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Higher skill pocket billiards players - 9 ball or snooker players?

Cleveland_Rocks
GideonF said:
AI sucks. Aside from it hallucinating Davis winning the World Championship in pool, I note the following:

Perhaps the greatest safety player in snooker is Selby, who began his career as a professional English Pool player, not snooker. IMO no top pool player would struggle greatly with the safety play, once they adjusted to the tables and the directional cloth.

Alex Pagulayan is probably the “American Pool” player who plays the best snooker. He’s won the Canadian Snooker Championships more than once and regularly runs centuries. He tried to win a place on the professional tour via Q school and did okay but didn’t win a spot. He might have had a chance if he’d tried earlier in his career.

To me one of the biggest issues is stroke - the elaborate strokes of many pool players will not work on the snooker table. The pockets are just too tight.

Snooker players have had more success crossing over for sure. But they have to actually learn the game to beat good players. The break. Proper patterns and positioning (too often they play across the position zone and not into it). Jumping. Davis did have some notable wins. Tony Drago was a good player. Gary Wilson has an established Fargo of 789 and is probably closest to being competitive, and yet he’s not in the top 100 of Fargo.
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This is great perspective and truth from an obviously seasoned and well educated pool player.
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Higher skill pocket billiards players - 9 ball or snooker players?

GideonF
AI sucks. Aside from it hallucinating Davis winning the World Championship in pool, I note the following:

Perhaps the greatest safety player in snooker is Selby, who began his career as a professional English Pool player, not snooker. IMO no top pool player would struggle greatly with the safety play, once they adjusted to the tables and the directional cloth.

Alex Pagulayan is probably the “American Pool” player who plays the best snooker. He’s won the Canadian Snooker Championships more than once and regularly runs centuries. He tried to win a place on the professional tour via Q school and did okay but didn’t win a spot. He might have had a chance if he’d tried earlier in his career.

To me one of the biggest issues is stroke - the elaborate strokes of many pool players will not work on the snooker table. The pockets are just too tight.

Snooker players have had more success crossing over for sure. But they have to actually learn the game to beat good players. The break. Proper patterns and positioning (too often they play across the position zone and not into it). Jumping. Davis did have some notable wins. Tony Drago was a good player. Gary Wilson has an established Fargo of 789 and is probably closest to being competitive, and yet he’s not in the top 100 of Fargo.
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New Here? - Introduce Yourself

Cleveland_Rocks
I'm Adam from Cleveland. I have a serious mindset about pool. I tend to like more professional pool environments than bars, and I like bar environments more than saloon envioronments. I practice and approach the game in a professional manner. My game reaches a high level of skill under the right conditions. I do and teach tai chi, and have studied tai chi for almost 9 years under very high level teachers. Cleveland Rocks!
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Man, pool halls are dangerous

Cleveland_Rocks
Be a person of peace and honor. If you convey these concepts well enough, you are less likely to need a gun. Oh, and don't play people that appear to be dangerous and/or mentally unstable. However, I say these things as a large and strong person who has trained martial arts. I don't know how it is to live as a smaller person that is more prone to being physically intimidated.
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Man, pool halls are dangerous

loggerhead12
ShootingArts said:
Knew somebody that went to some of the South American countries on business. Suit and tie work, they gave him two or three bodyguards in the daytime and strict instructions to stay in the hotel room at night once he had let the bodyguards go for the day.
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When I went for business certified drivers were required by the ransom insurance company. I suspect "certified" meant armed. Same story in China.
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Better for me: AVID vs. G-Core or Vikore

7
Viking: the ugliest cues I've ever seen. 🤮
McDermott: still pretty ugly, all of them.
Cuetec Avid Sneaky Pete: sharp looking in my opinion....

Screenshot 2026-03-21 at 10.33.21 PM.png


Nice sharp points. Add a Cuetec Duo Extension for $110 and you'll be just under $500 before taxes. If you buy the cue from Seyberts, you can try it out and if you don't like it, you can return the cue within 30 days--you will have to pay shipping+insurance back to Seyberts as well as their shipping cost to you, so it may cost you $100-$150 to return it.
.
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Higher skill pocket billiards players - 9 ball or snooker players?

Cleveland_Rocks
JPB2 said:
Sick of these comparisons, even if this one is ai Yes, a great snooker player can shift to 9 ball relatively well. They play rotation at the end of a snooker game and the snooker players are very good. But how do they do in one pocket or banks? How do they do in 3 cushion? What? They don’t play English billiards anymore?

Yesterday something came up on Facebook. John Schmidt got sick of the “ snooker snobs.”He offered to play Ronnie straight pool for healthy 6 figures. He’s not the greatest pool player, not young, and doesn’t compete much. Won’t happen. And JS even though he said he has a 146 and other centuries knows he can’t beat the snooker guys at snooker. He said it himself. I think his point was to respect the respective games.

Snooker is a good game but it isn’t the be-all, end- all of cue sports. I respect it. Even though they call making balls “ potting” which I find hideous. Spreading that terminology to pool is worse still, but the game is still something to respect. But the people who tout snooker the most make me not want to respect it.

So how many snooker players come close on defense and strategy in one pocket? How bad is the beat down in a round robin between the top 12 snooker players and the top12 one pocket players?

So yes, you can pick the discipline- 9 ball- that has the easiest transition and say how well the snooker guys would do. And?
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I see your points here. The main reason for this thread is to gain better perspective on who the most skilled "cueists" in the world are.
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Higher skill pocket billiards players - 9 ball or snooker players?

Cleveland_Rocks
lakeman77 said:
World class pro snooker players make far more money. That tells you where talent is. Last year, the top 10 snooker players earned form about $400K to Ronnie making about $1.3 milllions. Ronnie's lifetime earnings are over $18,000,000.

www.olbg.com

How Much Can Snooker Players Earn? Top 100 Ranked in ££ - OLBG.com

www.olbg.com www.olbg.com
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It would be fun to hear Earl Strickland talk about this.
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Higher skill pocket billiards players - 9 ball or snooker players?

Cleveland_Rocks
Bob Jewett said:
Perhaps you could follow up and list the World Pool Championships that Steve Davis has won. Maybe they were at one pocket because I don't think he has finished higher than 17th at 9-ball.
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Bob - it is great being checked by someone that is educated, in this instance, you. Thank you for your correction. My intention for this thread was to become more educated about the pool vs. snooker skill level debate.

what world pool championships has steve davis won
11:58 PM




Investigated Davis's championship record and debunked inaccurate claims

Investigated Davis's championship record and debunked inaccurate claims

Based on the search results, Steve Davis — best known as a six-time World Snooker Champion — actually did not win a World Pool Championship. One source incorrectly credits him with a 2000 World Pool Championship win, but the 2000 WPA World Nine-ball Championship was won by Chao Fong-pang, who defeated Ismael Páez 17–6 in the final. Wikipedia

Davis had a notable pool career from 1994 to 2007, and his most famous moment at that tournament was at the 2000 WPA World Nine-ball Championship, where he was seeded 63rd and came back from 2–8 down to beat reigning world champion Efren Reyes 9–8 in the round of 64. Wikipedia He went on to defeat former world champions Ralf Souquet and Kunihiko Takahashi before losing 7–11 to Corey Deuel in the quarter-finals. Wikipedia

His other pool achievements include being runner-up at the 2001 World Pool League, losing 9–5 to Efren Reyes in the final Wikipedia, and being a key member of Europe's winning Mosconi Cup teams in 1995 and 2002. Steve Davis
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Ronnie doing Ronnie Things - Highest Break Ever

G
straightline said:
There was a good shot of a ball entering down the side of a corner and it looked like a miniature ball on a Valley.
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I was talking with someone who's played on tournament tables in a number of countries. He says they all use the official template, but some places push it firmly into the pocket, and some don't push it firmly at all. In each case the pocket is tighter or looser.
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