Shane Van Boening
All in all, it was really good week for the South Dakota Kid. After winning the 2024 US Open 10-Ball Championships (March 3-6) and finishing ‘just a little outside’ the money in the subsequent 8-Ball Championships (March 6-8), Shane Van Boening returned to the tables and went undefeated in both the $10k-added Bank Pool Championships (March 10-12) and the $10k-added One Pocket Championships (March 13-17).
It was also a good week for Griff’s in Las Vegas, which played host to all four events. In effect, the 179 combined total entrants, with a fair number of them competing in two, three or all four events, had a way of keeping everybody ‘in house,’ no doubt keeping Griff’s staff on their toes throughout the entire week. After the two largest fields of the week-long event drew 132 entrants – 63 in 10-ball and 50 in 8-ball – the last two events drew a total of 66 – 35 in Banks and 31 in One Pocket.
There is something more ‘sophisticated’ about the last two games played at the 2024 US Open last week. In the broadest sense of the word, ‘sophisticated’ means a ‘machine, system or technique that has been developed to a high degree of complexity.’
Though neither Bank Pool nor One Pocket are complex in their objectives, the sophistication that enters the equation does so through its ‘execution’ doors. Banking balls is something of a specialized skill at the tables, something that in the lower levels of competition, is rarely recommended; too much variability in the rails themselves and the extent to which they can be depended upon to deliver a target ball to its hoped-for destination without reacting in strange and mysterious ways. Not to mention the sheer number of angles that go into choosing a shot in either single, double or triple-rail calculations. One Pocket derives a lot of its sophistication from the combination of skills that go into shot selection, where the object of your ‘move’ in the game is not always about putting a target ball into a convenient hole. The moments between stepping to the table and deciding what you’re going to do, ahead of actually taking a shot, has a way of being a bit longer in both games.
What that all comes down to is the fact that the second half of US Open week in Vegas was characterized not only by its competitors’ abilities to use their shot-making skills. With Bank Pool and One Pocket, they’re forced to bring their thinking skills to the tables, as well. Sure, one has to ‘think’ playing any pool game, but the ‘sophistication’ of those thinking skills is what tends to separate Bank Pool and One Pocket from its rotation ‘cousins’ of 9-ball and 10-ball, along with the solids and stripes game of 8-ball.
Shane Van Boening brought the full array of his prodigious skills to bear in the Bank Pool event, facing off against a strong field of five opponents in six matches. He began by shutting out Can Salim and then shut out Canada’s John Morra. He followed up with a 5-2 victory over fellow Mosconi Cup team member Sky Woodward before running into Lee Vann Corteza, who’d battled and lost to him in the hot seat match of the 10-ball event earlier in the week. Van Boening won what would prove to be his first of two against Vann Corteza, defeating him 5-1 in a winners’ side semifinal and advancing to the hot seat.
In the meantime, Billy Thorpe was working his way to a hot-seat showdown with Van Boening. He shut out Todd Fielitz and sent James Davee (1) and Robert Frost (2) to the loss side, before picking up and defeating Mark Estiola 5-1 in the other winners’ side semifinal.
In a compelling, double-hill hot seat match, with Thorpe chalking up more racks against Van Boening than all of his previous opponents combined, Van Boening snared his second hot seat of the week, sending Thorpe off to the semifinals.
On the loss side, Corey Deuel, who’d lost a double-hill, winners’ side quarterfinal to Estiola, eliminated Roland Garcia (1) and Tony Chohan (double hill) to draw Vann Corteza. Estiola moved over and picked up Woodward, who’d followed his loss to Van Boening with victories over Mike Delawder (1) and Sergio Rivas (2).
Vann Corteza shut down Deuel 4-1. Woodward and Estiola battled to double hill before Woodward prevailed to join Vann Corteza in the quarterfinal. Vann Corteza then downed Woodward 4-1 and found himself, once again, as he had in the 10-ball championships, two steps away from an event title. Vitaliy Patsura stopped Vann Corteza’s quest for the 10-ball title. Billy Thorpe did not stop his quest for the Bank Pool title.
Vann Corteza defeated him in the semifinal 4-2 and got his final (in more ways than one) shot at Van Boening. The South Dakota Kid did stop Vann Corteza’s acquisition of a 2024 US Open title, downing him in the final 6-3 to claim his second title of the week.
Van Boening and Thorpe meet again in the hot seat match of the One Pocket Championships
As the last event of the 2024 US Open series of them, there were a lot of people invested in the idea that the One Pocket Championships were their last shot at a title. Lee Vann Corteza, who’d finished, in order, 3rd (10-ball), 4th (8-ball) and was the runner-up in Bank Pool, was certainly among the most motivated to make that happen. Billy Thorpe, who’d finished 5th in 10-Ball and out of the money in 8-ball, was in the process of redeeming himself, finishing 3rd in the Open Bank Championships and as he crept among the One Pocket’s final four, could ‘see’ the title on a near-sunset horizon of the entire week. They were not alone.
Two others worth mentioning, for different reasons. Roland Garcia, who’d finished just out of the money in 10-ball and Bank Pool and 7th in 8-ball, spent most of his time on the loss side of the One Pocket bracket, seven matches as it turned out. He moved ahead of his previous finishes when he defeated John Morra and advanced to the battles for 5th/6th. He would eventually challenge Van Boening in the final.
Junior competitor (14) Savannah Easton, six-time Junior National Champion across four disciplines (10-ball, 9-ball, 8-ball and 14:1 Straight Pool) was playing in her hometown of Las Vegas. Known as The Roadrunner, she’s been competing professionally since she was 12 and last year, was among the WPBA’s top 10 competitors. She played in all four events of the 2024 US Open. It doesn’t really matter how she finished in any of them, except, very likely, to her, but the fact that she went two and out in three of them and won a double-hill, 8-ball match against James Davee isn’t as relevant as the fact that she kept coming back to try again. She faced Tony Chohan twice (8-ball and Bank Pool) and the runner-up in the 10-ball event, Vitaliy Patsura. The young woman has earned the respect of many, including more than just a few who seriously underestimated her in any number of events. Definitely a name to watch.
And now, before the report takes longer to read than a One Pocket game. . .
Shane Van Boening wasn’t scored upon in the One Pocket Championships until he reached his winners’ side semifinal versus Tony Chohan (aka T Rex). Neither was his second-time, hot-seat match opponent, Billy Thorpe. Chohan battled Van Boening to double hill before he moved to the loss side. Thorpe downed Marc Vidal Claramunt 4-1. Van Boening claimed the hot seat 4-2.
On the loss side, the aforementioned Roland Garcia, four matches into his seven-match streak and having just eliminated John Morra 3-1, met up with Claramunt. T-Rex picked up Oliver Ruuger, who followed his winners’ side quarterfinal loss to Claramunt with a victory over Kelii Chuberko 3-1 and then denied Lee Vann Corteza his last chance at a 2024 US Open title by defeating him, double hill.
Chohan shut Ruuger out and in the quarterfinal, faced Garcia, who’d survived a double-hill match versus Claramunt. Garcia then shut out both T-Rex in the quarterfinal and Thorpe in the semifinal. Van Boening proved to be a little more intractable. Garcia chalked up two racks against him in the race-to-5 final, but they weren’t nearly enough to prevent Van Boening’s claim to a third title in a week.
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