About eight years ago, when Hungary’s Vilmos Foldes shifted his pool-competition activity to these United States, settling in Las Vegas, he started to make appearances on the Mezz West Tour, chalking up two wins in four cash-payout performances on that tour in 2014. The following year, he cashed in 11 appearances on that tour, including one victory. He also began a string of appearances on the Jay “Swanee” Swanson Memorial Tournament, finishing as runner-up to Rodrigo Geronimo that year. He has cashed in every “Swanee” Memorial since then, winning it finally in 2019.
In 2016, Foldes appeared in six memorial tournaments, winning the Chuck Markulis and Bob Stocks Memorial, and cashing in the “Swanee” (4th), the Don Coates (9th), the Cole Dickson (5th), and in his first cash finish on the Las Vegas-based Andy Mercer Memorial, he finished 7th.
In 2017, Foldes added attendance at the Cole Dickson and Brendan Crockett Memorials, at which he finished as runner-up to Beau Runningen. In the same year that he chalked up his first, and so far, his only win on the “Swanee,” Foldes won his first of three straight titles at the Andy Mercer Memorial Tournament, downing Shane Van Boening in the finals. In 2020, he defended that title, winning nine on the loss side to down Chad Vilmont in the finals, leaving such pool luminaries as Dennis Orcollo, Warren Kiamco and Van Boening in the dust, so to speak.
In all, since 2015, he’s cashed in 17 memorial tournaments, winning six of them. He won the 6th this past weekend (March 18-20), going undefeated at the $3,750-added, 31st Annual Andy Mercer Memorial, hosted by Rum Runner in Las Vegas, NV. He may not be the only person to have appeared in all of the mentioned memorial tournaments (the actual number of them, being hard to determine), but he is certainly doing his part to keep the memories of eight esteemed members of the US pool community alive.
Foldes’ path to the winners’ circle that saw him win 24 of the first 34 games he played, went through Goran Mladenovic, Sal Butera, Donnie Branson and Max Eberle to arrive at a winners’ side semifinal versus Sam Cordova. Dave Datillo, in the meantime got by Gary Onomura, Tommy Baker, Jeff Gray and, in a winners’ side quarterfinal, Gary Lutman, who’d return to challenge Foldes in the finals. This set Datillo up to face Blake Baker in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Datillo moved into the hot seat match with a double hill win over Baker. Foldes downed Cordova 6-1 to join him. Foldes checked in with another 6-1 victory, this time over Datillo, to claim the hot seat, sporting a ‘three out of every four,’ game-winning percentage (75%).
On the loss side, Baker picked up Ian Costello, who’d lost a winners’ side quarterfinal to Cordova and then defeated John Farris 6-3 and Max Eberle 6-4. Cordova ran into Lutman, who’d followed his loss to Datillo with a double hill win over Mladenovic and a shutout over Donnie Branson, who’d just knocked Shane Van Boening out of the tournament 6-4.
Lutman chalked up his second loss-side double hill win, against Cordova and advanced to the quarterfinals. Baker joined him after knocking Costello out 6-4.
In his third double hill match of four played on the loss side, Lutman downed Baker in those quarterfinals and then, gave up only one to Datillo in the semifinals. Foldes completed his undefeated run with a 6-4 victory over Lutman in the finals to claim his third straight Andy Mercer Memorial title.
Tournament director Jack Murray thanked Geno Hill and his Rum Runner staff for their hospitality, as well as all of the players who have in the past and did, this year, gather to pay homage to Andy Mercer, who passed away in 1990.
Home favourite Shane Van Boening is out of the US Open Pool Championship at Harrah’s Resort, Atlantic City at the Last 16 stage as Singapore’s Aloysius Yapp secured a comprehensive 11-5 victory over the five-time champion.
Van Boening went into the penultimate day with eyes firmly set on becoming the most successful player ever at the US Open but Yapp came to spoil the party on the TV table winning the lag and proceeding to break and run in the opening two racks.
It was all one-way traffic as Yapp marched into a 5-0 lead before drama struck in the sixth rack when a discussion took place over whether a shot clock extension had been called before the clock was reset and Van Boening continued the rack.
Yapp continued his ascendancy to an eight-nil lead where Van Boening finally got to show a piece of brilliance taking the ball around two rails after potting the one to get back in position for the table. The American made the next three racks to force a fightback but in truth, it was a tall order against a confident Yapp fresh off the back of finishing runner-up at the World 10-ball last week. He went on the hill at 10-3 before Van Boening took two racks but it wasn’t to be as Yapp sealed a place in the quarter-finals 11-5.
Max Lechner continued his impressive debut by being the first name into the quarters by beating Poland’s Mieszko Fortuński 11-4 to set up a tantalizing clash with Dennis Orcollo. Orcollo overcame Mario He 11-6 live on the Matchroom Pool YouTube as the Filipino joined compatriot Rodrigo Geronimo in the last eight.
Geronimo was involved in one of the biggest battles of the last 16 against Denis Grabe who was fresh off beating former champion Jayson Shaw. It went to hill hill with Geronimo fluking a safety with three balls on the table in the last rack. Grabe scratched after hitting the seven leading to Geronimo having ball in hand to clear up and win.
After the first spectacle on Table 1, there was a lot for David Alcaide and Carlo Biado to live up to and they did just that in a thriller that saw Biado come out on top 11-10 in a dramatic contest. Punches were thrown from each side as they level pegged at various points from 1-1 to 3-3 to 4-4, 6-6, 7-7, 9-9 before going hill hill.
Biado had turned things around against Alcaide before nearly letting it slip at 9-9. A straight miss on the six put Alcaide back at the table who found himself breaking for the match in the last rack, but the Spaniard found himself positionally out of sorts from the break as he missed the two ball as he tried to cut it.
Naoyuki Oi came from behind to beat Francisco Sanchez Ruiz 11-7 where it did look like at one stage Sanchez Ruiz would run away with it. Fedor Gorst meanwhile beat the last remaining Dutchman Marco Teutscher 11-7. Johann Gonzales Chua became the fourth Filipino in the last eight beating John Morra 11-8 despite a fightback from the Canadian late on.
QUARTER-FINAL FIXTURES FROM 3:30 PM (ET)
Aloysius Yapp vs Rodrigo Geronimo (Table 1)
Max Lechner vs Dennis Orcollo (Table 2)
Johann Gonzales Chua vs Carlo Biado (Table 2)
Fedor Gorst vs Naoyuki Oi (Table 1)
The 2021 US Open Pool Championship will be partnered by Diamond, who supply the Official Table; the Official Cloth is supplied by Iwan Simonis and the Official Balls are ARAMITH Tournament BLACK pool ball set with Duramith™ Technology by Saluc. Predator is the Official Cue of the event and Kamui are the Official Chalk and Tip. The US Open Pool Championship is sanctioned by the WPA.
Defending champion Joshua Filler bowed out of the US Open Pool Championship at Harrah’s Resort, Atlantic City as 9-ball’s toughest tournament moved down to the last 16.
The Spaniard pounced on an uncharacteristic scratch from Van Boening in the 10th rack and then did the same in the 15th after it looked like the five-time champion would clear the table to cut the deficit to 8-7. Instead, Sanchez Ruiz went 9-6 up and completed a memorable comeback.
Reigning champion Filler followed up from that match knocking out America’s Skyler Woodward in an 11-4 victory that saw the German continue his route towards the last 16. Mieszko Fortuński was next in Filler’s way. Fortuński has battled away throughout the week and put in arguably one of his biggest wins of his career so far to defeat Filler 11-3 in front of a packed crowd around table two. That result saw Filler’s tournament end whilst Fortuński continued his march.
David Alcaide joined his compatriot Sanchez Ruiz in the last 16, the 2019 World Pool Masters champion was trailing for large parts of his match against the Netherlands’ Marc Bijsterbosch but came through 11-8 to put himself in the draw.
There will be four Filipinos come Friday, Dennis Orcollo had wrapped his place up earlier on against Olivér Szolnoki and was swiftly joined by Johann Gonzales Chua who got the better of Mieszko Fortuński in winners’ qualification. Rodrigo Geronimo bypassed Niels Feijen 11-6 to become the third name in the hat.
Jayson Shaw’s US Open title efforts took an almighty dent early on losing out to Denis Grabe of Estonia meaning the Scotsman had to do battle in the losers’ qualification round where he came against a hungry Carlo Biado. Biado came fresh off the back of beating Jeffrey De Luna and he continued his demolition work to come out on top 11-4 to send Shaw home.
Max Lechner has gone about his business quietly all week and that work has paid dividends as he beat Rodrigo Geronimo 11-2 to make the last 16 on his US Open debut.
Van Boening came back after defeat to Filler to face Albin Ouschan later in the evening after Ouschan had defeated Chang Jung-Lin 11-1. In front of the biggest crowd of the tournament to date, Van Boening put on a masterclass in cueing, safety, and everything in-between as the five-time champion downed the World Champion in an 11-2 crushing to keep those eyes firmly set on becoming the most successful player ever at the US Open.
Other Losers Qualification Results
John Morra 11-6 Mickey Krause
Niels Feijen 6-11 Rodrigo Geronimo
Mario He 11-5 Olivér Szolnoki
Naoyuki Oi 11-4 Marc Bijsterbosch
Marco Teutscher 11-6 Darren Appleton
The Last 16 Draw
Aloysius Yapp vs Shane Van Boening (Table 1)
Denis Grabe vs Rodrigo Geronimo (Table 3)
Max Lechner vs Mieszko Fortuński (Table 4)
Dennis Orcollo vs Mario He (Table 2)
Johann Gonzales Chua vs John Morra (Table 3)
David Alcaide vs Carlo Biado (Table 1)
Fedor Gorst vs Marco Teutscher (Table 4)
Francisco Sanchez Ruiz vs Naoyuki Oi (Table 2)
The 2021 US Open Pool Championship will be partnered by Diamond, who supply the Official Table; the Official Cloth is supplied by Iwan Simonis and the Official Balls are ARAMITH Tournament BLACK pool ball set with Duramith™ Technology by Saluc. Predator is the Official Cue of the event and Kamui are the Official Chalk and Tip. The US Open Pool Championship is sanctioned by the WPA.
In the absence of its last three champions (Jeffrey DeLuna last year and Dennis Orcollo, the two years before that), the 7th Annual Cole Dickson Memorial field of 104 entrants was, in a manner of speaking, wide open. In the midst of his best earnings year to date (according to our records), three-time state champion and the 2015 Billiard Education Foundation’s national junior 9-ball champion, California’s Chris Robinson came back from a loss in the hot seat match to win the $3,500-added event hosted by Family Billiards in San Francisco, CA on the weekend of June 29-30.
Robinson had to get by Rodrigo Geronimo twice, in the more or less traditional place for such double meetings; hot seat and finals. Robinson got into the hot seat match after a winners’ side quarterfinal victory over Shaun Kougioulis and a winners’ side semifinal win over Andrew McCloskey, both 8-6. Geronimo’s path went through Spencer Ladin (winners’ side quarterfinal) 8-3 and Jason Williams (winners’ side semifinal) 8-2. Geronimo claimed the hot seat 8-6 over Robinson and waited on his return.
On the loss side, Kevin Scheper, Harold Cajucom, Allen Lalic and Doug Whaley became the first cash winners in the event, falling to (respectively) Neal Vichiensaen (who finished 4th last year), Sargon Isaac, Bryce Avila and Ed Sinchai in the battles for 13th-16th place. Vichiensaen, Isaac, Avila and Sinchai advanced through the next round, in their battles against the recently-arrived competitors from the winners’ side quarterfinals. Isaac downed Spencer Ladin double hill, Avila defeated Kougioulis 6-2, Sinchai got by Robert Yulo 6-4 and Vichiensaen survived a double hill fight against Ernesto Dominguez.
Isaac then downed Vichiensaen 6-4 to pick up McCloskey, coming over from the winners’ side semifinal. Avila eliminated Sinchai 6-3 to draw Williams, who was looking to improve on his 5th/6th place finish last year (he’d won six on the loss side before being eliminated).
Isaac moved into the quarterfinals with a 6-2 win over McCloskey. Williams improved on his performance last year with a 6-4 victory over Avila that put him into the quarterfinals with Isaac. Williams’ run was ended by Isaac in the quarterfinals 6-3 (Williams would later chuckle at the notion that at his current pace, he’ll win the 10th Annual Cole Dickson Memorial in 2022).
Chris Robinson was having no part of a semifinal scenario that didn’t conclude with him facing Geronimo a second time. He allowed Isaac only a single rack in those semifinals and earned that second shot. He took full advantage of the opportunity, downing Geronimo 11-9 to win the 7th Annual Cole Dickson Memorial.
Tour representatives thanked Delbert Wong – a long-time personal friend of Cole Dickson and 32-year-owner of Family Billiards – and his staff for their hospitality, as well as sponsors Simonis Cloth, JB Cases, Jam Up Apparel, Joey Chin Custom Cues and West State Billiards. The event was streamed live and free on YouTube through the facilities of POVPool and Daniel Busch.
Former World Champion Dennis Orcollo will spearhead a strong cast clashing in the Senator Emmanuel D. Pacquiao 40th Birthday 10-Ball Tournament on December 5 to 16, 2018 at the Verenza Mall in General Santos City.
The 39-year-old Orcollo who beat Dutch Niels Feijen in a world title showdown of the WPA World Eight-ball Championship in 2011, looms as the player to beat in the the 10-ball event, two division tournament will feature singles and doubles competition.
The event, hosted by Senator Emmanuel D. Pacquiao coincide of his 40th birthday celebration, offers a top purse of P700,000 in the doubles competition while top prize P500,000 going home with the winner in the singles competition according to tournament organizer Elman "Aries" Sacayanan.
The opening day of the 23rd Annual US Bar Table Championships began with a field of 74 players at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino. And by the time the first day’s matches concluded, just three remained on the winner’s side of the bracket: Sky Woodward, Justin Bergman and Billy Thorpe — all among a growing group of strong, young players.
Woodward and Bergman will face off at Noon Tuesday and the winner of the match will play Thorpe for the hot seat.
Bergman also play strong all day, with sound wins over Miguel Batista, 7-6; Jason Klatt, 7-1; Jesse Piercey, 7-4; Dale Stanley, 7-2; and Vilmos Foldes.
But there are plenty of solid players on the B-side of the bracket hoping to take home the $3,800 first prize, including Manny Perez, who plays Rodrigo Geronimo at 9 a.m. and Mike Massey, who plays Dale Stanley. Others still on the one-loss side include Van Boening, Sal Butera, Bret Huth, James Adams, Jamie Bruce, Salim, Shane McMinn, Foldes, Piercey, Hattan, McDaniel, Belobradie, Nevel and Josh Roberts.
On the one-loss side, Nakamura takes on Whitney at 9 a.m. and Kimberly Kirk plays Deb Aarens, also at 9 a.m. The winners of those matches play Pelletier and Coffman.
The US Bar Table Championships take play through Aug. 28 and offer 8-ball, 9-ball and 10-ball divisions, as well as a Master of the Table bonus for both the open and women’s divisions.
In addition, players who place in the top 32 of each open division receive Mosconi Cup USA Team points on a sliding scale. The top three American players with the most points at the end of the year will be selected for the USA Mosconi Cup Team.
Sponsors include: OB Cues, the Official Cue; Kamui, the Official Tip; Diamond Billiard Products, Cyclop Balls, Simonis Cloth, BadBoys Billiard Productions, FargoRate, Magic Ball Rack and Matchroom Sport.
10-Ball Divisions Aug. 22-24
Open 10-Ball: Race to 7/$5,000 added
Women’s 10-Ball; Race to 5/ $1,000 added
9-Ball Divisions: Aug. 24-26
Open 9-Ball: Race to 9/$5,000 added
Women’s 9-Ball; Race to 7/ $1,000 added
8-ball Divisions: Aug. 26-28
Open 10-Ball: Race to 5/$5,000 added
Women’s 10-Ball; Race to 4/ $1,000 added
Master of the Table Bonuses*
Open Divisions: $1,500/Women’s Divisions: $500
*Players must compete in all three divisions to be eligible for the bonus.
Shane Van Boening (Photo courtesy of JP Parmentier)
Shane Van Boening is, once again, your US Open 10-Ball Champion. Van Boening controlled a final matchup with Rodney Morris to earn his second career US Open 10-Ball title at the Rio All Suites Resort and Casino in Las Vegas Nevada on July 22nd.
Van Boening’s day started on the one loss side, after dropping the hot-seat match to Morris 10-7 on the previous night. After watching Canadian Champion John Morra defeat Rodrigo Geronimo and Skyler Woodward, Van Boening took on Morra in the semi-final match. That match saw a determined Van Boening take an early lead and never look back. Van Boening led the match at 4-1, and fought off multiple comeback attempts by Morra. Morra would never lead in the match and Van Boening ended up winning the match 10-6 to earn his rematch with Morris in the extended, race to thirteen, finals.
The final match was very different from the hot-seat match on the previous day. While the hot-seat match featured 14 of 17 racks ran after the break, this match saw only 9 post break table runs, out of 21 racks. Both players seemed to struggle with shape on the one ball after the break, and many racks turned into extended battles for control of the one-ball.
Van Boening held an early two rack lead (at 3-1) and later a three rack lead (at 6-3), but Morris was able to come back and tie the score after both of those early leads. The match turned in Van Boening’s favor for the last time at 9-8, when Morris went for broke on a kick/carom on the 10-ball and missed. Van Boening ran that rack and Morris would not win another game as Van Boening won the match 13-8.
Van Boening indicated after the match that he thought the safety battles and tied up tables played into his advantage. “I’ve been playing bar-tables for 20-25 years now. I know a lot about the in’s and out’s of that game”. Van Boening came with table runs both times that Morris came back to tie the score. He said that those came down to “focusing on the break and making sure I had opportunities afterwards. The most important thing was that I won the lag. That was the important shot.”
This was only Van Boening’s second major title for the year and he said that was due to a change in priorities for him. “I’ve been trying to lay back a little bit. I’m not traveling as much as I used to. I just realized that I need to do other things in life.” said Van Boening.
[photo id=45107|align=right]One thing that Van Boening will certainly do, is come right back to the tournament arena tomorrow, as he tries to win his second US Open 8-Ball title. That event kicks off Saturday the 23rd, and runs until Monday the 25th.
With the win, Van Boening moved up one spot on the US Mosconi Cup points list. He overtook Shaun Wilkie for 5th place on the list, with the top four players (Morris, Oscar Dominguez, Mike Dechaine and Skyler Woodward) all remaining in the same places.
Predator is the official cue of the US Open 10-Ball Championship. They are joined by Kamui (the official tip), Cyclop (the official balls), Omega Billiards (the official online store) and Diamond (the official table) as major sponsors of this event.
Day two of the US Open 10-Ball Championship got underway with 24 players still hoping to collect the $10,000 first place prize money. Eight of the top ten American players on the Mosconi Cup points list were also still in contention to earn more points in their trek to make Team USA.
The hot-seat match came down to BCA Hall of Fame inductee, Rodney Morris, vs future Hall of Fame inductee Shane Van Boening. Shane controlled this match early and led by as many as four racks at 5-1. A turning point in the match came in rack 10, with Van Boening ahead 6-3. Van Boening was hooked on the 1-ball (with the 2-ball back up table) after the break. He pushed to a jump shot and Morris gave the shot back. Van Boening contacted the 1-ball, but didn’t make it, and Morris ran out that rack. A dry break by Van Boening in rack 14 allowed Morris to knot the score at 7-7, and another dry break in rack 16 allowed Morris to take the hill at 9-7. Morris ended things with a break and run in rack 17 to earn the hot-seat.
Morris admitted that the shot on the 1-ball in rack 10 was big. “Shane pushed out to that long jump shot. He jumps with a full cue and generates a lot of torque that allows him to draw his cue ball back, and he likes that sort of shot. I don’t have that shot in my repertoire. I passed it back to him to make him earn it though. If he makes it and draws back for the two, then he earned it. “ said Morris. Morris also credited the dry breaks by Van Boening late in the match. “He doesn’t break dry twice in a row, ever. “ Morris said.
Day one’s hero, Billy Thorpe, turned in a great performance on day two with wins over Vilmos Foldes and Shane McMinn, before dropping his last match to Rodrigo “Edgie” Geronimo.
At the end of the day, the field has been narrowed to just five players. Rodrigo Geronimo will face John Morra, to earn a match against Woodward on the one loss side. The winner of that match will face Van Boening and that winner will play Morris in the finals.
Predator is the official cue of the US Open 10-Ball Championship. They are joined by Kamui (the official tip), Cyclop (the official balls), Omega Billiards (the official online store) and Diamond (the official table) as major sponsors of this event.
Shane Van Boening had won six of the last seven Andy Mercer Memorial events at the Rum Runner Lounge in Las Vegas. He took a break after his first win in 2009, which gave Ernesto Dominguez the opportunity he needed to win it in 2010. Van Boening then won four straight, and looking for a fifth, joined 63 entrants in the $3,700-added, 25th Annual Andy Mercer 9-Ball Classic, held at the Rum Runner Lounge on the weekend of March 21-21. In the end, at about 9:30 p.m. (Vegas time) on Sunday, it was Scott Frost, wire to wire, who claimed the 25th Andy Mercer title, defeating Joven Bustamante twice to do it.
In a second-round battle versus Mike Massey that went double hill, Van Boening scratched on the final rack. Massey took ball in hand and sunk a 1-9 combination that sent Van Boening to the loss side. Massey followed soon thereafter and managed to work his way to the quarterfinals.
On the winners' side, Frost and Bustamante met first in a winners' side semifinal, as Jason Klatt, who finished 4th in 2014, squared off against Sal Butera. Frost dominated the first of two against Bustamante 6-1, while Klatt was surviving a double hill battle against Butera. Frost claimed the hot seat 6-2.
Butera moved over and picked up Massey, who'd defeated Max Eberle 6-3 and Johnny Kang 6-1. Bustamante drew Van Boening, who was working on a four-match, loss-side winning streak. that saw him eliminate Oscar Dominguez and Rodrigo Geronimo, before defeating Jeff Schilder 6-3 and Donnie Branson 6-2. It was the end of the streak.
Bustamante ended Van Boening's hope for a fifth straight Andy Mercer title, though it proved to be a double hill thriller. Massey, in the meantime, was ending Butera's weekend 6-4. Bustamante shut Massey out in the quarterfinals and completed his loss-side run with a 6-4 semifinal victory over Klatt, who improved his 2014 performance in the event by a single place/$500.
The Frost/Bustamante re-match was on, and it lived up to advanced billing. About a month ago, in Reno, NV, Bustamante had come out on top, finishing fourth in the US Bar Box 9-Ball Open Championship, while Frost settled for the three-way tie for ninth. Frost reversed the order for this 25th Annual Andy Mercer Memorial, completing his undefeated run with a double hill win in the finals.
