you're right. he definitely has the game and seems to have a great temperament. how he plays outside of his native region, we don't know. and to my knowledge he hasn't won any title worth mentioning. to say that he's currently just a very strong regional player is factually correct, but may be blasphemous to the fargoholics
QATAR WORLD CUP 10 BALL, OCT. 28 to NOV. 2, 2025
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you're right. he definitely has the game and seems to have a great temperament. how he plays outside of his native region, we don't know. and to my knowledge he hasn't won any title worth mentioning. to say that he's currently just a very strong regional player is factually correct, but may be blasphemous to the fargoholics
That's certainly a reasonable point of view, but I'll take the view that I have seen enough from him to judge him as very elite.
I do not concur that one needs to validate their pedigree by traveling. One of America's greatest ever players was a fellow from Ohio named George Rood, whose prime coincided with that of Mosconi. He rarely traveled to a tournament and rarely gambled far from home. Still, every action player knew to avoid him in his prime, and there were less than ten that would ever match up with him in action without a spot. I do, however, agree that unless one wins major titles, one is not in the discussion with the greatest, and to win major titles, one must travel.
Guess I agree with you to some extent, but there's not a doubt in my mind that Ameer Ali is a Top 20 player in the world, not a guy you much want to see in your draw and anyone who sees him as a big longshot against any of today's stars has his game underrated.
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Iwishiwasrich
Well-known member
Has anyone watched SVB and Ali match yet? I want to know how the cue ball did what it did in rack 4 on SVB's break. Weirdest action I've ever seen.
that was crazy! Got to be a mega cut break with that kind of reaction. Would be nice if someone more knowledgeable explained what caused such movement. Really liked the match even though it was long. They did improve the view of the table also. Too bad the volume had to be off
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SVB got unlucky after he shot the combo. A little less hard and the 8 ball ends up near the side pocket for a shot. That exchange likely doomed him for the match. But a great sequence to watch.
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very high quality from both. but i wonder how many misses and scratches shane had in that match, because it felt like a lot
We know travel takes a toll on pool players. We don't see it as visibly as in other sports, but away teams always underperform relative to home teams.
That's why most of the best players put a big emphasis on conditioning nowadays. It's even more important with events spread so far and wide.
It's also a lot easier to focus on the few big matches you play each year, rather than when you play top players regularly.
After Ali beat SVB, he laid out his strategy in an interview. He said he played very conservatively early in the match so he could build a lead. Once he had a lead, he could play more comfortably and aggressively.
It worked out for him, but he really prepared for the match. It was his biggest ever. After he won, he dedicated his win to all the people of Iraq. This is not something you can or would do playing top players regularly.
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As good as Ali looks - he definitely passes the eye test - he doesn't have a lot of big wins over bigname players. He win over SVB is his biggest yet. He has also beaten Robbie Capito, Max Lechner, Anton Raga and Luong Duc Thien. A thin resume of big wins for now.
Not knocking him. He has a great story. It would be even better if he could play pool full time.
not happening.. just look at soufi, who doesn't have a german passport yet, or snooker's hossein vafaei from iran who's been hamstrung for over a decade because of his passport
Very well said. Most of the time, those having a full-time career aren't able to give it up. It's interesting to compare two New Jersey educators of the 1970's.
One was a college math professor who won the US Open 14.1 event twice in a row. He would not give up his career and remained a math professor. His name was Tom Jennings.
The other was a schoolteacher who won four consecutive US Open 14.1 events. He loved to teach but he gave it all up to play pool full time. His name was Steve Mizerak.
Most, when faced with this kind of choice, go the Tom Jennings route, so it seems probable that Ameer Ali will continue to focus on the kitchen appliance company that he owns.
... but you never know. Even as a part time player, he adds something to our sport.
I'm not disagreeing with you.
But I will point out his big losses are even thinner.
Amongst opponents 813 and up, he has wins (8 of them) over SVB, Raga, Duong, Capito, Lechner*2, Alex P, and Mario He.
His losses (5 of them) against that group are against Gorst, Zielinski, Duong, and Dang.
That's over 200 games against 813+ and the specific performance rating is 856.
And here's the interesting thing.
What if none of those matches happened--or we labeled them lucky and threw them all out--and he was rated just on the 24 matches against opponents between 700 and 812 (medium 782). Of those he won 18 and lost 6. That's 331 games and includes Kledio Kaci, Roland Garcia, Ruslan, DeLuna, Hsu, Soufi, Morra, Luong, Stepanov, Van Lierop, etc and several others. These are the matches fans have paid a little less attention to.
We would rate him around 849. And this is independent of the other rating.
Right now he's next to SVB, Ko, Ko, Gorst in the ratings... Should he be there? Or should he be near Shaw, Kaci, Ouschan instead.
I don't know. But I think it's probably one of those.
And I concede he loses the Passport-Stamp Derby
And the Frequent-Flier-Mile Open
And the Time-zone challenge
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Watched a couple of matches yesterday and here's my takeaways. The Yalin tables are quite a bit softer than the Rasson tables used last week in Manila. It's easier to run out a rack of Ten Ball here than it was a rack of 9-Ball last week. Personally I like tight tables for elite level players. Just a better test of their overall skill.
I do not like Alternate Racks! There is no flow to the game. It actually seems awkward to me. Let the big dogs run!
I cannot find any live stream, only highlight reels of completed matches on Youtube.
Kyle Amoroto, the banned player, and Kaci had an excellent match. I'd like to see more of him in big events and not just gambling matches.
Mark Anthony from the PI gave Filler all he could handle in the first round. He matched him shot for shot and game for game. A costly error on a simple safety gave Filler the opening he needed to win the match.
It will get more interesting in the SE stages. This is all just the prelims now.
I do not like Alternate Racks! There is no flow to the game. It actually seems awkward to me. Let the big dogs run!
I cannot find any live stream, only highlight reels of completed matches on Youtube.
Kyle Amoroto, the banned player, and Kaci had an excellent match. I'd like to see more of him in big events and not just gambling matches.
Mark Anthony from the PI gave Filler all he could handle in the first round. He matched him shot for shot and game for game. A costly error on a simple safety gave Filler the opening he needed to win the match.
It will get more interesting in the SE stages. This is all just the prelims now.
That's not a particularly thin resume given how few events he has in the system. It means on average he has taken down a top player every tournament.
Again, after all these years its hard to believe people don't understand how Fargo works ^^^
Ameer Ali plays beautiful pool. I don’t know his personal background but it couldn’t have been an easy path.
5 misses and 7 fouls for Shane (1 shot was both); 2 of each for Ameer.
It's not like Shane played that bad
It was a tough match with lots of defensive play.What's the stats for that match? Do you keep innings also?