| Born | August 5, 1978 Zamboanga City |
|---|---|
| Sport country |  Philippines |
| Pool games | Nine-ball, ten-ball, eight-ball, one pocket |
| Best finish | Runner-up 2007 WPA World Nine-ball Championship |
Roberto Gomez (born October 5, 1978) is a professional pocket billiards player from Zamboanga City, Philippines. He competed in the final of both the 2007 WPA World Nine-ball Championships, and the 2007 World Cup of Pool. Gomez was the first qualifier to reach the final of the WPA World Nine-ball Championships.
Gomez first played pool at 9 years of age. As a passionate admirer of Efren Reyes, he would often record on tape televised matches of the world champion. Although he had aspirations of competing in professional tournaments, Gomez decided to find other careers in college. [1]
He spent college at Western Mindanao State University and initially try to find a course in architecture. But because broadcasting and political science were the only available, Gomez settled for broadcasting. Through this, he became and served as a reporter for ABS-CBN for a couple of years. [1]
Gomez then returned to pool and began playing professionally. [1]
Gomez reached the finals of the 2007 WPA World Nine-ball Championship where he took on Daryl Peach of Great Britain. [2] Despite the match being even, Peach won the match 17–15. [3] Though beaten, Gomez became the first qualifier to reach finals of the tournament. [4]
Roberto Gomez and Dennis Orcollo represented Team Philippines in the 2010 World Cup of Pool and played their way to the finals. There, they met Team China formed by Fu Jian-bo and Li He-wen, who won the 2007 edition of the event. In a rather lopsided final, the Chinese team led 9–1 in the race-to-10 match. Though Gomez and Orcollo would win the next four racks to make it 9–5, Team China got another opportunity to take 15th rack and win the event for the second time. [5]
Nine-ball is a discipline of the cue sport pool. The game's origins are traceable to the 1920s in the United States. It is played on a rectangular billiard table with pockets at each of the four corners and in the middle of each long side. Using a cue stick, players must strike the white cue ball to pocket nine colored billiard balls, hitting them in ascending numerical order. An individual game is won by the player pocketing the 9-ball. Matches are usually played as a race to a set number of racks, with the player who reaches the set number winning the match.
Efren Manalang Reyes, popularly known by the nicknames "Bata" and "the Magician", is a Filipino professional pool player, who is widely regarded as the greatest pool player of all time, and especially famed for his skill at the challenging one-pocket discipline. In 2003, he was inducted into the Billiard Congress of America's Hall of Fame.
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