The U.S. Open Straight Pool Championship was a pool tournament held in the United States, and one of the few featuring the discipline of straight pool. After being dormant for sixteen years, the event was resurrected in 2016, but has only been held sporadically since.
Year | Winner |
---|---|
1966 [1] | Irving Crane |
1967 [1] | Jimmy Caras |
1968 [1] | Joe Balsis |
1969 [1] | Luther Lassiter |
1970 [1] | Steve Mizerak |
1971 [1] | Steve Mizerak |
1972 [1] | Steve Mizerak |
1973 [1] | Steve Mizerak |
1974 [1] | Joe Balsis |
1975 [1] | Dallas West |
1976 [1] | Tom Jennings |
1977 [1] | Tom Jennings |
1983 [1] | Dallas West |
1989 [1] | Oliver Ortmann |
1992 [1] | Mike Sigel |
1993 [1] | Oliver Ortmann |
2000 [1] | Ralf Souquet |
2016 [2] [3] | Dennis Orcollo |
2017 [4] [5] | Lee Vann Corteza |
2019 [6] | Shane Van Boening |
Efren Manalang Reyes, popularly known by the nicknames "Bata" and "the Magician", is a Filipino professional pool player, who is widely regarded as the greatest pool player of all time, and especially famed for his skill at the challenging one-pocket discipline. In 2003, he was inducted into the Billiard Congress of America's Hall of Fame.
Francisco Bustamante is a Filipino professional pool player from Tarlac, Central Luzon and the 2010 World Nine-ball Champion, nicknamed "Django", after the lead character of the 1966 film of the same name, and sometimes also called "Bustie", especially in the United States. Bustamante has won over 70 international titles and is considered one of the greatest pool players of all time.
Marlon Manalo, also known by the nickname "Marvelous Captain", is a former Filipino professional pool player. He previously served as barangay chairman of Barangay Malamig, Mandaluyong. He also became the press relation officer of the League of Barangays of the Philippines and ABC president.
Niels Feijen is a Dutch professional pool player, from the Hague. His nickname is "the Terminator". In 2014 he won the WPA World 9-ball championship.
Thorsten Hohmann is a German professional pool player, nicknamed "the Hitman." He is a three-time world champion, winning the WPA World Nine-ball Championship in 2003, and 2013, and winning the WPA World Straight Pool Championship in 2006.
Alejandro Salvador "Alex" Pagulayan is a Filipino-born Canadian professional pool player. His nickname is "the Lion", given to him by Paul Thornley, Canadian snooker player whom he credits as his mentor. Pagulayan is considered one of the best pool players of all time as well as one of the best one-pocket player of all time. He was born in Cabagan, Isabela, Philippines and was raised in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Pagulayan represented the Philippines in the mid-2000s and in 2012, he began carrying the Canadian flag in international tournaments again.
Dennis Orcollo, sometimes called Dennis Orcullo, is a Filipino professional pool player, nicknamed "Surigao" and "RoboCop". He has been called "The Money-Game King". Orcollo is considered one of the greatest pool players of all time.
Michael Sigel is an American professional pool player nicknamed "Captain Hook." He earned the nickname from his ability to hook his opponents with safety plays. Sigel was dominant during the 1980s in 9-Ball and Straight Pool and has a high run of 339 balls in Straight Pool. Mike Sigel is widely considered one of the greatest pool players of all time. In the year 2000, Sigel was voted "Greatest Living Player of the Century" by Billiards Digest Magazine.
Jeffrey de Luna is a Filipino professional pool player from Manila. De Luna reached the semifinals of the 2019 U.S. Open Pool Championship, but would lose to eventual champion Joshua Filler of Germany.
Lee Vann Corteza, also spelled Lee Van Corteza, is a Filipino professional pool player. He is nicknamed "The Slayer", and started playing pool in 1993.
Jasmin Ouschan is an Austrian professional pool player from Klagenfurt, Carinthia. Her first professional competition occurred in 2002, but she did not officially become a professional member of the Women's Professional Billiards Association (WPBA) until 2007. She is currently one of the top-ranked women in the world according to the 2010 prize money list and by the WPBA rankings. At times, she has been ranked as the number one female player in the world. Since 2006, she has been listed among the top-ten women in the annual prize money rankings. Ouschan competes regularly with men on the Euro Tour and in 2008 became the first woman to earn a medal in an open world pool championship.
The U.S. Open Pool Championship, formerly the U.S. Open Nine-ball Championship, is an annual professional men's nine-ball pool tournament that began in its current form in 1976. The U.S. Open is one of the most sought-after titles in nine-ball and in pool generally. Traditionally, winners of the U.S. Open are given a green blazer and are awarded free entry fees to all future U.S. Open tournaments.
Shane Van Boening is an American professional pool player from Rapid City, South Dakota. Van Boening is considered one of the best players of all time. Van Boening has won the WPA World Nine-ball Championship and has won the US Open Nine-ball Championship on 5 occasions, along with over 100 other professional titles.
The World Straight Pool Championship is a top-level competition for straight pool, also known as "14.1 continuous".
Darren Appleton is an English professional pool player, best known for playing Eight-ball, Nine-ball and Ten-ball pool.
John Schmidt is an American pool player, born in Keokuk, Iowa. Nicknamed "Mr. 600", specialising in straight pool, Schmidt held the record for the highest run made (626), until Jayson Shaw broke that record with a high run of 669 in January 2022. Schmidt won the U.S. Open 9-Ball Championships in 2006 defeating Rodolfo Luat in the final. He was also part of the American team at two Mosconi Cups in 2006 and 2014.
Jayson Shaw is a Scottish professional pool player. In 2010, Shaw was a WPA World Blackball Champion.
Joshua Filler is a German professional pool player from Bönen, Germany. In 2018 Filler defeated Carlo Biado 13–10 to win the 2018 WPA World Nine-ball Championship. In 2017 he was the youngest player to win the China Open, and in 2018 he also won the 10-ball European Pool Championships. Filler became WPA and Euro Tour world number 1 in 2019, and later he reached the final of the 2019 WPA World Ten-ball Championship before losing 10–7 to Ko Ping-chung.
Professional tournaments in table-top cue sports took place in 2020. These events include snooker, pool disciplines and billiards. Whilst these are traditionally singles sports, some matches and tournaments are held as doubles or as teams. The snooker season runs between May and April, whilst the pool and billiards seasons is listed over the calendar year. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the season was disrupted with many events being cancelled or postponed. Cue sports events were played in January and February, before tournaments were discontinued for all disciplines due to the pandemic, returning in June without an audience.