September 2-4 the Hague 5 poolroom in The Hague, Netherlands hosted the first European onepocket.org One Pocket tournament. Organized by Alex Lely with support from the Hague 5 crew, and especially Espen Falkenhaug, Pascal de Smit and Karin. Streaming was ably handled by OrangeForks Productions, and sponsored in part by Mezz Cues donating a nice raffle cue. The streamed matches can be found on OrangeFork’s YouTube channel.
38 Players from 9 different nations came together for the love of One Pocket to compete in the first European onepocket.org tournament. The entry fee was 50 Euro, with 1000 added by attorney Joseph Long of Baton Rouge, LA, USA, and another 1000 added by Staaf Verharen of the Hague 5 poolroom. The format was double elimination races to three both sides until the field was reduced to 16 finalists. The final playoffs were single elimination races to 4.
The last four players were from the US, Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany, reflecting the international mix of this tournament. Local player Alex Lely took the top spot, defeating Swiss player Sebastien Pauchon 4-1 in the finals.
The top 16 results were:
1st 1000 Euro
Alex Lely (Netherlands)
2nd 700 Euro
Sebastien Pauchon (Switzerland)
3/4th 400 Euro
Sebastian Trolle (Denmark)
Dave Gross (USA)
5/8th 250 Euro
Sanne Krom (Netherlands)
Johan Kroops (Netherlands)
Richard Eijmberts (Nepal)
Thomas Kirsch (Germany)
9/16th 50 Euro
Sil van Venrooij (Netherlands)
Staaf Verharen (Netherlands)
Joris van der Poel (Netherlands)
Tom Penrose (Netherlands)
Rolf van As (Netherlands)
Cruz Control (Netherlands)
Stephan AssmuS (Germany)
Christer Lindberg (Sweden)
Saturday night there was a One Ball One Pocket mini tournament, single elimination with a 20 Euro entry fee. 100 was added by the Hague 5 poolroom. 23 Players entered, competing for 360 1st place, and 200 2nd place. 1st place went to Pascal De Smit of South Korea (and the Netherlands), 2nd to Thomas Kirsch of Germany.
All reports were that players were very happy with this tournament and hoping it was the first of an annual tradition.