First-ever Women’s 8-Ball World Championship, run by the WPBA, debuts in Green Bay, WI
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Jordan Helfery
Junior competitor Jordan Helfery (14) is surprise winner in Day One first round (Wed., July 2)
It is kind of a big deal. Or, as WPBA Tour Director Jerry Stuckart put it “a very, very big deal.” There’ll be more on this as our coverage continues through to the final of the 2025 Oneida WPA Women’s 8-Ball World Championship, but for starters, not only is the WPBA running the WPA (World Pool Association) event at the Oneida Hotel Casino in Green Bay, WI that began with opening ceremonies at Lambeau Field yesterday (Tues., July 1), but it’s the first-ever WPA Women’s 8-Ball World Championship anywhere. There have only been three, all-time WPA 9-Ball Championships here in the US and the last one was in Chicago in 1997. As far as we know, there have been no 8-ball championships here and there hasn’t been a WPA 14.1 World Championship since the four that were held in New Brunswick, NJ from’06 to ’10 (no event in ‘09’ for some reason).
In addition to all the “very, very big deal” tournament and opening-ceremony news, one of the tournament sponsors, Olhausen Billiard Manufacturing Company, which has been crafting pool tables since 1972, is using the occasion to introduce a new table design, crafted specifically for this event. Though full tech specifications have not been released to the public yet, it’s been reported that the tournament specifications have been “tailored for 8-ball precision.”
“To host the first-ever Women’s 8-Ball World Championship right here in Green Bay—home of the Packers, cheese curds, and now world-class pool—is something truly special,” said Stuckart, a native of Green Bay (in case the Packers and cheese curds didn’t give that away). “We’re putting Wisconsin on the global map for billiards, and this event isn’t just big for the sport—it’s history in the making. The best women players on the planet are coming here to compete, and I can’t wait for the world to see what we’ve built.”
Among the ‘best women pool players on the planet’ to which he referred are eight of the WPA’s top-ranked women and nine of the WPBA’s top-ranked competitors. Some of them are on both lists. Eight of the WPA-ranked competitors successfully navigated the waters of Day One’s Round One. All nine of the WPBA competitors did so, as well.
Although with pool, it can often be difficult to describe any win as a ‘surprise,’ there were two on Day One’s opening round, which arguably qualify. The match between Canada’s Veronique Menard and Jordan Helfery was one of them. The surprise factor in the result was that Helfery is 14-years old and that in a straight-up race to 7, she defeated Menard convincingly 7-3. Helfery, with her 590 FargoRate, will move out of the 642 ‘frying pan’ of Menard into the 732 ‘fire’ of Meng-Hsia (“Bean”) Hung at 11 a.m. later this morning (Wed. June 3).
The other would be Caroline Pao’s 7-4 win over Japan’s Sakura Muramatsu, who came into the match sporting a 44-point higher FargoRate (685-641). Pao’s trip forward doesn’t get any easier either, as she’ll face the 714 Pia “Killer” Filler, also at 11 a.m. today (Wednesday).
The list of Round One Survivor’s ‘usual suspects’ would include the WPBA’s current, top-ranking competitor, Kristina Tkach, who started out a little shaky, allowing her first opponent, the Netherland’s Elise Qiu to get out in front by two and reach the hill first at 6-4. The virtually unflappable Tkach settled in to win the next three to win and advances to face Japan’s Samia Konishi, also at 11 a.m.
Margarita Fefilova (WPBA’s current #2) downed Costa Rica’s Adriana Villar 7-2 and will face Canada’s Brittany Bryant. Bulgaria’s Kristina Zlateva (#3) downed Japan’s Tani Miina 7-3 and will go up against the USA’s Kennedy Meyman. Pia Filler (#4) earned tomorrow’s match versus Pao after downing Canada’s Naomi Williams 7-5. Taipei’s Tzu-Chien (“Wei Wei”) Wu (#5) will face Vietnam’s Nguyen Bich Tram, after defeating Korea’s Harin Lee 7-2.
Two of the event’s other notables to advance were Kelly Fisher (#7) and April “The Grinder” Larson (#14). Fisher downed USA’s Angela Janic 7-1 and will next face another junior competitor yet to graduate from high school, Sofia Mast (#13), who defeated Tina Larsen 7-4 in the opening round. Today’s (Thursday’s) Fisher/Mast match should be a compelling one to watch. April Larson worked a little against her nickname ‘type’ in her opening round by shutting out Canada’s Nathalie Chabot and will face the Philippines’ Chezka Centeno in the morning. Another noteworthy Junior Competitor to advance was Savannah “Roadrunner” Easton (#11 at 15-years old), who defeated USA’s Susan Williams and will face Tapei’s Chia-Hua Chen in the second round.
You can check the progress of this event, currently playing out in a double-elimination format, which will switch to single elimination once the 64-entrant field gets down to 16 competitors, eight from each side of the digitalpool bracket at https://digitalpool.com/tournaments/2025-oneida-wpa-womens-8-ball-world-championship/viewer.
Featured matches are being streamed in two places; for free, through the WPBA’s YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz3nECcig-zgKYfFvkS15hQ or by subscription to Amazon Prime on its Sports tab.
