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The hallmark of any truly successful pro league, or tournament-based sports like tennis and golf, is a predictable schedule. In that regard, Matchroom is still a big failure. The 2025 season has been especially bad, with events being announced very late or not at all. In some cases players had...

Just announced. Oct 16-19. Takes place from Thursday thru Sunday. Last year the event ran from Tuesday to Friday. Getting the whole weekend involved obviously a good thing for attendance and viewership. The event also takes place four days after the final of the Hanoi Open, so more time for...

Matchroom just announced another Peri Open in Vietnam in the first week of October. The event will precede the Hanoi Open for the third year in a row. What is different this time is the prize fund. The Peri Open raised its total prize fund to $200,000, with $40,000 for the winner. Previously...

Very early in the year, but things are getting interesting on the Euro side for the Mosconi Cup for the top three auto spots. https://www.wntlivescores.com/rankings/mosconi-ranking-2025-europe Filler looks like a shoo-in, assuming the WPA-WNT deal goes thru as the WPA president suggested this...

The post about Jayson Shaw getting into the HOF raises a few questions: Who is the oldest winner of a major pool tourney in "modern" pool? And how are "major" and "modern" defined. Tricky to define modern, but I'd say modernity started with the surge of talent outside the U.S. and much deeper...

I watched most of the American Junior Showdown and I was pretty impressed. A lot of talented youngsters. Ten boys/young men and two girls, Savannah Easton and Sophia Mast, were invited. Easton and Mast played well, but succumbed to better players (Mast) or the pressure (Easton). The finalists...

Talking on doggin it, Emily says: WNT and WPA have been talking. She even said, "Our priority is to get the ban removed… we’ve agreed to a proposed suggestion from the WPA. So from our side we’ve agreed, we’re just waiting." There will be more open events this year. She was cagey on whether...

Frazer is doing a lot of hinting this week. Biggest calendar yet in 2025. U.S. expansion. Some kind of new TV thing. As some have mentioned, she has been talking another major in the U.S. located in Florida. Doesn't sound like the International being converted to a WNT event. She also seems...

In light of the MR-WPA dispute, lots of speculation about how many great players a topnotch pro tour could support. Right now there are 40-60 players who could plausibly win a major title. Just 10-15 would be considered regular threats. These numbers could also grow given the flood of talent in...

Given all our discussion here, John Morra and Jayson Shaw are pretty adamant in favor of the break format and the tighter pockets. Both of these players were guest commentators on the Knight Shot Final between Kaci and Filler (who won). They spoke very much in favor of the break rules. Not so...

I've watched every major Matchroom tournament extensively for the past two years and the 2024 UK Open may have been my least enjoyable. Was it the 3 7/8 pockets? I dunno, but when a pro's pro like Niels Feijin complains, I think it pays to listen. It all started when I saw Max Lechner miss more...

Watching the Premier League of pool and really focusing on it, I was struck by how pros play differently from decent everyday players and even really good amateurs. It's no surprise, of course. They obviously have better skills and more precision than mere mortals. The two things that have...

Well, here it goes. My first thread. I am sort of like a pool version of Rip Van Winkle. I played a ton as a youngster, then "slept" for 30 years before "reawakening" to the game again. I play a few hours a day now, go to the pool hall several times a month and watch a ton of professional pool...