Two worlds, one cue: Bùi Xuân Vàng takes on pool and three-cushion carom at HBSF Tour 2 – MIN Table Cup

At the HBSF Billiards Tour 2 – MIN Table Cup in Ho Chi Minh City, the most striking story is not a spectacular shot but a national women’s pool champion stepping into two opposite disciplines in the same tournament. Bùi Xuân Vàng, the reigning national women’s pool champion, is competing in both pool and three-cushion carom. On September 9, she faced Nguyễn Ngọc Phương Anh in the group C decider of the women’s carom event while also playing her first pool match. Switching between pool and carom 3-cushion demands completely different stroke mechanics and positional thinking, making this a rare test of versatility. Nearly 310 players are competing across four events in this HBSF-organized tournament, which Vietnamese fans have jokingly called the “Vietnamese Billiards World Cup.” The local name is media hyperbole, but the timing gives the event real weight: the women’s carom event ends on September 11 so that Nguyễn Đức Yến Sinh, Nguyễn Thị Liên and Nguyễn Thị Bích Trâm can travel to the Women’s World Championship in France. Nguyễn Đức Yến Sinh, the reigning Asian and national champion, opened her campaign impressively with a 25–9 win over Mỹ Duyên. Meanwhile, Bùi Xuân Vàng’s earlier carom victory over Nguyễn Thị Thu was a narrow 22–21 result. The one-point margin highlights the difficulty of competing outside her core discipline. Her dual-discipline schedule also carries a risk: if she goes deep in both events, fatigue could threaten her pool title defense. A bigger strategic question is whether her carom experiment signals Vietnam’s plan to develop pool players into carom specialists, broadening the national talent pool. The event also introduced Huỳnh Hoa, born in 2026 in Cần Thơ, who in her first major tournament narrowly lost to SEA Games champion Lê Thị Ngọc Huệ. She has promised to return at the next tour stop, signalling resilience despite the defeat. Alongside these performances, the tournament’s “hot girl” media narrative creates a double-edged challenge: it draws public attention but may place excessive pressure on players who do not yet have a strong trophy record. With Dương Quốc Hoàng absent on the men’s side, this HBSF stop is primarily a springboard for Vietnam’s women players ahead of the world championship in France. The results in France will determine whether this domestic tour stop is remembered as a genuine launching pad or simply as a stage for beautiful faces.