Verhoeven Open

Verhoeven Open Tournament / Sang Lee International Open
Tournament dates
Tournament type:	open tournament
Tournament format:	Round robin / knockout system
Association / host:	USBA / UMB
Tournament details
Venue:	Carom Cafe Billiards, New York United States
Playing time:	2002-2008; since 2012
Current title holder:	Eddy Merckx
Records
Most wins: 4 ×
Torbjörn Blomdahl
Best GD: 2.097
Dick Jaspers (2015)
Best ED: 8.333
Dion Nelin (2019)
Maximum series (HS): 19
000 Eddy Merckx (2015) Tayfun Taşdemir (2016) 00000
Position map
Carom Café Map of New York City

The Verhoeven Open Tournament (until 2008: Sang Lee International Open (SLIO) , sometimes just Sang Lee Open ) is a carom billiards tournament in the three- cushion discipline .

Old tournament poster in the Carom Café

Entrance to the Carom Café

Namesake: Sang Chun Lee †

history

The tournament was founded in 2002 by Sang Chun Lee , commonly known as Sang Lee, as the Sang Lee International Open. From 2005 the tournament in memory of the three-cushion top player Sang Lee, who died in October 2004, was continued by his wife Ira Lee and his best friend Michael Kang , and until 2008 it was held annually by the United States Billiard Association (USBA) as a member of the Union Mondiale de Billard aligned. The venue is the Carom Café in New York, which was co-founded by Sang Lee in 2000 and, with around 2,800 m², is likely to be one of the largest billiard halls in the world. Due to the high number of participants, the tournament achieved a real "open" status and its high prize money (2008: total US $ 125,000 , winner US $ 25,000) makes it one of the largest and most renowned tournaments at world level. In contrast to most other tournaments, it was not played in the set system, but on a predetermined number of points. The tournament mode has been changed several times since 2002. The last Sang Lee Open took place in 2008 .

Verhoeven Open Tournament

After a four-year hiatus, the 2012 tournament was re-launched by Cindy Lee under the name Verhoeven Open Tournament . Promoter is the company "Dragon Promotions", whose CEO Cindy Lee has been since 2005. She is not related to Sang Lee.

20 players took part in the first tournament in 2012. The winner was the local hero Pedro Piedrabuena , who beat Sweden's Torbjörn Blomdahl in the final with 40:37. After a long break from the tournament, the 75 year old Belgian was “Mr. 100 “ Raymond Ceulemans honorary player of the tournament and could still take seventh place.

Internet broadcaster Kozoom has been broadcasting all games live worldwide since 2013 .

There has also been a women’s tournament since 201, which is organized every two years and takes place directly before the regular tournament.

Prize money table

Prize money 2007
space	Prize money (US $)	space	Prize money (US $)
01	12,000	11	2,800
02	9,600	12	2,400
03	8,000	13	2,100
04th	6,400	14th	1,800
05	5,600	15th	1,700
06th	4,800	16	1,600
07th	4,400	17th	1,500
08th	4,000	18th	1,400
09	3,600	19th	1,300
10	3,200	20th	1,200
Bonuses
HS	300	BG	300
Total: US $ 80,000

Prize money 2013 (men)

space	Prize money (US $)	space	Prize money (US $)
01	8,000	11	550
02	5,000	12	550
03	4,000	13	500
04th	3,500	14th	500
05	2,700	15th	450
06th	2,200	16	450
07th	1,700	17th	425
08th	1,200	18th	425
09	1,000	19th	400
10	800	20th	400
Total: US $ 34,750

mode

Since 2013 the tournament has been held in three phases:

1. Qualifying round: 64 players in eight groups of eight players each. The two best in the group and the two best third-placed finishers advance (18 players). The game is played in round robin mode with 25 points.
2. Final round 1: Two players will be drawn from the 18 players in the qualifying round (auction and lottery). Here you meet the four seeded players (No. 1 & 2 in the world rankings, plus two honorary players; 2013: Raymond Ceulemans , Semih Saygıner ). The game is played in four groups of six players each in round robin mode with 40 points. The first two in the group go to the final round 2.
3. Final round 2: The eight best players compete against each other in the knockout system . The game is played on 40 points.

Places 3–12 are played out.

Tournament statistics

The GD indicates the general average of the respective player during the tournament.

Sang Lee International Open
year	winner	GD	place 2	GD	place 3	GD	Ref.
2002	Torbjörn Blomdahl	1.923	Jakob Haack-Sörensen	1.482	Henk Habraken	1.306
2003	Marco Zanetti	1.711	Eddy Leppens	1.564	Pedro Piedrabuena	1.412
2004	Torbjörn Blomdahl	1.743	Ramón Rodriguez	1,971	Pedro Piedrabuena	1,392
2005	Torbjörn Blomdahl	2.064	Semih Saygıner	1,971	Dick Jaspers	1,888
2006	Frédéric Caudron	1,881	Torbjörn Blomdahl	1,851	Semih Saygıner	1.741
2007	Frédéric Caudron	1.801	Daniel Sánchez	1,863	Semih Saygıner	1.659
2008	Roland Forthomme	1.712	Frédéric Caudron	1,949	Torbjörn Blomdahl	1,834
Verhoeven Open Tournament
year	winner	GD	place 2	GD	place 3	GD	Ref.
2012	Pedro Piedrabuena	1,592	Torbjörn Blomdahl	1.708	Roland Forthomme	1.658
2013	Frédéric Caudron	2.066	Eddy Merckx	1,886	Torbjörn Blomdahl	1,838
2014	Torbjörn Blomdahl	2.058	Eddy Merckx	1.941	Frédéric Caudron	1.927
2015	Dick Jaspers	2.097	Tayfun Taşdemir	1.715	Frédéric Caudron	1.931
2016	Jérémy Bury	1.542	Dick Jaspers	1.975	Eddy Merckx	1.775
2017	Cho Jae-ho	1,650	Eddy Leppens	1.897	Daniel Sánchez	1,847
2018	Eddy Merckx	1,872	Daniel Sánchez	1.937	Martin Horn	1.908	-
					Eddy Leppens	1,597
2019	Eddy Merckx	1.797	Torbjörn Blomdahl	1,777	Semih Saygıner	1,766	-
					Daniel Sánchez	1,773
2020	called off	?		?		?	-
						?

Web links

Commons : Verhoeven Open  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Homepage of the Sang Lee International Open (Weblink no longer valid. No archive page to be found on Way Back)
• Verhoeven Open 2016

See also

• Verhoeven Open (women)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} New York Verhoeven Open - Big Apple Billard Show ( Memento from July 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ Carom Caré - Billiards Heaven on Earth.Retrieved July 19, 2013.
3. ↑ Final table 2012 on Kozoom.com. Retrieved July 19, 2013.
4. ^ Markus Schönhoff: New York Verhoeven Open - Big Apple Billard Show. Kozoom, July 11, 2014, accessed December 5, 2016 .  
5. ^ Sang Lee International Open - Draw and Format (2007). Archived from the original on July 19, 2013 ; accessed on July 19, 2013 (English). 
6. ↑ ^{a b} Verhoeven Open Tournament - Draw and Format (2013). Archived from the original on July 18, 2013 ; accessed on July 19, 2013 (English). 
7. ↑ Let the show in New York begin! on Kozoom.com. Retrieved July 19, 2013.
8. ↑ Final table Verhoeven Open 2012 on Kozoom.com. Retrieved July 19, 2013.
9. ↑ Final table Verhoeven Open 2013 (PDF; 50 kB) on USBA.net. Retrieved July 22, 2013.
10. ↑ Final table Verhoeven Open 2014 ( Memento from July 15, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
11. ↑ Final table Verhoeven Open 2015 ( Memento from July 15, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
12. ↑ Final table Verhoeven Open 2016 ( Memento from August 9, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
13. ↑ Final table Verhoeven Open 2017 on: Kozoom.com. Retrieved August 14, 2017.