Greatest of all time

that is the primary reason you are not one of the best in the world..

you question your own ability... that is why you don't have what it takes..

when you play for the right to call yourself the best in the world .. YOU have to believe it..or no one else ever will

you don't.. and never will

at some point it stops being ability and becomes attitude..

you are not and will never be a champion

He is a realist who matches up well Bart is a champion keep practicing you wish you played near his speed
 
I have heard Efren say himself that he played the best pool of his life in his 20's (the late 70's and early 80's). I would have loved to see that.

Good point. EVEN at 57 years of age, eyesight isn't so good. He'll still whip your ass in whatever game you want to play, including Snooker.
 
I have heard Efren say himself that he played the best pool of his life in his 20's (the late 70's and early 80's). I would have loved to see that.

I know he said that, as a lot of players do. I don't believe it though. Sigel's high run at 14.1 (around 339 I believe) came when he was 19, but I guarantee you he wasn't the pool player at 19 that he was in his late 20's and 30's.
 
Its Harold Worst Effrin 2nd(prob) and a handfull of contestants for 3rd thru 10th. First is not up for debate Harold was the most amazing all around player that has ever held a cue.
 
Nick Varner has won a world championship in every discipline

Efren has not

Nick Varner won the US open 9ball twice in a row

Efren has not

Nick Varner won a world straight pool title with a field of Sigel, Mizerack Rempe. Hopkins..

Efren hasn't won one period

Danny D once told me every great all around player was once a great straight pool player..

Efren lost to a washed up Dallas West..14.1

the top 5 on my list squash Dallas West in his prime 14.1

just sayin

I agree with everything but about squashing Dallas West. In his prime nobody wanted to face Dallas in a must win sittuation.The dude could flat play 14:1
 
that is the primary reason you are not one of the best in the world..

you question your own ability... that is why you don't have what it takes..

when you play for the right to call yourself the best in the world .. YOU have to believe it..or no one else ever will

you don't.. and never will

at some point it stops being ability and becomes attitude..

you are not and will never be a champion

i like when you quote you always take half the words off.
unlike you i know where my game stands.
anytime you want the 8 playing 10 ball or 9 7
ion 1 pocket for money let me know player.
 
Good morning all :-)

This discussion comes up from time to time-- and it s just nice to discuss about it, because it just shows, that some of the greatest will never be forgotten.
In my opinion impossible to name here just one person. About the *old* legends like Mosconi, "Babe" Cranfield, Greenleaf,Lassiter etc i m not able to comment. I just know from hearing what they were able to do.

From the guys i know i could name several. But for sure i would call out here Earl Strickland as one of the best (if not the best) player over a decade. Efren Reyes in my opinion is a living legend already. He makes things under pressure, which are just crazy. And so the most of us could name for sure about 10 names who would deserve to be named as one of the greatest.
Imo i would name Efren Reyes, Earl Strickland, Buddy Hall, Jim Rempe and Nick Varner. Too hard to pick one out of them.
Further it s somethin of own preferences. means just point of views how we see and interprete how they celebrated this great game.

For myself Efren is the *Magician* because he did so crazy shots under pressure some guys never even thought of during practice. And also because he s such a wonderful nice man.

lg from overseas and now read all those names ....and so going to watch some hours old video files ^^

lg from overseas,

Ingo

Hard to argue with much of what you say. I will say this though. I don't think that Efren actually feels much pressure. The next time you watch him play, just look at how much he smiles and just looks like he's having fun. He usually looks that way to me at least. Even when he misses something easy, he just scratches his head or pulls on his shirt collar or something like that and just grins.

I really think that one of the things that separates him from most is not just his great ability, but his demeanor and attitude. After all, pool is a game before it is anything else. Why not have fun playing it, even at the highest level?

I thought about this a while back, and no kidding, I started playing consistently better. Either way, I sure have fun trying.

Cheers...
 
i think talent vs tenacity often gets confused. i dont think there is much doubt erfren is probably the, or one of the, most talented players of all time. he did play up to his ability toward the end there, but for a LONG time, he was really an underachiever as far as im concerned. then you have other players who won everything, and then some, yet obviously werent as talented. so who is better? i guess you could look at lifetime pro tournament records, but then youd have to account for gambling too. any stats on who has the best tournament records. i bet earl is up there, sigel too.
 
Nah, everybody feels pressure. Champions tend to deal with it better than others.

Pressure, yes, just not so much of it. Pressure really is just mental. Especially playing pool. I mean, no one's life is hanging on the balance of a pool game is it? I suppose that you could argue that $ applies pressure. However I heard Efren respond to an interview question that he just prefers to give his money away and literally wants to keep nothing for himself. Maybe he's lying, who knows. I do know that his nonchalance is an asset. At least it appears that way to me.
 
Hmmmm

1. Greenleaf
2. Mosconi
3. Crane
4. Mizerak
5. Varner
6. Sigel
7. Hall
8. Archer
9. Reyes
10. Strickland

Must be the new math I've been hearing so much about. Not a bad list, but I gotta think Reyes is WAY higher, I gotta think Archer is NOT in the top 10, (someday maybe, but not yet) and I think he would tell you that, and Miz is questionable at best being in top 10. Thus, with a little tweaking I'm going this route;

TOP 3; kinda hard to say a definite number 1.

Mosconi
Greenleaf
Varner

TOP 5: again, not saying exactly if 4 or 5 spot.

Reyes
Sigel

TOP 10; in no particular order but should fall 6th thru 10th.

Strickland
Lassiter
Crane
Hall
Worst

I'm not going to argue the list as this is only my opinion. If you don't like my list, give me your list just for comparison sake. I'd be interested what others think are the top 10 of all time, in no particular order. I might even have to adjust my list after reading some other list.......
 
Mosconi, Sigel and Varner for me, in no particular order.

It's just that everytime I close my eyes and imagine Efferine
as being white and american, I could not help but think that
he is in fact the bestest of our time.

So it's Sigel, Varner or Mosconi for me.

--
Buy American
 
Greenleaf Mosconi Reyes all were great there was Worst if he had a longer career. Hard to compare them only Reyes has competitive video available at his prime so 99% of the people on this board cannot compare them as we never saw the older players play especially in their prime. Mosoconi has the 526 which was witnessed but his championships were primarily not open events and some players were excluded especially players of color. He was without doubt great and was dominant in his specialty. Strickland probably had the biggest gear of all for straight short rack rotation (9 ball) counting only pure offense. How can you compare players of different eras with different games and equipment, really hard to do.

I think pool is dormant and we need the greatest of all time to show up and fire up this sport and build some interest in our wonderful game. Tiger has done a lot for golf when he played viewership was up and golf is less now in the aftermath of his downfall from greatness. We need someone to pump up pool and that is the one thing the people mentioned above did not do they did not build up interest in our sport they played the game great but they have not attracted a lasting fan base. Mention Mosconi's name in a common US crowd and a I doubt you get more than 10% of the population recognizing that name as a pool player. The same for all of the other names in the US. In the Phillipines Efren's name will be recognized by more than a majority of the population. In this country the Black Widow is recognized by a high percentage of the population as a pool champion the same is true through out South East Asia. If the metric is promoting pool and being recognized as a pool player then Jeanette Lee is the greatest of all time closely followed by Ralph Walderone "Minnesota Fats" There is more to being the greatest than just playing the game.
 
9 ball reyes close
8 ball reyes
one pocket reyes
3 cus billiards reyes
banks varner
14 .1 i have no clue

I'm curious of your reasoning of saying varner is a better banks player than efren? I'm not saying your wrong by any means, but as well as efren plays one pocket, kicks, and banks with such regularity and such accuracy, thats hard to say anybody can play banks better than efren...just curious...
 
my 1 pocket game is terrible.. but my straight pool game is fair so that instantly makes me better than half of all 1 pocket players..

and PS my head is fine...

would you play this shot?? in a champoinship?? oh wait you don't win championships you just win money LOL

(skip to 17 min)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8B9VGOhWTg&feature=player_embedded



Did you really just make us ff to the 17 min mark to see a guy make a 3 railer while ducking in case he misses to prove sth? Really?
 
I'm curious of your reasoning of saying varner is a better banks player than efren? I'm not saying your wrong by any means, but as well as efren plays one pocket, kicks, and banks with such regularity and such accuracy, thats hard to say anybody can play banks better than efren...just curious...

varner was banking better than any living human for a while there. efren never had that status. after winning the derby banks one year, accustats set up a match between varner and daulton (a great banker). varner made him look like a little girl. the final game of that match he ran a 7 from the break (you need only 8).
 
varner was banking better than any living human for a while there. efren never had that status. after winning the derby banks one year, accustats set up a match between varner and daulton (a great banker). varner made him look like a little girl. the final game of that match he ran a 7 from the break (you need only 8).

I appreciate the informative parathesis, but I do know the game and rules and i know that varner was a great banker i also know that daulton is, but even like you said it was only for awhile. Efren ALWAYS comes with the banks, he plays them in games just the same as he would play a straight shot. I never denied varners ability, his record speaks for itself.
 
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