Yeah, i dont get it, ive ran 17/18 multiple times. Game is super easy.
Greatest straight pool player alive
- Thread starter Mr441
- Start date
Yeah, i dont get it, ive ran 17/18 multiple times. Game is super easy.
Thorsten Hohmann is (in my opinion) the best 14.1 pool player alive today. I have watched many YouTube vids and seen some DVD's of the likes of John Schmidt, Mike Sigel etc, and I think the way Hohmann playes the game, is enjoyable to watch 
The latest video I have found on YouTube - Hohmann vs. Hopkins.
The latest video I have found on YouTube - Hohmann vs. Hopkins.
There are so many.
There are so many that are very equal and all can win any tournament.
I would have to say that:
1: Thorsten Hohmann
2: Niels Feijen
3: Ralf Souquet
The rest are all great: Nick Varner, Mike Sigel, Ray Martin, Dallas West, Mike Zuglan, Dick Lane, Jim Rempe, Alan Hopkins. John Schmidt, Danny Harriman, There are many more.
With picking the three above. I would still take; Varner, Sigel, Martin, West, Rempe & Hopkins to beat them in their prime.
Much respect for all of them for making the Sport so great.
There are so many that are very equal and all can win any tournament.
I would have to say that:
1: Thorsten Hohmann
2: Niels Feijen
3: Ralf Souquet
The rest are all great: Nick Varner, Mike Sigel, Ray Martin, Dallas West, Mike Zuglan, Dick Lane, Jim Rempe, Alan Hopkins. John Schmidt, Danny Harriman, There are many more.
With picking the three above. I would still take; Varner, Sigel, Martin, West, Rempe & Hopkins to beat them in their prime.
Much respect for all of them for making the Sport so great.
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I have not been keeping up lately. Other than the 400 run, what has Schmidt done. or rather than singling him out, what have all these players done in the straight pool tourneys. Not counting Orttman who has to be giving way to the younger eyes at this point in his brilliant career. Thorston has been the defining leader in this group has he not?
14.1straightman.
The players most likely to top Mosconi's high run, HAVE ALLREADY DONE IT !!
The difference in a sloppy 4X8 versus a semi-tough 9 footer....IMO is worth a couple hundred balls...in the difficulty factor alone.
I also have a different top 3...
#1 Artie Bodendorfer (hates 14.1)
#2 Billy Incardona (ditto)
#3 Travis Trotter (Mine That Bird won the Derby didn't he ?)
Dick <--sorry, I may have replied to the wrong post. I have trouble paying attention (and staying awake) when it comes to 14.1
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That must make me a monster at straight pool with my high run of 27, i dont play the game that much but one day maybe once ill reach 28.
TOASTI for sure. My personal fave, but I'm not voting for him just because I like to see him play.
Stuff I've heard about him:
- What mair said: three 125's in one day
- two 150 and out's in the same day at the Maryland state championships in 2007
- In one recent tournament I remember the commentator saying he AVERAGED 70. I don't know if that counts safeties too, but even if it doesn't, that's insanity.
- ran 174 against JS in the 2006 dp world championships
I find perfect straight pool pretty entertaining to watch, and that's what Toasti seems to play. He's so accurate with his position. You feel like he picks a dime-sized position area and hits it most of the time.
Stuff I've heard about him:
- What mair said: three 125's in one day
- two 150 and out's in the same day at the Maryland state championships in 2007
- In one recent tournament I remember the commentator saying he AVERAGED 70. I don't know if that counts safeties too, but even if it doesn't, that's insanity.
- ran 174 against JS in the 2006 dp world championships
I find perfect straight pool pretty entertaining to watch, and that's what Toasti seems to play. He's so accurate with his position. You feel like he picks a dime-sized position area and hits it most of the time.
Dont forget DALLAS WEST 75, 83 US open champion & played sigel in the 92 finals. Mosconi said that Dallas was the best living straight pool player back in the 70's & 80's.
I mentioned Dallas West in an earlier post in this thread, and he is a living legend. Yes, Mosconi had a super-high opinion of West, although he felt Rempe's patterns were the best of any player of that era, and he said as much in my presence. Still, Dallas West, who also played the patterns with incredible excellence, had the better career as a straight pooler.
So True............:thumbup:
You're right, most of the players named haven't done much. Of the last few Major 14.1 events Souquet won the 2000 U.S. open, Hohmann won the 2006 World Title, Ortmann won the 2007 World Title and Feijien won the 2008 World Title.
John Madden
Don Wardamin
Don Wardamin
It seems almost everyone is in agreement on Hohmann being the best. I have to say I still don't get why John Schmidt is mentioned so often. Yes, we know he ran 400 in practice but so has Earl Strickland and no one is mentioning him. Regardless of actual 14.1 skill, Schmidt hasn't done anything in a 14.1 event. I think his best ever is 5th through 8th at the world championships last year. He even lost a close 300 point match to Pagulayan and you never hear Alex mentioned as a 14.1 great. Frankly I don't care if someone runs 700 balls in practice, if they don't perform on the worlds stage it means nothing. There have been many phenomenal players who were just as skilled as the legendary players but failed greatly in competition: George Mikula, Gene Nagy, Michael Eufemia to name a few. I'm not saying Schmidt won't win a world title or two in the future but until he at least makes it to a final I can't consider him a top 14.1 player.
I remember a tough match on the EC in Velthoven the Netherlands... as where Torsten had given the last eight in eight ball to Alex lely... It was 124- 0 for Ortman against Niels..Niels lets him put on the rack to shoot the breakball.. behmm near pressure.. Ollie misses and that is where Niels toulk a time out, came back and runs 125..
I guess a lott of the choices we make in choosing the best man alive in straight pool has to do with what we like the best... The man who had given that 1 ball to ollie or the fighter Niels is...
My choice:
In pattern play: Niels and souquet
In chear form: thorsten and Nick
And i just love to see Jassie play.. but that's not because of patterns ( she ignores her mistakes in that and that what i love.. she shows Guts)
I guess a lott of the choices we make in choosing the best man alive in straight pool has to do with what we like the best... The man who had given that 1 ball to ollie or the fighter Niels is...
My choice:
In pattern play: Niels and souquet
In chear form: thorsten and Nick
And i just love to see Jassie play.. but that's not because of patterns ( she ignores her mistakes in that and that what i love.. she shows Guts)
I watched Nagy, Mikula and Eufemia play straight pool in their primes, fine players all of them. To compare Schmidt to them is ridiculous. There was a legitimate straight pool scene in America back then, including an annual US Open 14.1 event, an annual World 14.1 Championship event, and a tour called the Eastern States tour in the East that had straight pool events. There was also straight pool at the Stardust and, of course, at Johnston City. In other words, great straight poolers had numerous chances to validate their pedigree in competition. This is not the case today.
The World 14.1 Championship event was brought back form the dead in 2006. Looking at Schmidt's efforts in the three events that have been held, in 2006, he finished ninth, the victim of Hohmann's 174 and out in single elimination. In 2007, he finished 5th, beaten by Harriman in the quarterfinal, and in 2008, he finished 5th, narrowly beaten by eventual champion Feijen in the quarterfinal.
As a competitor, John has certainly proven himself to be among the game's most elite in 14.1 competition, and Nagy, Mikula, and Eufemia did not.
In a really long race, even one lasting a few thousand points, John, possibly a very slight underdog, would have a realistic chance to beat Hohmann. Nagy, Mikula and Eufemia, perhaps best viewed as contemporaries of Irving Crane, Joe Balsis, Luther Lassiter, Harold Worst, Dan DiLiberto, Dallas West, Jimmy Moore, and Eddie Kelly, would not have ever been up to winning very long challenge matches against any of those players.
In competition, John's best may still be yet to come, but he is an established superstar of 14.1, and has earned the great respect he gets in this thread.
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David:
I understand that Bill beat Schmidty 50-27 last night in a quick game for lunch. You may have to move Billy boy up the list a little.
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He may very well win some titles in the future, he may even dominate but as of right now he hasn't done anything at all except run 400 in practice which many have done, and make the quarter-finals in a world event. That's not cutting it in my book. The only time I've even heard of him playing a challenge match was at the DCC a few years ago with Pagulayan and he lost that. I mean granted there aren't a lot of 14.1 events these days but in the few that have occured, a few players have done better than John and haven't been mentioned at all in this thread.
SJM is right. There is not much around. In Europe, they play it all the time.
John did shoot fairly well in the two matches to 400 against Danny Harriman.