Raymon Groot
Raymon Groot has won the 2025 United States Billiard Association (USBA) National Championship, held at Bergen Billiards in Palisades Park, NJ on April 24 – 27.
The event kicked off on April 24th with eight groups of seven players competing in 25 point matches. Groot emerged from his group (Group G) with a 5-1 record, only dropping his match against Seung Kwon Hong 25-17.
Hong’s 6-0 record in his group earned him a #1 seed from his group. He joined such notables as reigning USBA National Champion Hugo Patino and twelve time National Champion Pedro Piedrabuena as #1 seeds from their respective groups.
As the #2 seed from his group, Groot was forced to play a first round match in the final twenty four player single elimination group, and he made quick work of John Guidali in a 40-26 game in 29 innings.
If there was any question that Groot had the crowd’s attention, he did away with that in the round of sixteen, with a 40-32 win over Patino in 36 innings. Groot ran a run of nine consecutive points and averaged 1.111 points per inning.
Groot avenged his earlier loss to Hong in the quarterfinals, with a 40-31 game that took 35 innings. While Hong had a high run of six points, he couldn’t match Groot’s 1.143 average. Of particular note in the quarterfinals, was twelve time Nationals Champion Piedrabuena’s 15 inning game against Won Sik Kang. Piedrabuena had an unheard of 2.667 average and a high run of six points.
The Semifinals saw Piedrabuena average 1.538 points per inning in his one sided 40-26 win over John Park. Groot’s win was much harder fought, as he defeated Kang Lee 40-38 in 31 innings.
Groot saved his best for the finals, as he defeated Piedrabuena in 23 innings with a 1.739 average. That was his highest average in any match all week and it led him to a 40-28 victory for the event win and his first career USBA National Championship.
Groot had the event high run of nine points (in the match against Patino) and a grand average of 1.299 for the event. Groot earned $4000 in first place prize money and a $200 bonus for the event high run, with Piedrabuena settling for $3000 for his second place finish.
