European Championships, 2025, March 29 to April 8

Bob Jewett

Bob Jewett

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Over in Europe, the continental organization, the EPBF, holds a continental championship each year. This year it is in Estonia. Predator is the major sponsor. Here's the AZB news item:

www.azbilliards.com

Predator European Pool Championships Presented by the City of Tallinn – Euro Champs Get Underway This Saturday - News - AZBILLIARDS.COM

THE 45th ANNUAL PREDATOR European Pool Championships get underway tomorrow (Saturday) as hundreds of cue-carrying athletes converge on Tallinn, Estonia for the 11-day extravaganza. Contested in four categories – men, women, wheelchair users and under 23 men - there are a total of 15 events being con
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Schedule:

With 15 separate tournaments, the start and finish dates of each event is as follows:​
Starts Completes​
​
Straight Pool (Men) Sat 29 Mar Sun 30 Mar​
Straight Pool (Women) Sat 29 Mar Sun 30 Mar​
10-Ball (Men) Mon 31 Mar Weds 2 Apr​
10-Ball (Women) Mon 31 Mar Weds 2 Apr​
10-Ball (Wheelchair) Mon 31 Mar Weds 2 Apr​
8-Ball (Men) Weds 2 Apr Sat 5 Apr​
8-Ball (Women) Weds 2 Apr Sat 5 Apr​
8-Ball (Wheelchair) Weds 2 Apr Sat 5 Apr​
8-Ball (Under 23s) Weds 2 Apr Sat 5 Apr​
9-Ball (Men) Sun 6 Apr Tues 8 Apr​
9-Ball (Women) Sun 6 Apr Tues 8 Apr​
9-Ball (Wheelchair) Sun 6 Apr Tues 8 Apr​
9-Ball (Under 23s) Sun 6 Apr Tues 8 Apr​
Teams (Men) Thurs 3 Apr Tues 8 Apr​
Teams (Women) Thurs 3 Apr Tues 8 Apr​
 
don't think i've seen this on pro level:

in his losers round match against jaroslaw polach, mario he started the match with a smashing 8-ball break. i believe he called a second row ball, but didn't make it. commentators and opponent seemed dumbfounded. mario still won the match, with a big margin.
 
Mario took down his previous match. Here’s the opening in question:
He went for the head ball in the side. Edit: It's at 2:22:15 if the timestamp doesn't work for some reason

This brings me back to 2010 when I played Mario in the European Champs 14.1. Back then, some of the players were riding a new trend of calling a head ball from the break, placing the cue ball close to the headspot, rolling it mid-pace, hitting the head ball anywhere from a half to a 1/3 ball hit, sending the cue ball off the bottom and side rails and back up toward the middle. I lost the lag and thought, ‘F it, I’m going for it' - and somehow, I made it! Of course, I left myself stuck on the top rail and only managed to run one more ball after that. Classic. I lost 125-56 in a somewhat scrappy match. Back then, I was still a young man, and Mario was barely a teenager. Time flies!

At the time, tables were tapped with a template, making breaks super predictable. Years later, some players even stopped leaving themselves break shots during their runs and just called a shot straight from the rack. That led to the 14.1 part of the tournament resorting to traditional racking, saving the tapped rack for later events.

Watching Mario thwack the rack like that today is wild, but hey, he came close, hitting both points.
 
3rd place for mario in the end. bongers won, but i think sniegocki played the finest straight pool in downing grabe 125-1 in the semi final.

these tables seem to play nice for straight pool, being more shallow than the other predator table. will likely be a bit soft for 8-ball / 9-ball.
 
why are they even bothering with the 8-ball? it's a breaking contest at best, a lagging contest at worst. i watched a first round match and they just ran out, ran out, dogged a break, other guy ran out, rinse repeat. it's a snooze fest
 
skogstokig said:
why are they even bothering with the 8-ball? it's a breaking contest at best, a lagging contest at worst. i watched a first round match and they just ran out, ran out, dogged a break, other guy ran out, rinse repeat. it's a snooze fest
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I favor, for elite 8-ball, a small but impactful modification. Flowing the break, player can either PASS, in which he assigns a suit to opponent and opponent shoots. Or he can SHOOT, in which opponent assigns suit.
Either way, shooter begins with harder-to-run suit.
 
mikepage said:
I favor, for elite 8-ball, a small but impactful modification. Flowing the break, player can either PASS, in which he assigns a suit to opponent and opponent shoots. Or he can SHOOT, in which opponent assigns suit.
Either way, shooter begins with harder-to-run suit.
Click to expand...

i like that a lot. plus reverse break box and faster shot clock.
 
The best eight ball format I've ever seen was at Darren Appleton's World Pool Series about a decade ago. You had to break from within a few inches of the long rail and it was "take what you make." The runouts were more challenging with those rules in use.
 
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sjm said:
The best eight ball format I've ever seen was at Darren Appleton's World Pool Series about a decade ago. You had to break from with a few inches of the long rail and it was "take what you make." The runouts were more challenging with those rules in use.
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Yeah. I was there playing and it was one of best tourneys i´ve ever been. Tight tables too. I saw so many cool matches and played some of those myself. I would like that format come back.
 
Poolmanis said:
Yeah. I was there playing and it was one of best tourneys i´ve ever been. Tight tables too. I saw so many cool matches and played some of those myself. I would like that format come back.
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Yeah, the first one of those was the event during which a complete unknown from Albania (at least he was unknown to Americans) wowed the New York City fans. His name was Eklent Kaci and he won the event. I'm guessing he was only 17 at the time.
 
Was listening to Josh Filler's commentary on the 10 ball men finals and I thought it was insightful. He mentioned that he would have liked to play, but he couldn't get support from his Federation. Wonder why? Anyone has any idea why this was the case?
 
sjm said:
Yeah, the first one of those was the event during which a complete unknown from Albania (at least he was unknown to Americans) wowed the New York City fans. His name was Eklent Kaci and he won the event. I'm guessing he was only 17 at the time.
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I played him 100$ race to 6 10-ball then. He broke and ran 5 from start. He told me he won 4k in 2 days on money games and that he just turned 18.
Managed to win 3 after i got one chance before he closed it.
 
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sjm said:
Sounds to me like you played well!
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Yeah. I had good time there :)
I also challenged Pagu and Orcollo to one pocket 30$ a rack :D
2-2 with Alex and he got big game then and had to go. Orcollo I lost 2-4. Never forget 2 outs he made after i got him trapped. Even Efren would be amazed those shots haha. He bank combo a ball to his pocket while carom my ball in from my jaws and that was when he was buried to middle of rack...
 
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