Filler would smoke a lot of people. Not sure how Tom would cope with 9ft table, not sure if he's played much snooker. He definitely wouldn't be phased by 4 inch pockets. U.S pool balls are 2.25 inches so they still only take up 62.5% of a pocket, which is the same ratio of ball size to pocket size in English pool. I'd argue English pool tables 4 of the pockets are cut in a tougher way to pot into (used to play English pool and now play 9 ball on a 9ft table with 4 inch pockets and potting a ball down a rail is 100 times easier on the American table), but I think the cut of the side pockets is maybe tougher on an American table. Arguably the biggest thing for Tom to adjust to is the cue ball being the same size as the object balls (obviously didn't hold him back against Bergman though).
I agree that english pool table pocket that are similar to snooker table are harder than American pool tables. But ball to pocket ratio is just part of the story, the balls are heavier and bigger and requires a different stroke to get around, especially on a 9ft table vs the 7ft barbox or english 6ft tables. I'm sure that he could be very good with practice.
But people are watching him play 8ball now on 7ft tables with big pockets and think that it's harder than 8ball on 9ft tables with tight pockets, my argument is if you drop him NOW in a big pro WPA 8ball event, he won't get far.
Darren Appleton and Karl Boyes made the switch from English pool to American pool and became great players but it didn't happened over night and they didn't switch to barboxes with buckets for pockets... they were also younger than Tom when they switched.
My general argument is really not about Tom or any specific player, it's about 8ball on 7ft tables with huge pockets vs 8ball on pro 9ft tables and that some claim that the 7ft is harder... it's obviously not
