Las Vegas, March 4th 2023
He is the reigning world champion, and he appears to be gaining in strength year by year. In Las Vegas, Nevada, Tayfun Tasdemir claimed his third World Cup, beating Haeng Jik Kim in the final: 50-39 in 34.
Two Koreans were still in the hunt on the final day, and two Europeans. Marco Zanetti had looked so strong with his majestic closing run of 16 against Eddy Merckx, but he struggled in his semi against Tasdemir. “I’ve had trouble performing well in semifinals all my career”, said the Italian. Tasdemir opened up a 20-point gap and a mini-comeback by Zanetti was too little, too late: 50-27 in 27/26.
The battle between the “Kims” was a bit closer: 50-37 in 29. Jun Tae Kim is a major promise, but Haeng Jik Kim has the experience, the nerves and the flair. He never looked like he was going to lose this one.
The final was a bit of a grind. Many difficult positions, and some clever defending going on from both sides. Especially Haeng Jik was presented with a handful of starters that were virtually unmakeable. It went neck and neck until 34-33, then Tasdemir created a ten-point lead and held on to it.
The final point was a fluke. Tasdemir, always a gentleman, respectfully apologized before he even celebrated. Haeng Jik’s body language said: “You won fair and square”.
The best match of the event was played by Quyet Chien Tran: 40 in 10. The high run was made by Ruben Legazpi: 20. The best general average was played by Nikos Polychronopoulos: 2.169.
Dick Jaspers will comfortably hold on to his number 1 position in the ranking. The next World Cup will take place in Ho Chi Minh City, from 22-28 May.
Event Links
Live Coverage
http://umb.cuesco.net/main/live
YouTube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=five%26six
Tournament Page
https://www.umb-carom.org/PG344L2/Union-Mondiale-de-Billard.aspx
UMB Official Website
Las Vegas , March 3rd , 2023
Kim plays Kim, Zanetti meets Tasdemir.
It’s a different game, when you play to 50 points and every opponent in the field is world class. At the end of a long Friday in Las Vegas, only four players were left standing: Haeng Jik Kim, Jun Tae Kim, Marco Zanetti and world champion Tayfun Tasdemir.
The round of 16 was the final station for several high-ranked players: Tran (lost to Blomdahl), Horn (lost to Zanetti), Sánchez (lost to H.J. Kim) and Heo (lost to M.W. Cho) to name a few. A very good Vietnamese player was beaten by an even better one: V. Bao Phuong was eliminated by D.A.C. Nguyen. The same thing happened between two Turks: the promising Berkay Karakurt was beaten by Tayfun Tasdemir. Peter Ceulemans found his Waterloo against Jun Tae Kim. Merckx got the better of S.I. Jeung, who had nothing left in the tank. It gave us this final eight:
Quarterfinals:
Zanetti – Merckx 50-33 in 19/18
Tasdemir – D.A.C. Nguyen 50-30 in 27/26
J.T. Kim – Blomdahl 50-23 in 18/17
H.J. Kim – M.W. Cho 50-29 in 18/17
Zanetti ran out with 16, from 34-33. He is now the highest-ranked player left in the event.
Semifinals:
H.J. Kim – J.T. Kim
Zanetti – Tasdemir.
Las Vegas , March 2nd 2023
Jaspers misses last 16
The undisputed number one player in the world did not have his best week, in Las Vegas. He won the event in 2022, but this time he did not survive the group stage. Jaspers was beaten both by Peter Ceulemans and V. Bao Phuong in Group A, and his average (2.019) could not save him. Ceulemans and Phuong, both with two wins, advance.
A quick look at the other groups:
B) Dani Sánchez was a comfortable group winner, S.I. Jeong joins him. Some marvelous play from Ruben Legazpi, but he lost twice and is out, as is Pedro Piedrabuena.
C) Marco Zanetti and Jung Han Heo were head and shoulders the two best players, and they advance. B.J. Hwang and Hugo Patino out.
D) Two wins did the trick for Jun Tae Kim and D.A.C. Nguyen, they send Nikos Polychronopoulos and Sameh Sidhom home.
E) Myung Woo Cho, the last World Cup winner, records six points. Torbjörn Blomdahl, V.L. Dao and Dion Nelin all had two points, but the Swede had the best average by far: 2.391.
F) In a group with three Turks, the world champion Tayfun Tasdemir was the undefeated best. His countryman Berkay Karakurt also advances, at the expense of Murat Coklu and Jeremy Bury.
G) Quyet Chien Tran shows great form: three wins and 2.181. Haeng Jik Kim takes second, M.J. Cha and C.M. Villegas are eliminated.
H) A hard-fought group with four big names: Eddy Merckx (2.016) and Martin Horn advance. It’s over for Sung Won Choi and Semih Sayginer.
The K.O. stage will be played from tomorrow; the final is on Saturday. All matches can be watched on the Five & Six channel on YouTube.
Las Vegas, March 1st 2023.
Ruben Legazpi towers over the field.
The very tall, second-best player in Spain has lost the two most important matches of his life: a World Championship final and a World Cup final. But Ruben Legazpi keeps getting stronger, and his big prize will come.
Today, on the final day of qualifications in Las Vegas, he was the best group winner by far, with an astonishing 2.857 average. Legazpi made 40 in 12 and 40 in 16.
Only two of the twelve group winners were under 1.400! It seems you have to be able to do 1.400 to 1.500 these days, to even have a chance of getting into a main draw. V. Bao Phuong (2.105) and D.A.C. Nguyen (1.818) were also high-quality group winners. Lower on the list, Coklu, Dao and Kim will be relieved to have made the cut: they were in extremely tight groups and recorded a win and a loss.
The home crowd cheered for C.M. Villegas, who had to start in early qualifications and keeps beating strong opponents in not too many innings. In the main draw, he will be joined by two other USA players: Pedro Piedrabuena and Hugo Patino.
Here are today’s group winners:
R. Legazpi – 4 – 2.857
V. Bao Phuong – 4 – 2.105
D.A.C. Nguyen – 4 – 1.818
D. Nelin – 4 – 1.702
B. Karakurt – 4 – 1.632
M.J. Cha – 4 – 1.568
M. Horn – 4 – 1.403
S.W. Choi – 4 – 1.333
C.M. Villegas – 3 – 1.538
M.N. Coklu – 2 – 1.462
V.L. Dao – 2 – 1.436
J.T. Kim – 2 – 1.210
Las Vegas, 28th 2023.
Vietnamese, Koreans, Turks dominate day three.
Possibly the three strongest 3-cushion nations in the world made their presence felt on the third day of qualifications in Las Vegas. The level rises day by day, and the averages were quite good on Tuesday.
As they say, the devil is in the details. Small mistakes or a well-timed fluke can make or break your tournament. Ask Volkan Cetin, who lost 29-30, then won 30-29 and advanced on average. Ask Tolgahan Kiraz, who only needed the break shot in his equalizer to qualify. Or, most spectacularly, have a chat with Robinson Morales, who averaged 1.916 (thanks to a 30 in 9) but did NOT win his group!
Best winner of the day was Ja In Kang – we remember him as Eddy Merckx’s opponent in the historic 50 in 6 match in 2011 - with two wins and 1.714. He was immediately followed by Van Ly Dao and Berkay Karakurt, both with two wins and 1.538.
Here are the day’s group winners:
J.I. Kang – 4 – 1.714
V.L. Dao – 4 – 1.538
B. Karakurt – 4 – 1.538
T. Orak – 4 – 1.428
V. Bao Phuong – 4 – 1.363
H.C. Thai – 4 – 1.333
Q.H. Truong – 4 – 1.224
S.I. Jeong – 4 – 1.200
R.M. Costa – 4 – 1.111
C.M. Villegas – 4 – 1.071
T. Andersen – 4 – 1.052
M. Goren – 4 – 0.967
U. Oktorvaci – 4 – 0.895
H. Catano – 3 – 1.224
B.J. Hwang – 2 – 1.256
V. Cetin – 2 – 1.092
There’s one more round of qualifications tomorrow, and the main event (last 32 players) will start on Thursday. Stream is available on the Five & Six channel on YouTube.
Las Vegas , February 27th 2023.
PPQ in Las Vegas: USA champions come second.
Possibly the three strongest 3-cushion nations in the world made their presence felt on the third day of qualifications in Las Vegas. The level rises day by day, and the averages were quite good on Tuesday.
As they say, the devil is in the details. Small mistakes or a well-timed fluke can make or break your tournament. Ask Volkan Cetin, who lost 29-30, then won 30-29 and advanced on average. Ask Tolgahan Kiraz, who only needed the break shot in his equalizer to qualify. Or, most spectacularly, have a chat with Robinson Morales, who averaged 1.916 (thanks to a 30 in 9) but did NOT win his group!
Best winner of the day was Ja In Kang – we remember him as Eddy Merckx’s opponent in the historic 50 in 6 match in 2011 - with two wins and 1.714. He was immediately followed by Van Ly Dao and Berkay Karakurt, both with two wins and 1.538.
Here are the day’s group winners:
J.I. Kang – 4 – 1.714
V.L. Dao – 4 – 1.538
B. Karakurt – 4 – 1.538
T. Orak – 4 – 1.428
V. Bao Phuong – 4 – 1.363
H.C. Thai – 4 – 1.333
Q.H. Truong – 4 – 1.224
S.I. Jeong – 4 – 1.200
R.M. Costa – 4 – 1.111
C.M. Villegas – 4 – 1.071
T. Andersen – 4 – 1.052
M. Goren – 4 – 0.967
U. Oktorvaci – 4 – 0.895
H. Catano – 3 – 1.224
B.J. Hwang – 2 – 1.256
V. Cetin – 2 – 1.092
There’s one more round of qualifications tomorrow, and the main event (last 32 players) will start on Thursday. Stream is available on the Five & Six channel on YouTube.
Las Vegas, 27th February 2023.
It was not a lucky day for former USA national 3-cushion champions, in Las Vegas on Monday, the second day of qualification. Tae Kyu Lee, the 2020 champ from New York had a win and a 26-30 loss. His last opponent, J.I. Jung finished the crucial match with classy points and he advances as group winner. Another former US champion, Frank Torres, also finished second in his group, tied on 3 points with Vicky Pineda who had the higher average. Frank Torres, the Silver Fox, won his first of four US titles in 1974 (!) and averaged 1.111 today.
Las Vegas billiard fans were happy to see the return of Peru’s Ramon Rodriguez to a World Cup. The musician / billiard player has tons of experience as well as talent, and he had no trouble advancing a round. Two Turkish players did well: junior world champion Burak Hashas,and Muammer Rahmet.
Here are today’s group winners:
Y.S. Jeong – 4 – 1.395
V.L. Dao – 4 – 1.333
B. Hashas – 4 – 1.333
D.Y. Yun – 4 – 1.333
R. Dürdü – 4 – 1.250
M. Rahmet – 4 – 1.200
R. Rodriguez – 4 – 0.983
S.K. Oh – 4 – 0.967
L. Mortensen – 4 – 0.923
H. Pena – 4 – 0.923
J.I. Jung – 4 – 0.923
J. Corona – 4 – 0.821
E. Kwon – 4 – 0.750
U. Oktorvaci – 4 – 0.705
V. Pineda – 3 – 1.200
S.K. Hong – 2 – 0.815
All tomorrow’s matches can be seen on the Five & Six channel on Youtube.
Las Vegas , February 26th 2023.
For the second year running, the Rio All-suite Hotel and Casino is host to a large-scale pool event (300 tables) and a 3-cushion World Cup. The pocket tables certainly outnumber the carom tables, but there’s no lack of respect for our difficult discipline. American pool players all know about “Cóóle-màns and Jespers and that Swedish guy. They are good.”
The first day of qualification was interesting because of the many new faces. It is encouraging to see that “across the pond” many players are motivated to take part in a World Cup, and they are quite right to do so.
Match of the day: the encounter between C.C. Tejada and T.H. Kim. That ended 30-26 in 18 innings! Practically main tournament averages, in the pppq round.
Tomorrow’s action, as usual, can be followed on the Five & Six channel on YouTube.
Here are the first day’s group winers in order:
C.C. Tejada 4 – 1.304
W. Giraldo 4 – 1.034
D.Y. Yun 4 – 1.016
V. Pineda 4 – 0.937
H. Pena 4 – 0.895
R. Carranco 4 – 0.869
U. Oktorvaci 4 – 0.821
C. Pyun 4 – 0.800
V. Cuzzi 4 – 0.800
E. Kwon 4 – 0.731
Y.H. Choi 4 – 0.714
P.H. Tran 4 – 0.697
S.K. Hong 4 – 0.666
J. Corona 4 – 0.631
J. Ceballos 2 – 0.686
B. Khalifa 2 – 0.686
Lausanne, February 24th 2023
After the cancellation of the Ankara World Cup, due to the tragic events in Turkiye, the Las Vegas World Cup will now open the 2023 season. Like last year, the Rio All-suite Hotel and Casino will host the tournament from 26 February – 4 March.
Following Las Vegas, the 2023 World Cup will be contested in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (May), Porto, Portugal (July), Veghel, the Netherlands (October), South Korea (November) and Egypt (December).
The fourteen seeded players in Las Vegas are Jaspers, Sánchez, Zanetti, Sidhom, Blomdahl, Tasdemir, Q.C. Tran, Sayginer, Merckx, H.J. Kim, Bury, M.W. Cho, Polychronopoulos and J.H. Heo. The two local wildcards went to Pedro Piedrabuena and Hugo Patino. The CPB / UMB wildcard was given to Mexico’s Javier Vera.
The tables in Nevada will be Predator, the cloth ClassOne B2 black, the balls Dynaspheres. Ranking points, like last season, are 80-54-36-26-18-10-8. Group play to 40 points, with equalizing inning and a 40-second shot clock, will be followed by direct K.O. matches to 50 points, without equalizer.
Three nationalities stand out in the qualification rounds, with more than 20 players: South Korea, Turkey and the host nation, the USA. Players to keep your eye on include the new Swedish champion Michael Nilsson, world junior champion Burak Hashas, world championship runner-up Ruben Legazpi, and South Korea’s Sung Won Choi, the 2014 world champion who appears to be finding his form again.
Five & Six will stream the event on YouTube, and the UMB will publish daily reports.