Photo: Matchroom Pool

Two years of Asian dominance ended on a Sunday night in Makati. Team Rest of the World beat Team Asia 11-4 at the Makati Coliseum on October 18 to win the Reyes Cup for the first time, and Francisco Sánchez Ruiz, playing the event for the first time, was named MVP after going through the week without dropping a singles or doubles match. He also potted the 9-ball that clinched it, closing out a 5-1 doubles win alongside Shane Van Boening over Robbie Capito and Duong Quoc Hoang.

Ralf Souquet captained the visitors in his first year in the job, with Sánchez Ruiz, Van Boening, Fedor Gorst, Joshua Filler and Aleksa Pecelj on the floor. Francisco Bustamante's Asia side, winners in 2024 and 2025, ran Carlo Biado, Capito, Duong, AJ Manas and 17-year-old Fadhil Januarta, who was the surprise pick when the roster came out and held his own more than once.

Thursday gave no hint of what was coming. Asia took the opening team match 5-3, Biado and Capito handled Filler and Pecelj 5-1, Sánchez Ruiz answered with a 5-1 win over Duong, and Van Boening and Gorst beat Manas and Januarta 5-1 to send everyone home at 2-2. Friday is where the week turned. Rest of the World won the team match 5-3, Filler beat Capito 5-3, Gorst and Pecelj beat Manas and Duong 5-3, and after Biado took Asia's only point of the day with a 5-3 win over Van Boening, Filler and Sánchez Ruiz held off Capito and Januarta 5-4 to close the session at 6-3.

Saturday followed the same script. Another 5-3 team match for the visitors, Gorst 5-1 over Januarta, a Biado and Januarta 5-3 win over Filler and Gorst for Asia, then Pecelj 5-1 over Manas to make it 9-4 overnight. Sunday needed only two matches. Rest of the World won the team match 5-3, with Filler's 7-9 combination putting them on the hill, and Sánchez Ruiz and Van Boening finished it 5-1 against Capito and Duong.

The numbers tell the story of a team that never trailed after Friday morning. Rest of the World went 9-2 from the start of day two onward. Four of the five team-format matches went their way, and the doubles pairings Souquet put out were the difference against a side that had looked unbeatable in that format a year ago. For Asia, Biado was the one constant, with a singles win over Van Boening and a doubles win with Januarta on days when nothing else went right. For Sánchez Ruiz, it caps a year that already included a US Open title and sets him up as one of the men to watch when the Mosconi Cup comes to Orlando at the end of November.

Sources: World Nineball Tour recap, 2026 Reyes Cup session results, Rack 9 Pool recap, Spin.ph

Photo: Matchroom Pool

The week after the Reyes Cup, the World Nineball Tour stayed in the Philippines for the Roobet Philippines Open at Gateway Mall in Quezon City, October 20 to 24, and for the first time a Filipino won it in front of a home crowd. Johann Chua beat Anton Raga 11-9 in an all-Filipino final to collect $20,000 and his second Matchroom major, following the 2024 Hanoi Open. It was his first major start of the year, which makes the result more striking: he has spent 2026 chasing bigger purses on the Asian circuit and came into a 128-player single-elimination draw cold against the full tour field.

The semifinals were both Filipino affairs. Chua ran away from Bernie Regalario 10-2, and Raga beat Baseth Mocaibat 10-6. Regalario was the story of the first four days. He beat defending champion David Alcaide 10-2 in the last 16 and also sent Sánchez Ruiz home before Chua stopped him. Mocaibat's run included a 10-9 win over Van Boening in the quarterfinals, and Raga, who went to hill-hill in the 2023 European Open final before losing to Alcaide, beat Jayson Shaw 10-4 on his side of the draw. Chua's own path included a 10-1 quarterfinal win over Biado.

Raga took home $10,000 as runner-up. The final was close throughout, and Chua needed to hold off a late push after Raga pulled within two. The win moves Chua up the WNT prize money list and gives the Philippines its first home champion in the event's third year.

Sources: World Nineball Tour, Absolute Pool, Spin.ph, Rack 9 Pool

Thorsten Hohmann has turned down his Team USA Mosconi Cup place. The Philippines Open was the final ranking event for the 2026 Mosconi Cup, which runs November 27 to 30 at the Caribe Royale in Orlando under USA captain Johan Ruijsink, with the top three on each side qualifying automatically and two captain's picks to follow. Van Boening was already in. Hohmann announced on October 24 that he is declining his automatic spot for this year only, citing inconsistency under tournament pressure and the demands of his business. Matchroom has not published a final points table. Rack 9 Pool's own count puts Hohmann, Tyler Styer and Gorst within about $200 of each other for the second and third spots, which is unofficial until the WNT confirms it. Who takes Hohmann's place has not been announced.

The Qatar World Cup 10-Ball is down to four, and the final is Thursday. The former Qatar Open, now a $450,000 WPA event with $100,000 to the winner, runs through October 29 at the Ezdan Palace Hotel in Doha. Fedor Gorst reached the last 16 with an 11-10 win over Marco Teutscher and an 11-1 win over Mahmoud Charif, then lost 11-10 to Hsieh Chia Chen. Defending champion Jonas Magpantay went out 11-5 to Wojciech Szewczyk in the same round, and Sánchez Ruiz lost 11-6 to Biado in the last 32. Wednesday's quarterfinals went to Szewczyk 11-8 over John Morra, Joshua Filler 11-7 over Miguel Salvilla, Daniel Maciol 11-6 over Konrad Juszczyszyn, and AJ Manas 11-8 over Hsieh. Szewczyk plays Filler and Maciol plays Manas in Thursday's semifinals, with the race-to-13 final the same day. The stream is on the Qatar Billiard Sports Federation YouTube channel.

Lazaro Martinez III won CenTex Stop 7 and the season comes down to ten points. The Predator Arcadia CenTex Pool Tour drew 82 players to Skinny Bob's Billiards in Round Rock on October 24 and 25, the largest field the room has hosted for the tour, with $1,500 added in the Open Division. Martinez went through undefeated, beating his brother Gabe Martinez 7-5 in the hot seat after trailing 4-0, then holding off Aro Majumder 7-6 in a single-set final. Majumder's loss-side run included wins over Eric Aicinena 5-3 for fourth and Gabe Martinez 5-2 for third, his second straight runner-up finish. Martinez's weekend also included a 7-3 win over Rudy Sanchez. Aicinena still leads the standings at 1,180 points with Martinez at 1,170, so the title will be decided at the Stop 8 Finale on November 14 and 15 at Fast Eddie's Braun in San Antonio.

Sources: Absolute Pool on Hohmann, WNT Mosconi Cup qualification structure, Rack 9 Pool points count (unofficial), Absolute Pool Qatar preview, Qatar World Cup live scores, Digital Pool Stop 7 bracket, CenTex Pool Tour standings

Confirmed money matches only. No stakes, no chatter.

Tony Chohan beat Justin Hall two sets to one in a three-day all-around at Classic Billiards in Lauderhill, Florida, October 22 to 24, streamed on PoolActionTV pay-per-view as "Tony Chohan vs Justin Hall 2026 All Around." Hall took the opening banks set 7-4 on Thursday. Chohan answered with a 7-3 one pocket set on Friday, then took the deciding 9-ball set 24-21 on Saturday after the race was extended from the billed 18. Three disciplines in three days between two players who can each win in all three is a format the action scene rarely gets, and the 9-ball decider ran long enough to justify the extension.

Sources: AZBilliards event listing, Billiard Action Time, AZBilliards forum thread. Set scores are from the AZBilliards forum thread; PoolActionTV has not published a results page.

The Stop 7 final at Skinny Bob's, Lazaro Martinez III against Aro Majumder, is on the Backwards Billiards day two replay, along with the brothers' hot seat match and the loss-side finish. Four Fargo 700s at the top of an 82-player field on 9-foot Diamonds, and the two best matches of the weekend both went to the hill.

Fallback link: Backwards Billiards, CenTex Stop 7 Day 2

Source: Backwards Billiards on YouTube

The Poison VX Carbon Fiber Break Cue in green is the pick this week. A carbon shaft on a break cue gives you a stiff, consistent hit without the maintenance a maple shaft needs, and the VX comes in at a price that makes sense for a dedicated break cue rather than a full playing setup. It is in stock at $379.

Photo: Break Room Billiards

Poison VX Carbon Fiber Break Cue, Green, at Break Room Billiards

October 29: Qatar World Cup 10-Ball semifinals and final, Ezdan Palace Hotel, Doha. Szewczyk vs Filler and Maciol vs Manas, then a race-to-13 final for $100,000. Live scores

November 14 to 15: Predator Arcadia CenTex Pool Tour Stop 8 Finale, Fast Eddie's Braun, San Antonio. $2,500 added, 9-ball Texas Express, races to 7 and 5 on 8-foot Diamonds, Aicinena and Martinez ten points apart for the season title. centexpooltour.com

November 23 to 28: Pro Billiard Series San Antonio, Grand Hyatt River Walk. probilliardseries.com

November 27 to 30: Mosconi Cup, Caribe Royale Resort, Orlando. worldnineballtour.com

Sources: Rack 9 Pool Qatar scores, Digital Pool Stop 8 listing, CenTex Pool Tour, World Nineball Tour

Thorsten Hohmann earned a Mosconi Cup place and gave it back because he did not trust his own game under pressure this year. That is not a decision many players would make with a spot in Orlando already in hand, and it is the kind of honesty the game asks of players far more often than it gets. Whoever takes the seat should know what it cost.

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