Roberto Gomez (born October 5, 1978) is a professional

pocket billiards Pool is a series of cue sports played on a billiard table. The table has six pockets along the , into which balls are shot. "Pool billiards" is sometimes hyphenated and/or spelled with a singular "billiard". The WPA itself uses "pool-billiar ...

player from

Zamboanga City Zamboanga City, officially the City of Zamboanga (; ; Subanen languages, Subanen: ''Bagbenwa Sembwangan''; Sama–Bajaw languages, Sama: ''Lungsud Samboangan''; ; ; ) is a Cities of the Philippines#Legal classification, highly urbanized city i ...

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

. He competed in the final of both the

2007 WPA World Nine-ball Championship The 2007 World Nine-ball Championship was the 18th annual international nine-ball Pocket billiards, pool tournament for men sanctioned by the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA). It was held at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City, Metro Manila, ...

s, and the

2007 World Cup of Pool The 2007 World Cup of Pool (also known as the 2007 PartyPoker.com World Cup of Pool for the purposes of sponsorship) was a professional nine-ball pool competition and the second edition of the World Cup of Pool, a scotch doubles knockout cham ...

. Gomez was the first qualifier to reach the final of the

WPA World Nine-ball Championship The WPA World Nine-ball Championship is an annual professional nine-ball pool tournament contested since 1990. The championship is sanctioned by the World Pool Association (WPA) and principally sponsored and organized by Matchroom Sport, who pro ...

Career

Early life

Gomez first played pool at 9 years of age. As a passionate admirer of

Efren Reyes Efren Manalang Reyes (born August 26, 1954) is a Filipino professional pool player. A winner of over 100 international titles, Reyes was the first player to win world championships in two different pool disciplines. Among his numerous title ...

, 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. He spent college at

Western Mindanao State University Western Mindanao State University (WMSU; ) is a state university located in Zamboanga City, Philippines. It has two campuses: the main campus of 79,000 square metres and 9,147 square metres in the city proper, and the satellite campus of ...

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 ABS-CBN is a leading Philippine media and content company. It serves as the flagship media brand of ABS-CBN Corporation, a subsidiary of Lopez Holdings Corporation. Once the country's largest free-to-air television network, ABS-CBN has since ...

for a couple of years. Gomez then returned to pool and began playing professionally.

2007 World Nine-ball Championship

Gomez reached the finals of the

where he took on

Daryl Peach Daryl Peach (born 8 March 1972) is an English professional pool player, from Lancashire, who resides in Blackpool, England. He won the 2007 WPA World Nine-ball Championship, where he defeated the Philippines' Roberto Gomez 17–15 in the final ...

of Great Britain. Despite the match being even, Peach won the match 17–15. Though beaten, Gomez became the first qualifier to reach finals of the tournament.

2010 World Cup of Pool

Roberto Gomez and

Dennis Orcollo Dennis Orcollo (born January 28, 1979), sometimes called Dennis Orcullo, is a Filipino professional pool player, nicknamed "''Surigao''" (after a province in the Philippines) and "RoboCop". He has been called "The Money-Game King". Orcollo is c ...

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 Fu Jianbo (sometimes referred to as Jianbo Fu in Western media) is a professional pool player from the People's Republic of China. Career In 2007, Fu along with Li Hewen represented China at the 2007 World Cup of Pool. The pair won the event ...

and

Li He-wen Li Hewen (; born November 30, 1981, in Liaoning, China) is a Chinese professional pool player. He made it to the finals in the Vietnam leg of the 2006 WPA Asian Nine-ball Tour, but lost to Efren Reyes. In 2006, Li Hewen reached the semi-finals o ...

, 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.

Titles

* 2025 Beasley Open Nine-ball * 2024 Buffalo's Pro Classic One Pocket * 2024 Scotty Townsend Memorial Nine-ball * 2023 Space City Open One Pocket * 2023 Buffalo's Open One Pocket * 2023 ALFA Jacoby Ten-ball Classic * 2023 Midwest Open Billiard Ten-ball * 2023 Big Tyme Classic Nine-ball * 2023

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

Open Banks Game * 2023 Big Tyme Classic One Pocket * 2023 The Rack One Pocket Classic * 2023 Bayou State Classic One Pocket * 2023 Music City Classic * 2022 Action Palace High Stakes One Pocket * 2022

Open One Pocket Championship * 2022 Diveney Cues Bar Box Classic Ten-ball * 2022 Diveney Cues Bar Box Classic Eight-ball * 2021 International One Pocket Open * 2021 Midwest Open One Pocket Championship * 2021 Diamond Open Ten-ball * 2020

Open One Pocket Championship * 2019 Space City One Pocket * 2018

Derby City Classic The Derby City Classic is an annual pool convention and tournament held every January at the Caesars Southern Indiana casino in Elizabeth, Indiana, near Louisville, Kentucky. It is eight days long and offers various disciplines of competition for ...

Bigfoot Ten-ball Challenge * 2017 Chinook Winds Open Eight-ball * 2016 Four Bears Classic Eight-ball * 2016 Arkansas Open Nine-ball Championship * 2009 Villar Cup Isabela Leg * 2008 Villar Cup Davao Leg

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gomez, Roberto 1978 births Living people Filipino pool players Cue sports players at the 2010 Asian Games Sportspeople from Zamboanga City Asian Games competitors for the Philippines