MANILA - Rubilen "Bingkay" Amit still can not believe that she bagged the first JBET Poker.net Women's World 10-Ball Championship, five days after she beat Chinese Taipei’s Shin-Mei Liu, 10-4, in the finals.

“It feels great. Actually as of now I still can’t believe it. Tingin ko after a few days pa after mag-sink in. Ang tagal,” she told abs-cbnNEWS.com.

She gained fans during her victorious run at the World 10-Ball event held recently at the SM North in Quezon City, where she also defeated Akimi Kajitani of Japan and Jeanette Lee of the US.

One of her newfound supporters is billiards legend Francisco “Django” Bustamante, who told ABS-CBN News how proud he is of Amit. He even noted that Amit seems to have nerves of steel unlike him and other male players.

“Sobrang natuwa pa ako coming from Django. Malaking-malaking bagay ‘yon,” she said. “And akala lang niya di nanginginig pero nanginginig din ako ‘no!"

She added, “I appreciate talaga ‘yong mga bago kong na-meet na friends, lahat noong mga nag-support sa tournament itself at sa TV, all the prayers, I really do appreciate all of them.”

In fact, during Thursday’s ABS-CBN flag-raising event where she was an invitee, some employees came up to her to extend their congratulations.

The 27-year-old pool player from Cebu said that there are no plans at present to join a ladies’ tournament. But she heard that she will be participating in some men’s tournaments, including the Villar Cup series where she is seeded in all its legs.

“I’ll be concentrating on training na lang muna para if there's an upcoming event, I’ll be prepared for it,” she said.

Aside from being the reigning Women’s World 10-Ball champion, Amit is also a three-time Southeast Asian Games gold medalist. She also finished as the runner-up in the 2007 Women’s World 9-Ball Championships.

She shared that she fell in love with the sport when she was 12, as stated on BilliardPhilippines.com. But Amit’s career was not smooth sailing as it was put on hold during her college days.

“I just wanted to finish talaga my schooling. After that I could do anything I want and as it turned out, billiards talaga ‘yong gusto ko,” said the University of Santo Tomas accountancy graduate.

“Pero at that time talaga di pa ako ganon ka-settled kung billiards kasi medyo nandoon pa ‘yong fear na ‘What if I don’t do well? Paano ‘yon future ko, financially?’”

So may times din nag-try ako mag-business pero fulfillment ko is billiards talaga,” she said.

Amit devotes at least three hours every day for training, three to four times a week. “Then the other days more on workout, kahit medyo mataba,” she said with a smile.

She noted that working out is important, saying “Kasi kung mapagod ka, mahirap maka-focus.”

She related that she played for almost twelve hours during the Women’s World 10-Ball as her first match started at 11:30 a.m. while her last match for the day ended at midnight.

“Although it’s not all throughout naman, kailangan ang resistensya,” she said.
“I just work out and train myself, my mental toughness. Kailangan din siya talaga i-practice. Parang muscle din kasi ‘yong mind natin na we have to practice it para maging habit. ‘Pag ka laban, automatic na siya,” she explained.

Meanwhile, as for her pool idol, she cited Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame inductee Efren “Bata” Reyes. “He's the pioneer,” she said of “the Magician.”

“If not for him and not for the other players, sila Kuya Django, siguro I wouldn’t be playing billiards. Sila ‘yong naging inspiration ko,” she added.