Arizona Open 2026, Yuma, August 13-16

[garczar]

Agree, Fedor is more interested selling his crappy merchandise to gullible 500 fargo players.

I wouldn't pick Fedor for the Mosconi Cup.

He's clearly not desperate to make the team and he always stinks up the place when he plays in it.

WTF??? Did Fedor do your sister or what? What other US player would you put in his place??? You need to put the pipe down before it burns your lips. Do you think ANY player is 'desperate' to be on the MC??

 

[garczar]

God love him for embracing capitalism. Immigrant entrepreneurs are truly a joy.

And he's still had a pretty good year so far. That 96 cat has some kind of serious hard-on for the guy. He needs to realize the US will be the underdog in the Mosconi for the foreseeable future. A win here and there maybe but the Euro's will be favorites for YEARS. US may never match Europe in terms of both quality and quantity of big table players.

 

[sjm]

And he's still had a pretty good year so far. That 96 cat has some kind of serious hard-on for the guy. He needs to realize the US will be the underdog in the Mosconi for the foreseeable future. A win here and there maybe but the Euro's will be favorites for YEARS. US may never match Europe in terms of both quality and quantity of big table players.

Fedor remains a superstar of the highest order, one of the best all-around players we've ever seen. In a chat he and I had in November, I told him that if he exceeds Efren's total of five Derby City Classic Master of the Tables awards, I will deem him to be the best all-around player in pool history. Admittedly, getting three more is a very tall order, but it could happen.

Fedor's absence from the last two WNT majors is unfortunate, but what's wrong with him opting to focus on building his brand as an entrepreneur in pool instead?

 

[decent dennis]

So I'll say one thing about this. The WNT major open events, I consider any event where they're setting up the WNT tables and not holding it in a pool room like the phoenix open next week, to be a major, which is what seems Matchroom does too, are definitely geared more towards the player that regularly play in those events. I've traveled all over the country and in many places around the world playing pool and I've always been able to adjust to conditions fairly quickly.

There were a limited amount of practice tables and some changes that were questionable, more on that in a minute. There were only two practice tables, even though there was room in the practice table room for at least 2 more. They would let players practice on the non tv tables from 12 to about 1245, but these tables played so differently than any I've ever played it was ridiculous.

JJ even commented on how much the balls were sliding. His comment wasn't strong enough. The balls would take paths completely abnormal to what they normally would. The tightness of the tables were not a problem. I wasn't missing shots because of the tight pockets. I was overshooting shape horribly and then understroking in an attempt to compensate and I literally would need 3-4 days to acclimate to the conditions rather than the 30-40 minutes of actual play that I got and that was with sitting in the practice room for 4 hours on Thursday.

Now back to the poor communication. So the players got a letter a few days before the tourney that they would open the room for practice from 6-9 pm on wednesday. I planned everything around this, even extended my stay at the hotel to Wednesday and went a day earlier than I was planning. Luckily for me I went down there based on check in for the hotel, because when I checked in at 3 and went up and dropped off all of my stuff in the room. I came down to check in and get my wrist band and the room was already open for practice.

They ended up opening the room for practice 3 hours earlier than communicated and because of that, they closed it down and kicked everyone out at 7 instead of 9. Then they sent out an update email on the praactice times at 11:40 p.m., so 4.5 hours after they kicked everyone out of the room. Not to mention there were 6 players to a table for practice so there wasn't a lot of practice going on.

So it's not a surprise that players that aren't regularly competing on this equipment aren't making rounds. I can't reiterate enough how differently these tables play and again, the tightness is NOT the issue. I've always preferred a tight table and had no trouble making shots, it was accurately predicting what the cb and ob's would do coming off the rails and how far they would roll.

I now understand why Shane punches the cb the way he does, it keeps you from hitting tentatively to control the cb on such fast and different conditions.

So did you play it n the tournament?

 

[Jaden]

So did you play it n the tournament?

yes

 

[jay helfert]

Yeah, a well-played match up to 3-3, but a lost safety battle sent Josh to the chair for five racks. Only ball Josh missed after 3-3 was a long bank of the two ball. Roda was just sensational. Well done!

Fedor remains a superstar of the highest order, one of the best all-around players we've ever seen. In a chat he and I had in November, I told him that if he exceeds Efren's total of five Derby City Classic Master of the Tables awards, I will deem him to be the best all-around player in pool history. Admittedly, getting three more is a very tall order, but it could happen.

Fedor's absence from the last two WNT majors is unfortunate, but what's wrong with him opting to focus on building his brand as an entrepreneur in pool instead?

Missing these important tournaments will not help his preparation for the MC. Mother Emily is watching.

 

[jasonlaus]

SVB is a baaaaaad man.
Called the 3 pack to win the match from the couch.
When his break is working this well everyone else may as well pack up and head home.

To be fair, the only person that sends everybody home is Filler. Im happy that Shane is doing it

 

[jasonlaus]

He’s played it a bit and been killed.

Shane has zero chance against the top Chinese players unless he really dedicates himself to the game. Then maybe he can be competitive.

Filler kills all of them, not sure what that has to do with being Chinese. You can get a bet down anytime. As a matter of fact, if you wanna play races to 120 you can get it all. PUNK

 

[jasonlaus]

Fedor remains a superstar of the highest order, one of the best all-around players we've ever seen. In a chat he and I had in November, I told him that if he exceeds Efren's total of five Derby City Classic Master of the Tables awards, I will deem him to be the best all-around player in pool history. Admittedly, getting three more is a very tall order, but it could happen.

Fedor's absence from the last two WNT majors is unfortunate, but what's wrong with him opting to focus on building his brand as an entrepreneur in pool instead?

I think he'll do it. Greatest player of our time repeatedly. Wish Filler played all games.

 

[Jaden]

I think he'll do it. Greatest player of our time repeatedly. Wish Filler played all games.

Shane could still tie Efren's 5 mot titles. Of the players who have three, Shane and Fedor are the two most likely to do it, since Dennis hasn't been traveling and Busty's pretty much retired.

 

[something_pool]

Fedor remains a superstar of the highest order, one of the best all-around players we've ever seen. In a chat he and I had in November, I told him that if he exceeds Efren's total of five Derby City Classic Master of the Tables awards, I will deem him to be the best all-around player in pool history. Admittedly, getting three more is a very tall order, but it could happen.

Fedor's absence from the last two WNT majors is unfortunate, but what's wrong with him opting to focus on building his brand as an entrepreneur in pool instead?

IMO it would take more than 5 MOT titles for Fedor to approach Efren in the conversation for best all around player, considering the DCC didn't start until Efren was already 44 years old. He got his 5 MOTs all in ~10 years, which were at the tail end of his career (after his prime). Compare that to players today who have competed in the DCC their whole careers and haven't approached Efren's record.