I would pay for his earliest videos. There's one of him playing earl in 86, but that's ONE from that decade. I have a low-down video of Efren playing OP in 90? Against Grady. It's pretty awesome.
How special Efren is
- Thread starter TrumanHW
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I would pay for his earliest videos. There's one of him playing earl in 86, but that's ONE from that decade. I have a low-down video of Efren playing OP in 90? Against Grady. It's pretty awesome.
Deuel is an awful one pocket player. He shoots the wrong shot consistently. Watching him is a perfect example of a "shooter" playing a "mover".
Efren is the best one pocket player of all time, followed immediately by Ronnie Allen.....the list is way down before the next guy comes to my list.
If you are suggesting Efren is number 50, I would love to see the next 49 above him.
Ken
IrishToad
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After watching Efren for years I feel like the closest player to compare to him currently would have to be Orcollo. He may not be as big of a name in tournament play but Efren has said on multiple occasions he won't gamble with Dennis anymore because he can't win. He's supposedly the best all around cash game player right now. I've seen a bunch of his one pocket matches and he tends to shy away from the power one pocket that is so prevalent now. He strikes me as more of a mover than a shooter even though he seems to make almost everything that rolls toward his hole. He has great mechanics and doesn't seem too cocky or arrogant. Maybe in ten years we will be referring to him as we do Efren now.
I've played many of the "all time greats" and .........
Most of the champions believe that Buddy Hall was certainly one of the very best.....if not THE best 9 Ball player of all time. I've played many of the "all time greats" and several on any given day was the best.....Efren and Buddy had more of those days.
Most of the champions believe that Buddy Hall was certainly one of the very best.....if not THE best 9 Ball player of all time. I've played many of the "all time greats" and several on any given day was the best.....Efren and Buddy had more of those days.
Unfortunately, not much on YouTube...you'd need to order from Accustat. Mizerak and Hall moved the ball awesome and had near perfect technique/stroke. Toby Sweet had the prettiest stroke. I loved watching CJ Wiley play those few years he was near the top, a totally dominating 9 ball game. And of course there's Earl. I wish there was more footage of Harold Worst. Jose Parica was more feared than Efren when Efren first came over, but that didn't last long. I think you probably know more Filipino players than anyone on this board, you tell us...
But if we're looking for someone who plays the game as well as Efren did in his prime, we'll quickly run out of options. I wish there was footage of Alfred d'Oro...those great players we have seen early footage of supposedly couldn't carry his stick, he was allegedly the most gifted player in history...kind of a Cuban Efren, but maybe better...?
Briefly I got a little bit into horse racing and handicapping. And OMG, Secretariat at Belmont was one of the greatest things in ALL games EVER. So now I MUST watch that 1P match!!
KMRUNOUT
Don't just watch that match. Buy/rent/borrow all of the Efren 1p matches from that year. I forgot the order of play in the final few rounds, but Efren played Parica, Pagulayan and someone else world class and absolutely destroyed them. I mean the gap in play was like between an A+ and B player, they were completely helpless. I honestly don't remember if any of those 3 guys before Miller even made a single ball in any of their games. And Miller, who was playing the best pool of his life, and had just dominated the field in banks was blown right off the table. It was the best one pocket I've ever seen and I own pretty much every single accustats 1p DVD. It was akin to when Tiger woods won by 15 strokes in the 2000 US Open.
Efren is amazing.
back in the '80s when he was not real well known there was a player in NJ named Richie Hanson.Richie could play pretty good. Good enough to come in 12th at the US Open one year so I respected his opinion. He told me that Efren did things with the cue ball that he had never seen before and did not know were possible.
back in the '80s when he was not real well known there was a player in NJ named Richie Hanson.Richie could play pretty good. Good enough to come in 12th at the US Open one year so I respected his opinion. He told me that Efren did things with the cue ball that he had never seen before and did not know were possible.
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Efren plays great and has a great attitude,but i commented to him after a tough match one time,and he looked at me like i was stupid and didnt say anything. I thought,what an asshole,if you comment to Earl nice match he will tell you all about it,he has something to say to you. I said something to Dennis O. and SVB and they snubbed me too,so i say if you can even be curtious enough to smile and say hello,you arent worth spit to me. Alex P....Corey...Buddy...Earl...JA....Schmitt...will all talk to you,they have a personality,some of these others dont. McCready...Hopkins...Siegal...all the old champs will talk to you. The new guys think they are too special to talk to you i guess...i say the heck with them,they have no personality,who cares how good they play,they are just robots playing pool,without a personality.
Also, efren did say in the tar podcast with Shane that he would pick Nick as a partner if he had to make the choice! That tells you how much respect he has for his game!
Efren is the greatest all around player I've ever watched. I've watched all the greats from the 70's on up. There are many great players but Efren has that something special that other players didn't have. What's scary is Efren said he played his best pool in the 70's!!! Imagine if they had modern video back then, guarantee you would see some sick stuff!!! Busty talks about him spotting him 46 points in rotation and said "I couldn't win a single game" how strong is that
Yeah, there were times in the late 90s at HT where I failed to give my undivided because A, I was too much of a beginner to even realize the beauty and intention of OP and didn't realize that we'll never have another guy like him.
Deuel is an awful one pocket player. He shoots the wrong shot consistently. Watching him is a perfect example of a "shooter" playing a "mover".
Efren is the best one pocket player of all time, followed immediately by Ronnie Allen.....the list is way down before the next guy comes to my list.
If you are suggesting Efren is number 50, I would love to see the next 49 above him.
Ken
What I was remarking on with Deuel is his creativity, cue ball control, general talent. But yes, he's unorthodox and might not see the statistics as conventional players do. Yet, he is very often the last 4-8 people in DCC etc. Go figure.
Most of the champions believe that Buddy Hall was certainly one of the very best.....if not THE best 9 Ball player of all time. I've played many of the "all time greats" and several on any given day was the best.....Efren and Buddy had more of those days.
Hall was my favorite player back when I used to derive enjoyment from watching 9 ball...and most of the hall matches that I was able to see (I'm late to the party) were primarily on 4-7/8" cloth. H'e extremely economical and keeps close to the ball. The 2/3 sets at the sands that archer beats him was brutal btw; he blitzes him in the first set 7-2 then loses 6-7, 6-7 with a few bad rolls throughout.
That said, Earl is my favorite player to watch (when he's in gear and doesn't put the give up stroke on). Shockingly, perhaps the most sensational Earl videos I've ever seen are the TAR match of Earl vs. SVB on the 5-10 with the gaffed up pockets. It took such obscene precision for ball pocketing.
If anyone has any influence on Justin, plead with him to upload that to Vimeo so we can purchase it. Its OUTSTANDING.
How I wrote what I wrote was intended as hyperbolic and to denote that for all we know, if pool tables and iphones (cameras) existed during the epoch of the Cro-Magnon maybe there'd have been humanoids who could have outplayed Efren. We can't know--it's not testable (epistemologically...this falls under the falsifiability/argument from ignorance category).
Is there a place to watch the whole match? I have seen bits of it
Another is Efren vs Billy Palmer.. not only the 2 off the nipple shots but he Efren really plays awesome one pocket that match
Another is Efren vs Billy Palmer.. not only the 2 off the nipple shots but he Efren really plays awesome one pocket that match