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August 14 and 15, 2026. Kannai, Yokohama.
Introducing the players to watch at SANSIAS presents Yokohama 14-1 Summit.
High run: 313.
There was a night he went 313 balls without a miss.
For 313 balls, with every ball, he kept reading the next.
Even as the racks changed, the thinking never broke.
That record still stands beside the name Lo Li-wen.
Thirty-five years of 14.1.
Five-time champion of the All Japan 14.1 Open Championship.
Tied 3rd in the world at the 2016 World Tournament of 14.1, and tied 9th in 2010.
Three straight Asian titles in 9-ball: 2015, 2016 and 2017.
He has a family.
A shop of his own to run.
Tournaments at home, too.
Staying on the world circuit is not easy.
Even so, each time he has stepped onto the world stage as an occasional entrant, he has come away with results.
That he can, surely, comes from what he builds day after day.
This is the story of a man who has run at the front of this game for thirty-five years.
We asked him to sum up 14.1, straight pool, in a single word.
“A puzzle.”
Asked where the difficulty lies, he said: “Any ball.”
You may choose any ball you like.
Which is exactly why it is hard.
Fifteen balls lie scattered.
Where to begin.
How to link them.
Each time, he makes that answer himself.
No right answer is waiting there from the start.
I asked about his strength.
“Avoiding risk.”
For a moment, it sounds plain.
But the more you think about it, the deeper it goes.
A record of 313.
It is also the sum of avoiding risk, ball after ball.
It is a number you could never reach by playing it as it comes.
Always reading the next shot, and the one after, he keeps taking position that never turns into risk.
He is on the attack.
And yet he adds no risk.
That state of mind is what produced the high run of 313.
I asked what matters most to him in practice.
“Routine.”
To be the same self in any match, on any stage.
Routine lays that foundation.
The match he named as the one that stays with him was the final of the 2022 All Japan 14.1 Championship.
His opponent: Kunihiko Takahashi.
A man who has won the World 9-Ball Championship.
And this was no ordinary final.
Lo and Takahashi had each won it four times before.
It was a meeting at the summit, with a fifth title on the line.
On that stage, Lo made an awkward kick shot and ran out from there.
It wasn’t technique alone.
The ability to read the table.
The judgment to weigh risk.
Concentration, set in order by routine.
Everything he had built up was distilled into that one shot.
I asked how he felt going into this Summit.
“The first 14-1 Summit ever held in Yokohama. The Yokohama Open Organizing Committee will be recording match stats, so I’ll enjoy the matches, and I’ll win it!”
Enjoy it, and win.
No one, I think, will take those words lightly.
And a word for anyone who wants to take up 14.1.
“14.1 is a game that builds your fundamentals, so please play 14.1, study it, build your fundamentals and your foundation, and enjoy billiards!”
So says a man who has faced this game for thirty-five years.
Build your fundamentals.
That is where everything begins.
I asked about his target score.
“400 or more.”
Beyond 313 balls, the view still goes on.
Lo Li-wen
Affiliation: JPBA / POOL LABO
Major results: five-time All Japan 14.1 Open Championship winner / tied 3rd, 2016 World Tournament of 14.1 / tied 9th, 2010 / three straight Asian 9-ball titles (2015, 2016, 2017)
Years playing 14.1: 35 | High run: 313
Cue: Zen Custom Cue
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👉 Lo Li-wen’s player stats
👉 Yokohama 14-1 Summit 2026: event details
👉 Billiards resources from Japan and around the world, organized by purpose: Billiards in Depth (latest updated hourly)