Who was/is best all around pool player, still alive today?

Rico

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Gambling winner break or tourn.alt break? One Efrens in the park ,one he isnt.Nick is still alive so He has walked that walk.
 

Texas Carom Club

9ball did to billiards what hiphop did to america
Silver Member
I'm gonna say this guy

Running over 100 I. The hardest of the technical Carom games

Frederic caudron, has multiple world and European titles in ALL the Carom diciplines

The Carom games vary more in what needs to be done than the different pool games I believe from seeing and playing them all

https://youtu.be/Fs316tCnTNc
 

Bob Jewett

AZB Osmium Member
Staff member
Gold Member
Silver Member
I'm gonna say this guy

Running over 100 in the hardest of the technical Carom games

Frederic Caudron, has multiple world and European titles in ALL the Carom disciplines

The Carom games vary more in what needs to be done than the different pool games I believe from seeing and playing them all

https://youtu.be/Fs316tCnTNc
For those who are puzzled by the requirements of 47/1 (18.1 in the US): the player has to hit both the other balls with his cue ball, but if both the object balls are in one of the marked regions, he must drive one of the balls out of the region or the point doesn't count. As with all of the "small" carom games, you want to keep the balls together to make scoring easier, but that's pointless unless the balls are near a line so they can be in different areas. When they are in different areas the referee -- there is always a ref for matches -- will say "à cheval" (ah-shuh-vahl) which literally means on horseback or straddling the line. If they are within a region, the ref will say "dedans" (duh-dahn, more or less) meaning "within" so one must be driven out.

Here is a picture from a book on refereeing showing where the ref should be to make accurate calls:

Misc 001.jpg

I believe that the game Caudron is playing in the video (47/1) is the form of caroms that Efren mostly played. There is a video of an exhibition match between Efren and Raymond Ceulemans (the player in the picture) playing this. Efren won, so I think that improves his claim to best all-around. If only he had a few 147s in tournament snooker....
 
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Michael Andros

tiny balls, GIANT pockets
Silver Member
It depends. Does the Church of Scientology allow that?

As a registered survivor of the C. of S ( they bought my home town on the sneak. We are now their "World Spiritual Headquarters" ), I can testify that Tom Cruise has been officially dead for eternity. Since the beginning of time.

Like... forever.

Thetan-ized.


But he still gets standing ovations from the pool rooms he just snapped off.
 

smashmouth

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
for those saying Efren, you must not know, gambling wise a prime Jose Parica robs (yeah he's done it) him all day in rotation games

tourneys...still Parica

snooker...Parica, he's played Canadian big boys over here for the dough back when we had the best field on earth outside the uk

I'll give Efren the edge in one pocket and Carom
 

greyghost

Coast to Coast
Silver Member
People think of him as just ( though all-time-great, to be sure ) a 9ball / 10ball player. Not many people know Earl's high run in 14.1 is 408 balls.



408. Earl. Let that sink in for a bit.



Yeah dude plays like ginger baker....about as nutty too but you can’t have one without the other. If he were perfectly normal he’d probably have been some good but run of the mill player no one talks about much


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

pt109

WO double hemlock
Silver Member
I'm gonna say this guy

Running over 100 I. The hardest of the technical Carom games

Frederic caudron, has multiple world and European titles in ALL the Carom diciplines

The Carom games vary more in what needs to be done than the different pool games I believe from seeing and playing them all

https://youtu.be/Fs316tCnTNc

I’m giving Blomdahl the nod for great alround player from the carom world.
He can win a 9-ball tournament...and can run a hundred at snooker.
 

Michael Andros

tiny balls, GIANT pockets
Silver Member
Even though he's far from my "favorite" player and, being that picking someone is solely a subjective choice, I would say Sigel, on the strength of how many tournaments he's won in his career and the different disciplines of those tournaments. Varner and Reyes would both be a close second.
 

smashmouth

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Mark Selby is in this conversation

current world snooker champ and world number one
former uk 8 ball champ
placed 2nd in a major chinese 8 ball tourney
 

JoeyA

Efren's Mini-Tourn BACKER
Silver Member
In a conversation with Buddy Hall this week he had this to say:

"Wimpy Lassiter was the best 9 ball player I ever saw. However, Eddie Taylor & Luther Lassiter both said I was the best 9 ball player they had ever seen."

JoeyA
 

Michael Andros

tiny balls, GIANT pockets
Silver Member
In a conversation with Buddy Hall this week he had this to say:

"Wimpy Lassiter was the best 9 ball player I ever saw. However, Eddie Taylor & Luther Lassiter both said I was the best 9 ball player they had ever seen."

JoeyA

For me, it's a dead heat for best 9 ball player I ever saw play, in person. Buddy and Earl. Each in their prime. Tough to call.
 

Mich

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Nick Varner comes to mind, as does Mike Sigel. Everyone has an opinion, and here's mine. Mike Sigel was the best ever, period.
Sigel was the best I ever saw period. First sighting at the Roosevelt in NYC for 14.1 in 92. Watched every match he played, memorizing. His 9 ball game was lethal, he could beat top pros with his B game. He never had a monster break but he just needed to make one ball and he could get out from anywhere. Like Buddy Hall said, No one shoots straighter than Mike Sigel. Great cue ball but it was his recovery prowess that was jaw dropping. Don't know why he retired so young. He had just beat everyone at Valley Forge in 9 ball when he called it quits.......
 

Mich

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I forgot to mention one player who never seems to come up in these discussions..........Allen Hopkins. Won major tournaments in EVERY discipline - Straight Pool, 9 and 8 Ball, One Pocket, etc. Hall, Rempe, Varner and Sigel were not only great players but SMART players. But Hopkins may have been the smartest -did he every make a bad decision at the table?
 

JoeyA

Efren's Mini-Tourn BACKER
Silver Member
Mistake at the table.

Allen let Earl Heisler trick him into playing a big set of one pocket. After the money was posted, ole man Pete, opened the doors to the boiling room where the fresh seafood had been waiting to boil. The handicap of 9-7 was already firmed up as was the bet. Allen never calculated the humidity factor which was then off the charts and lost that day.:grin:

JoeyA


I forgot to mention one player who never seems to come up in these discussions..........Allen Hopkins. Won major tournaments in EVERY discipline - Straight Pool, 9 and 8 Ball, One Pocket, etc. Hall, Rempe, Varner and Sigel were not only great players but SMART players. But Hopkins may have been the smartest -did he every make a bad decision at the table?
 

smashmouth

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
despite playing condition variances, lost to "humidity" is a good one, lol

I wonder if Allen actually believes this
 

pt109

WO double hemlock
Silver Member
Allen let Earl Heisler trick him into playing a big set of one pocket. After the money was posted, ole man Pete, opened the doors to the boiling room where the fresh seafood had been waiting to boil. The handicap of 9-7 was already firmed up as was the bet. Allen never calculated the humidity factor which was then off the charts and lost that day.:grin:

JoeyA

despite playing condition variances, lost to "humidity" is a good one, lol

I wonder if Allen actually believes this

9-7 on a wet table is a far tougher game for Hoppe than 9-7 on a dry table.
 
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