Here are some aggregate stats from Matchroom's Premier League Pool 9-Ball event played February 14-21, 2022 at Stadium MK in Milton Keynes, England. Albin Ouschan won the event, defeating Joshua Filler in the final match.
This was a 16-player, 8-day event. Twelve of the players were invited based on their Matchroom rankings and 4 were wild cards. In the first 5 days, each player played each of the other players once -- a 16-player round robin of 24 matches per day (120 total). The 6 players with the worst records were then eliminated, and the remaining 10 players played another round robin during Days 6 and 7 (45 matches). The 4 players with the worst records after Day 7 were eliminated, and the remaining 6 players played another round robin on Day 8 (15 matches). The 4 players with the best records at the end of the third robin robin then played single-elimination (2 semifinal matches and a final match) to determine the event's winner. The players' records were cumulative through the 3 round-robin stages rather than starting over for each stage. All of the matches in the round-robin stages were races to 5; the semifinal and final matches were races to 7.
Two tables were used for the event, and both were being streamed. Pay-per-view streaming of the main table, with commentary, was provided in the USA by DAZN. Streaming of the second table, without commentary, was available on matchroom.live. The main commentators were Michael McMullan, Phil Yates, and Karl Boyes; several of the players also commentated on one or more matches. The referees were Marcel Eckardt, John Leyman, and Desislava Bozhilova.
The 6 players who qualified for Day 8 with the best records through the 16- and 10-player round-robin stages (Days 1-7) are shown here in their final order of finish in the event (Van Boening had a better record than Shaw, but both semifinalists received the same prize money):
Conditions -- the conditions for this event included the following:
The matches each day were played in two sessions, a day session (starting at 10:00 am in London) and an evening session (starting at 5:00 pm). These stats are from the 47 matches (26% of the event's total of 183 matches) that I watched, which were all of the evening-session matches being streamed in full on DAZN. These 47 matches totaled 358 games. All 16 players in the event appeared in the matches I tracked, ranging from 1 appearance (Naoyuki Oi) to 15 appearances (Shane Van Boening). These 47 matches are all listed on Matchroom's Premier Pool League website (but I don't know how long that will be true).
Successful breaks (made at least one ball and did not foul):
Breaker won game:
Break-and-run games -- on all breaks:
Break-and-run games -- on successful breaks (made at least one ball and did not foul):
One-inning games (B&Rs plus non-breaker runouts on first visit to table)
■ Match lengths:
■ Distribution of match scores for races to 5:
■ Games with one or more safeties (est.):
This was a 16-player, 8-day event. Twelve of the players were invited based on their Matchroom rankings and 4 were wild cards. In the first 5 days, each player played each of the other players once -- a 16-player round robin of 24 matches per day (120 total). The 6 players with the worst records were then eliminated, and the remaining 10 players played another round robin during Days 6 and 7 (45 matches). The 4 players with the worst records after Day 7 were eliminated, and the remaining 6 players played another round robin on Day 8 (15 matches). The 4 players with the best records at the end of the third robin robin then played single-elimination (2 semifinal matches and a final match) to determine the event's winner. The players' records were cumulative through the 3 round-robin stages rather than starting over for each stage. All of the matches in the round-robin stages were races to 5; the semifinal and final matches were races to 7.
Two tables were used for the event, and both were being streamed. Pay-per-view streaming of the main table, with commentary, was provided in the USA by DAZN. Streaming of the second table, without commentary, was available on matchroom.live. The main commentators were Michael McMullan, Phil Yates, and Karl Boyes; several of the players also commentated on one or more matches. The referees were Marcel Eckardt, John Leyman, and Desislava Bozhilova.
The 6 players who qualified for Day 8 with the best records through the 16- and 10-player round-robin stages (Days 1-7) are shown here in their final order of finish in the event (Van Boening had a better record than Shaw, but both semifinalists received the same prize money):
1. ($20,000) -- Albin Ouschan
2. ($12,500) -- Joshua Filler
3. ($8,000) -- Shane Van Boening
4. ($8,000) -- Jayson Shaw
5. ($7,000) -- Skyler Woodward
6. ($6,250) -- Alex Kazakis
Conditions -- the conditions for this event included the following:
- Rasson OX 9-foot table with 4" corner pockets;
- gray Simonis cloth;
- Aramith Tournament Black balls with a black-spots cue ball;
- referee racks using a triangle rack with the 1-ball on the foot spot (2-ball not necessarily in back location);
- alternate breaks from anywhere behind the head string;
- no illegal-break rule;
- 30-sec. shot clock (60 sec. after the break), with one 30-sec. extension per player per game;
- foul on all balls;
- jump cues allowed;
- lag for the break in each match; and
- all slop counts.
The matches each day were played in two sessions, a day session (starting at 10:00 am in London) and an evening session (starting at 5:00 pm). These stats are from the 47 matches (26% of the event's total of 183 matches) that I watched, which were all of the evening-session matches being streamed in full on DAZN. These 47 matches totaled 358 games. All 16 players in the event appeared in the matches I tracked, ranging from 1 appearance (Naoyuki Oi) to 15 appearances (Shane Van Boening). These 47 matches are all listed on Matchroom's Premier Pool League website (but I don't know how long that will be true).
Successful breaks (made at least one ball and did not foul):
Day 1 -- 72% (33 of 46)
Day 2 -- 76% (35 of 46)
Day 3 -- 78% (31 of 40)
Day 4 -- 84% (38 of 45)
Day 5 -- 86% (37 of 43)
Day 6 -- 100% (42 of 42)
Day 7 -- 92% (44 of 48)
Day 8 -- 88% (42 of 48)
Total -- 84% (302 of 358)
Breaker won game:
Day 1 -- 39% (18 of 46)
Day 2 -- 57% (26 of 46)
Day 3 -- 65% (26 of 40)
Day 4 -- 64% (29 of 45)
Day 5 -- 65% (28 of 43)
Day 6 -- 64% (27 of 42)
Day 7 -- 54% (26 of 48)
Day 8 -- 77% (37 of 48)
Total -- 61% (217 of 358)
Break-and-run games -- on all breaks:
Day 1 -- 20% (9 of 46)
Day 2 -- 30% (14 of 46)
Day 3 -- 33% (13 of 40)
Day 4 -- 38% (17 of 45)
Day 5 -- 33% (14 of 43)
Day 6 -- 50% (21 of 42)
Day 7 -- 25% (12 of 48)
Day 8 -- 48% (23 of 48)
Total -- 34% (123 of 358)
Break-and-run games -- on successful breaks (made at least one ball and did not foul):
Day 1 -- 27% (9 of 33)
Day 2 -- 40% (14 of 35)
Day 3 -- 42% (13 of 31)
Day 4 -- 45% (17 of 38)
Day 5 -- 38% (14 of 37)
Day 6 -- 50% (21 of 42)
Day 7 -- 27% (12 of 44)
Day 8 -- 55% (23 of 42)
Total -- 41% (123 of 302)
One-inning games (B&Rs plus non-breaker runouts on first visit to table)
Day 1 -- 59% (27 of 46)
Day 2 -- 52% (24 of 46)
Day 3 -- 48% (19 of 40)
Day 4 -- 58% (26 of 45)
Day 5 -- 51% (22 of 43)
Day 6 -- 71% (30 of 42)
Day 7 -- 42% (20 of 48)
Day 8 -- 60% (29 of 48)
Total -- 55% (197 of 358)
■ Match lengths:
[Note: lengths include commercial breaks of about 2 minutes after every 3rd game.]
- Longest race to 5 in total length (58 min.) -- Al Shaheen d. Alcaide 5-4
- Highest in average minutes per game (7.4 min.) -- Kazakis d. Filler 5-1
- Shortest in total length (22 min.) -- Woodward d. Fisher 5-0
- Lowest in average minutes per game (4.3 min.) -- Filler d. Al-Shaheen 5-2
- Average match length for races to 5 -- 42 min.
- Average minutes per game (all 47 matches) -- 5.6 min.
■ Distribution of match scores for races to 5:
5-4 -- 11 times
5-3 -- 14
5-2 -- 8
5-1 -- 9
5-0 -- 3
Total -- 45
Average match score -- 5 - 2.5
■ Games with one or more safeties (est.):
37% of all games
57% of games that were not B&R games
