Shootout Final Tonight: Van Boening, Cousins Into Last Eight
Round two is still playing down on the TV table at Harrah's Cherokee � but the first quarter-final is already set, and the record has settled the Woodward�Charlton question.
The headline event of the 2026 Ultimate Pool USA Grand Finals crowns its champion tonight at Harrah's Cherokee Casino Resort, with the National Shootout final scheduled for approximately 10:30 p.m. ET — the last stop of a single-elimination sprint that cuts the field from 16 to one across Wednesday.
At midday, round two was still playing down on the arena TV table. Two of the eight last-16 matches were complete, one was in progress, and five more were scheduled through the afternoon.
Van Boening, Cousins set the first quarter-final
Shane Van Boening's strong week rolled on with an 8-4 win over Manny Perez in Wednesday's earliest second-round match, a follow-up to his 9-1 opening demolition of Dalton Comstock. Tom Cousins matched that pace, stopping Shane McMinn 7-1 after his own 5-1 first-round win over Hayden Ernst.
The winners were paired immediately: Van Boening meets Cousins in the first quarter-final at 6 p.m. ET — the only last-eight matchup already locked in, and a guaranteed semifinalist from the bracket's most imposing quarter.
The rest of the round-two slate
At press time, Chris Melling led Dennis Hatch 4-2 in the round's second session. Five more matches complete the last 16 through the afternoon:
- Jesus Atencio vs defending champion Craig Waddingham, about 12:15 p.m. ET
- Joven Bustamante vs Roberto Gomez, 1 p.m.
- Eric Charlton vs Oscar Dominguez, 1:45 p.m.
- Justin Bergman vs Declan Brennan, 2:30 p.m.
- Rodney Morris vs Joe Prince, 3:15 p.m.
Every one of those carries a storyline. Atencio knocked out Tyler Styer in the round's biggest first-round upset and now draws Waddingham, who has dropped just two racks so far. Brennan, who ended Johnny Archer's Shootout run for the second straight year in a tiebreak shootout, gets Bergman. And Morris against Prince closes the round in a meeting of two of the field's most experienced hands.
The record settles Woodward–Charlton
Tuesday's strangest entry is resolved. The scoring line for Skyler Woodward's opener against Eric Charlton recorded a 5-1 Charlton win, yet the bracket briefly carried Woodward into the last 16 — a contradiction flagged in Tuesday's recap. Both scoring services now agree: the score was correct, and it is Charlton who advances to face Dominguez this afternoon.
The road to the final
The four quarter-finals run at 6, 6:45, 7:30 and 8:15 p.m. ET, followed by the semifinals at 9 and 9:45 p.m. The final is scheduled for approximately 10:30 p.m., all of it on the arena table.
Ultimate Pool has not published a prize fund for the invitational Shootout — the title itself is the signature individual trophy of Grand Finals week, in a festival where the 8-Ball Teams championship pays $12,000. The full week's schedule and published payouts are collected in pool4.org's Grand Finals guide.
Whoever lifts the trophy tonight will have won four matches in a single day — and likely beaten at least one of the biggest names in American pool to do it.