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“Every single time, I tried to reset properly and start again from zero.”
October 11, Shiki, in Saitama.
Norio Ogawa won Round 5 of the Grand Prix East, the JPBA’s men’s pro tour for eastern Japan.
His first win on this tour.
His first official title in about three and a half years, since the Kanto Open in 2023.
The words at the top come from comments he gave, published two days after the event.
They began, he says, as advice from the president of the company he plays for.
Even after a match where the balls ran well, do not carry that picture into the next one.
Ogawa made a point of resetting himself, match by match.
In the final, too, he said, he tried to begin fresh.
The game was 10-ball.
Races to 8, winner breaks.
From the semifinals, races to 7.
From the last 16: Kiyoshi Suzuki, Hayato Hijikata, Aoki.
Three wins, and he took his place at the table for the final.
Across from him in the final: Lo Li-wen.
Already a winner twice on this season’s Grand Prix East.
At this event, he had sealed this year’s MVP early.
The final ended 7–4.
Let us trace the numbers in between, from the live reports and his comments.
The first rack went to Lo Li-wen.
Ogawa took three in a row: 3–1.
4–2.
Then, 4–4.
The three racks after that, Ogawa took in a row.
A score of 7–4 does not write down the 4–4, when once they stood level.
Late in the match, the time bank ran out, and a twenty-five-second clock came on for every shot.
Twenty-five seconds is short, he recalls, and some shots he played a little in a hurry.
The last was the eleventh rack.
The 10, he says, rattled in the jaws of the pocket, and then dropped.
As an amateur, Norio Ogawa held the Meijin title.
An amateur title event that began in 1961.
Three terms, from the 55th in 2015 to the 57th in 2017.
After that, he turned pro.
His pro titles: two in 2019.
The All Japan Rotation and the Tohoku Professional Open.
In 2023, the Kanto Open.
And this one makes four.
In the record of his career, the line after 2023 now reads 2026.
There are nights at a house tournament when the match before went well.
Even as you move to the next table, the feel of it may still be there in your hands.
Keep playing like this, you feel, and they will keep dropping.
But the balls are racked again, and the break starts once more from the first shot.
The numbers on the scoreboard, too, have been set back to zero.
Not one of the balls you sank on that last table remains here.
After a match you lost, it is just the same.
The final event, Round 6, will be held on November 7 and 8 in Kawasaki, Kanagawa.
This year’s MVP has already been decided.
Even so, every match begins from zero.
Sources for the results
- On the hill!, “2026 Grand Prix East Round 5: Norio Ogawa, first Grand Prix win!” https://www.onthehill.jp/archives/108105
- Billiards Days, “Norio Ogawa wins his first Grand Prix East. Fourth pro title. GPE-5 in Saitama WIND” (October 11, 2026) https://www.billiards-days.com/20261011-1/
- Billiards Days, “‘I reset myself for every match, and played matches I could be satisfied with’ — comments from Norio Ogawa, winner of ‘GPE-5 in Saitama WIND’” (October 13, 2026) https://www.billiards-days.com/20261013-1/
- Japan Amateur Pocket Billiard Association, “Meijin-sen” (past Meijin) https://japa.ne.jp/?page_id=482
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