Neffati Runs Seven Straight to Win the NC State 10-Ball Open: Four Lessons From the Clemmons Final

Justin Martin was up 4-1 in the final of the NC State 10-Ball Open, with two break-and-runs already on the board, and then he did not win another rack for the better part of an hour. Monaim Neffati ran seven straight to reach the hill and closed out a 9-5 win at Breaktime Billiards in Clemmons on the weekend of August 22 and 23. He never lost a match all event. For anyone who plays league or regional events here in North Carolina, that final is worth studying, because almost everything that decided it is something you can work on at home.

What happened in Clemmons

The event drew 33 entrants for a $1,000-added field, run by tour director Christy Norris and hosted by Sundeep Makhani, his son Jas, and the Breaktime staff. Neffati opened with a bye, beat Soloman Pope 7-3, then survived a double-hill match against BJ Ussery Jr. on the winners’ side. That matchup mattered. Back in June, Ussery had gone undefeated to the hot seat of the NC State 9-Ball Open and split the top two prizes with Neffati, while Martin finished third. Three of the top four from June were back in the top four in August. Small state, and the same names keep meeting.

After the Ussery win, Neffati beat Landon Hollingsworth 7-5 and Grayson Vaughan 7-4, then took the hot seat 7-3 over Corey Morphew. Martin, who had lost in the third round on the winners’ side to Joao Sias, came all the way back through the loss side with a string of 7-3 and 7-2 wins, including a 7-2 over Morphew in the semifinal to set up the rematch. Morphew finished third.

The final was a race to 9, winner breaks, call everything. FargoRate had the two players close, 749 for Martin and 735 for Neffati, which made Martin roughly a 7-5 favorite on paper. He looked it for five racks. Then Neffati found his rhythm and simply did not miss. The seven-rack run took the match from 4-1 down to 8-4, and Martin only got rack five after Neffati rattled a 9-ball in the corner on the hill. The very next rack, Neffati took control of the table and finished it.

Lesson one: the break was not the story

This is the part most amateurs get backwards. Across 14 racks, the two players combined to pocket only 15 balls on the break. Martin made three on one break, and there were four dry breaks between them. Neither man was breaking well by pro standards, and yet the racks were still being won and lost on what happened after the break, not on it.

If you spend your practice time trying to smash the rack harder, you are working on the wrong thing for 10-ball. The format is call shot on every ball, so a wild break that spreads the balls but leaves the cue ball wandering is a liability. A controlled break that keeps the cue ball in the middle of the table and gives you a look at the 1-ball is worth far more than two extra balls made. Neffati’s run was built on pattern play and safeties, not on power. Our guide to reading the rack and planning a run-out applies directly here, even though the game is different.

Lesson two: safeties won racks that shooting could not

Several racks in the final turned into safety exchanges, and by the AZBilliards account, Neffati came out of most of them with a clear path to the finish. That is not luck. A good safety in 10-ball is a shot you plan exactly like a pocketing shot: you pick the spot you want the cue ball to stop, you decide what the object ball is going to hide behind, and you commit to the speed. Players who lose those exchanges usually hit the safety at half effort because they are annoyed they did not have a shot.

The stun shot is the foundation of nearly every safety you will play. If you can stop the cue ball dead or drift it a diamond in either direction on demand, you can hide it. Our stun shot and tangent line guide walks through the drill progression, and it is the single highest-return practice you can do before your next regional event.

Lesson three: a 4-1 lead means nothing in a race to 9

Martin’s early lead evaporated because Neffati kept playing his own game. He did not press, he did not take flyers at low-percentage shots to catch up, and he did not slow down. The commentary crew described him as something of a speed demon at the table, and that pace is a tell. Players who trust their pre-shot routine move quickly because they are not second-guessing. If you find yourself freezing over the ball when you are behind, the problem is not nerves, it is a routine that has not been rehearsed enough to run on autopilot.

Lesson four: the jump shot that cost a rack

Rack 13 is the one to remember. With Neffati on the hill, Martin needed a jump to get at the 2-ball. He got the cue ball airborne cleanly, but it landed on the 2-ball hard enough to send it flying off the table. Ball in hand to Neffati. The jump was executed well and still lost the rack, because the landing was not planned. In call-shot 10-ball, a jump you cannot control is often worse than a kick you can. Before you reach for the jump cue, ask whether a one-rail kick gets you a legal hit with a better chance of leaving the cue ball somewhere sensible.

The equipment side: what 10-ball asks of a cue

10-ball punishes inaccuracy more than 9-ball does. You cannot slop a ball in, so every shot with sidespin has to account for squirt, and every long cut has to be struck exactly where you intended. That puts a premium on a low-deflection shaft and on a joint that assembles the same way every time you screw the cue together.

This is where the Lucasi Custom line earns its reputation with league players. Every Lucasi Custom cue at Quarter King ships with the Zero Flexpoint solid-core low-deflection shaft, and the current LZC models run an 11.75mm tip, which is on the slimmer side and gives you a clean look down the shaft on thin cuts. The joint is a quick-release Uni-Loc, so assembly is a few turns and the fit is tight and repeatable.

The Lucasi Custom Antique Stained and Natural Birdseye Wrapless Cue at $582 is the traditionalist’s pick: antique curly maple forearm and butt with a natural curly maple handle, no wrap, and a warm classic look. Its sibling, the Teal Stained and Natural Birdseye Wrapless Cue, is the same build with a teal-stained forearm for players who want something that stands out on the rack at the pool hall.

If you prefer a wrap and a bit of modern styling, the Lucasi Hybrid Black Mist and Metallic Silver Cue at $689 pairs a golf-style Sport G5 grip with a 12.75mm shaft and a stainless steel butt cap. For a wrapless cue with a little more visual detail, the Lucasi Custom Exotic Bocote and Curly Maple Wrapless Cue brings bocote bands bordered by cocobolo rings on a black forearm, and at $533.70 it is one of the least expensive ways into the Zero Flexpoint shaft in the Custom line.

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A practice plan built from the final

Take the four lessons above and turn them into a 45-minute session. Spend the first ten minutes on a controlled break: rack ten balls, break at about three-quarter speed, and score yourself only on whether the cue ball stayed in the middle of the table with a shot on the 1. Then spend fifteen minutes on stun shots at three speeds, checking that the cue ball tracks the tangent line each time. Follow that with ten minutes of safeties from a fixed layout, where the goal is to leave the object ball frozen to another ball with the cue ball on the far rail. Finish with ten minutes of full-rack call-shot 10-ball against the ghost, counting how many racks you clear.

Do that twice a week and the next time you are down 4-1 in a regional final, you will have something to fall back on other than hope. Neffati did not run seven racks because he got hot. He ran them because the shots he needed were shots he had already made a thousand times.

Where to go next

If you are shopping for a cue that can handle call-shot pool, start with the full Lucasi lineup and compare it against everything else in our pool cues collection. If the break is still where you lose racks, the break cue buying guide explains why a dedicated break cue helps with control, not just power. And if you are in the Triad, keep an eye on the Breaktime Billiards schedule. The Carolina regional scene has produced a lot of the same names all year, and the fields are only getting stronger.