I just spoke to a friend of his in Vegas, he's still winning plenty of challenge matches, no ones chasing him around looking for Action. He's got some figuring out to do tournament wise, buts NO "flash in the pan".
10 best players in the world
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I just spoke to a friend of his in Vegas, he's still winning plenty of challenge matches, no ones chasing him around looking for Action. He's got some figuring out to do tournament wise, buts NO "flash in the pan".
I have often wondered, and maybe some of you more knowledgeable folks might know, but how many of the truly elite, top 10 level players have families including children. Obviously you have the power couple, Josh and Pia, but I have not heard of them having any kids.
There is also Sky who has children, but whom I would consider a level below elite/top 10.
Maybe Shaw? He certainly has an elite gear, you just don't see him winning in the big tourneys as consistently as he did a decade ago.
Just a curiosity. In most sports, after a big win you see the winner bring his kids onto the course/field during celebrations. I can't remember ever seeing that in pool.
There is also Sky who has children, but whom I would consider a level below elite/top 10.
Maybe Shaw? He certainly has an elite gear, you just don't see him winning in the big tourneys as consistently as he did a decade ago.
Just a curiosity. In most sports, after a big win you see the winner bring his kids onto the course/field during celebrations. I can't remember ever seeing that in pool.
This is a subtlety. But the FargoRate approach doesn't require or assume that a late-stage high-pressure match is somehow the same as an early-stage match in a lower-profile tournament.
Rather it assumes that averaged over your high-pressure matches, your opponents were also playing in high-pressure matches and impacted similarly.
A particularly player could be unusually affected by or unusually unaffected by that pressure, and we wouldn't capture that in any meaningful way.
Flash in the pan in terms of winning a big WPA or WNT event, or getting to the finals of one.
Raga has also had several quarterfinal and final 16 finishes in big events. Talent is there. Commitment, we'll see.
Carlo Biado and Johann Chua are the best players in the world who have young kids. Shaw and Sky have kids, as you noted. Kazakis and Alcaide, too. Szewczyk has a young son.
I am not aware of any other very active top 20 or so player with kids.
Thanks for the insight. I imagine it just adds another obstacle to reaching that level...especially for a game like pool...
I think Souto is also 23. He had outachieved most of these. He won two WNT ranking events last year and also came 3rd at the International 9ball.
I stand corrected.
Capito is the one that troubles me. He runs the table almost as well as anyone in the game, but he has failed to develop the other skills needed to win. I think Kural is every bit the player Capito was a few years ago. I'm curious to see whether he adds all the complementary skills. If he does, he has a very high ceiling. I watched Kural live twice, and he really wowed me with his cueing skills.
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I can't take the Predator/WPA events seriously.
So for me, the top 3 are still Yapp, Biado and Gorst.
Filler's recent record in the US Open and World Championship is really poor, especially for a player of his calibre.
- Generous pockets
- Sets instead of racks
- Shoot-out if tied
So for me, the top 3 are still Yapp, Biado and Gorst.
Filler's recent record in the US Open and World Championship is really poor, especially for a player of his calibre.
Rankings are fundamentally different from ratings. And each ranking system does its own thing.
Who has performed best in a particular limited set of recent events? Look at the ranking.
Who is the most skilled based on all the data available, without weighting specific recent events? Ask a ranking system.
The WPA and WNT rankings use different points systems and mostly different events. The one with the larger participation by the top players will give more "reasonable" rankings, if it uses a good -- or at least not too bad -- points system.
Who has performed best in a particular limited set of recent events? Look at the ranking.
Who is the most skilled based on all the data available, without weighting specific recent events? Ask a ranking system.
The WPA and WNT rankings use different points systems and mostly different events. The one with the larger participation by the top players will give more "reasonable" rankings, if it uses a good -- or at least not too bad -- points system.
Although they once were, the pockets are not looser in Predator events than WNT. You may judge a player based on two events (both of which are on Filler's resume), but that's ridiculous. Actually, there were extremely few shootouts in the 2026 Las Vegas Open 10ball, and I can't even remember one of them in the late rounds.
I judge a player by their record in the majors, as well as in all other events having big, elite fields, not just the WNT majors. Filler, at 28 years old. already has 3 world championship, one in 9ball, one in 8ball. and a World Team championship. He also has a silver at the World 10ball. He has 3 China Open 9ball titles and numerous Predator 10ball titles. He has won the American 14.1, the Buffalo Billiards 1-pocket, and has double digit Euro-tour titles. He even has a Derby City bank pool title. Every one of these is a large, elite field event. Filler is a superstar in every discipline and the greatest mass producer of major titles since Mike Sigel.
He stands alone as the greatest player of this generation and is already in the conversation for best pool player of all-time. FYI, he has not lost to Gorst in either 9ball or 10ball in close to two years and has beat him three times in the last three months alone (Mosconi Cup, Derby City 9ball, Las Vegas Open 10ball). You have to be very delusional to rate Gorst above Filler given that he virtually never beats him at rotation games.
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and do we decide on who the best player in the world is based on 9 and or 10 ball.?
are we saying the best player in the world is the one best at 9 or 10 ball.
or who plays best at the tournament trail.
what about 8 ball and one pocket. and 14.1 which was the determining one for pool for decades.
does the real best player maybe cant sleep in hotel beds, so doesn't do well in tournaments.
are we saying the best player in the world is the one best at 9 or 10 ball.
or who plays best at the tournament trail.
what about 8 ball and one pocket. and 14.1 which was the determining one for pool for decades.
does the real best player maybe cant sleep in hotel beds, so doesn't do well in tournaments.
Yes, very well said. One must look at the entire picture in the assessment of excellence.
It's about all-around excellence. not just 9ball and 10ball titles, and we must recognize that the 9ball majors and 10ball majors are about equal in number and produce fields of similar quality.. As you suggest, 8ball, one pocket, bank pool and 14.1 all have relevance in the greatness discussion.
We are spoilt today compared to even fifteen years ago. there are so many events having large, elite fields and those events cross the disciplines. It's a great time to be a fan of the game.
Some people's impression of the "shootout" match approach was solidified based on an earlier inferior incarnation of the approach, when a shootout occurred simply when players split the first two races to 4. That's too many shootouts.
Now you need to split two races to 4 AND get to hill-hill on the third one. That's like two runners leaning for the tape after a long run and you can't quite tell who is ahead. Importantly the shootout is conditioned on two competitors leaning into the tape.
At this point it is a feature, not a bug, to have the match decision based on something that is in both players control from there. There is a true back and forth--no luck of who came up dry or made a ball and got hooked or had a cueball kicked in or had an open table on a single game.
The best-of-3 races to four match is as discriminatory as between a straight race to 8 and 9, but closer to 9.
It is, imo, a superior approach to a straight race to 9 largely because there is far more intermediate drama. That is, the drama for viewers is spread out better over the entire match, including the early games.
[...]
Filler --at 885--is actually the highest performing player on the planet just looking at play over the last month, (EU Open, EU Championships, Las Vegas Open, US Open events, Pattoya, Eurotour Turkey, Texas Open, Premier League...)
Daniel Maciol and Quoc Hoang Duong also quite impressive
Chua and Szolnoki not as many games...but noteworthy
yes
so we need a rating system for events.,,,
one, for how many events a player enters. as if he enters many, its more likely he wins more.
money won? that works to some extent as it shows he wins big events.
recognition by the masses.
years at the top
ratings of worth of the types of the different games he plays. ex. 10 ball worth more than 9 ball. or one pocket.
or should we just go the easy way and use fargo ratings. or with an addon for something accomplished.
and what about time at the top. the test of time.
so we need a rating system for events.,,,
one, for how many events a player enters. as if he enters many, its more likely he wins more.
money won? that works to some extent as it shows he wins big events.
recognition by the masses.
years at the top
ratings of worth of the types of the different games he plays. ex. 10 ball worth more than 9 ball. or one pocket.
or should we just go the easy way and use fargo ratings. or with an addon for something accomplished.
and what about time at the top. the test of time.
the new predator table isn't generous, 4.125" and what seems like mean pocket facings. side pockets are tight too.
One side pocket shot got a long stare from Fedor.