Does the invitation include paid travel, hotel and expenses? ...
I priced the trip from San Francisco two weeks before the start. About $1200 including the flight (on Lufthansa) and an up-scale hotel for six nights. In the past the BCA has offered $1000 travel expenses, but I don't know what they are doing now. The prize fund is $300,000. He has to have a passport and that could be an issue. If he has never travelled overseas that is also an issue if he has no one to travel with.
The travel package would have been cheaper from Chicago since LOT (Polish) flies direct to Warsaw.
I think that if a pool player can't afford that to play in the World Championship for the potential prize money, he needs to take up another hobby. I have to assume that Pinegar didn't go for some reason other than cost.