Player: Shane Van Boening
Event: World Pool Masters
Location: Essex, United Kingdom
Date: May 10, 2023



Compared to the marathon race-to-100 you might see in money matches, Matchroom Pool's World Pool Masters is a 100-meter sprint. With 16 of the world's best drawn into a single-elimination bracket, there's zero time to work your way into stroke.
At the 2023 Masters, held in Essex, United Kingdom, Shane Van Boening faced David Alcaide in the opening round, a matchup that could as easily be on the final day or two of a 128-player world championship. The two split the first 10 racks in the race-to-9, when Van Boening came to the table shown in the diagram. He can see all of the 2, but there's no direct pocket with the 5 ball inches from the bottom left corner. Van Boening had a path to bank the object ball back to him in the lower right, but that presents the problem of position on the 3. A table length away, it was sitting near the top right corner.
Loading up on follow, the American firmly struck the cue ball, which was jammed against the long rail. With a half-ball hit, the 2 goes cleanly into the corner pocket, while the cue ball heads up-table. Rebounding off both long rails, it nearly missed the 6 ball before rolling into perfect shape for an angle on the 3 ball that provided natural shape for position on the 4.
Van Boening rolled through the rest of this rack to take a lead he wouldn't relinquish on his way to a 9-6 victory over his Mosconi Cup rival. But proof positive how tough it can be to string four victories together to win the World Pool Masters, Van Boening was ousted in the next round by Ko Pin Yi, 11-7, who would eventually go on to take the title.


(Video clip provided by Accu-Stats Video Productions.)

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