who are your favorite players "A" players to watch?

DecentShot

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
The human brain is a pattern-imitating machine. If you watch players of lesser skill, your brain can actually learn erroneous patterns. Not a chance. There's nothing to "relate" to, that a pro will not execute better, and more consistently. PLUS, poor methods of playing that work, due to a player's natural physical skills, can lead one to believe that is a style to emulate. Example? Overuse of inside follow when cutting balls into corners to get to center table.., versus a natural two rail stun that has better speed control.

Watch a player who overuses that inside follow, and it looks pretty. And one's ability to execute these type of touchy position plays quickly decays under pressure, as it is HIGHLY stroke and speed dependent. If you understroke it a hair, you end up cutting the ball too thin, and sailing long on position.

The vast majority of players would improve MUCH faster if they watched more professionals play, instead of their local A players.

No Way! Short Buss is now a brain scientist! You should know how every Fargo level plays. In order to do this, just look at YouTube videos where the Fargo is put on the screen. The BCA on YouTube is a good source.
 

DecentShot

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Impressive list. I've had my ass handed to me a few times by 5 names on this list. And you are right....every city has a list of A players. The smaller the population the smaller the list, and vice versa. I like watching Olinger, especially when he's playing someone else!

Brandon Ashcraft is a great player. Jason Hunt lol.
 

DecentShot

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I think these guys are a little overqualified to be considered A players. I've played Adam a few times here in the LA area since he's moved out here. I consider myself an A player and he beats me, I think he's like 730-740 fargo. Eddie and Josh I only know of, but the fact that I know of them probably indicates they're above an A player.

Yeah all those guys are way beyond A. Adam plays REAL good even on tight equipment. Eddie Abraham is/was the best player in PA.
 

JC

Coos Cues
Being a 600 player myself I enjoy watching the slightly better players to see what they are doing that I'm not. Watching the pros I often feel that yes, it's beautiful but being an old working man much of what they do isn't relevant to my skill set.

Having said that, all things equal I enjoy watching any A or above player that get's their ass moving in an entertaining rhythm. I don't care if they are the best player in the world there's a limit to my ability to watch them study the table and it's pretty short.

Which is why I prefer recorded matches to live streams. On youtube you can use the right arrow key to jump forward 5 second until they are down on the ball. It's amazing sometimes how many times you can hit that key between shots. The average pro match can be watched in much less than 1/2 of real time by skipping past the studying. Of course you benefit from looking over the rack yourself but unless you're at the table you can never really see what they are seeing anyway. If something looks interesting watch it but most of professional pool elapsed time is watching someone looking at the table.
 

iusedtoberich

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I think these guys are a little overqualified to be considered A players. I've played Adam a few times here in the LA area since he's moved out here. I consider myself an A player and he beats me, I think he's like 730-740 fargo. Eddie and Josh I only know of, but the fact that I know of them probably indicates they're above an A player.

They are all Open or lower level pro players. That's what we call that class in the Philly area, were all of these guys are from (or spent decades in...). Bob had the highest gear of the bunch, IMO, but he is old now and does not compete much. Adam is the best of them today. These guys can give A players the 7 ball in 9 ball.

The funny thing is, watching these guys on a stream on Youtube (which there are plenty), and it is nothing like watching the touring pro's like Shane, Alex, Busty, etc. So even though these are the TOP 4 guys bar none in the whole state of PA/NJ/DE over the last 20 years, when you see them on youtube, they are missing left and right, compared to Shane or Alex, that miss once every 3 racks. Its such a difference!

I'm not taking anything away from these guys, I have known them each personally for 20 years. All awesome guys! I'm just pointing out the huge difference between the best players in a state, and the best players in the world.
 

iusedtoberich

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
IMO, an A player to answer one of the OP's questions is a 650 player. Around 600, is a very strong B, bordering on an A-.

Of course I'm talking about established players, in their prime. Bob in the example above is a 649 with robustness of 50 player in Fargo, but his true rating 10 years ago would be 750 IMO. He has a high run of 320ish in straight pool, and has cashed in about every US Open he's played in.
 

jay helfert

Shoot Pool, not people
Gold Member
Silver Member
This is a big country! There are still more A level players here than anywhere else in the world, despite what I say about the Philippines. :smile:
Many of these excellent players have commitments like a family or job that keeps them in a certain area, thus they are not so well known. And then some just want to stay a little undercover to knock off the occasional road player who passes their way.

Not everyone aspires to travel all over the country playing in low paying tournaments against a field of top players. A lot of very good players could make a dent in the bigger tournaments but just cashing in 7th-8th or 9th-12th is not financially beneficial to them, so why bother. To play the tournaments successfully, you need to finish in the top three or four. That is Dennis, Alex and Shane territory. Good luck playing these guys.

I do know that many names listed here are high level A players who can match up with anybody, but you might not see them anywhere but at DCC or maybe the U.S. or International Open, or if you happen to be in their area. They are in every city in the country, banging balls and waiting like a vulture for a live one to come through. :D
 
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