The best non-pro player ever?

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Masayoshi

Fusenshou no Masa
Silver Member
https://youtu.be/kQUTswf6-VU

Here is a match between two top amateurs in Japan. They are undoubtedly amateurs because in Japan you have to actually pass a test to be a pro. The guy who lost recently went pro. The guy who won is rated 809 on fargo (but only a robustness of 129).
 
frankncali

frankncali

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
A few come to mind

Obviously Don Willis
Cooney but did anyone really know his top level in 9 ball

Surprised no one mentioned
Greg Stevens
Tommy Sanders

I think Tadd was playing a good as anyone for a few years
 
rhinobywilhite

rhinobywilhite

AzB Silver Member
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garczar said:
Good call. Bob would be way up on the non-pro list. Had a regular day gig and played jam up against a bunch of 'em.
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Gar, Bob said , on several occasions, that Tom played better than him. I just have no way of verifying that. He Was an East Coast player, I think. Don't know if he is still alive, either.
 
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garczar

AzB Silver Member
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ShootingArts said:
I have to laugh at the definitions of "pro"! When things got bad in the oil patch I paid my bills and ate off of pool tables. Never went hungry, never a late note or bill! Nobody would ever mistake me for a pro. Somebody in a bar did call me a pool player one time though. It was funny, he made it sound a lot like child molester, slime under a rock!

A favorite of mine came out of the bushes for the IPT like a lot of people, Dave Matlock. A short track specialist but where other people talk about running packs, his best was a case and change!

The best nonpro is probably like the Lone Ranger. He plays just good enough to get the cheese then disappears into the night.

Hu
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At Olathe one year i watched Dave put a 13 on this kid like it was nothing. The look on that dude's face was priceless. Some friends were at a tourn. in Amarillo and Dave got matched up and after a little see-saw he hit the guy with something like a 18-19rack explosion. Dave's hi-gear on a bar-box, especially with the big rock, was stupidly high.
 
Bic D

Bic D

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JohnnyOzone said:
You only left out the parts where you knocked out some tush hog with one punch, and broke a thousand cherries. Don't you know nothing about pool player stories? :)
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Well, those things actually happened but I didn't include them the story because I wanted to make it more believable
 
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Baby Huey

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I'd like to give a big shout out for Tacoma Whitey. In the 60's and early 70's it took Ronnie Allen and Ed Kelly type players to get his cash. Never traveled much but played all that came to the Seattle/Tacoma area. Busted most of them. His best game was backroom craps. I know he got me too.
 
book collector

book collector

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Johnny Rosato said:
I enjoyed that clip but,,, is this for real or a gag. Even though I'm 66, I'm not anybody that's been anywhere, done anything, or know anybody but I've never heard this name.
My gast is flabbered.
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Andrew used to post on here , good guy , he is probably resurrected as Samm Shaddy
 
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usakr

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
In the 90's Sammy Soto was down hear for a coup00le of yrs. Got to know him pretty well. Always underplayed. Played just 1/2ball better than his opponent when hustling. Would lose $500 to make $2000 as he would put it.


However, I was one of the few down here who saw him play full speed. I was a kid back then and he wouldn't play me because I wanted to play him for fun. One night he asked me if i wanted to play him a race to 11 for $20.

I told him I didn't have any money. He said "If I win you can pay me later." At about the 3rd rack he started to get peoples attention,everybody in the pool hall stopped to watch. You should have seen the expression on everyone's face. He only missed one shot which he rattled during the set. Final score 11-0. That was the last time I saw him. I've never seen anyone play that well. He was way better than the pros I would see on TV.
He hustled Mike Siegel and Buddy Hall with the 8 and beat them. If anyone knows how to contact him( if he's still around) please let me know so I can pay him his $20.
 
magnetardo

magnetardo

AzB Silver Member
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usakr said:
In the 90's Sammy Soto was down hear for a coup00le of yrs. Got to know him pretty well. Always underplayed. Played just 1/2ball better than his opponent when hustling. Would lose $500 to make $2000 as he would put it.


However, I was one of the few down here who saw him play full speed. I was a kid back then and he wouldn't play me because I wanted to play him for fun. One night he asked me if i wanted to play him a race to 11 for $20.

I told him I didn't have any money. He said "If I win you can pay me later." At about the 3rd rack he started to get peoples attention,everybody in the pool hall stopped to watch. You should have seen the expression on everyone's face. He only missed one shot which he rattled during the set. Final score 11-0. That was the last time I saw him. I've never seen anyone play that well. He was way better than the pros I would see on TV.
He hustled Mike Siegel and Buddy Hall with the 8 and beat them. If anyone knows how to contact him( if he's still around) please let me know so I can pay him his $20.
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Sammy Soto was the first name to come to me as well although I think that was a fake name he used.
 
jay helfert

jay helfert

Shoot Pool, not people
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Baby Huey said:
I'd like to give a big shout out for Tacoma Whitey. In the 60's and early 70's it took Ronnie Allen and Ed Kelly type players to get his cash. Never traveled much but played all that came to the Seattle/Tacoma area. Busted most of them. His best game was backroom craps. I know he got me too.
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Jerry, you may not know this, but Peter Gunn beat him for a giant score, something like 60K in Whitey's poolroom, over the course of a few days. Whitey went and got a gun and demanded his money back. Peter was a very low key guy as you know but he was built like the Fullback he was in high school and would not back down from any man. He told Whitey that he better not miss because if he did he was going to kill him. Whitey backed down.

Peter stopped in Bakersfield on his way home and recounted the whole story to me. He was driving a new Caddy and had his front pocket stuffed with bills (I suspect the rest was in his car). As always we played some $40 One Pocket and then he headed back to L.A. I never could quite beat Peter, except one time I talked him into playing me Full Rack Banks and I won maybe three or four games. He would never play me Banks again. :smile:
 
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cueman

cueman

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jay helfert said:
No, I knew Vernon Elliott.
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Many locals from North Georgia and Tennessee think he was one of the best ever. I have also heard what a couple of champions thought. If you got to see him play 1980s or before what is your take on how good he was? I never saw him play in his prime.
 
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Scott Lee

AzB Silver Member
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Kinda, sorta, LOL...He's Mike Page's General Manager at Fargo Billiards in ND! :grin: He does, however, get plenty of free table time! Rory is a fine player!

Scott Lee
2019 PBIA Instructor of the Year
Director, SPF National Pool School Tour

fastone371 said:
Rory Hendrickson, he has a regular daytime job I think.
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jay helfert

jay helfert

Shoot Pool, not people
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cueman said:
Many locals from North Georgia and Tennessee think he was one of the best ever. I have also heard what a couple of champions thought. If you got to see him play 1980s or before what is your take on how good he was? I never saw him play in his prime.
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I saw him play Banks in the 60's and 70's. He played maybe a ball under Eddie Taylor! At JC when he was there I noticed players were wary to gamble with him. I wondered who he was and how he played. He beat Danny Jones at Banks in the only match I saw him in. I think they were betting about 200 on Full Rack. Vernon did not play in the tournament! In Lexington (it might have been Dayton, sorry) he played Freddie and beat him at 9-Ball Banks, maybe 50 or 100 a game. Once again he did not play in the tournament, but made book on the matches. He was a handsome young guy back then. Maybe I was too. ;)

He wouldn't play Taylor even, but nobody else would either (except maybe Bugs and Cannonball and one other guy from Chattanooga whose name I don't remember, Bob or Bud Boles maybe?) I would put Vernon in the same category at Banks as Truman Hogue, Tony "Fargo" Ferguson and Kenny Romberg, who were all great players. I never saw him play any other game.
 
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