Efren "Bata" Reyes, Billiard's Living Legend

Efren Reyes (born August 26, 1954) is a Filipino professional pool player from Angeles City and a 2-time world champion. Reyes is considered to be one of the all-time greats in the games of nine ball and one-pocket. He is often known by his nickname "Bata", and is also referred to as "The Magician".

Background

Reyes was born in Pampanga in 1954 and moved to Manila with his family, at the age of 5. In Manila, he worked as a billiards attendant at his uncle's billiards hall, where he started learning the various cue sports. Because he was not tall enough to reach the pool table, he played while standing on Coca-cola cases that he moved around. At night, while he was dreaming of playing pool, the pool table was his bed.

He is called "Bata", which is Filipino for "Kid", because there was another older pool player named Efren when he was young. To determine which Efren onlookers were referring to, he was nicknamed Efren "Bata" or the "Kid".

At a young age, he played for money, and in the sixties and seventies, played carambola billiards (also known as three cushion billiards). After establishing himself as a winner, he was discovered by promoters. This gave him the opportunity to compete in big time tournaments.

Reyes began winning a number of tournaments in the US, Europe and in parts of Asia. Thus, he started to gain attention and recognition worldwide. In fact at the start of his career he would use "aliases" to hide his true identity just so as to be allowed to compete. By the mid-1990s, he became one of the elite players of the Philippines alongside Jose Parica and Francisco Bustamante.

Notable successes in pool

The fame of Efren Reyes began when he won the US Open Nine Ball Championship in 1994 by defeating Nick Varner in the finals. He was the first non-American ever to win the event.

A couple of years later, Efren Reyes and Earl Strickland were chosen to face each other in an event called the Color of Money, named after the movie. The event was a 3-day race-to-120 challenge match of 9-ball. It was held in Hong Kong and has a winner-take-all prize of $100K. Reyes won the match 120-117 and the big prize. This was the largest single-winning purse in a pool event.

Although Earl Strickland was the first to win the WPA World 9-ball Championship, Reyes, in 1999, became the first to win it broadcast on television. Note - this tournament was not recognised at the time by the WPA, but Reyes was later retrospectively acknowledged as the winner of one of two world championships held in 1999. Nick Varner won the other than-"official" world title, but this was a much smaller scale event than the one Reyes won. The two tournaments were merged for the following year, with both men listed as the champion for 1999. At the time, the Matchroom Sport-organised event in Cardiff, Wales, was called the World Professional Pool Championship (despite the entry of many non-professional players).

In 2001, Reyes won the International Billiard Tournament. The event was held in Tokyo, and had over 700 players and total purse of ¥100M ($850K). Reyes dominated the event by beating Niels Feijen in the finals 15-7 and earned the ¥20M[1]($170K) first prize. At the time, this was biggest first prize in a pool tournament.

Then in 2003, he became the first Asian to be inducted into the Billiard Congress of America's Hall of Fame. Hall of Fame

Near the end of 2004, Reyes beat Marlon Manalo to become the first-ever WPA World Eight Ball Champion. With the win, he became the first player in WPA history to win two world championships of different disciplines.
Efren Reyes posing with fan after he won an historic US$200,000 at the 2005 IPT King of the Hill Shootout
Efren Reyes posing with fan after he won an historic US$200,000 at the 2005 IPT King of the Hill Shootout

In December 2005 Reyes won the IPT King of the Hill 8-Ball Shootout. Reyes won a record-breaking $200K for first place by beating fellow Hall of Fame member Mike "the Mouth" Sigel two sets to none (8-0 and 8-5).

In 2006, Reyes and Francisco Bustamante represented their country as Team Philippines in the inaugural World Cup of Pool. They defeated Team USA, formed by Earl Strickland and Rodney Morris, to capture the title

That same year, Reyes won the IPT World Open Eight-ball Championship over Rodney Morris 8-6. He earned $500K which was the largest prize money tournament in the history of pocket billiards. Unfortunately, he hasn't claimed much of this as of 2007 due financial problems of the IPT.

For 2007, he was ranked #2 in Pool & Billiard Magazine's "Fans' Top 20 Favorite Players" poll.