I'd be interested in finding out what his background was in both games early on in his playing career. He absolutely looks like a converted snooker player rather than the other way around. I wonder if snooker was ever his main focus early on?
I don't think any of the American pool pros could get near Alex on a snooker table. I think John Schmidt would probably come closest, running so many balls in 14.1 on Diamonds. He also mentioned in an old thread that he played some snooker a couple of years ago (see Quinten Hann threads!) and was making a lot of big breaks - albeit on a pretty loose table. Some of the UK pool players like Darren Appleton, as Cameron said, may be around Alex's level at snooker.
I hope he plays in the World Amateur event anyway. Would like to see him do well, but it would be a lot to ask playing against full time snooker players.
When Alex came to Canada he was already good for his age at pool.
He played a bit of snooker, only to make himself a better pool player.
However, when he won his first title,the Jnr Canadian 9-ball Championship,
he was using an 11mm Dufferin snooker cue....never liked 13mm.
So, a snooker cue was no stranger to him.
As for American pool players, I think only Jim Rempe is in his class.
But on 5x10 tight snooker tables there has been a few Americans that
would have been hard to beat even by world class snooker players.
From my personal experience I'll mention a few......
..Freddy Salem - Sam Bleumenthal - Dick Huntsinger - Norman Hitchcock
- Denny Searcy - Ronnie Allen - Cornbread Red.....
Jimmy Moore ...but he would've played them on a 6x12
Jose Parica and Efren Reyes have beaten world ranked pros on a 5x10.