Ultimate Pool USA Grand Finals: Day-5 Results Snapshot
Bustamante outlasts Van Boening on the TV table to take the 10-Ball Showdown, and the 512-player National Open gets rolling at Harrah's Cherokee.
Five days into the biggest week in American league pool, the 2026 Ultimate Pool USA Grand Finals has a third champion — and it is Joven Bustamante. The Filipino pro worked through four matches on the arena TV table at Harrah's Cherokee Casino Resort on Thursday, closing out Shane Van Boening 5-3 in the National 10-Ball Showdown final. Around the headline event, the sold-out 512-player National Open put its first night of bracket play in the books.
National 10-Ball Showdown: Bustamante 5-3 Van Boening
Bustamante's route to the trophy was the grind of the week: 7-5 over Sofia Mast in the opening round, a 5-4 scrap with Rodney Morris in the quarter-finals, then 5-2 over Tyler Styer in the semis before the 5-3 final against Van Boening — the field's biggest name, back on the TV table a night after Tom Cousins had sent him home in the National Shootout quarter-finals.
Morris supplied the opening session's biggest result, knocking out Wednesday night's champion Oscar Dominguez 6-5 — the man who had lifted the National Shootout trophy barely 20 hours earlier went out in the first round. The day's other first-round stories: Gerson Martinez Boza beat National Shootout runner-up Cousins 4-2, and veteran Johnny Archer edged Justin Bergman 5-4 before Styer whitewashed him 8-0 in the quarter-finals — the widest margin of the day.
All 15 matches played on the streamed TV table under the league's 30-minute match clock — which is why the winning scores vary from 4 to 8 — and not one needed the format's six-ball shootout tiebreak.
| Round | Winner | Score | Loser |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quarter-final | Shane Van Boening | 5-3 | Roberto Gomez |
| Quarter-final | Gerson Martinez Boza | 4-3 | Chris Melling |
| Quarter-final | Joven Bustamante | 5-4 | Rodney Morris |
| Quarter-final | Tyler Styer | 8-0 | Johnny Archer |
| Semi-final | Shane Van Boening | 5-4 | Gerson Martinez Boza |
| Semi-final | Joven Bustamante | 5-2 | Tyler Styer |
| Final | Joven Bustamante | 5-3 | Shane Van Boening |
First round, for the record: Van Boening 5-4 Jesus Atencio, Gomez 5-4 Dennis Hatch, Martinez Boza 4-2 Cousins, Melling 6-2 David Matlock, Bustamante 7-5 Mast, Morris 6-5 Dominguez, Archer 5-4 Bergman, Styer 5-1 Skyler Woodward.
Confirmed: the official DigitalPool bracket for all 15 matches; Inside Spin's event page corroborates every round it has logged at the cutoff — through the semi-finals — with the final still to be entered. Since the cutoff, BilliardNews' event recap has confirmed the 5-3 final.
National Open: the 512 starts moving
Away from the cameras, the National Open — the sold-out 512-player event chasing a $20,000 top prize — began at 3:30 p.m. ET and ran into the night in races to six. The bracket had logged 246 completed matches at the cutoff, with the opening round still wrapping up.
The Showdown contingent on double duty all advanced. Nine of the 16 invitational names had recorded first-round wins at the cutoff: Van Boening 6-0 over Gene Perryman, Bergman 6-0 over Michael Doak, Cousins 6-0 over T.J. Watson, Woodward 6-0 over William Bloom, Melling 6-2 over Bryan Gaynor, Styer 6-1 over Mike Allen, Dominguez 6-1 over Ron Frank and Archer 6-1 over Jeremy Neal — plus the new 10-Ball Showdown champion himself, Bustamante beating Tyler Sullivan 6-1 after lifting the trophy.
Scores per the official DigitalPool bracket at the cutoff.
What happens next
Friday brings the 128-player National Women's Open and the conclusion of the pairs, 10-Ball Teams and singles programs, with the National Open rolling on toward Sunday's final. Saturday decides the 8-Ball Teams champion and opens the Junior Open. Live brackets for every event are on DigitalPool.
