MANILA, Philippines?Like many athletes? success stories, Demosthenes Pulpul discovered brilliance in his craft after poverty, and the tragic demise of his father, forced him to work as a pedicab driver and a pool hall 'spotter' when he was just 14 years old.

"I remember giving my mother P100 a day as part of my earnings in 2000, and that helped her raise eight other children," Pulpul told the Inquirer in Filipino while practicing for his match late last night.

"I had to quit school and start working because we didn't have food on the table. I had to do that because my father died a few months before," added Pulpul, whose second child, a daughter, was born a week before the start of the event.

"I am the youngest in a brood of nine and yet I had to work."

Pulpul lost his father, a welder, to lung cancer. Though the family residence was near the pier in Cagayan de Oro, Demosthenes never entertained thoughts of working there. It was as if, he said, his gut told him to work in a pool hall.

"It was as if this is where my fortunes lay," Pulpul, who is being supported by Paul Magi Magadan, said.

The 23-year-old has earned fame and some money that goes with it after barging into the last 16 of the first-ever World Ten Ball championship with a 9-4 demolition job of Kazuo Furuta of Japan last night at the Philippine International Convention Center.

That latest victory, which came after a thrilling 9-8 conquest of curvy Austrian stunner Jasmine Ouschan Thursday night, has assured this once very poor man of at least $4,500 (roughly P212,000), well over the amount he needs to pay off some debts.

The crowd that has followed his exploits has learned to embrace him as an upcoming hero of local pool, with the negativism in his name slowly but surely being forgotten.

Part of the money he will win, will go to helping his mother start a small business with his wife and pay off a P5,000 debt for the birth of his second child, whom they will christen Kishalen.

There are a lot of other interesting things to know in the life of Demosthenes Pulpul, the new pool hero of the Philippines who now desperately needs a moniker that would hopefully justify how good he is.

With Pulpul meaning anything but smart in English, and Demosthenes certainly hard and long to pronounce, his nickname "Plong Plong," could pass for one.

But it also wouldn't be bad if something better comes along.