US Open 08/18-23

Do you have a link? I've given up on Matchroom Pool. I can't even find the draw. Last month for WNT.tv for me. Matchroom Pool seems totally incompetent at providing info, draws, schedules, matches for paying subscribers.
The Youtube channel is easy to find via search. I've had it bookmarked for years.

WNT.TV has actually gotten a lot better the last few months. Been much more reliable and recordings get put up faster.

When WNT.TV started, the website would clip individual matches, but it was a lengthy process that resulted in big delays posting to the site. Now WNT puts up full streams of Tables 1, 2 and 3 after the matches are finished. The recordings get up quicker.

This does require a user to FF through the matches to find what they want. I actually prefer it.

Now finding theses matches? Not so easy. Bizarre, actually.

Take the US Open. The first two days of matches are not on the main page when you open up WNT.TV.

If you click on HOME, LIVE or ON DEMAND at the top of the page, you wont find the matches either.

If you scroll down the main page, you will see a "US Open Pool Championship" page. What you will see, however, is last year's matches.

BUT ... if you click the small SEE ALL link on the right side of the "US OPEN POOL CHAMPIONSHIP category, voila. Now you will see the most recent 2025 US Open matches.

Weird? Confusing? Greatly in need of improvement? You bet.
 
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Man who was that dude that took down Alcaide? Nguyen Ahn Tuan? Never heard of him before, but really enjoyed watching him play.

Table 4 YouTube stream, 2nd to last match, day 2.
We talked on AZ about Tuan before. He played Fedor in a very competivie challenge match earlier this year. Might be the second or third best player in Vietnam. Good enough to beat anyone, but I wouldn't put him in elite status.

 
viet pool instructor with a high top gear, but not super consistent. played in most of the recent majors and some invitationals. to my knowledge never made QF

Tuan has a Fargo of 767. Sits at 90 in the WNT rankings.

Tuan got thru to the knockout round in WPC and was ousted in the final 64.

He got to the final 16 of the UK Open and lost to Jayson Shaw 10-5. That is his best finish in a major, it seems.

Tuan got to the final 64 of the UK Open.

Ousted before the knockout round in the last Hanoi Open.
 
Where the heck did you find the actual bracket, MJ? I can't find out how to get to it once on the WNT Live Scores play.

Matchroom has to stop burying stuff and make it easier to find.
Not really hidden but not labeled - see yellow arrow.
bracket.jpg
 
It's actually ridiculous how many great players there are. This may end up being a problem for Matchroom if they really want to develop known commodities. There's just too many players that can play + .900 level TPA even on tough equipment.
I don't entirely agree. I think there’s a lot of very good players, but great ones? I'd count fewer than 10 truly elite players at the moment. Filler, Gorst, Yapp, Biado, SVB, Chua, one of both of the Ko brothers and perhaps Shaw.

Next up are the near-great category. I'd put FSR, Alcaide and Eklent Kaci (post injury) into that category, but a case can be made they are still elite.

Albin Ouschan has really fallen off in the past year, but I am not ready to punt him into just “very good” status.

In any case, the winners of the 19 Big Matchroom majors since 2022 - really the start of the WNT touring era - come almost entirely from the small group of players listed above.

The only exceptions were Dang Jin Hu, Robbie Capito and Mickey Krause.

Lots of new players, of course, are aiming for elite status. More than ever, it seems.But it takes tremendous effort to get there – and stay there.

Capito and Krause, for instance, have yet to break into elite status despite winning MR majors.

Krause is the more likely of the two to get there, but he’s been up and down since winning the European Open in 2024.

Beyond those two, there are plenty of potentially great players. They have yet to arrive, though.
 
Recent posts attempted to compare pool to other sports.

Perhaps a valid comparison to another major spectator sport is golf. I googled it. The percentage of birdies on PGA tour events runs around 15-25% of holes. Also googled World Nineball Tour BnR percentages and recently (Mosconi, World Cup, various other international events) was 16-29% last few years.
 
Matchroom need to fix the fornat.

How can Kraus vs Alcaide face each other in loser's round 4?

When other round 4 games involve 2 rubbish players?

Having a high seeding should give you an advantage, even if you drop into loser's bracket.
 
I don't entirely agree. I think there’s a lot of very good players, but great ones? I'd count fewer than 10 truly elite players at the moment. Filler, Gorst, Yapp, Biado, SVB, Chua, one of both of the Ko brothers and perhaps Shaw.

Next up are the near-great category. I'd put FSR, Alcaide and Eklent Kaci (post injury) into that category, but a case can be made they are still elite.

Albin Ouschan has really fallen off in the past year, but I am not ready to punt him into just “very good” status.

In any case, the winners of the 19 Big Matchroom majors since 2022 - really the start of the WNT touring era - come almost entirely from the small group of players listed above.

The only exceptions were Dang Jin Hu, Robbie Capito and Mickey Krause.

Lots of new players, of course, are aiming for elite status. More than ever, it seems.But it takes tremendous effort to get there – and stay there.

Capito and Krause, for instance, have yet to break into elite status despite winning MR majors.

Krause is the more likely of the two to get there, but he’s been up and down since winning the European Open in 2024.

Beyond those two, there are plenty of potentially great players. They have yet to arrive, though.
A few years ago FSR was winning a lot.
 
Guessing you have not followed pro pool this year. Fedor is without a nine ball or ten ball title to this point of 2025. So far in August, he came tied for 33rd at the Florida Open 9ball and tied for 9th at the Battle of the Bull, so he does not arrive in Atlantic City in his best form. Obviously, he is an awesome player, a top contender for the US Open 9ball title, and a future BCA Hall of Famer, but 50/50 vs the field --- get real.

FYI, Tiger Woods held the #1 ranking in golf for 11 years. The only Tiger Woods figure pro pool has ever had was Jean Balukas, who retired about 35 years ago. Like Tiger, she was player of the year almost every year.
Fedor is a contender but watching Yapp, he seems to be smoothing balls in easily.
 
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