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...you mean like Sky? Or did you mean someone even worse?

My only response to matchroom being forced to adhere to their unpublished rules is: no they really aren't. They let Fedor onto team USA just what, two years after he was on team Europe? Why? Because that suited their interests. No SVB at Reyes means one of two things: 1) They are really...

But SVB is the clearly better marketing opportunity. Strange criteria all around. If there's really no SVB, Filler, Ko, or Kaci, especially given the recent selections, then this will be a totally bewildering, second-rate production.

Wow, I had no idea. Pulling in the young crowd, I guess. Now, explain the Sky (over SVB) pick. I'm so glad I paid lots of money to go see the best marketing opportunities battle it out.

Bustamante was here at the Hanoi open making an appearance earlier today. He was walking and talking with Emily. I wonder how much marketing strategy went into that AJ Manas decision. I'm also a bit surprised that picking Manas would be seen as a positive marketing move. I mean there has to be...

To be fair, he won the match he complained about soft breaking. Unless there was one besides the US open semi- (quarter-?) final.

Yes. At one point, Fedor said something to the ref. It wasn't clear what it was, but then the ref talked with Antonakis. The guy next to me said he thought it was because of slow play. He (the guy next to me) actually started timing Antonakis' shots and sure enough many of them were 1 min+. I'm...

Brutal day for the 830+ players. FSR, Fedor, Chua, Raga are all out, all against sub-800 players, some below it by quite a bit. Arseni deserved every inch of his win vs FSR. Watch his runout on rack 14, then watch him confidently dominate til the end. George Antonakis v Fedor was a little less...

That match is up against a lot of vietnamese matches, and, until a few minutes ago, the Fedor match. Plenty of spectators around for those.

I'm far from being a fire marshal, but I suspect it's not up to US codes. There are definitely exits, but fewer and tighter than one typically sees in US venues. Of course, the sparkly background sheets might be disguising other exits. I've not examined that closely.

This and the Reyes Cup were a good excuse for a vacation to places I'd never been. The arena is nice. Even with AC it's a touch warm and humid. That's about the only negative I can find. Well, one more: sparse bathrooms. Only one set for spectators that I've found. I can already tell this...

Yes, I am in Hanoi.

The Capito match was exciting. Walter was up 5-1 at one point. Robbie came back to tie it at 5-5. Then the match was tied every two games after, 6-6, 7-7, 8-8. No shot clock meant the pace of play slowed considerably, unfortunately. I guess shot clocks are too hard to enforce without dedicated...

We can quibble with semantics, but these stats here, to me, really support calling pro 8b a "breaking contest."

I don't believe this. My experience is the suit with fewer balls down is clearly the easier suit more often. Rationality says the suit with more balls on the table is more likely to have more options off the break, and more opportunities for clearing clusters and other problem balls. I'm...

I agree completely. To clarify, my objection is not to dead money. Rather, it is to arranging tournaments so dead money always plays all-stars. I know having a big-name matchup, say, Fedor v Biado, in an early round might not be considered fair to either, but completely randomizing the draw and...

Yes, things improved dramatically overnight. Last night, many streets were flooded out. It was impossible to get through to places, including the venue if you weren't already right there. I was concerned whether today would be any good or not, but while there's still plenty of standing water in...

I think being taller is a mild advantage, but far from a necessary tool (like it would be in basketball). Being able to comfortably reach more shots is an advantage. However, once you get too tall, then many shots start becoming uncomfortable. Of course, there are many more people of around...

Yes, besides axing the shootout, one possible improvement would be making it alternate break. Although one of the commentators said that only three people have run out a set so far in the history of the format. No clue whether or not that's true, but it's believable with the tight pockets and no...

Anyone going? The ticketing site they're using is janky as anything I've ever used.