Carlo Biado: Career, Titles and Latest Results

Carlo Biado — "The Black Tiger" — is the Philippines' leading pool player and the current World No. 1 on the World Nineball Tour. A two-time WPA World 9-Ball Champion (2017, 2025), he is the first Filipino to win that title twice, and one of a small group of players to hold world championships in both nine-ball and ten-ball.

Career at a glance

Born: October 31, 1983, Philippines
Turned pro: 2004
Nickname: "The Black Tiger"
Disciplines: Nine-ball, ten-ball, eight-ball, rotation
Current ranking: No. 1, World Nineball Tour
Honours: Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame — elected August 2025, the sixth Filipino inducted, after Efren Reyes (2003), Francisco Bustamante (2010), Jose Parica (2014), Alex Pagulayan (2019) and Dennis Orcollo (2022)

Major titles

Year	Event	Final
2025	WPA World 9-Ball Championship, Jeddah	d. Fedor Gorst 15–13
2024	WPA World 10-Ball Championship, Las Vegas	d. Naoyuki Oi
2022	WPA World Teams Championship (with Johann Chua & Rubilen Amit)	d. Great Britain 3–0
2021	U.S. Open 9-Ball Championship	d. Aloysius Yapp 13–8
2017	WPA World 9-Ball Championship	d. Roland Garcia 13–5
2017	World Games, Wrocław — 9-Ball	d. Jayson Shaw 11–7

World Nineball Tour ranking titles: Raxx Pool Room Open (2023), Chinese Taipei Open (2024), Raxx MVP Open (2024). Team honours: Reyes Cup champion with Team Asia (2024, 2025). For the Philippines he has taken SEA Games gold in both nine-ball (2017) and ten-ball (2021), among other medals.

The long road up

Biado's path was unusually slow for a player of his level. He turned professional in 2004 and went nearly a decade without a major title, reaching his first world final — the 2015 WPA World 10-Ball Championship — only to lose to Ko Pin-Yi. The breakthrough came in 2017 with the World Games gold and his first World 9-Ball crown in the same year.

In 2021 he moved to the United States during the pandemic-era drought of tournaments in the Philippines and promptly won the U.S. Open, joining Alex Pagulayan and Efren Reyes as Filipino winners of the event. His second World 9-Ball title, in Jeddah in July 2025, came eight years after the first — a span few champions have managed — and was worth $250,000.

Biado is the godson of Filipino legend Francisco Bustamante, who captains Team Asia at the Reyes Cup. Biado has said he calls Efren Reyes "Father Efren" — a sign of how closely his career sits between the Philippines' established champions and its next generation.

Latest results

(updated October 2026 — refresh after every major event)

Reyes Cup 2026 (Manila): Biado was Team Asia's standout in a losing campaign, beating Shane Van Boening 5–3 on Day 2 before Team Rest of the World closed out an 11–4 win.
WPA Men's Doubles 10-Ball World Championship (Bali, Oct 2026): Runner-up with 19-year-old AJ Manas, losing a deciding fifth set to Spain's Francisco Sanchez Ruiz and David Alcaide.
Philippines Open 2026: Headlined the home charge at Gateway Mall, Quezon City.
Phoenix Open 2026: Semi-final finish earlier this season on the World Nineball Tour.

Frequently asked

How many world titles has Carlo Biado won? Three individual world championships: World 9-Ball (2017, 2025) and World 10-Ball (2024), plus the 2022 WPA World Teams Championship.

Is Carlo Biado the world number one? Yes — he tops the World Nineball Tour rankings, seeded into Team Asia at the 2026 Reyes Cup as its highest-ranked Filipino.

Why is he called "The Black Tiger"? It is his long-standing ring name on the Filipino and international circuit.

Who is Carlo Biado's godfather? Francisco Bustamante — himself a Hall of Famer and captain of Team Asia at the Reyes Cup.

More on Billiard News

Sources: WPA Pool (wpapool.com), World Nineball Tour (worldnineballtour.com), Billiard Congress of America.