Just spent ten days at the International Open in St Augustine, Florida. Here is what it was like.
Friday, November 14
Arrived 4:30 PM. Matches I saw were Morra’s one pocket win over Shuff and Pongers’ 14.1 win over Mario He. I caught up with a few pros briefly, but the only pro with whom I had a long chat was Fedor Gorst. The Bigfoot began with a weak field. Round 1 looked like a yawner.
Saturday, November 15
Breakfasted with Steve MacDonald of Diamond Billiards. It was a slow day in the tournament room. Lopsided matches in the Bigfoot were the norm, and the end of an embarrassing Round 1 mercifully came. The best 14.1 match was Mario He over Bob Madenjian. Meglino topped Shuff in one-pocket. Through two days, the International had produced few good matches.
Sunday, November 16
Round 2 of the Bigfoot offered the first tasty matchups. In a match neither deserved to win, Gorst and Sevastyonov both played poorly, and it was fittingly decided when Arseni mishit a kick at double hill but fluked a snooker that left Gorst so safe that there was almost no possible response. I have never believed that a close match is necessarily a good one, and this was an example of a close, terrible match. Oi vs Capito was exciting. Capito played poorly early, falling 7-1 behind. Capito caught a stroke, getting all the way to 9-7 before Oi’s break and run ended it. Biado dismissed Wolford and then Yapp shot the lights out against Corteza to advance. The 14.1 remained in round robin at end of day. Hall, Gomez and Meglino began to look like the ones to beat for the one-pocket title.
Monday, November 17
Breakfasted with Jeanette Lee. In the arena, the Bigfoot semi had Oi blowing out Sevastyonov. Biado and Yapp then had a good one, which went double hill. Biado scratched on the double hill break and Yapp negotiated a tricky rack for the win. In the final, Yapp was brilliant, dismissing Oi with relative ease. The 14.1 finished the round robin, and in the quarterfinals Pongers, Grabe and Zielinski advanced easily. The best quarterfinal was Hohmann vs He, and Thorsten prevailed with solid play in the late stages. One pocket played down to four: Hall, Ruuger, Gomez and Meglino.
Tuesday, November 18
Breakfasted with Mike Sigel. In the arena came the business end of the 14.1 event. Grabe vs Pongers was up first, and it was close most of the way, but it was Grabe who prevailed. In the other semi, Hohmann beat Zielinski with relative ease. In the final, it was vintage Hohmann topping Grabe for the title.
Mike Sigel, Billy Incardona, Sammy Jones and I probably traded war stories for at least an hour after the match, most of the discussions focusing on the years from 1980-94, which we all seemed to remember very well. An amusing moment came when Sigel spoke of one time he beat Earl in an action match in South Carolina circa 1981 and Billy had to correct him saying “I was your backer in that one and we broke even!”
The Fargo 650 and under 9ball began. I saw nearly none of it. One pocket had the day off.
Wednesday, November 19
The first one-pocket semi was a dandy between Ruuger and Hall. Ruuger led 2-1 and despite trailing 6 balls to 4, had a big positional advantage in Rack 4. He squandered his entire advantage with one poor shot, and it cost him the rack, and soon after that, the match, with Hall advancing to the final. In the second semi, Gomez was too much for Meglino. The final was a classic. Hall had a chance to close it out in rack three, but when he failed, the match continued and ended up going double hill. In the case rack, Gomez and Hall played a memorable safety battle with Gomez ahead 7-6. Gomez prevailed to win the title.
Pro 9ball began but the field was not deep, with a lot of dead money, and some even deader money, so Round 1 offered few good matchups. Surely the most entertaining match of the day was Shuff vs Thorpe, which reached double hill. Billy hooked himself on the 6ball but jumped it in. Still, he was not up to a challenging 7ball, and Shuff prevailed.
Thursday, November 20
Breakfasted with Payne McBride, the promising American teenager. The morning matches did not offer much great pool, but the afternoon produced a dandy in Sossei vs Thorpe. As had happened on Wednesday night, however, after a fine double hill shot on the 6ball, Billy made an error on the seven, so Sossei prevailed. The best match of the late session was a gem between Biado and Hennessee. The quality of the play in the closing racks was breathtaking, and the match came down to an electrifying double hill safety battle, ultimately won by Biado, securing the victory. Lukas Verner remained on the winner’s side with a nice win over Mario He.
Friday, November 21
The early pro 9ball session, all loser bracket affairs, was excellent. Ussery was too much for Morra, and Eric Roberts had a nice win. Meglino played well to top Capito. Austrian Mario He rallied from behind to top Donny Mills. The afternoon session brought the field down to 24 and these eight had already qualified for single elimination: Gorst, Oi, Atencio, FSR, Yapp, Woodward, Zielinski, and Hohmann. The night session brought the loser qualification round and these eight qualified: Rivas, Souto, Styer, Martinez, Loukatos, Kazakis, Krause and Grabe. The real story of the evening session was the elimination of both SVB and Biado, at the hands of Krause and Martinez respectively. Young American Eric Roberts came within a rack of Stage 2, losing a double hill heartbreaker to Souto.
Saturday, November 22
In early play, Spaniards Souto and FSR breezed to the quarterfinals, and Atencio won a tight one over Styer, but the real story was Rivas beating Gorst. Next up was the BCA Hall of Fame dinner with Carlo Biado enshrined and, after being introduced by his wife, he spoke well. After dinner came the quarterfinals. Zielinski, FSR and Souto advanced comfortably but Yapp vs Woodward was a well-played dogfight that came down to a double hill rack in which both players had a ball in hand, as Yapp prevailed.
Sunday, November 23
It was time to crown a champion. In the first semi, it was Spain vs Spain, as FSR topped Souto. In the second semi, Yapp won easily over Zielinski. The final was a beauty, with Yapp narrowly prevailing over a very solid FSR. Well played and that’s three in a row for Yapp.
Socially
I was pleased to hang out a bit with AZB regulars BBB and Jason. I caught up with some old friends, including Don Wardell and George Breedlove, neither of whom I had seen before in 2025. I spent a lot of time with old friends Mike Sigel and Billy Incardona, and was pleased to catch up with Sammy Jones and Jerry Briesath. Katie and Darlene, two close friends from Chicago, were present for the final three days of the event, and that was great. I was happy to sweat a few matches with my friend Mike from Jacksonville. I went out to dinner just twice in ten days.
So How Did It Go Overall?
To be fair, the event was a slight disappointment.
The setup of the tournament room was superb, as has always been the case at the International. Still, overhead scoreboards malfunctioned on numerous occasions, which was very frustrating.
Field size and depth in the pro events disappointed. The main reasons, in my opinion: a) the Predator event in Spain caused many top Europeans to skip it, b) five top Europeans were in Scotland training for the Mosconi, and c) player burnout, as the top pros just got home from two months hopping from country to country in Asia.
The pace was glacial. The 14.1 had 20 players, four groups of five. Each player had to play four matches to complete round robin, yet that took four days. Participants played an average of one round robin match per day. One pocket was a little better, but the matches were, similarly, too spaced in the schedule. Once pro 9ball began, sessions alternated between the 650 Fargo event and the pro event, so the pace of the pro event was lethargic until the last couple of days, when it was pretty much pro 9-ball only.
The Renaissance Hotel offered few shops and amenities. Other than at breakfast, food offerings were mediocre. In the tournament area, there was a tiny snack bar that helped you order food in, so that helped. There was also a small buffet that was nice but it did not begin until day 7.
Comparing this to August’s Florida Open, this did not fit in as well with the US pool calendar. The summer had offered, in consecutive weeks, a) Rally in the Valley, b) Florida Open, c) Battle of the Bull, and d) US Open 9ball. Each offered good prize money, and Europeans and Asians showed up in droves for that four-week fiesta. Increasingly, overseas-based players are not showing up to American events unless they can play in a series of events.
To sum, at ten days long, this event is just too long and there was just not enough pro pool played. By my estimate, fewer than 500 pro matches were contested over the ten-day event. By comparison, Derby City, also a ten-day event, offers closer to 2,500 pro event matches.
On the positive side, however, the event built to a crescendo and the last couple of days offered some very exciting pool. I am grateful for this event and I am glad I went but, at times, it was a bit of a drag.
Thanks to Pat Fleming and his team for all their hard work in staging the event. It is always my pleasure to support his events.
