Player: John Schmidt
Event: 820-Ball Run in Straight Pool
Date: March 10, 2026



To Say John Schmidt is obsessed with straight pool — and the record for running the most balls in the history of the game — is an understatement. Sixty-five years after Willie Mosconi’s iconic 526-ball run, he smashed that record by 100 balls in 2019.

While Jayson Shaw topped that number three years later, Schmidt remains dedicated to the game — and reclaiming the biggest number in 14.1.

During a week of unofficial play at his home table, he tried to average more than 100 balls per inning over the course of a week. In the course of that chase, Schmidt managed to run 58 consecutive racks until a 10 ball skidded on the way to the side pocket. (Playing cue-ball fouls only, he did foul earlier in the run, meaning the 820 is an unofficial run.)

A run of that size doesn’t happen without some trickery — and Schmidt played magician in the 39th rack. After his break shot failed to open the rack, he looked in dire straights, as shown in Diagram 1. Without a shot on the 8, he had to look for anything in the stack to keep him running.

Without much hesitation, Schmidt called the 12 ball in the lower left corner. The play? A two-rail kick into a four-ball combination. He sent the cue ball up from the foot rail and into the 14, which then knocked the 11 into the 10, which sent the 12 straight into the corner pocket. (With so much going on within the stack, Diagram 2 shows results of the shot.)

That gutsy shot opened up the rack, though his next shot wasn’t much of a gimme. He sent the 1 ball up-table and into the top left corner.

Just two examples Schmidt’s mastery in a run for the ages.

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