Yup; Morra made it to the Quarterfinals, good for $8,000. And AJ's $40,000 for 2nd place is pretty nice (although I think the gap between 1st and 2nd is too big).
Last edited:
Qatar World Cup 10-Ball 2026
- Thread starter jax_joe
- Start date
that zero misses approach seems to be successful. i might try that myself
Agreed. Sometimes we are so fixated on Josh' other skills that we overlook this. I think SVB also has mindblowingly good speed control, but as we're so busy watching other things, we don't always notice.
Bravo, AJ Manas. Many, me included, were starting to wonder when Manas would find his way to the top tier. His progress seemed insubstantial in 2026 until this week. This week, however, he reached his first major semifinal and his first major final, and all the credit to him for his fine play.
As many have learned the hard way, beating Filler in a major final is a very tall order, but Manas should draw great confidence from this week's effort in Qatar.
Wishing AJ success in building on this outstanding performance. Well played!
As many have learned the hard way, beating Filler in a major final is a very tall order, but Manas should draw great confidence from this week's effort in Qatar.
Wishing AJ success in building on this outstanding performance. Well played!
Reminds me of Lassiter, who was only satisfied with perfection. 2-3 inches off and he would shake his head and make a disgusted face.
One thing you and I have in common, Jay, is the joy we have always gotten from watching the champions of every era of this great game. Like you, I have traveled to pro pool events for over 50 years now and it continues to bring me great joy to behold the greats of every generation.
The BCA Hall of Fame dinner is just four weeks away, Jay, and one thing I love about it is that, during the magnificent video shown early in every induction ceremony, we take time to reflect on the many great players that paved the way for today's superstars. Once, I jokingly (but accurately) told Filler that I would be 80 when he became eligible for BCA Hall of Fame induction. I told him I'd do my best to be there when he is inducted. We shall see.
I'm a little surprised here. I don't really feel that Josh plays position as aggressively as any of Buddy Hall, Ralf Souquet, Darren Appleton, Jim Rempe or Fedor Gorst. As noted previously, I never saw Lassiter play anything but straight pool.
I think Josh is a bit more willing to accept a little more distance from the object ball than the others, and in this sense, he reminds me of Earl Strickland in his prime. Josh and Earl enjoyed such supreme confidence in their pocketing skills that they sometimes opted to focus more on getting right side of the ball than getting really near the next object ball. George Fels used to describe this practice as "cinching the angle."
Don't get me wrong, for both Josh and Earl qualify as elite position players, but the position play percentages for them are just a bit different because of their absurdly straight shooting. They play position exactly as they should, given their respective skill sets, but it's a bit less textbook than the other five players I mentioned.
Last edited:
it does something for his wallet
In this event I don’t think John was on the stream once. And unlike Carlo and Hoang he doesn’t have someone to stream his matches on a private stream.
John has had a very good year this year. He crushed the field at turning stone to start the year, won the U.S. Open 10b and banks and also also lost in the top 16 to Fedor at the U.S. Open nine ball.
Yes, but he has won two China Opens since then (three in total). Not sure how long you have been around pool, but until fairly recently, the China Open may well have been tougher to win than the US Open. He also won the 2022 World Games gold medal, a World Teams Championship gold medal since then, and a World 8ball gold medal since then. The "what have you done for me lately?" argument hardly applies here. Filler is the greatest and most consistent mass-producer of major titles of the current generation of pool players and nobody else is even close.
All that said, I'm sure he wants the most prestigious titles the most, just as you suggest. With a silver and a bronze already, I know how badly he wants a World 10ball title, because he has told me.
Kind of agree with you, though, about the Qatar World Cup. It doesn't have the history of some of the other top events, I also agree that it can be hard to take events having almost no audience seriously, but then you must downgrade the recent Jeddah World 9ball events from consideration, too. A high first prize does not, alone, make a tournament great. Still, the Qatar World Cup is an elite event, about five years old, that always draws a killer field, just as it did this year, and its profile as an event continues to rise. I feel that every major championship adds to a player's legacy but agree that Qatar should not qualify as one of Filler's career highlights.
Since the game went globally viral about a decade ago, we live in a world where the majors have very deep fields (often 256) with dozens capable of winning. That's why nobody other than Josh has won more than one major singles title this year, while Josh has four. For me, a major means an event having an internationally diverse field of at least 96 players with a first prize of at least $25,000. I think it's unrealistic to expect Josh to fill in the gaps of which you take note next year. Also, are these gaps really noteworthy given that he has already won the titles noted and pretty much all of the most prestigious titles?
Filler's great, a living legend, but maybe not quite as great as you seem to believe. He'll continue to be a contender at every major in every discipline, but in this era of the game, in which fields are much deeper than they were even ten years, ago, everybody is beatable and my guess is that nobody will produce a year like Varner '89 or Immonen '09 for a very long time.
Overall, I think you made good points, because some of the majors are more important as legacy-builders than others, and we should not lose sight of this.
However it all pans out, though, it will be fun to watch.
Last edited:
It has no history and almost no live audience, true (although it was, what, 40k watching on youtube?), but it was a deep field and Josh again came out on top.
US Opens and World Championships are hard to win. Only one person per year can win each of them. And the competition has gotten better each and every year since 2018 (since before that, too.)
Josh is in the conversation for GOAT and I don't doubt he'll have many more titles before he's done.
Manas keeps progressing, nothing wrong with making it to the finals and losing to Filler
well done AJ!
well done AJ!
8intheside
Well-known member
If Josh retired tomorrow he’d still be regarded by some as one of the best players of all time and a cinch for the hall of fame. His legacy is just fine.
Now that made me laugh!I just can't believe the 2 guys in white sitting center stage had the balls to sit in Stu's chair
Exactly. Filler accepts more distance than any top player to make sure he’s on the right side of the ball. But also to not risk a miss to try to get better position.
He has also said he doesn’t like to use a lot of spin on long shots or to try to get better position if it sharply raises the odds of a miss. He is as a good as a percentage player as there is.
Yes, very well said, but don't fail to appreciate that in doing so, he sometimes increases his likelihood of finding the right side of the next object ball. The most aggressive position players, the best of which I named, who have generally played tighter to the next object ball than Josh, sometimes pay a greater penalty than Josh when they overhit the speed. In other words, there is a tradeoff in play here, and the Filler/Strickland style should not be viewed as evidencing a lack of ambition in position play.
Again, like Earl in his prime, he is super-comfortable with spin but knows when he doesn't have to chance it.