Evan Lunda
As the four US Open Championships held at Griff’s in Las Vegas this past week wound down to their final battles in the $10,000-added, 25-entrant One Pocket event on Friday, March 14, there was one, possibly two matches left to anticipate. Lee Vann Corteza had completed an undefeated run through the field of the Open Banks tournament by downing Evan Lunda in the finals of that tournament on Wednesday night (March 12). There was a chance, possibly two, that they’d meet in the One Pocket event.
The bracket ‘draw’ set the potential for their first meetup in a hot seat match that didn’t happen. It almost happened, as both of them advanced to the winners’ side semifinal. Neither advanced to the hot seat match, though they would meet in the event quarterfinals. It was Lunda who advanced from there to claim the One Pocket title, meeting and defeating the event’s hot seat occupant, Roberto Gomez.
Of the 48 matches played in the 2025 US Open One Pocket Championship, 70% of them (34) were either shutouts or matches in which the winner had given up just a single rack. On the winners’ side, racing to 4, there were 11 shutouts (the most of any score recorded), five matches that ended 4-1, three that ended 4-2 and only three double-hill matches. On the loss side, shutouts proved to be the least prevalent score of the three possible (eight of them). There were 10 matches that ended 3-1, and nine that went double hill. It would appear that some competitors (those who end up on the winning side of a shutout) get right into the swing of things, while others take some time to acclimate themselves to the particular (some might argue ‘peculiar’) mindset necessary to compete well in One Pocket.
Eventual winner Evan Lunda, who’d won this event in 2023, downing Billy Thorpe in the final, was one of the former. His path to the winners’ side semifinal went through three opponents with an aggregate game score of 12-1. He shut out Adam Kroll and teenager Savannah Easton before giving up a single rack to Marc Vidal Claramunt. Lunda advanced to a winners’ side semifinal against Alex “The Lion” Pagulayan, who (with an opening-round bye) arrived with an aggregate score of 8-0, having shut out John Morra and Louis Demarco.
From the other end of the bracket, Gomez and Vann Corteza worked their way through the field to the other winners’ side semifinal. Gomez chalked up an aggregate score of 8-0; shutouts over Tyrel Blowers and (of all people) Tony “T-Rex” Chohan, while Corteza went through a shutout (Phill Yee), a 4-1 win (Payne McBride) and one of the three, winners’ side double-hill matches (Mike Delawder).
The Lion sent Lunda to the loss side 4-2, as Gomez gave up just one to Corteza. Gomez claimed the hot seat with a double-hill win over Pagulayan and (according to the digitalpool time stamp) settled into a three-hour wait for the final match.
On the loss side, Cortez arrived to draw Tyrel Blowers, who’d followed his loss to Gomez with two straight double-hill wins, over Joe Worrell and Cody Booth, followed by 3-1 wins over Claramunt and DeMarco. Lunda drew T-Rex, who’d backed up his loss to Gomez with two double-hill victories over Bob Herchik and Kashton Keeton.
Both matches for advancement to the quarterfinals went double-hill; Corteza over Blowers and Lunda over T-Rex. Thus, pitting the winner and runner-up of the US Open Banks event against each other in a match that would advance one of them to the semifinals. Lunda gave up just a single rack to Corteza in those quarterfinals and was equally stingy versus Pagulayan in the semifinals.
The final match was an extended race to 5. For the third straight time, Lunda ‘closed the door’ early, this time against Gomez. Lunda gave up yet another single rack and claimed the US Open One Pocket Championship title.
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