Who were some of the Incredibly strong bar box players over the years? The area where I live pretty much is exclusively bar box tournaments(tournaments on 9 ft tables have almost totally disappeared) so I was thinking about checking out videos for players the good folks here think of as primarily bar box specialists. Many Thanks,Mike S.
Bar Box monsters
- Thread starter whiteoak
- Start date
Little if any videos of a lot of the bar-box wizards. David Matlock is imo the best that ever played on one. Tracy Joe Salazar, John Shuput, Mike Hyland are few others that were absolute monsters.
Gilbert Martinez TX early nineties, best swing I ever saw. Denver Danny Medina also played great bar box. Jack was not GREAT but very good, he could not beat Wetch. Ether was jam up. There were quite a few, but Matlock with the BIG BALL was the best. Because he played great 3 cushion, that was why his BBox game with the Heavy Big Ball was top notch.
Jack was a Toledo player and strong.Search who is jack hynes
I had a front row seat at Glass City Billiards and watched him in a race to 8 ahead 9 ball. Then there
was a second match.
This was on a tight pocket Diamond.
He won about $20k that morning.
He made three consecutive kick shots that distracted his opponent. Imagine playing kick shape for
a psychological edge.
There is a thread about Jack.
I am sure those players are great on any size but I felt perhaps(maybe wrongly) some of the big table players didn’t play bar boxes.
Agreed. SVB and Corey Deuel are also bar box monsters.
I saw Danny Cook run out an 8-ahead in 12 minutes on Gary Lutman while juiced to THE GILLS in the early 90's at The Rack in Memphis,when that was THE SPOT to gamble on just about anything,all they had in Tunica was Splash and it was still being finished then. I truly believed Danny was the best bar boxer in the world until I found out about Matlock.
Danny had won the first set in so close to an hour that at 2.40/hr per person with a 30 min minimum,the time was exactly 4.80. The set he ran out was 2.40. He shot a 9 ball in so hard to get on the hill the back of the corner pocket visibly changed shape because he broke a bolt that held the casting on a Valley bar table. When he broke the cue ball looked like he had to dodge it to keep it from hitting himself in the face,between 2 and 3 feet in the air,cue ball bounced twice and died like always does when you hit them that square and hard. That table had a 6" white spot in the middle of the break line on the way to the spot where he had the side rail blast break wired like that,no holding up the show nittin' bout the rack either.
Supposedly the night Jim Rempe came to do an exhibition there someone asked who was available for action and REMPE took a pass on playing a breathing human?
Couldn't imagine such a thing was possible until I saw it.
I never got to see what Jack was capable of gambling on one,but saw it plenty on a 9 footer,including a couple excursions of his at Starcher's.
I put him on the loser's side of the Super Bowl tournament the year he got arrested 20 minutes after double-dipping Hennessee in the finals in about the time it took for the 2nd half of the game. Then he started an argument over one of the tournament/calcutta envelopes being literally 20 bucks short,and before long the late,great Don Samples made sure Memphis PD walked his goofy ass out. Tommy D.
Danny had won the first set in so close to an hour that at 2.40/hr per person with a 30 min minimum,the time was exactly 4.80. The set he ran out was 2.40. He shot a 9 ball in so hard to get on the hill the back of the corner pocket visibly changed shape because he broke a bolt that held the casting on a Valley bar table. When he broke the cue ball looked like he had to dodge it to keep it from hitting himself in the face,between 2 and 3 feet in the air,cue ball bounced twice and died like always does when you hit them that square and hard. That table had a 6" white spot in the middle of the break line on the way to the spot where he had the side rail blast break wired like that,no holding up the show nittin' bout the rack either.
Supposedly the night Jim Rempe came to do an exhibition there someone asked who was available for action and REMPE took a pass on playing a breathing human?
Couldn't imagine such a thing was possible until I saw it.
I never got to see what Jack was capable of gambling on one,but saw it plenty on a 9 footer,including a couple excursions of his at Starcher's.
I put him on the loser's side of the Super Bowl tournament the year he got arrested 20 minutes after double-dipping Hennessee in the finals in about the time it took for the 2nd half of the game. Then he started an argument over one of the tournament/calcutta envelopes being literally 20 bucks short,and before long the late,great Don Samples made sure Memphis PD walked his goofy ass out. Tommy D.
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i played at the rack a lot from 86/87 through the spring of 92
for the $$$ James C was the chalk. When a healthy Brian Atchly (sp?) made the cover of a billiard mag and heralded as "the baron of the barbox" Gordy took James to Brian's home court (bar) in N. Little Rock and relieved his corp. of over 17 dimes. i watched James give Don S (owner) the 3,5 & 7 + the snap and get there. Don, although in a chair wasn't helpless....played about like an apa 6 or 7.....broke even after a 7 hr set with Hubert B (granted Hubert was not experienced on a bar box and took too many chances trying to get perfect shape when he should have accepted a harder shot).
OOP and Fargo also played better than Danny, that said, there is no shame in not being able to get there against them. If danny had developed his game "on the natch" i think he had a very high ceiling
i had some fun matches with Danny & OOP....next time i see you i'll share them with you
Mike...The best players played on whatever table had the money on it! The best players learn to adapt immediately to whatever playing conditions arise! The older players who grew up on 14.1 tend not to play much on 7' tables. 9ball players will play on whatever table has the biggest bet! LOL
Scott Lee
2019 PBIA Instructor of the Year
Director, SPF National Pool School Tour
On one hand we can talk about the best of all time on the short track, but one thing that stands out is the role of the big table. All the regional little table monsters I know really cut their teeth on the big table and are just showing off on the lil’ table. The smallest of the big fish are huge in a little pond.
What many don't know, is back in the early bar box days there were probably 5 different mfg cue balls, they were Dramatically different. The Big Heavy Ball, the Big Not heavy Ball, the mud ball, the Red Dot cue ball and at least one other, and then the Valley cue ball, and most boxes back then had larger pockets. Theee only mfg during those earlier yrs, who made a tight, tough bar box was the Irving K. Which was tighter/not much, but tighter than the Diamonds of today. Also, many places used their/cue balls but would have two in the return JIC you scratched. Also, during allot of McDermott Tour Events/9 ball the Room owner would only have ten balls and 2 cue balls, to increase coin drop.
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