Is Josh Filler the World's Best Pool Player?

Jaden said:
SVB is still in the conversation, he just beat Filler in the semi's of the US open last year, just won the world's in 2022. He won the premier league round robin, the bigfoot 10 ball. He won the 2024 us open banks, us open one pocket.

What's a guy gotta do to get some recognition??? LOL
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... and Shane lost the Derby City 9ball quarterfinal to Filler 9-0, which is, to date, their only meeting in 2025. Josh has surely won 75% of his nine ball matches vs SVB in his career.

SVB is as clearly number three as Josh and Fedor are 1A and 1B. Shane remains a superstar of the highest order, but he is without a major nine ball title (World 9ball, World Games 9ball, US Open 9ball, UK Open 9ball, China Open 9ball, European Open 9ball, Qatar Open 9all, Spanish Open 9ball, Hanoi Open 9ball) since his 2022 World Championship.

Shane is also without a Matchroom 9ball title since they went to 4" pockets in August of 2022.

.... but, as you suggest, SVB is deserving of our highest regard and remains a legendary player still playing as well as all but the top two. Wishing him the best.
 
iusedtoberich said:
Good opportunity to show FargoRate creep (or greater separation of pros to us bangers): #10 on the 2025 list is higher than #1 on the 2019 list. Does anyone believe there is no creep?
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A reminder of what many of us believe and will always believe. Had he been able to stay the course and been a full-time pro, Wu might have been the best player of all time. It's a "what if" that will surely intrigue us for years.
 
sjm said:
A reminder of what many of us believe and will always believe. Had he been able to stay the course and been a full-time pro, Wu might have been the best player of all time. It's a "what if" that will surely intrigue us for years.
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I dropped off the pool map during that time. What happened to Wu?
 
Wu had the rawest deal in pro pool, imo. He had country defection issues that left him stranded. Then he got cancer. Then when he finally came back to the international scene, he was well into his 30s, and then Corona hit and he disappeared again.
 
iusedtoberich said:
Wu had the rawest deal in pro pool, imo. He had country defection issues that left him stranded. Then he got cancer. Then when he finally came back to the international scene, he was well into his 30s, and then Corona hit and he disappeared again.
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Damn, tough road. Hate that.
 
sjm said:
... and it's has been for a few years now. They have been number one and number two by Fargo and on the money list for three years now, and their rivalry has become very special.

Filler is the better nine ball player, and 10ball is a tossup, but Fedor is the better bank pool player and one pocket player.

Both are very beatable by the other elite, but these days, to win a major, it is a safe bet you'll have to beat at least one of them along the way.

Realistically, Fedor and Josh are 1A and 1B, and everyone else is getting a stiff neck from looking up at them.
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i agree. they are truly special players and destined for THOF
 
jalapus logan said:
Svb is currently #6 on Fargo's list. Can't argue with that. He is not the betting favorite over those above him in 9 ball. Id bet on Fedor again in another long race of 10 ball. But no one's money would be safe in that contest. Svb is a fine player, once in a generation. He can win most any event. He just doesn't win as many as a Filler or a Gorst ..not anymore anyway.
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Kind of funny that the same people now using fargo as an excuse to exclude Shane, railed against it all the years that Shane led it. lol
 
sjm said:
... and Shane lost the Derby City 9ball quarterfinal to Filler 9-0, which is, to date, their only meeting in 2025. Josh has surely won 75% of his nine ball matches vs SVB in his career.

SVB is as clearly number three as Josh and Fedor are 1A and 1B. Shane remains a superstar of the highest order, but he is without a major nine ball title (World 9ball, World Games 9ball, US Open 9ball, UK Open 9ball, China Open 9ball, European Open 9ball, Qatar Open 9all, Spanish Open 9ball, Hanoi Open 9ball) since his 2022 World Championship.

Shane is also without a Matchroom 9ball title since they went to 4" pockets in August of 2022.

.... but, as you suggest, SVB is deserving of our highest regard and remains a legendary player still playing as well as all but the top two. Wishing him the best.
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Wrong, he won the arguably most difficult in the round robin format of the premier pool league. Again, it's laughable how the Shane haters are constantly ignoring things that point to him. Also while he's currently in the finals of the US open 10 ball. lol. Also, I merely stated he was in the conversation, not that he's currently the best.
 
Jaden said:
Wrong, he won the arguably most difficult in the round robin format of the premier pool league. Again, it's laughable how the Shane haters are constantly ignoring things that point to him. Also while he's currently in the finals of the US open 10 ball. lol. Also, I merely stated he was in the conversation, not that he's currently the best.
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Sorry, but winning a sixteen-player invitational is a long way from winning a major. No, it was not the world's top sixteen either, as several of the invitations were made to players who did not qualify on merit. For example, Michael Feliciano and Bernie Regalario were among the invitees in 2024, and I'd guess neither was top fifty in the world at the time. Winning the World Pool Masters is harder, as is winning the Derby City Bigfoot Ten-ball, a tougher sixteen player invitational.

As for the US Open 10ball and all the US Open events at Grif's, they are a long way from being majors. As a low prize money event over the years, it has rarely attracted a top field, and the field has sometimes been as small as thirteen players. As usual, most of the top European players have skipped the event this year.

Calling Shane third best in the world does not make one a Shane hater. It makes one observant. Third on the money list on each of the last three years, currently sixth based on Fargo. Let me know when he tops a large field in a 9ball event. Since Shane's World 9ball win three years ago, Filler has won 9ball events at the UK Open, the World Games gold, the China Open and has won two DCC 9ball titles. Fedor has won the US Open 9ball, the World 9ball, and the Derby City 9ball. Shane has not prevailed at a large field major 9ball event in a long time.

Third best.
 
sjm said:
... and Shane lost the Derby City 9ball quarterfinal to Filler 9-0, which is, to date, their only meeting in 2025. Josh has surely won 75% of his nine ball matches vs SVB in his career.

SVB is as clearly number three as Josh and Fedor are 1A and 1B. Shane remains a superstar of the highest order, but he is without a major nine ball title (World 9ball, World Games 9ball, US Open 9ball, UK Open 9ball, China Open 9ball, European Open 9ball, Qatar Open 9all, Spanish Open 9ball, Hanoi Open 9ball) since his 2022 World Championship.

Shane is also without a Matchroom 9ball title since they went to 4" pockets in August of 2022.

.... but, as you suggest, SVB is deserving of our highest regard and remains a legendary player still playing as well as all but the top two. Wishing him the best.
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Would you stop with this logic nonsense? 😂

If I could watch SVB, Fedor, and Filler fight over....everything... I'd be happy. Gimme ALL the match ups. They could be playing snooker for all I care...
(pardon me while I wash my hands after typing that)
 
sjm said:
Well said. We'd all enjoy any event featuring all three.
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I will say: having been absolutely thrashed by Shane. I will back him always. He's such a good dude. College me that played warmup friendlies against him (2011-13ish) was taught a lesson that day in absolute thrashing. As good as I *thought* I was, there was another universe I'd never seen.
When he told me I was "pretty good"... Greatest compliment I've ever been given. I learned more from that whooping than anything else since.
 
sudocrushms said:
I will say: having been absolutely thrashed by Shane. I will back him always. He's such a good dude. College me that played warmup friendlies against him (2011-13ish) was taught a lesson that day in absolute thrashing. As good as I *thought* I was, there was another universe I'd never seen.
When he told me I was "pretty good"... Greatest compliment I've ever been given. I learned more from that whooping than anything else since.
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Shane is an inspiration. His longevity is remarkable. How many have we ever seen in the 9ball era that were still top ten in the world at age 40. Reyes, Sigel, Parica, Bustamante, Souquet, Varner, SVB, Pagulayan, Strickland, Hall and just a few others. Who is to say whether either Josh or Fedor will have such longevity?
 
Jaden said:
Kind of funny that the same people now using fargo as an excuse to exclude Shane, railed against it all the years that Shane led it. lol
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How many years did SVB have the highest Fargo rating? Who is next, how many years?
 
sjm said:
Shane is an inspiration. His longevity is remarkable. How many have we ever seen in the 9ball era that were still top ten in the world at age 40. Reyes, Sigel, Parica, Bustamante, Souquet, Varner, SVB, Pagulayan, Strickland, Hall and just a few others. Who is to say whether either Josh or Fedor will have such longevity?
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He is. Funny part is i didn't know who he was until he introduced himself... I knew *who* he was, but didn't have a face to put to the name...
The look on my face when he went "Thanks for the warm up, I'm Shane" must've been PRICELESS...

The fact that he was top 5 on Earth when i was in college (15 years ago) and still is now is batshit insane. Which is why I consider him to be THE GOAT. Transcends generations, technology, everything. He is...inevitable.... ;)
 
Jimmorrison said:
How many years did SVB have the highest Fargo rating? Who is next, how many years?
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as iusedtoberich says, 10 points is quite a cushion. i don't see fedor or anyone else overtaking filler in fargo anytime soon, but i don't attach as much importance to fargo as some others tend to do. fedor won the biggest title in 2024 and a big bag of money, and that's what it's about.

i hope they both have longevity, but i suspect that will be tougher for fedor. he may have the best fundamentals in the world, but his back problems are ominous
 
iusedtoberich said:
...11 points is a MILE. ...
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At an 11-point gap, the lower-rated player would have over a 40% chance of winning any race up through 22, and over a 30% chance of winning any race from 23 up through the high 80s (the FargoRate Match Odds calculator doesn't go beyond 30.9% at a race to 86).
 
Shane has won five U.S. Opens, which feature fields as strong or stronger than most World Championships. How many have Filler and Gorst won? How about one each. I was TD both years when Shane beat Dennis in the finals. At that time Dennis was the best all around pool player in the world, and Shane had to play superlative pool to beat him in the long final matches. And he did! Dennis played great and Shane played better. Go back and check those matches online and compare them with Filler and Gorst. Shane is every bit as good as either one imo.
 
jay helfert said:
Shane has won five U.S. Opens, which feature fields as strong or stronger than most World Championships. How many have Filler and Gorst won? How about one each. I was TD both years when Shane beat Dennis in the finals. At that time Dennis was the best all around pool player in the world, and Shane had to play superlative pool to beat him in the long final matches. And he did! Dennis played great and Shane played better. Go back and check those matches online and compare them with Filler and Gorst. Shane is every bit as good as either one imo.
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Shane used to be at the top of the pack, now it's Filler. I really really would like to see Shane matching up with Filler in a race or two to 120 for some serious jellybeans.
 
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