Greatest 9 Ball Player Dead/alive

real bartram said:
i dont know about tourney play cause i dont care but 10 ball for the money orcollo is the best.
Click to expand...



I think that if 9-ball stayed in prominence like it used to be and didn't switch to 10-ball... Orcollo would go down as one of the top 3 9-ball players ever.

After watching what he did to you at BCA in 10-ball (no offense Chris ;) ), it left no doubt in my mind as to who the best player on the planet is right now. I thought you had the nuts man and he didn't flinch.. truly amazing.
 
For me what it boils down to is that Buddy Hall and Dennis Orcollo (had) have the type of game that people like to bet on. Beating them is like trying to break a rock with a rubber hammer.
 
Allison or Jean

PoolBum said:
I asked Robin Dodson who she thought was the stronger player, Allison or Jean. She said Balukas, hands down.
Click to expand...


Robin said the same thing to me in Aug 08. As I recall Jean was playing Robin (many years earlier) when Jean got her fine for saying that Robin should beat here with skill and not luck. Jean refused to pay the fine and never played on the womens tour again. After this Robin still states that Jean is better than Allision and I believe her.

You have to remember that Jean started beating some the professional men back then in tournaments. The tour at that time was the Proffessional Billiards Association (PBA). When Jean started beating some of them the men changed the organizaiton to the Men Professional Billiard Association (MBPA) for the sole purpose to keep Jean out of their tournaments.
 
Greatest 9 Ball Player

tommywhsl1 said:
the story of buddy giving efren the eight is not true according to a very close source the only time they played was in houston in a race for 5K that buddy won in about 45 minutes." QUOTE]

I was playing in Bob's Billiards in So Cal (Keith's old hangout) about 1:30 AM and Efren Reyes comes in. About 5 minutes later Buddy Hall comes in and was all over Efren offering Efren the 8 ball playing 9 ball for 5,000 or 10,000 (I don't remember which amount). Efren refused to play Buddy that morning and the game never went down. This was about 10 days before the 1987 Peter Viatille (sp) tournament. It was one of the most amazing things I have seen in the pool world. Buddy didn't want to take no for an answer.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Based on the Mayan calendar, I can tell you who the future greatest nine ball player will be. His name is Glass Eye Greenbaum. Apparently he will be the best player till Dec 20, 2012, the day after receiving this title, the world will end. :(
 
lets get balukas to come back

this is a very interesing thread and i think a tread for the greatest hustler/

road player would be good to do also. but i am more inclined to try and get jean balukas to come back now. so i am going to start a thread on that topic. please help if you want to see her play again. maybe we can

her more interested if she see's how much we want her to play.

aka poolzilla :thumbup:
 
Going only by what I have seen in person the two best 9 ball players were Waterdog and Cole Dixon. I only saw Hall play once - he gave Denny Searcy the 7 and the breaks. Hall ended up a little lighter. But I know that Hall was the most feared player. And I did hear Cole say that Hall and Mcready were the best players in the world.
 
Jean Balukas comeback thread

oldzilla said:
this is a very interesing thread and i think a tread for the greatest hustler/

road player would be good to do also. but i am more inclined to try and get jean balukas to come back now. so i am going to start a thread on that topic. please help if you want to see her play again. maybe we can

her more interested if she see's how much we want her to play.

aka poolzilla :thumbup:
Click to expand...

Agreed.I would love to see Jean play again.That was interesting the post about forming the mens pro tour to exclude her.Very interesting never had heard that before.I fully support her comeback would be sweet.Do you know poolzilla if she still plays?:cool:
 
Efren in my opinion. There have been a lot of greats but he has changed the way the game is played & looked at. Kind of like MJ did with basketball.
 
Greg Stevens?

I have heard alot of incredible stories about Greg Stevens in his prime playing 9 ball. And from what i understand nobody had to like it until he ran out of his special pills. And i mean NOBODY! I guess he would play for days amd weeks and they would line guys up becuase they new at some point he would run out of gas.
 
Stomper do you live in Wichita too? I heard Greg was a great player. I made mention to my vote of Rob Wolfe several pages back and have been told stories about Greg Stevens by Rob over the years. Rob started in Boulder Co and spent a few years here in Wichita then moved back to PA and now is back in Colorado by way of Albuquerque.

Good Racks,


Mattie
 
hemicudas said:
Sorry Moneyball but in 1977 Dan Louie beat Jimmy Matz giving him the 7 and 8 in Jackson, MS. This did happen on a BAR table, not a big table. Jimmy's family was wealthy and he was one of the first players that drove around in a large Winnabego and had plenty of cash, so it took Dan a long time to get the cash but get it he did.

Best BAR table player ever (9 ball) is, sorry Dave,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Keith McCready.

Best BIG table player ever (9 ball) is, sorry Wimpy, Efren, Earl and all the rest,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Buddy Hall.
Click to expand...

I have told this many times and will one more at the risk of being repetitive.

I was at Guys-n-Dolls in Shreveport back int the early 70"s when Buddy gave Louie Roberts the call 7. I sat there the entire 29 hours and never missed a game.

Now, it aiin't like Louie played badly. Buddy just played near perfect 9 ball for the entie 29 hours winning 3 7 ahead sets for $5000 each. That was a good bet in those days. It was the strongest 9 ball exhibition I ever saw and I have seen every player play mentined in this thread.

So, I will say this, on that table at Gus-n-Dolls in Shrevepoirt La back in the 70"s, I don't think anyone who ever owned a cue could beat Buddy. Not Efren, not SVB, not Earl, no any of them. The man's game had no flaws. None! Everything he did was near perfect.

He was challenged by many too because he was being staked by a man named Redd Box and he was loaded. If ever someone could have come in there and beaten hime,,,,Well, they would have won telephone number and everybody in the world knew it.

The person I witness give him his toughest battle was Billy Johnson {Wade Crane}. It was a match to watch too. If Wade could see it, he fired it in and was out. Buddy on the other hand had the control break and alway on the 1 ball, and then out like on automatic. Buddy simply made no mistakes.

They ran an ad in several major newpapers in that day asking anyone, ANYONE to come there and they were garunteed to win $50,000,,,,IF,,,,, they could win.

If there had been live TV or live streaming in those days, trust, Efren would have studied those tapes. It was simply flawless.

Buddy dubbed me the greatest swettor of all time right after that match with Louie. I was a young college kid and won $1000 sid betting. That to me looked like a telephone number. From that day on I wanted to be a great 9 ball player. Perhaps the worst day of my life.
 
Orcollo and Reyes The BEST

Dennis Orcollo and Efren Reyes are the two best 9ball players Ive ever seen.
They play the same speed. Dennis doesnt match the kick,safeties of Efren but he breaks better than Efren and does other things better,so it all equalizes.

Efren though is the best all around player ever and I firmly believe that if he could live 500 years and dedicate himself to all disciplines in billiards,including 3 Cushion, Snooker,Russian Billiards,9Ball in the bar table with the big ball,you name the game;as long as it's played with round balls and sticks he would be the best player in every single discipline,nevermind in pool games alone.

If you think about it,if there was a world tournament in 1pocket,9ball,10ball,14.1,8ball,Rotation,cribble,cowboy billiards,equadorian 8ball,mexican all balls frozen on the rail
snooker,golf,
straight rail,18/1 balkline,3Cushion,korean billiards,
and the winner was the overall points leader from all the disciplines Efren would provably win 80% of all these world titles because he plays all games world class.

To me all the Mosconis,Cranes,Caras,Greenleaf,etc woulda never had a shot with Efren Reyes in 14.1 or any other game for that matter. If Efren lived in their times and played 14.1 seriously.

Not that this old world champions werent great at Straight pool,I just doesnt believe that any of them pocket,move the cueball,safe, or had the mental game to post a thread to somebody like Efren who's proved to be so advanced technically and mentally.

About 9ball again, it's simple to me, I ve never seen Archer , Strickland, Varner, Hall or any of those greats play as good as Orcollo plays 9Ball and 10Ball. Orcollo's cueball is there always and when is not he shoots his way out of trouble,cuz he's a better shotmaker than most of the best players in the world,if not all.
The best Strickland could never beat the best Orcollo in a long race,Orcollo plays perfection,he is more consistent. So eventually Strickland would miss more than Orcollo.

Please,do not tell me that Buddy Hall is the best 9ball player ever..He was great I'm sure but not the best
 
Marc said:
Dennis Orcollo and Efren Reyes are the two best 9ball players Ive ever seen.
They play the same speed. Dennis doesnt match the kick,safeties of Efren but he breaks better than Efren and does other things better,so it all equalizes.

Efren though is the best all around player ever and I firmly believe that if he could live 500 years and dedicate himself to all disciplines in billiards,including 3 Cushion, Snooker,Russian Billiards,9Ball in the bar table with the big ball,you name the game;as long as it's played with round balls and sticks he would be the best player in every single discipline,nevermind in pool games alone.

If you think about it,if there was a world tournament in 1pocket,9ball,10ball,14.1,8ball,Rotation,cribble,cowboy billiards,equadorian 8ball,mexican all balls frozen on the rail
snooker,golf,
straight rail,18/1 balkline,3Cushion,korean billiards,
and the winner was the overall points leader from all the disciplines Efren would provably win 80% of all these world titles because he plays all games world class.

To me all the Mosconis,Cranes,Caras,Greenleaf,etc woulda never had a shot with Efren Reyes in 14.1 or any other game for that matter. If Efren lived in their times and played 14.1 seriously.

Not that this old world champions werent great at Straight pool,I just doesnt believe that any of them pocket,move the cueball,safe, or had the mental game to post a thread to somebody like Efren who's proved to be so advanced technically and mentally.

About 9ball again, it's simple to me, I ve never seen Archer , Strickland, Varner, Hall or any of those greats play as good as Orcollo plays 9Ball and 10Ball. Orcollo's cueball is there always and when is not he shoots his way out of trouble,cuz he's a better shotmaker than most of the best players in the world,if not all.
The best Strickland could never beat the best Orcollo in a long race,Orcollo plays perfection,he is more consistent. So eventually Strickland would miss more than Orcollo.

Please,do not tell me that Buddy Hall is the best 9ball player ever..He was great I'm sure but not the best
Click to expand...


You obviously never saw Buddy Hall play for big money in the 70's. He played perfect pool all night long. Mike Sigel stopped gambling with him because he said he couldn't stand playing his best 9 ball and still losing. When Efren came over in 1985 and was beating everyone, he wouldn't play Buddy. They played one 10 ahead set for big money and Buddy tortured him, after that Buddy challenged him several times and Efren refused every time.
 
There was a stretch there where Luther Lassiter for the cash beat everyone, even Buddy. But as Luther got older Buddy was in his hay day that changed. Something Bill Schick told me, who use to travel on the road with Buddy....he said that Buddy told him when discussing this subject, for the cash, Buddy felt he was the best player but if his life depended on it, Buddy said he would have Don Willis play for him. I am told that Don Willis, who played in his local room in Cincinatti, took money even from Buddy Hall when he came there at one time.

I personally saw Lassiter play perfect nine ball at Baker's Pool Hall in NC and you could not play any better. I mean when you break and run out rack after rack, how do you beat that. He was unflappable playing for the cheese.

It definitely proved to me, that anyone can beat anyone in a short game like nine ball. Crane was right, you had to play right and also be lucky. Those are wise words.
 
Last edited:
murphy said:
Going only by what I have seen in person the two best 9 ball players were Waterdog and Cole Dixon. I only saw Hall play once - he gave Denny Searcy the 7 and the breaks. Hall ended up a little lighter. But I know that Hall was the most feared player. And I did hear Cole say that Hall and Mcready were the best players in the world.
Click to expand...

I only saw Waterdog play a couple of times. Once he was playing and between shots he passed out in the chair. They had to wake him up. He stood up, got out, and ran 4 racks. He was murder when he got his mixture just right.
 
Mr441 said:
You obviously never saw Buddy Hall play for big money in the 70's. He played perfect pool all night long. Mike Sigel stopped gambling with him because he said he couldn't stand playing his best 9 ball and still losing. When Efren came over in 1985 and was beating everyone, he wouldn't play Buddy. They played one 10 ahead set for big money and Buddy tortured him, after that Buddy challenged him several times and Efren refused every time.
Click to expand...

This is pretty much theway I remember all that too. Not many want to believe it though>
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top