Arizona Open 2026, Yuma, August 13-16

The Indian Casino host event is about 20 miles west of AZ - CA border, Winterhaven Exit .

Have not been in area in 20 years but sure it don’t have much change.

Yuma AZ is nothing town in summer, nothing much of a town.

Place blooms like spring garden in Winter from Smowbirds.

South of Pool Venue is Mexico, and a typical border town.

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Los Algodones - Wikipedia

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The format for the Manilla event, as Bob noted, was the child of the mother of invention. It worked out well. Now MR appears primed to use this format for what I call “major-lite” events. Karl Boyes said it helps diversify the tour.

The format makes sense, especially in between two big majors, Florida and the US Open. The 128-player single-elimination field cuts two days off the length of a major, reduces the grind and is cheaper for the players and producers.

It also gets to big matches a lot faster for the fans. The second day will see top players duking it out in almost every match.

While single elimination seems harsh, 95% or more of the top players are likely to get through to the final 64, just as they would in a 256-player event. Just win one match.

In the Philippines Open last year, the only two big upsets in the first round saw Johann Chua and Duong Quoc Huang get knocked out.

Both were tired after playing in the Hanoi Open and Reyes Cup. Each lost to obscure Filipino players with 800 Fargos (low robustness),
 
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There are 47 players with top 100 Fargos slated to play at the Arizona Open (though I could seen a Pinoy or two being AWOL). Only one of these players, either Petri Makkonen or Justin Bergman, is guaranteed to lose in the first round. They play each other.

Other top first-round matches:

Tyler Styer vs Dean Shields
Marco Teutscher vs Boris Ivanovski
Arseni Sevastyanov vs Jeffrey De Luna
 
Bob Jewett said:
For the adventuresome, Amtrak has a Yuma station
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Sure enough.

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jay helfert said:
Isn't Tucson closer?

Sorry about that. You are correct, on the California border. Visit nearby Lake Havasu City/Laughlin if you can. You'll like it. Gary Benson and I did a tournament in a Laughlin casino eons ago. Highway 8 from San Diego across California is a good four lane highway all the way to Yuma, and never much traffic.
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Yeah that's nowhere near bullhead/laughlin
 
I'll be curious to see how the attendance is. Arizona definitely seems like a great place for a Matchroom major, but Yuma just see too out-of-the-way for fans and players. I have got to think it gets moved to somewhere else in Arizona if MR stays in the state.

I am surprised so many good players will be in Yuma, but given all the events in the US month, it makes sense. Also seems players are vying for Mosconi/Reyes spots and, perhaps, World Masters spots.
 
garczar said:
Why do they call all these events 'majors'? They're just WNT tour events. IMO a 'major' would be the US Open/World Championship/etc.
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dunno. i think it's to differentiate from the smaller satellite events, but it makes little sense to me. this event is just 25k or 30k first prize? there should be a money limit for the term major, over 60k first prize or something like that
 
garczar said:
Why do they call all these events 'majors'? They're just WNT tour events. IMO a 'major' would be the US Open/World Championship/etc.
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You know why - marketing.

I think of majors as big events, 4 to 6 days, with large 256-player fields, or 96-128 of the the very top players. Prize funds of $250,000 or more.

The UK, European, Florida and US opens would qualify under this definition, along with the WPC. That's on the WNT/MR side.

On the WPA/Predator side, only the World 10-ball and World 8-ball championships meet the definition. The Las Vegas event of the past few years has been stacked with great players, but the prize fund was just $150,000 in January.

The Qatar Open would also meet my definition.

Under Garczar's definition, the major's list would consist only of the US Open, WPC. World 10-ball Championship and maybe the Qatar Open. That's fine, too.
 
skogstokig said:
dunno. i think it's to differentiate from the smaller satellite events, but it makes little sense to me. this event is just 25k or 30k first prize? there should be a money limit for the term major, over 60k first prize or something like that
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I've been calling Arizona a major-lite. But if went by MR's Gold-Silver-Bronze calibration, which it only uses intermittently, the Arizona and Philippines opens would be Silver events.
 
jbart65 said:
You know why - marketing.

I think of majors as big events, 4 to 6 days, with large 256-player fields, or 96-128 of the the very top players. Prize funds of $250,000 or more.

The UK, European, Florida and US opens would qualify under this definition, along with the WPC. That's on the WNT/MR side.

On the WPA/Predator side, only the World 10-ball and World 8-ball championships meet the definition. The Las Vegas event of the past few years has been stacked with great players, but the prize fund was just $150,000 in January.

The Qatar Open would also meet my definition.

Under Garczar's definition, the major's list would consist only of the US Open, WPC. World 10-ball Championship and maybe the Qatar Open. That's fine, too.
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is the qatar open really happening this year?
 
jbart65 said:
You know why - marketing.

I think of majors as big events, 4 to 6 days, with large 256-player fields, or 96-128 of the the very top players. Prize funds of $250,000 or more.

The UK, European, Florida and US opens would qualify under this definition, along with the WPC. That's on the WNT/MR side.

On the WPA/Predator side, only the World 10-ball and World 8-ball championships meet the definition. The Las Vegas event of the past few years has been stacked with great players, but the prize fund was just $150,000 in January.

The Qatar Open would also meet my definition.

Under Garczar's definition, the major's list would consist only of the US Open, WPC. World 10-ball Championship and maybe the Qatar Open. That's fine, too.
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The PGATour plays four clearly defined major events. They don't call every tournament a 'major'. I guess pool is still such a broke-dick 'sport' that any event that pays over $5000(and you can't wear a t-shirt) to win is a major. IMO a 'major' should stand WAY above a regular tournament event in both prestige and $$$$$.
 
Matchroom should create printable brackets for its biggest tournaments, much like the NCAA basketball tournament. Give fans a chance to make their picks.

Heck, maybe they should let fans submit their picks with the winner getting a small prize. Couldn't hurt.

I created my own bracket for Arizona. One time thing, just to have a bit of fun. Here it is.

ROUND 1

Aloysius Yapp v Max Eberle
Andri Januarta vs Omar Al Shaheen
Alexander Kazakis vs Justin Martin
Denis Grabe vs Jeremy Courtney
Duong Quoc Hoang vs Chang Tzu Chien
Petri Makkonen vs Justin Bergman
Marc Bijsterbosch vs Brandon Shuff
Mickey Krause vs Matchroom Wildcard 9
Wiktor Zielinski vs Walter Laikre
Francesco Candela vs Kevin Groesbeck
Sanjin Pehlivanovic vs Daniel Dagotdot
Skyler Woodward vs Nick Cacchione
Jesús Atencio vs Francisco Ortega
Dimitris Loukatos vs Lin Ta Li
Mustafa Alna vs George Antonakis
Jonás Souto vs Clemens Ebert
Francisco Sánchez Ruiz vs Stan Elliott
Nicholas Tan vs Matchroom Wildcard 6
Arseni Sevastyanov vs Jeffrey De Luna
Georgi Georgiev vs Hsu Kai Lun
Mario He vs Cecil Doss
Elliott Sanderson vs Pierfrancesco Garzia
Roland Garcia vs Matchroom Wildcard 3
Bernie Regalario vs Justine Melo Baltazar
Jefrey Roda vs Jani Siekkinen
Marco Teutscher vs Boris Ivanovski
Casper Matikainen vs Joshua Welch
Oliver Szolnoki vs Jan Rempe
Chang Yu Lung vs Matchroom Wildcard 10
Konrad Juszczyszyn vs Danny Frausto
Gerson Martinez Boza vs Stefan Huber
Joshua Filler vs Phillip Sanchez
M Neuhausen vs Jacob Parrent
Nathan Childress vs Matchroom Wildcard 11
Marvin Asis vs Antonios Kakaris
Aleksa Pecelj vs Matchroom Wildcard 4
Robbie Capito vs Ivica Putnik
AJ Manas vs Harrison Leinen
Yannick Pongers vs Payne McBride
Jayson Shaw vs Torin Barnard
Naoyuki Oi vs Christian Villapudua
Vitaliy Patsura vs Michael Bundy
Fraser Patrick vs Nadim Okbani
John Morra vs Gary Onomura
Michael Baoanan vs Salvador Garcia
Albert Januarta vs Rich Funk
Hunter Lombardo vs Trinh Lu
Pijus Labutis vs Matchroom Wildcard 8
Kledio Kaci vs Scott Barnard
Ralf Souquet vs Matchroom Wildcard 5
Lo Ho Sum vs Matchroom Wildcard 2
Tyler Styer vs Dean Shields
Max Lechner vs Johnny Archer
Roberto Gomez vs Kevin Brock
Sullivan Clark vs Rich Moon
David Alcaide vs Matchroom Wildcard 1
Shane Van Boening vs Wayne Farnum II
Albin Ouschan vs Vincent Goh
Felix Vogel vs Mark Stutsman
Eklent Kaci vs Sun Yi Hsuan
Thorsten Hohmann vs Trevor Seale
Harry Vergara vs Matchroom Wildcard 7
Cristopher Tevez Vs Julio Rueda
Carlo Biado vs Corey Deuel
 
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