Rocket Ronnie 9 ball Question...

TheOne

TheOne

www.MetroPool.club
Silver Member
I keep hearing rumours about ronnie playing in the WPC, just wondered if anyone has ever seen him play 9 ball? For those who saw him win the WSC recently the mind boggles at the prospect? Surely the greatest natural talent ever to pick up a cue in any cue sport? He makes drago look like an average potter, not sure how the Americans would respond to him? Imagine if he started playing Earl left handed because it was too easy for him LOL - the guy would explode!

Anyway, i don't want this to turn into a 9 Ball v Snooker debate as I know many snooker pro's that just don't have a "pool brain" and are hopeless at it despite their potting ability. On second thoughts, I would love to see some sort of cross sport mosconi cup, maybe top 5 snooker players v top 5 9 ball players?

Davis / Drage / Ronnie / White / Hann are my snooker top 5 - could they beat the best of 9 ball?
 
TheOne said:
I keep hearing rumours about ronnie playing in the WPC, just wondered if anyone has ever seen him play 9 ball? For those who saw him win the WSC recently the mind boggles at the prospect? Surely the greatest natural talent ever to pick up a cue in any cue sport? He makes drago look like an average potter, not sure how the Americans would respond to him? Imagine if he started playing Earl left handed because it was too easy for him LOL - the guy would explode!

Anyway, i don't want this to turn into a 9 Ball v Snooker debate as I know many snooker pro's that just don't have a "pool brain" and are hopeless at it despite their potting ability. On second thoughts, I would love to see some sort of cross sport mosconi cup, maybe top 5 snooker players v top 5 9 ball players?

Davis / Drage / Ronnie / White / Hann are my snooker top 5 - could they beat the best of 9 ball?
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I'd love to see Ronnie play nine ball, and like you, I suspect he'd be counted among the best very quickly if he did. He is, as you say, an awesome talent, and I've gotten to watch him play snooker many times. He is very gifted.

As for "the greatest natural talent ever to pick up a cue in any cue sport", that would be Efren Reyes, who must be counted among the best ever in each of eight ball, nine ball, one pocket, and rotation. He also plays snooker and three cushion billiards at a very high level, and even managed second and third place in two US Open straight pool events. His all-around excellence is without precedent in cuesports, and I have grave doubts that cuesports will produce a greater natural talent than Efren anytime soon.

Just one man's opinion.
 
sjm said:
I'd love to see Ronnie play nine ball, and like you, I suspect he'd be counted among the best very quickly if he did. He is, as you say, an awesome talent, and I've gotten to watch him play snooker many times. He is very gifted.

As for "the greatest natural talent ever to pick up a cue in any cue sport", that would be Efren Reyes, who must be counted among the best ever in each of eight ball, nine ball, one pocket, and rotation. He also plays snooker and three cushion billiards at a very high level, and even managed second and third place in two US Open straight pool events. His all-around excellence is without precedent in cuesports, and I have grave doubts that cuesports will produce a greater natural talent than Efren anytime soon.

Just one man's opinion.
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I agree that from what I have seen efren seems to stand out above the rest in what I would call the American games (crap term). But the thing is all those games are played on the same style table / cushions / balls. I have never seen efren play on a proper snooker table, eg steel back cushions and tournament sized pockets and balls but I'm not sure he would be able to compete with the top pro's in that sport. I recently saw efren play one pocket on a DVD and even though he was having a bad day I doubt if it would be possible for ronnie to miss some of the balls he missed even with his left hand!

It would love to see Ronnie play 9 ball and efren play snooker, maybe just them to go at it over a long distance, now that I would pay to see! Maybe if efren wins the WPC which he has every chance to do as he seems to be the form player someone can get it on! The two champions in a long haul double match up!
 
I tend to disagree with Efren being the greatest "natural talent".

If you have seen Ronnie at the top of his play, he does not miss. He can play both hands, making century breaks with both of them. He is even contemplating playing a whole season with his other hand, I would not be surprised if he could win some tournaments!!
 
Supposedly he actually got fined for shooting opposite handed against someone and beating them as it was "poor sportmanship".

The greatest snooker players are not neccessarily going to make the best 9-ball players, the game takes a different style and mindset.

Davis is very good, but he does give up some to the best. He cannot be said to be at the level of a Busta, Archer, Yang, Pagulayan, Souquet, ect...

White, Jimmy White I am asuming you mean. This guy could have been a great 9-ball player if he had started at that game instead or got into it earlier. As good as the best? Yeah I think he would have ben up there.

Ronnie? The 9-ball world dodged a bullet here. The guy shoots snooker like it IS 9-ball. His style is perfect for 9-ball and he would pick up on the game very easy. If he had played the game from the start, or even picked it up and practiced it alot he would be awesome, as good as anyone, if he broke well he would beat almost anyone in a long set I imagine. This guy already plays spin and rails alot more then any other snooker player, he would own 9-ball IMO.
 
I saw ronnie play 9-ball on cable. I think it was from a long time ago. I wasnt impressed with the way he played. Although I must say that he probably didnt take the match seriously though
 
Buckster_uk said:
I tend to disagree with Efren being the greatest "natural talent".

If you have seen Ronnie at the top of his play, he does not miss. He can play both hands, making century breaks with both of them. He is even contemplating playing a whole season with his other hand, I would not be surprised if he could win some tournaments!!
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For me Efren is the greatest natural talent in cue sports. Maybe Ronnie is the greatest talent in snooker, no doubt about that. JMO
 
Ronnie O'Sullivan played at the Mosconi Cup back in 1997

http://www.mosconicup.com/history_1997.asp

IMHO, Ronnie would find a little challenge in 9-ball and if he wanted to play well, he would need to have a lot of motivation in 9-ball and if he struggles with motivation on a snooker table, how could he maintain his concetration on a pool table? Undoubtly he would make a great pool player but he would need to learn a lot about kicks, bank shots, safeties and angles etc. which are not used in snooker a lot. Snooker players tend to have more accuracy on potting balls, but they would take many shots for granted at a pool table and therefore make errors. Seen that happening quite a few times with very skillful snooker players...
 
Good call mjannti

You only need to look at Mark Williams to see how a top snooker player fares in the WPC. He is acknowledged as one of the greatest potters in snooker, yet put him on an american table and he is all at sea.

I imagine you could put Ronnie in the same boat.
 
Raistlin said:
You only need to look at Mark Williams to see how a top snooker player fares in the WPC. He is acknowledged as one of the greatest potters in snooker, yet put him on an american table and he is all at sea.

I imagine you could put Ronnie in the same boat.
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Actually Ronnie plays with a totally different style then Mark Williams, that is a totally wrong way to decide who can play 9-ball. By the same token I could say "well look at how Archer plays Snooker, not world class so you can throw Efren into the same boat" Or make the arguement for Carom billiards, or whatever. You cannot say O'Sullivan would do poorly in 9-ball because Williams did, they are totally different players and what one might not be able to do or have the style to excel at means nothing about the other.
 
that is like saying ...

snooker player vs pool player playing 9 ball ...

That is like saying a great softball player would be a great baseball player....
Some would and some wouldn't ... Similiar, but yet still different ...

Never meant a snooker player that I couldn't get the best of on a pool table...
( ref: Canadien snooker players going to Nationals in Vegas, and the greatest snooker player I ever saw in person, Monty Nuss from Jetmore, Ks., who ran 2 consecutive Snooker tables without missing using only the 6 and 7 balls for the point balls, but I could always best him playing 8 or 9 ball)

You have to know more than just pocketing balls and putting a little spin on the ball. Snooker is a great game, don't get me wrong, but each game has different aspects about it that make it unique, and players have to learn everything about the game they are going to play, not just part of them, to be great at the game.
 
So how did Tony Drago get to the semi finals of the WPC and win the WP Masters?

Also I seem to remember Steve Davis coming back from 8:0 down to beat the "greatest?" Reyes 9:8 sometime back and Davis can't even break!

Yes there are lots more skills to learn but I would still give the snooker guys a chance although obviously the 9 ball players would be favs.
 
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Snapshot9 said:
snooker player vs pool player playing 9 ball ...

That is like saying a great softball player would be a great baseball player....
Some would and some wouldn't ... Similiar, but yet still different ...

Never meant a snooker player that I couldn't get the best of on a pool table...
( ref: Canadien snooker players going to Nationals in Vegas, and the greatest snooker player I ever saw in person, Monty Nuss from Jetmore, Ks., who ran 2 consecutive Snooker tables without missing using only the 6 and 7 balls for the point balls, but I could always best him playing 8 or 9 ball)

You have to know more than just pocketing balls and putting a little spin on the ball. Snooker is a great game, don't get me wrong, but each game has different aspects about it that make it unique, and players have to learn everything about the game they are going to play, not just part of them, to be great at the game.
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You must be awesome then. Brady Gollan, Bernie Mikkelsen, Paul Potier, John Jorgenson, John Horsfall, these are all Canadian snooker players who took up 9-ball. I have met few people who are not well known pros that want any of the people on that list, and it is by no means complete. Canadians have showed alot of dominance in Vegas in the BCA and VNEA 8-ball chamionships, and most of the best Canadians started as great snooker players.
 
Three of us are ex snooker players and we werent even close to being pro's, some of you pool players are laughably nieve :)
 
Slasher said:
Three of us are ex snooker players and we werent even close to being pro's, some of you pool players are laughably nieve :)
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Who the heck is on your team? The only person I even recognize is Carlos. He also won the open singles, I am not sure if he started as a snooker player, I would not doubt it. Even as good as Carlos is on the box he is a few steps short of the top ex-snooker players that now play 8-ball and 9-ball. Take Bernie Mikkelsen, former snooker player that in 1 year was ranked pro for life by the BCA and VNEA due to winning pretty much everything he entered in 1997 including the Northern Lights tourney with such players as Marcus Chamat, Johnny Archer, Nick Varner, ect... in the field. How about Brady Gollan, another ex snooker player that recently won on the Pechauer West Coast Tour as reported on this site. Paul Potier, the points leader on the Pechauer West Coast Tour, yep, ex snooker player. How about John Horsfall, not quite good enough to win in Europe on the snooker tour, 2 times winner of the Sands tourney and 3rd place in the US open. And what ya really got to understand are these guys were nowhere near a Ronnie O'Sullivan, not even close yet they compete pretty well at 9-ball at the pro level.

My team got 4th in the Canadians this year, the top 3 teams, yep a bunch of snooker players. The top team, Vince McIntyre, Al Porter, Chris Woods, Al Logan, Dale Sweet and Joe Lawrence, a bunch of old snooker players that shoot awesome pool.

Slasher is right, you don't have a clue how good some of these snooker trained players are and how unreal the best snooker players could be if they dropped snooker and decided to take up pool as their main game. Ronnie O'Sullivan would in 2 years be lightyears past where Horsfall is, he would be giving the top 9-ball players in the world heart attacks. All of the very good but not quite pro snooker players have become very good pro/semi pro 9-ball players, none of the top snooker players in the world have ever put their time or effort into 9-ball to show us what they could manage.
 
In no particular order :)
Randy White
Larry Letham
Larry Anderson
Lance Mason
Carlos Santos
 
I have to agree with celtic, about the no so great snooker players giving the top 9 ball players a game without much dedication. I can understand how this upsets 9 ball purests but it doesn't change the facts.

I may be wrong but I hear a rumour that Johl Younger is packing in the main snooker tour in the UK to take up 9 ball. I think johl is ranked about 80ish in the worl snooker and I seem to remember him doing ok in a few 9 ball comps. It will be interesting to see how he does if he does take it up full time as I guess although 80th in the world is a great acheivment, most people would say he hasn't made it at snooker.

I'm sure many people on this board haven't seen ronnie in full flow and even if they did they probable couldn't comprehend how good he is. For example take his maximum breaks, especially the one in around 5 mins, under pressure and in front of the camera's. He potted 36 balls on a 12 foot tight ass match table taking all blacks with the reds in aroung 5 minutes! Not only that there was 147,ooo POUNDS on the line if he missed!

I guess since Earl probably potted quite a few balls off the break when he did his ten in a row it would be like him doing those ten racks in about 10 minutes and cut the pockets in half! If thats not enough ask Earl if he could do ten racks left handed!

I would give my right arm to be ambidextrous! :-)
 
BTW didn't that Carlos guy lose early and end up winning the open from the losers side playing about twice as many games as everyone else! I missed the final but I think he beat some pillock with two gloves LOL

PS
Are you guys playing in the BCA now, if so how is Carlos going in the Masters?
 
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