Recent content by sjm

Jason is right, pool's lore is filled with players who stuck to the action room and were good enough to threaten even the most elite. It is possible they still exist, but for the most part, that type of player is almost extinct today and desirable action is harder to come by because of the...

Wonder who you mean? Who today gambles only and doesn't compete but manages to beat the premier players in action? I can't even think of one such player. Tournament players make money now. The Top 19 per the 2025 AZB money list all made $100,000+ in prize money this year. Anyone who...

Actually, no. At Derby City, over the years, I have watched a couple of top-five-ranked players in the world try their luck vs barbox specialists like Skyler and Corey and they have not fared well.

Yes, I would welcome the complete omission of results on a 7-footer from Fargo calculations. It is certainly OK to have a separate ranking table for bar-box Fargo rates, as long as I don't have to look at them. The game played on a barbox is a different game.

LOL. How would today's players have fared on the 10-footer with slow cloth. Crane and Mosconi both managed runs of over 300, and Greenleaf played better than either of them on a ten-footer. Actually, they tried having the Derby City 14.1 challenge one year on a ten-foot table. After five...

Yeah, and Chat GPT rates potato salad above an ashtray but below a leisure suit.

For me, it's not even close. The pool year began in clouds of mystery, with 245 WNT players banned from WPA-sanctioned events. Those not banned had to carefully balance their participation in WPA and WNT events, while playing the diplomacy game where possible. To the WNT's disadvantage...

Ditto. Yes, he had a very disappointing Mosconi Cup, but one poor effort should not define him. Other than Fedor and Shane, neither of whom won a WNT major in 2025, Tyler was the only American that medaled in a 2025 WNT major. He got bronze at the UK Open, including a win over Filler in the...

You can put me in that camp. Justin often reached the late rounds at several major championships and got around to beating most of the superelite at some point, but his break was so weak that he couldn't beat the top guys in the late rounds. He was, in my opinion, the best American defensive...

Yes, let's add China to the player development discussion, but your comments are right on the mark.

I think that's fair. Far too often, the split the pot scenario is due to poor administration of an event that causes it to go past schedule. Tournament producers must be held partly accountable for this.

You can defend this practice all you like, but anyone that is this risk-averse is unlikely to develop into a champion. Unfortunately, pot splitting seems a way of life in America, and it is one of many reasons that Americans are failing to develop into champions. You are OK with it and I am...

Another thing that hurts American pool is the routine foregoing of a final where the top two spit the first and second place money. How often do we read on AZB Headline news that Player A and Player B split the top prizes in a recently completed tournament? It is bad enough that, in doing so...

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This is great news. I always liked both Justin and his 9ball game. Still, despite Scott's suggestion, I highly doubt he'll do everything he can to qualify, as that would mean, at very least, playing in all the WNT majors. It's hard to imagine the travel-phobic Justin going to the WNT majors in...