Bata due today, eyes No.1 in IPT‘King of Hill’

Efren "Bata" Reyes arrives today before an adoring nation proud of his string of achievements on the world pool stage, including the just-concluded IPT World 8-ball Championships in Reno, Nevada last Sunday where he won a whopping $500,000 prize, the biggest purse staked in pool history.

The amiable Reyes, whose victory in the 1999 World 9-ball Championship in Cardiff, Wales elevated pool into the major league and further affirmed his celebrity status, planes in at 5 a.m. on board Philippine Airlines Flight 103 with buddy Francisco "Django" Bustamante and manager Rolly Vicente.

He will only have a day rest as he is set to see action in the fourth and final leg of the San Miguel Asian 9-ball Tour beginning Friday in Jakarta.

With his recent earnings, Reyes surged past Thorsten Hohmann of Germany in the 2006 IPT Season Player Rankings and could well be on his way to clinching the No. 1 spot in the 2006 IPT "King of the Hill" Invitational Shootout in Las Vegas in December.

The IPT "King of the Hill" Invitational Shootout is the culmination of the year-long IPT series of tournaments which Reyes actually won last year when he beat seeded Mike Sigel in the championship to pocket the $200,000 purse.

Under the format, the top money earner of the 2006 will be seeded in the final where he will face the top finisher among the 40 players who would be invited to the event slated Dec. 12-17 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The King of the Hill tourney is scheduled in the same week of the Asian Games, thus keeping Reyes off the Asiad-bound RP billiards squad.

Counting his $36,000 earnings in the season, Reyes now has $536,000 in winnings, relegating Hohmann to second with $350,000, the bulk of which he won in ruling the IPT North American 8-ball Champion over Filipino Marlon Manalo, who had $99,000.

Another Filipino, Dennis Orcollo, will take the third spot with $144,000 winnings after he won $66,000 for finishing fifth in the world 8-ball tilt.

Bustamante and Rodolfo Luat will join Reyes in the Indonesia joust where the Filipinos are eyeing a rare sweep of this year’s staging of the annual circuit, Asia’s premier 9-ball event.

Reyes ruled the kickoff leg in Vietnam, Ramil Gallego reigned in Bangkok and Luat dominated the Taiwan stage last month. — Dante Navarro