Currently, who are the top 5 cueists in the world?

Positively Ralf said:
Taking in all disciplines/games, which are your top 5 players right now?
Click to expand...
What are yours?

No. You first!

No, No! I insist!

NO!

But you started it!

Venom
Steve Davis
Efren Reyes
Shane Van Boening
Ronnie O’Sullivan
 
Last edited:
 
mchnhed said:
He did say "all disciplines". :tongue:
Is he not the Best at "Artistic Billiards"?
Click to expand...

I could be mistaken but I'm pretty sure when the OP said "Taking in all disciplines/games, which are..." what he meant was when you consider how they play in each of the different disciplines, who is the best overall, as in if they had to play everybody a long set of each to determine the overall best, who would it be. It is a standard question that gets discussed a lot and is posed nearly monthly.
 
Poolplaya9 said:
I could be mistaken but I'm pretty sure when the OP said "Taking in all disciplines/games, which are..." what he meant was when you consider how they play in each of the different disciplines, who is the best overall, as in if they had to play everybody a long set of each to determine the overall best, who would it be. It is a standard question that gets discussed a lot and is posed nearly monthly.
Click to expand...
Then.....
Efren
 
i feel no one player plays everything at a high level, of the big 3 games pool snooker carom

there are a few that play other games for fun


but not one top player of each discipline can compete with any of the top 10 of each other


none of them are even close


reyes cant compete with zanetti at 3c
caudron cant compete wtih selby at snooker
morris cant compete with leppens at balkline or 1 cushion
sanchez cant compete with dennis at 1pkt
jaspers cant compete with ding at snooker
ronnie cant compete with nik poly at 3c

i mean you all seen the match of janette lee playing 3c with blomdahl,
she averaged less than .2 he averaged 2.5

i doubt if any of those players actually cover all 3 sides regularly enough to even compete with none top 10 ranked players,IF at all

dani sanchez doesnt even practice 3c anymore, and hes STILL ranked number 2 in the world
 
Last edited:
Positively Ralf said:
Taking in all disciplines/games, which are your top 5 players right now?
Click to expand...

I do not know, but here are 3 players that I think play many of the games at a pretty high level.

Dennis Orcollo
Alex Pagulayan
Shane Van Boening

I am sure there are many others, but my knowledge about pool players is not that good. Skyler Woodward and Justin Bergman are 2 more that I am a big fan of, and I am sure they play most of the American games (8 ball, 9 ball, 10 ball, 1 pocket, Banks, and not sure about 14.1 - Straight Pool) very strong. I think that most of the other greats from other countries (like the players from China) are only really elite level strong at maybe just a few games, but how strong are they at games like Banks and 1 pocket? How many players are there that play most of the games (other then Snooker, Chinese 8 ball, and 3 Cushion) at a very high Pro level?
 
Pretty hard for me to vote against a Pinoy.

Efren is the best I have ever seen play.

Behind him would be Nick Varner.

Why?

Nick is a World Champion Straight, 9 ball, 10 ball, one pocket.

3C and snooker are not really pool games.....:thumbup:

Ken
 
Op said cueists, not pool games

Again there's more than one carom game also

Don't know why people think that American pool has the best shooters on the planet,
If they were in top competition in snooker then they could be considered no doubt

But playing on 7ft tables alot of the time
When snooker player's only seems to play on 12fters
With the added fact that the pocket facings help make a ball some times as someone posted recently with the MOSCONI CUP

Rounded snooker pockets on the largest pocket tables are far more difficult

You can't convince me otherwise

Can't win any snooker game with a lucky ball on the break

;)

I love 1pkt and 14.1btw
 
Last edited:
Who's even the best Russian pyramid player ever?
I can't even name one, I have no idea about that game

But with the ball to pocket size ratio it seems insane
 
Positively Ralf said:
Taking in all disciplines/games, which are your top 5 players right now?
Click to expand...

In ANY Discipline you would be removing 99.9% of pool players from the list. In fact it would most likely all be snooker players in reality but that is of course subjective and difficult because most of the top pool players do not play snooker which is one of the truest environments to test a players cue action. Also some of the top Chinese 8ball players. As such, you would be better asking the question based on different disciplines.

My top 5 would be:

Stephen Lee
Shaun Murphy
Ronnie
Judd Trump

You cannot really get any better than these 4 as they have absolutely everything and you would struggle to put a pool player in their class. Outside of this group - Jason Shaw, Gareth Potts, Evgeny Stalev, Chris Melling or one of the Filipinos Efren etc

Out of all of them Stephen Lee is up there and this video shows his cue power https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dgn8lMLGq0 (shame about the music :-) He coaches now in China and we probably won't see him play again because of the ban which is a shame.
 
Last edited:
Without a doubt the top 5 cueists today would all be snooker players. If you compare the cue actions of pool players vs snooker players over the years you would see a more noticeable evolution in the technique of the latter. The emergence of Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry in the 80s and 90s respectively ushered in a new school of thought with regards to proper cueing, and fast forward to now most snooker players have modeled their game after these two. In contrast, you can still see a wide spectrum of cue actions amongst pool players even today. Heck, the fact that Ismael Paez managed to get to the 2000 World Pool Championship Finals shows you that sometimes table knowledge can make up for horrendous fundamentals in the game of pool--but we all knew how that match turned out. Granted, we now have proper cueists today in players like Ko Pin Yi, Jason Shaw and Darren Appleton, but I'd still put their fundamentals in a separate league to that of snooker's top 16.

If you were to ask me that same question in the 90s, I'd be able to put in a couple of pool players in the top 5. First two that would come to my mind would be Efren Reyes and Buddy Hall.

My top 5 cueists today would be:

1. Ronnie O'Sullivan - gets the most action out of the cueball due to his perfect timing, which results in a wide variety of shots available to him. When he's in the right frame of mind, he is almost unplayable.
2. Shaun Murphy - straightest cue action I've ever seen. Repeatable, graceful and pleasing to the eye. After Jimmy White, the best rest player I've ever seen.
3. Judd Trump - in the words of Steve Davis, he has a Ferrari cue action. Tremendous acceleration of the cue, giving him immense cue power. He can pull off table length power shots with such ease and accuracy, and the most amazing thing is that he hardly drops his elbow at all.
4. Neil Robertson - another player who can get a lot of work from the cue ball with minimal effort. Beautiful snooker stance, everything perfectly aligned. It's no wonder he was able to make 100 centuries in one season (2013/2014)--the only person who has ever done so.
5. Ding Junhui - no-frills cue action. Not particularly known for long-potting nor for power shots, but his positional play is as good as anyone's. If you're a beginner in snooker, he's the first player I'd try to emulate.
 
Last edited:
O'SulliReyes said:
Without a doubt the top 5 cueists today would all be snooker players. If you compare the cue actions of pool players vs snooker players over the years you would see a more noticeable evolution in the technique of the latter. The emergence of Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry in the 80s and 90s respectively ushered in a new school of thought with regards to proper cueing, and fast forward to now most snooker players have modeled their game after these two. In contrast, you can still see a wide spectrum of cue actions amongst pool players even today. Heck, the fact that Ismael Paez managed to get to the 2000 World Pool Championship Finals shows you that sometimes table knowledge can make up for horrendous fundamentals in the game of pool--but we all knew how that match turned out. Granted, we now have proper cueists today in players like Ko Pin Yi, Jason Shaw and Darren Appleton, but I'd still put their fundamentals in a separate league to that of snooker's top 16.

If you were to ask me that same question in the 90s, I'd be able to put in a couple of pool players in the top 5. First two that would come to my mind would be Efren Reyes and Buddy Hall.

My top 5 cueists today would be:

1. Ronnie O'Sullivan - gets the most action out of the cueball due to his perfect timing, which results in a wide variety of shots available to him. When he's in the right frame of mind, he is almost unplayable.
2. Shaun Murphy - straightest cue action I've ever seen. Repeatable, graceful and pleasing to the eye. After Jimmy White, the best rest player I've ever seen.
3. Judd Trump - in the words of Steve Davis, he has a Ferrari cue action. Tremendous acceleration of the cue, giving him immense cue power. He can pull off table length power shots with such ease and accuracy, and the most amazing thing is that he hardly drops his elbow at all.
4. Neil Robertson - another player who can get a lot of work from the cue ball with minimal effort. Beautiful snooker stance, everything perfectly aligned. It's no wonder he was able to make 100 centuries in one season (2013/2014)--the only person who has ever done so.
5. Ding Junhui - no-frills cue action. Not particularly known for long-potting nor for power shots, but his positional play is as good as anyone's. If you're a beginner in snooker, he's the first player I'd try to emulate.
Click to expand...
I think Wu is the best cueist out side snooker and he has the form and temperament to play snooker he's being slighted in this argument if it was 8 ball 9 ball Snooker 3 cushion I'd like his chances
1
 
O'SulliReyes said:
Without a doubt the top 5 cueists today would all be snooker players. If you compare the cue actions of pool players vs snooker players over the years you would see a more noticeable evolution in the technique of the latter. The emergence of Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry in the 80s and 90s respectively ushered in a new school of thought with regards to proper cueing, and fast forward to now most snooker players have modeled their game after these two. In contrast, you can still see a wide spectrum of cue actions amongst pool players even today. Heck, the fact that Ismael Paez managed to get to the 2000 World Pool Championship Finals shows you that sometimes table knowledge can make up for horrendous fundamentals in the game of pool--but we all knew how that match turned out. Granted, we now have proper cueists today in players like Ko Pin Yi, Jason Shaw and Darren Appleton, but I'd still put their fundamentals in a separate league to that of snooker's top 16.

If you were to ask me that same question in the 90s, I'd be able to put in a couple of pool players in the top 5. First two that would come to my mind would be Efren Reyes and Buddy Hall.

My top 5 cueists today would be:

1. Ronnie O'Sullivan - gets the most action out of the cueball due to his perfect timing, which results in a wide variety of shots available to him. When he's in the right frame of mind, he is almost unplayable.
2. Shaun Murphy - straightest cue action I've ever seen. Repeatable, graceful and pleasing to the eye. After Jimmy White, the best rest player I've ever seen.
3. Judd Trump - in the words of Steve Davis, he has a Ferrari cue action. Tremendous acceleration of the cue, giving him immense cue power. He can pull off table length power shots with such ease and accuracy, and the most amazing thing is that he hardly drops his elbow at all.
4. Neil Robertson - another player who can get a lot of work from the cue ball with minimal effort. Beautiful snooker stance, everything perfectly aligned. It's no wonder he was able to make 100 centuries in one season (2013/2014)--the only person who has ever done so.
5. Ding Junhui - no-frills cue action. Not particularly known for long-potting nor for power shots, but his positional play is as good as anyone's. If you're a beginner in snooker, he's the first player I'd try to emulate.
Click to expand...

I really liked your post. Very interesting. The OP stated the best all around cueist though, right? Does that not mean the players who play all of the different games the best? Yeah, the guys you mentioned are some of the best snooker players ever, but how good is their rotation game, Bank pool game, or 1 pocket game? They may lose to any of the great pool players of today, if playing any of the pool games. And how would they do against the Carom players, playing 3 cushion billiards? Was the OP's question, the best snookers players ever, or the best all around players ever? I am confused.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top