They say good players are always lucky, and Carlo Biado needed every bit of it Saturday night in Jakarta. The 42-year-old Filipino world champion won the Predator PBC Indonesia International Open 10-Ball, escaping countryman Paolo Gallito 10-9 in an all-Filipino final that Gallito had all but won. Leading 9-8 in the race to 10, Gallito pocketed the 8-ball with only the 10 remaining, and scratched. Biado took ball in hand, cleaned up the rack, and closed out the decider to take the $25,000 first prize. "I was lucky," Biado said afterward. "I didn't expect he would end up with a scratch in that ball." He had generous words for the young man he beat, saying Gallito is good enough that he will end up a champion himself someday.

The win extends a remarkable streak. The Philippines has now won all three editions of the Indonesia International Open: Jeffrey Ignacio took the inaugural title in 2024, Sean Mark Malayan kept it in Filipino hands in 2025, and now Biado in 2026. The 128-player field at the iNews Tower drew from 21 countries and carried a $100,000 total prize fund, with Aloysius Yapp, Johann Chua, Robbie Capito, Naoyuki Oi, and fresh Universal Open champion Jonas Magpantay all in the draw. Coming one week after Magpantay's WNT breakthrough in the same city, it caps a stretch where Filipino players have simply owned Jakarta.

For Biado, whose trophy case already holds two world 9-ball titles, a world 10-ball crown, a World Games gold, and a US Open championship, the season is not slowing down. He heads next to the Asian Pool Championship in Ho Chi Minh City, starting Friday, where he is the defending champion.

🔗 Full recap.

Albania's Kledio Kaçi defended his Mezz Bucharest Open title at Club IDM on Sunday, winning the $39,000 WNT ranking event for the second consecutive year, and the road there had a story in every round. Drawn against his older brother Eklent in the quarterfinals, Kledio advanced when Eklent withdrew rather than play him. He then beat Joshua Filler on the hill in the semifinal, a rematch of last year's final decided just as narrowly, before defeating Greece's Damianos Giallourakis for the title.

Giallourakis is a story of his own. The 39-year-old from Rhodes, known across the pool world as the "Jump Master" for his specialty shot, entered on a wild card and put together the run of his career. Along the way he beat Ralf Souquet, a player he says has been his favorite since he was 14, and afterward he summed up the final simply: his opponent played flawlessly. Filler did not leave Romania empty-handed either. The German won the invitational event staged alongside the main draw, beating Eklent Kaçi in that final.

For Kledio, a World Pool Championship semifinalist last year, the title consolidates a rise three seasons in the making. He now owns both editions of the Bucharest stop since it joined the WNT ranking calendar, and at the pace he is collecting results, the younger Kaçi is no longer the "other" Kaçi in anyone's bracket.

🔗 Story

Van Boening is your national champion. Shane Van Boening won the Men's Pro 9-Ball division at the 2026 USA Cue Sports National Pool Championships in Dubuque, Iowa, beating Hunter Lombardo in the final, with Brandon Shuff and Rodney "The Rocket" Morris tying for third. The revived national championships are a statement event for American pool, a proper pro division at a national title with Justin Bergman, Tyler Styer, Oscar Dominguez, April Larsen, and Savannah Easton among those in the field across divisions, and the sport's most decorated active American winning the first men's crown gives it instant legitimacy. The championships continue in Dubuque through July 12, with Women's Pro 9-Ball, Men's Pro 10-Ball, U19 boys' and girls' 8-Ball, and Wheelchair 10-Ball all playing out this week. Digital Pool is streaming everything on a $19.99 pass, with more than 216 match recordings already banked and every pass supporting the Billiard Congress of America and the Billiard Education Foundation.

Fracasso-Verner on the mend. A follow-up on last week's news: Lukas Fracasso-Verner is out of surgery and recovering after the head-on collision in the Carolinas on June 29, and is reported to be in regular contact with his family. Kane Whiteman is also expected to recover from serious injuries. The detail that makes the story sting a little more: hours before the crash, Fracasso-Verner had come from the loss side to win the Carolina Billiards Circuit stop at Fat Cat's Billiards in Asheville. He was on the road after one of his better weekends of the year. The pool world's thoughts remain with both players, and we will keep following his road back.

The Bucharest win moves Kaçi up the Masters race. The title carried ranking weight beyond the trophy. Kaçi climbed to seventh in the Race to the World Pool Masters, the standings that will shape the 16-player field for the January 12-14, 2027 event in Taipei City, the first World Pool Masters staged in Chinese Taipei. Joshua Filler leads the race at 52,340 points, with Naoyuki Oi and Moritz Neuhausen behind him, and there is family business in the numbers too: older brother Eklent sits eleventh, four spots back of Kledio. Worth a note for American readers, Lukas Fracasso-Verner holds thirteenth in the race while he recovers from last week's accident, with Jayson Shaw one spot behind him. Half a year out from Taipei, every ranking event between now and January carries a little extra weight for the names in the middle of that list.

🔗 SVB’s Win. 🔗 Lukas Talk. 🔗 WPM Race.

Money matches and the gambling side of pool

Shane and Fedor run it back. The two best American-based players of this era are settling round two this weekend, and Shane arrives hot. Days after winning the Men's Pro 9-Ball title at the USA Cue Sports National Championships in Dubuque, Shane Van Boening meets Fedor Gorst July 11-12 at Hilltop Promotions Studio in Anderson, South Carolina, in a King of the Hill 9-ball challenge. It is the rematch of their earlier marathon challenge match, a multi-day 10-ball race that Van Boening edged by a reported 120-116 scoreline after three days of play. Gorst, the world number one, has spent the season winning nearly everything in front of him, and the first Shane match is one of the few results this year that went against him. Between Gorst's Mosconi Cup ambitions, the ESPN spotlight arriving in August, and the simple fact that these two do not like losing to each other, the rematch has real stakes beyond whatever is in the middle.

And a reminder from last issue: Bergman vs. Cousins, $100K minimum in the middle, race to 30 in 8-ball, goes off July 22 at Blue Springs Side Pockets in Missouri, live on CueXTV pay-per-view. Two weeks out.

🔗 King of the Hill.

USA Cue Sports National Pool Championships | Dubuque, IA | through July 12 | Women's Pro 9-Ball, Men's Pro 10-Ball, junior and wheelchair divisions | Digital Pool PPV

2AM Prague Open | 2AM Billiards, Prague, Czech Republic | July 8-11 | $35,000 WNT Ranking

Asian Pool Championship Stage 2 | Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam | July 10-15 | Biado defending

Shane vs. Fedor King of the Hill | Hilltop Promotions Studio, Anderson, SC | July 11-12 | Exhibition 9-Ball

McDermott Open | Yale Billiards, Wallingford, CT | July 16-19 | $29,300 WNT Ranking

Bergman vs. Cousins Money Match | Blue Springs Side Pockets, Blue Springs, MO | July 22 | CueXTV PPV

WPBA Oneida WPA Women's 8-Ball World Championship | Oneida Casino Hotel, Green Bay, WI | July 22-26

Empire State Classic | Raxx Pool Room, West Hempstead, NY | July 23-26

Vice City Classic | Classic Billiards, Lauderhill, FL | July 29-August 2 | $71,200 WNT Ranking

🔗 Matchroom’s Schedule.

Magpantay wins Jakarta one week, Biado wins Jakarta the next, and the country has now claimed every edition of the Indonesia International Open ever played. The Filipino pipeline is not a nostalgia story about Efren and Django anymore. It is the deepest active talent pool in the sport, spanning from 42-year-old Biado to young players like Gallito pushing him to the hill. When the Asian Pool Championship opens in Vietnam on Friday, the field will be thick with them, and so will the US Open bracket in August.

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