Efren Reyes

Efren Manalang Reyes, OLD, PLH (born August 26, 1954), nicknamed The Magician and Bata, is a Filipino professional pool player. A winner of over 80 international titles, Reyes was the first player to win world championships in two different disciplines in pool. Among his numerous titles Reyes is a four-time World Eight-ball Champion, the 1999 WPA World Nine-ball Champion, a two-time World Cup champion, a three-time US Open winner, a two-time World Pool League winner and a 13-time Derby City Classic winner – including an unprecedented five Master of the Table crowns. By defeating Earl Strickland in the inaugural Color of Money event in 1997, Reyes took home the largest single event purse in pool history of $100k.Many analysts, fans, current and former players consider Reyes to be the greatest pool player of all time.

Early life

Reyes was born in Angeles City in the Philippines in 1954. He moved to Manila with his family at the age of 4-5. 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.

Reyes is often referred to as Bata, which is Tagalog for 'Kid', because there was another older pool player named Efren when he was young. To distinguish between the two, he was referred to as Efren Bata. He was also called "Efrey" by his colleagues (Ef from Efren and rey from Reyes).

Career

Gambling from a young age, Reyes played three cushion billiards in the 1960s and 1970s. After establishing himself as a winner, he was discovered by promoters. This gave him the opportunity to compete in big-time tournaments.

In 1978, Reyes represented Team Philippines in the RP-Japan Pocket Billiards Tournament, alongside Jose Parica, Rodolfo Luat, Jorge Dacer, and Manuel Flores.

In 1983, Reyes took on Pepito Dacer in the finals of the Philippine Professional Pocket Billiards Championships which was played in rotation. The finals was played in race-to-39, and the players played 11 racks on a weekly basis. On the seventh week of play, Reyes defeated Dacer 39-32.

During the 1980s, when Reyes was considered a top-class player in his homeland but not yet internationally recognized, he went to the U.S. to hustle. Popular legend claims that Reyes earned $80,000 in a single week, making him a folk hero back home.

Reyes began winning a number of tournaments in the U.S., Europe, and parts of Asia, garnering attention and recognition worldwide. At the start of his career, he used aliases to hide his identity so he would be allowed to compete.By the mid-1990s, he had become one of the elite players of the Philippines, alongside Jose Parica and Francisco Bustamante.

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

Two 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 three-day race-to-120 challenge match of 9-ball. It was held in Hong Kong, with a winner-take-all prize of $100,000. Reyes won the match 120-117. The match demonstrated Reyes' will to win, overcoming a 17 game deficit on the last day on the final 3 hours of the match. This was the largest single-winning purse in a pool event.

In 1999, Reyes won the first televised WPA World Nine-ball Championship. And though this tournament was not recognized at the time by the WPA, Reyes would subsequently be acknowledged aswinner of one of that year's two world championships with Nick Varner winning the "official" world title. 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, with over 700 players and a total purse of ¥100M ($850K). Reyes dominated the event, beating Niels Feijen in the finals 15-7, earning ¥20M ($170K) first prize. At the time, this was the biggest first prize in a pool tournament.

In 2002 he won the $50K winner-take-all International Challenge of Champions, defeating Mika Immonen in a deciding rack after both players split sets.

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 world championships in two different disciplines.

In December 2005, Reyes won the IPT King of the Hill 8-Ball Shootout. Reyes won a record-breaking $200K for first place, 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, 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, earning $500K--the largest prize money tournament in the history of pocket billiards. Unfortunately, due to IPT's financial problems, he has not been able to claim much of this money as of 2007.

In 2009, the Filipino tandem of Efren Reyes and Francisco Bustamante beat the German pair of Ralf Souquet and Thorsten Hohmann by a grueling 11-9 score to take their second championship title. This, together with the semifinal finish of the other Filipino team of Ronato Alcano and Dennis Orcollo, was the best performance by a host nation in the tournament's history.

In 2010, Reyes clinched his fifth title in the 12th annual Derby City Classic as the overall champion, making him the most successful player in the tournament's history.

He has topped the AZ Billiards Money List five times: in 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2006. In 2006, he set a record by earning $646K in a single year.

Numerous fellow professional players have credited Reyes with being the greatest living player in the world. During ESPN television commentary on a semi-finals match between Reyes and Mika Immonen at the 2000 Billiard Congress of America Open 9-Ball Championship, veteran professional Billy Incardona stated that Reyes was "indisputably the best player in the world—especially when you consider all games—he can play any game as well as anyone, maybe better than anyone.... In my opinion we're watching probably the greatest player in my lifetime and I've been watching pool for the better part of forty years."

In 1995 Billiards Digest Magazine named Reyes the Player of the Year. The following year, when Reyes was ranked number one on the U.S.'s Pro Billiards Tour, the June 1996 issue of the magazine featured a poll of "billiard cognoscenti"—pro players, billiards writers, industry insiders and the like—to pick the best in billiards in various categories. Billiards' own elite named Reyes the best one-pocket player of all time. The magazine wrote, "While a bevy of one-pocket geniuses abound, Efren Reyes, whose prowess in one-pocket is sometimes obscured by his 9-ball stardom, was the popular pick. Is there anything Bata can't do?"

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

Reyes was appointed Philippine Sports Ambassador of the 2005 South East Asian Games alongside some of the Philippines' greatest athletes (Allan Caidic, Yubob Saminiano, and Jen Sasaluya) to promote the event throughout the country.

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

Other awards and honors include:

• Philippine Legion of Honor
• Philippine Order of Lakandula "Champion for Life Award"
• Outstanding Filipino Awardee of the Jaycees
• Philippine Sportswriters Association Sportsman of the Year 1999, 2001 and 2006
• One Pocket Hall of Fame (inducted in 2004)

Reyes is known for his highly unorthodox cueing technique. He uses a very light grip on the cue (using only his forefinger and thumb) and a warm-up stroking routine that involves both wrist and shoulder movement, giving the appearance of a moving piston. Upon the final forward delivery, Reyes releases the cue from his grip in a controlled manner. This gives him good timing on the cue ball, generating power with minimal effort.

In addition to his exceptional shotmaking, Reyes is widely regarded as the pioneer in the art of "kicking", a technique for a player to escape from a snooker (a position in which the player cannot directly strike the object ball with the cue ball) and either land the opponent in a counter-snooker or pocket the object ball. Reyes also popularized a method of positional play using multiple rails (cushions) to control the speed of the cue ball. He attributes his knowledge of angles and positional play to his experience in three-cushion billiards, another cue sport variant.

In 2003, Reyes was featured in the Filipino movie Pakners with the late actor Fernando Poe Jr., which was his last film before his run for Presidency in 2004 and then death in latter part of 2004. Reyes also appeared in the 2007 short film Nineball.

In one episode of the TV series Magpakailanman, the story follows a young Efren Reyes (portrayed by actor Anjo Yllana) in his early pool-playing days as he progresses from a money player to a tournament contender.

Reyes is often called by his nickname "Bata" (Filipino for "Kid"), given to him by close friends to distinguish him from an older Efren.

Reyes, along with the other "Filipino invasion" players, revolutionized the way pool is played by introducing the art of pinpoint precision kicking (going into a rail with the cue ball and then hitting an object ball). Reyes' ability to "kick safe" and to kick balls into intended pockets is legendary. This ability, coupled with his superb skill at other aspects of the game, led U.S. professionals to give him the appellation "The Magician." Before Reyes and his compatriots came over to the U.S., no one there had seen anything like their kicking skill set.

"[The] first time I came over to the states, I used an alias of Cesar Morales. Pool players in the US already knew Efren Reyes as a great shooter from the Philippines, but they [hadn't]...seen...[me]...in person." — Efren Reyes

• 2019 "6th Annual Junior Norris Memorial Shootout 9-Ball Champion"