wire handicap.
When asked what her ambition is in the world of pool, the Lady Cub/Tigress is unequivocal in her answer: to be a world champion. The Philippines has produced two ladies world champs in Amit and Chezka Centeno. Constantino is widely regarded as having the potential to do the same. Why not Heloise?
Tournaments like the Amit Cup, now sponsored by top cue maker Predator, are taking women’s pool to new heights. At the Amit Cup April leg there were dozens of players spread out in four venues, and in Vector alone there were players as young as 10 and 11 years old. The 11-year old was in the Advanced category and is so young I don’t even think it’s appropriate to mention her name due to privacy issues. But she was extremely impressive.
Amit Cup is wholesome, collegial, and blessed with a great vibe. Heloise Llenares and others can really develop there, and the rise of the series is emblematic of how pool is slowly cleaning up its image.
Ren De Vera is a co-founder and organizer of Amit Cup, and he recounts how he had to hide his cue sticks from his parents when he was learning to play as a young lad.
“Ngayon, ang mga parents pa ang nagdadala ng mga tako ng mga anak nila,” he adds.
Women’s pool is red-hot in the Philippines. With a generation of social media savvy players and better competition than ever before, the sky is definitely the limit.
Banner images by Bob Guerrero
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