It's difficult to say there was just one player that was "the best". All the great champions had areas of brilliance - It was brutal facing the "perfect stoke and position play" of Buddy Hall, The awesome overall game of Steve Mizerak, the shot making offense of Earl Strickland, the devastating break and run packages of Johnny Archer and Tony Ellin, the tenacity and consistency of Nick Varner, the strategic mastery of Allen Hopkins, the natural talent of Rodney Morris, the kicking ability and overall games of the Filipino players, there were SO MANY great players in that era.
The gambling match with Efren Reyes (at the all filipino pool room) in Seattle was the toughest game I ever played for a long period of time. We played nearly 14 hours and I had already played Rudolpho Luat over 10 hours that same day. We were betting tens of thousands per set as well.
I would say it's a tie between Buddy, Earl, Johnny, and Efren with honor able mentions to Bustemante, Varner, Hopkins, Sigel, Mizerak, Rempe, D. Howard, McCready, W. Crane, R. Morris, Hatch, Ellin and Parica.
