SJM Sizes up 2025 in Pro Pool

Some things I saw in 2025
a)2025 Major Year
2025 was Major Year or the Year of the Major cos it had most majors ever. At the rate it is minting majors, Matchroom/WNT will have more majors than British Army soon.
Total 10 majors for 9B & 10B.
Major sports like tennis, golf only have 4 (Grand Slam).
majoryr.png


b)Reversal of fortunes. What goes up comes down and vice versa
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To be fair, Gorst did finish strong 2nd WPC, US Open and 3rd China Open and remain high in rankings. But as they say-Major Titles talk, rankings walk.

c)If you are 800+ player, most of success is just showing up.
To rephrase Woody Allen- Just keep showing up, hang in there cos it will be your turn to win a major soon.

Pijus Labutis wins his first WNT major Hanoi Open
pl show.PNG


Jonas Magpantay $100K for winning Qatar World Cup 10 Ball
jonas magpantay $100K.jpg


I would like see some of these 800 win a major in 2026 as they are due a major:
Moritz
Max Lechner
Mario He
Oi
Raga
Wu Kun Lin
Skyler
Kazakis
Zielinski

Wishing old folks here, I mean all folks- A healthy and successful 2026 🥳
 
spartan said:
Some things I saw in 2025
a)2025 Major Year
2025 was Major Year or the Year of the Major cos it had most majors ever. At the rate it is minting majors, Matchroom/WNT will have more majors than British Army soon.
Total 10 majors for 9B & 10B.
Major sports like tennis, golf only have 4 (Grand Slam).View attachment 873435

b)Reversal of fortunes. What goes up comes down and vice versa
View attachment 873437

View attachment 873438
To be fair, Gorst did finish strong 2nd WPC, US Open and 3rd China Open and remain high in rankings. But as they say-Major Titles talk, rankings walk.

c)If you are 800+ player, most of success is just showing up.
To rephrase Woody Allen- Just keep showing up, hang in there cos it will be your turn to win a major soon.

Pijus Labutis wins his first WNT major Hanoi Open
View attachment 873439

Jonas Magpantay $100K for winning Qatar World Cup 10 Ball
View attachment 873440

I would like see some of these 800 win a major in 2026 as they are due a major:
Moritz
Max Lechner
Mario He
Oi
Raga
Wu Kun Lin
Skyler
Kazakis
Zielinski

Wishing old folks here, I mean all folks- A healthy and successful 2026 🥳
Click to expand...
Great post.

At bare minimum, I'm adding the Predator Las Vegas Open 10ball (February) and the Predator Jacksonville 10ball event (December) to the list of non-WNT majors.

A funny thing has happened in our sport in that the 800 player is no longer necessarily one of the elite. There are now 70 players at 800 Fargo or better. As a group, those currently in the 800-810 range had just one major title in 2025, and that was when Dennis Grabe won the Las Vegas Open 10ball in February. Even the Fargo 810 is just #47 on the list. Almost unfathomably, 25 players are at 820+.

Other than Neuhausen, who may well become a top ten player in the world by age 25, most of those on your "I'd like to see them win a major" list are veteran players who have had their chances but never gotten over the finish line. I'd like to see each of them win a major, too, but each will find it very difficult to accomplish this. I think one thing that works against them is the (completely unnecessary in my view) extended race final that has become the rule in WNT play. It is awfully hard to beat a Yapp, Filler, Biado or Gorst in a race to 13 or longer, and that is what it usually takes to win a WNT major. The deck is stacked against the Cinderella story more than ever in WNT play. I think it more likely than one of those veterans on your list will win in a non-WNT major.

It has never been harder to win at the majors. The quality at the top of the game is just mind-blowing. Right now, great players are popping up in every corner of the world. and there is no reason to think it won't continue.
 
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spartan said:
I would like see some of these 800 win a major in 2026 as they are due a major:
Moritz
Max Lechner
Mario He
Oi
Raga
Wu Kun Lin
Skyler
Kazakis
Zielinski
Click to expand...

mario needs a lifestyle change. zielinski needs a mental coach. raga, wu, kazakis, lechner can probably get there
 
It's no secret that I don't really follow the action matches. Would somebody who does offer some highlight s of the year in action matches?
 
sjm said:
It's no secret that I don't really follow the action matches. Would somebody who does offer some highlight s of the year in action matches?
Click to expand...
Oscar had a 20k set vs latino man bun dude at the DCC that I think Oscar lost. Dunn allegedly beat Carl for 150k at Derby I think both matches were on Acme or some other random stream. Fedor beat SVB for 50k, Alex was looking to match up w Fedor at some 1P w John Mars backing him but that never happened. Chohan allegedly had a big set 50k or something 9b against Sam Gilmer who's like a 720 Fargo and Chohan won at the Texas Open.

And recently the Oscar/Guama set that Oscar won. Wolford played Guama? for 40k allegedly 10 ball race to 30?? Guama was up like 28 - 23 and made a thin cut on the 10 ball into a corner pocket w inside spin and whitey hit the tit of the side pocket and wobbled cross side which I've never seen before then Shane ended up coming back and winning the set.

Bergman beat Lil John for like 200k ALLEGEDLY in 1P at Railyard giving up like 10 - 6 or 10 - 5 in late summer/fall. There's really not many match ups with 740+ Fargo type players or they don't really stream them or publicly discuss them. TV Mike/billiard net has multiple 630 - 680 Fargo match ups every week, singles 8b/9b or scotch a few times a month and just recently had a big scotch 8b set.
 
Johnson said:
Oscar had a 20k set vs latino man bun dude at the DCC that I think Oscar lost. Dunn allegedly beat Carl for 150k at Derby I think both matches were on Acme or some other random stream. Fedor beat SVB for 50k, Alex was looking to match up w Fedor at some 1P w John Mars backing him but that never happened. Chohan allegedly had a big set 50k or something 9b against Sam Gilmer who's like a 720 Fargo and Chohan won at the Texas Open.

And recently the Oscar/Guama set that Oscar won. Wolford played Guama? for 40k allegedly 10 ball race to 30?? Guama was up like 28 - 23 and made a thin cut on the 10 ball into a corner pocket w inside spin and whitey hit the tit of the side pocket and wobbled cross side which I've never seen before then Shane ended up coming back and winning the set.

Bergman beat Lil John for like 200k ALLEGEDLY in 1P at Railyard giving up like 10 - 6 or 10 - 5 in late summer/fall. There's really not many match ups with 740+ Fargo type players or they don't really stream them or publicly discuss them. TV Mike/billiard net has multiple 630 - 680 Fargo match ups every week, singles 8b/9b or scotch a few times a month and just recently had a big scotch 8b set.
Click to expand...
Wow, great post. Thanks.
 
spartan said:
Some things I saw in 2025
a)2025 Major Year
2025 was Major Year or the Year of the Major cos it had most majors ever. At the rate it is minting majors, Matchroom/WNT will have more majors than British Army soon.
Total 10 majors for 9B & 10B.
Major sports like tennis, golf only have 4 (Grand Slam).View attachment 873435

Click to expand...
Here are many 2025 tournaments listed by Harmonic Field Strength, a measure of how tough it is to go deep.

Blue bars are the ones on Spartan's list.

The discontinuous gap between China Open and International Open is interesting.

Some tournaments are hurt by scheduling while others (like Peri Open and Battle of the Bull) are helped by scheduling. I'm not sure how we should think of these events that have strong competitive fields but are not anointed with purses or points or historical significance.
If pool was like, lets say, distance running, the answer would be clear because runners to different degrees "train through" unimportant races as opposed to tapering their training for important events. Or they might wear shoes that are heavier and more protective. Aside from occasional equipment/mechanics change, pool's not really like that.
1767453901754.png
 
mikepage said:
Here are many 2025 tournaments listed by Harmonic Field Strength, a measure of how tough it is to go deep.

Blue bars are the ones on Spartan's list.

The discontinuous gap between China Open and International Open is interesting.

Some tournaments are hurt by scheduling while others (like Peri Open and Battle of the Bull) are helped by scheduling. I'm not sure how we should think of these events that have strong competitive fields but are not anointed with purses or points or historical significance.
If pool was like, lets say, distance running, the answer would be clear because runners to different degrees "train through" unimportant races as opposed to tapering their training for important events. Or they might wear shoes that are heavier and more protective. Aside from occasional equipment/mechanics change, pool's not really like that.
View attachment 873820
Click to expand...
Thanks for that, Mike. This really highlights what is driving field strength in pro pool today, and that's fitting into the schedule.

As you nicely represent, the non-majors that fit well into the schedule and are geographically convenient always draw super-tough fields. In America, the Battle of the Bull is a perfect example from 2025. Lying between the WNT Florida Open and the WNT US Open 9ball, and geographically, more or less, on the way from one to the other, it enjoyed a stellar field.
 
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