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  1. sjm

    Best Current Pool Players 70+ Years Old?

    Benjamin Button would disagree.
  2. sjm

    Gorst vs SVB, race to 40 for 20k

    The next time I watch a race as long as this one from beginning to end will be the first. Similarly, the next time I bet on one of these long races will be the first. Nonetheless, I wish the best of luck to both of these fine players.
  3. sjm

    Gorst vs SVB, race to 40 for 20k

    Fedor at Fargo 850 vs Shane at Fargo 846 sounds like a good one. May the best man win.
  4. sjm

    Best Current Pool Players 70+ Years Old?

    No idea whether any of them still plays, but Kim Davenport, Allen Hopkins and Jim Rempe are all over 70. Dallas West is in his mid-80s, but no idea whether he still plays. Billy Incardona is also over 80, but does he still play?
  5. sjm

    I saw this reflection on chess...how accurate it is in pool?!

    Not a bad rundown of the pitfalls into which a pool player can fall, and in every one of these categories you will find more than a few pro players, some of them world champions.
  6. sjm

    Happy Anniversary

    This topic comes up often on the forum, and the general opinion is that Efren was not top ten ever at 9ball. I'd put him in my top fifteen for sure. As is so often discussed on the forum, the reason was that he had a pretty weak break. It's well known that CJ had a winning record in action...
  7. sjm

    Happy Anniversary

    Still, you made an uplifting post, so it's all good. In addition, this match introduced the long race format to most of the world. At the time, such a long race was revolutionary.
  8. sjm

    Happy Anniversary

    Nice post. I have no idea exactly when the match occurred (I know it was in 1986) but if the match was on May 4, 1996, as you suggest, that's an anniversary worth noting. It was one hell of a match, but the facts have been obscured by history. First of all, Efren is probably not even a top...
  9. sjm

    Are Junior players being set up for a tough life?

    ... so this is what it's like to be part of an NPR thread. The theme to which many subscribe seems to be "If you are young and show any aptitude for it, why not try pool as a career. As there will not be much else for human beings to do soon enough, why develop skills in a trade or career?"...
  10. sjm

    Justin Bergman is on a mission

    Agreed. For many events, including the majors, there can be little, or even no, record of the players that played and did not cash.
  11. sjm

    Justin Bergman is on a mission

    Yeah, Joe was a friend of mine. He is considered among the best junior players of all time (a junior in what I believe was the late 1930s). Irving Crane mentioned him to me, too, as having been a junior that many felt was the next American great. Joe, however, chose not to go pro and went...
  12. sjm

    Justin Bergman is on a mission

    Thanks for the assistance. Yes, now it's coming back. That Shaw match was at Derby. Mike did, however, play the 2024 US Open at Harrah's, as you have noted, but he did not cash.
  13. sjm

    Justin Bergman is on a mission

    I believe this is in error. I believe that Mike played in the US Open in either 2023 or 2024 but failed to cash. I remember chatting with him at length in the tournament room at Harrah's. Ironically, he drew Jayson Shaw, his old rival on the Joss Tour, but unlike when their rivalry was...
  14. sjm

    Justin Bergman is on a mission

    Agreed. It doesn't take that many ranking points to be an auto-qualifier for Team USA. One good finish, like when Tyler Styer came 3rd at the 2025 UK Open, might be enough and, even if it isn't, will put him in the limelight for a possible wildcard selection. Actually, I suspect that Tyler...
  15. sjm

    Justin Bergman is on a mission

    Yeah, Tony was one hell of a player who had a very big break. He was probably never a top five player, but often a top ten. I got to know him during his PBT days and enjoyed his company. He is sorely missed.
  16. sjm

    Are Junior players being set up for a tough life?

    I'm sure many will remember the TV show from the mid-1970s called the "Six Million Dollar Man." It was predicated on the idea that it was possible to reengineer a human being in a way that made him faster, stronger, and gave him better vision. While it all seemed pretty farfetched in the...
  17. sjm

    Justin Bergman is on a mission

    This is wonderful news, as to this point, just the opposite has been true. The Mosconi points race runs from November to November, so it is nearly half over, and Justin has zero Mosconi ranking points at present. The fact that he is playing in an Ultimate 8ball event, to me, is of no import...
  18. sjm

    it's good to be the run-out King

    Just in case you were wondering, I do not subscribe to the idea of "the divine right of kings."
  19. sjm

    Are Junior players being set up for a tough life?

    I reacted to the attached article about the robot that broke the world record in the half marathon, thinking about how it might translate to pro pool. There's every reason to believe that a pool playing robot might greatly excel one day.
  20. sjm

    Are Junior players being set up for a tough life?

    OK, so one day there will be a robot that can give Filler the seven. How will this affect the game long-term?
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