Player: Pin Yi Ko
Event: World Pool Masters
Location: Brentwood, United Kingdom
Date: May 13, 2023



When it comes to sibling rivalries, pool has a claim to some decent intrafamily competitions. Albin and Jasmin Ouschan are both multiple-time world champions who have been among the sport's best for a solid decade. But with the Austrian stars splitting their time in the men's and women's game, they are rarely chasing the same hardware. The Ko brothers, meanwhile, have battled in the same events at a more frequent clip. Pin Yi Ko, now 35, conquered the men's game in 2015, winning both 9-ball and 10-ball world titles, while 28-year-old Ping Chung Ko claimed the World 10-Ball Championship four years later. (Disclaimer: A third Ko brother is climbing the pro ranks.)
While Ping Chung currently leads Pin Yi on this year's money list, the elder brother showed his best at the World Pool Masters in May.
The Matchroom Pool standard on the tournament calendar, the Masters returned to its 16-player, single-elimination format this year. In Ko's semifinal against Filipino James Aranas, he faced a 3-4 deficit in the race-to-11 when he approached the layout shown in the diagram. With two balls on the table, Ko had no place to hide, but the slightest angle on the 8 allowed him to play for the win.
With an extra thin cut on the 8, Ko sent the cue ball off four rails, almost circling the table. In a perfect example of controlling the cue ball's angle and speed, he had a clear line on the 9 for the rack.
Ko went on to win this set, 11-9, before outlasting Eklent Kaçi, 13-5, for the title. While the World Pool Masters crown was his first since his 2015 double, Ko's motivation for more is next to him on the family tree.


(Video clip provided by Accu-Stats Video Productions.)

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