Look up pool in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Pool may refer to:

Pools of water[link]

• Running pool, an artificially enclosed body of water intended for swimming
• Reflecting pool, a shallow pool designed to reflect a structure and its surroundings
• Tide pool, a rocky pool on an ocean shore that remains filled with seawater when the tide goes out
• Plunge pool, a small, deep body of water
• Stream pool, a quiet slow-moving portion of a stream

Sports and gambling[link]

• Pool (cue sports), a group of games played on a pool table
• Pool (poker) or pot, money wagered during a single hand of poker
• Pool betting or parimutuel betting, a betting system in which all bets of a particular type are placed together
  • Betting pool, a form of pool betting where gamblers pay a fixed price into a pool
    • Football pool, an association football (soccer) betting pool
• Pool play or group stages, the round robin stage of many sporting championships
• Singapore Pools, Singapore's sole legal lottery

Geography[link]

• Pool, Cornwall, in England
• Pool, West Virginia, in the United States
• Pool Department, a division of the Republic of the Congo
• Pool-in-Wharfedale, in West Yorkshire, England
• Pool of London, a stretch of the River Thames
• River Pool (London), a river in England, tributary to the River Ravensbourne
• River Pool, Cumbria, a river in Cumbria, England, tributary to the Gilpin

Computing[link]

• Pool (computer science), a set of initialised resources that are kept ready to use
• Connection pool, a cache of database connections maintained by the database
• Memory pool, a dynamic memory allocation method
• Memory Pool System, a memory management system
• Object pool pattern, a pattern to construct sets of initialised programming objects that are kept ready to use
• Thread pool pattern, a programming method where a number of threads are created to perform a number of tasks

Media[link]

• Pool (album), an album by John Zorn
• The Pool (2004 film), a short British film
• The Pool (2007 film), a 2007 drama film co-written and directed by Chris Smith
• The Pool (2009 film), an adaptation of the 2006 play
• The Pool (game), a role-playing game by James V. West
• The Pool (play), a 2006 play by James Brough and Helen Elizabeth

Other uses[link]

• Pool (surname), a surname (and list of people with the surname)
• Pooling (resource management), grouping together of resources or effort
  • Press pool, group of news gathering organizations pooling their resources
  • Secretarial pool, group of secretaries available to assist executives
• Egyptian pool, a water symbol used in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic writing
• Risk pool

See also[link]

• Gene pool, complete set of unique alleles in a species or population
• Poel, an island in the Baltic Sea
• Pool Group, a trio of inter-war experimental artists and film-makers
• Pool-type reactor, nuclear reactor that has a core immersed in an open pool of water
• Poole (disambiguation)
• Poul, a given name
• Winter Pool, a part of the admissions process for Cambridge University
• All pages with titles containing "pool"

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Efren Reyes

Born	(1954-08-26) August 26, 1954 (age 57) Angeles City, Pampanga, Philippines
Sport country	Philippines
Nickname	Bata (Kid) The Magician

Efren Manalang Reyes (born August 26, 1954) is a Filipino professional pool player and a two-time world champion.

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Reyes was born in Pampanga in 1954. He 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.^{[citation needed]}

He is called Bata, which is Filipino 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.

Career[link]

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.

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 US$80,000 in a week; this feat made him a folk hero back home.^[1]

Reyes began winning a number of tournaments in the U.S., Europe and parts of Asia. Thus, he started to gain 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 US Open Nine Ball Championship in 1994 by 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 US$100,000. Reyes won the match 120-117. This was the largest single-winning purse in a pool event.^{[citation needed]}

Although Strickland was the first to win the WPA World 9-ball Championship, Reyes, in 1999, became the first to win while it was broadcast on television. This tournament was not recognized 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 "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).

Efren Reyes posing with fan after he won a historic US$200,000 at the 2005 IPT King of the Hill Shootout

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 and beat Niels Feijen in the finals 15-7 and earned the ¥20M^[2] ($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.^[3]

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 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, 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, due to IPT's financial problems, he has not been able to claim much of this money as of 2007.^{[citation needed]}

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,^[4] 2002,^[5] 2004,^[6] 2005^[7] and 2006.^[8] In 2006, he set a record by earning $646K in a single year.

Family[link]

He is married to Susan Reyes. They have three children. His son, Frennie Reyes, once competed in the Asian Nine-ball Tour.

Accolades[link]

Numerous fellow professional players have credited Reyes with being the greatest living player in the world.^[9] 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."^[9]

In 1995 Billiards Digest Magazine named Reyes the Player of the Year.^[10] 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.^[10] Billiards' own elite named Reyes the best one-pocket player of all time.^[10] 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?"^[10]

In 2003, he became the first Asian to be inducted into the Billiard Congress of America's Hall of Fame.^[11]

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

For 2007, he was ranked #2 in Pool & Billiard Magazine's "Fans' Top 20 Favorite Players" poll.^[12]

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)

Films and television[link]

In 2003, Reyes was featured in the Filipino movie Pakners with the late actor Fernando Poe, Jr.. Reyes also appeared in the 2007 short film Nineball.^[13]

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.

Nicknames and aliases[link]

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

Reyes, along with the other "Filipino invasion" players revolutionized the way pool is played by their introduction to the sport 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.^[14]

"[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^[15]

Titles and achievements[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Efren Reyes Matches
• Efren Reyes bio at AZBilliards

v t e Cue sports biographies Yank Adams • George Balabushka • Jean Balukas • Steve Cook • Irving Crane • Steve Davis • Pat Fleming • Masako Katsura • Luther Lassiter • Walter Lindrum • Keith McCready • Cowboy Jimmy Moore • Willie Mosconi • Shaun Murphy • Ronnie O'Sullivan • Jasmin Ouschan • William A. Spinks • Rudolf "Minnesota Fats" Wanderone • Jimmy Wetch

Dennis Orcollo (born January 28, 1979), sometimes called Dennis Orcullo, is a Filipino professional pool player, nicknamed "Surigao" (name from a province in the Philippines) and "RoboCop".^[1] He has been called "the Philippines' Money-game King".^[2]

Like a number of upcoming players from the Philippines, Orcollo was first seen on television in his contention at the Rising Stars Tournament in 2000.

Dennis Orcollo (right) alongside Jose Parica at 2006 International Pool Tour tournament in Las Vegas

Medal record
Men's cue sports
Competitor for  Philippines
Asian Games
Gold	2010 Guangzhou	Nine-ball singles

At the 2002 WPA World Nine-ball Championship, he unexpectedly beat champion Ralf Souquet 9-8 in the last 64, but eventually lost 6-9 to Efren Reyes in the last 32.

In 2006, Orcollo began his campaign in the U.S.. There, he won a number of tournaments, including the Reno Open, the Hard Times Nine-ball Tournament and two bar table events. Because his compatriots had entered a less prestigious event in Asia, Orcollo was the only player from the Philippines to compete in the World Straight Pool Championship, which was ultimately dominated by Thorsten Hohmann. Although he neither won nor received any prize money, Orcollo made a respectable high run of 91. The following year, he made a better straight pool run of 93 at an exhibition^{[clarification needed]} in the USA.^[3] Also in 2006, Orcollo won the last edition of the World Pool League tournament against Niels Feijen.^[4]

In 2007, he was runner-up to his fellow countryman Ronato Alcano at the WPA World Eight-ball Championship. Also in this year, he won the BCA Open Nine-ball Championship,^[5] a tournament where three fellow Filipinos were defeated in the final in past editions of that event. He competed for the second time at the World Straight Pool Championship. Unlike the previous event, where he was the only Philippine player in contention, Warren Kiamco joined him. He had a much better performance in the tournament and achieved a high run of 117 (the fourth highest in the tournament).^[6] However, he was defeated by Oliver Ortmann, the eventual winner of the event, in the quarter-finals by a lopsided 200-7 score, the largest margin in the history of the tournament.

In 2011, Dennis Orcollo won the WPA World Eight-ball title, besting Niels Feijen in the championship match.^[7]

Achievements[link]

• 2012 US Open 10-Ball Championship
• 2011 Predator International 10-Ball Championship
• 2011 WPA World Eight-ball Championship
• 2011 Derby City Classic 9-Ball
• 2011 BSCP National 9-Ball Championships
• 2010 Asian Games Nine-ball Singles^[8]
• 2010 San Miguel Octoberfest Nine-ball Open^[9]
• 2010 World Pool Masters (bigger format)^[10]
• 2009 Predator International 10-Ball Championship
• 2008 Asian Nine-ball Tour, China Leg^[11]

• 2008 Qatar World Open 9-Ball Tournament^[12][13]
• 2007 enjoypool.com 9-Ball Championship Mens Division
• 2007 Bill Staton Memorial
• 2007 BCA Open Nine-ball Champion
• 2006 World Pool League Champion
• 2006 US Bar Table Champion (eight-ball)
• 2006 Reno Open winner (nine-ball)
• 2006 Hard Times Billiards Summer Jamboree winner (nine-ball)

Additional 2006 tournament results[link]

• 4th place - US Bar Table Championship (nine-ball)
• 4th place - SML Entertainment Open Nine-ball Championship
• 17th place - BCA Open Nine-ball Championship
• 2nd place - Hard Times Billiards Summer Jamboree (one-pocket)
• 3rd place - IPT North American Open Championship (eight-ball)
• 5th place - IPT World Open Championship (eight-ball)
• 33rd place - World Pool Championship^{[clarification needed]}
• 2010 World Cup of Pool - RUNNER-UP (with Roberto Gomez)
• 2010 Pattaya 9 Ball Invitational - SEMIFINALIST
• 2011 World 9 Ball Championship - SEMIFINALIST
• 2011 Guinness World Series of Pool - SEMIFINALIST
• 2011 World Pool Masters - RUNNER-UP
• 2011 San Miguel Octoberfest 9 Ball - RUNNER-UP

References[link]

v t e Cue sports biographies Yank Adams • George Balabushka • Jean Balukas • Steve Cook • Irving Crane • Steve Davis • Pat Fleming • Masako Katsura • Luther Lassiter • Walter Lindrum • Keith McCready • Cowboy Jimmy Moore • Willie Mosconi • Shaun Murphy • Ronnie O'Sullivan • Jasmin Ouschan • William A. Spinks • Rudolf "Minnesota Fats" Wanderone • Jimmy Wetch

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