Unknown US players who have come on to the pro pool scene and beat everyone?

Didn't

Tin Man said:
People knew SVB before he made it big, but it was still an overnight sensation story in my mind.

In 2004-2005 SVB came to my town and played the top local players. He played Jimmy Wetch 8 ball and did well. I backed Lee Heuwagen against him in some smaller sets and Lee came out one set winner. SVB was well known in the midwest. In 2005 he played the US Open and tied for 25th if my memory is correct.

The in 2006 the hammer dropped. He played Cory the race to 100 and it was a complete jaw dropper. He went from being an unknown to being mentioned as being a contender for the top money player in the world and a potential hall of famer. Billy and Grady went from wondering if he'd stand up to the pressure to wondering if there was a player on the planet that could beat him. He then won back to back US Opens and about everything else around. The rest is history.

Not only did he take his throne virtually overnight, he did practice up in his basement. Sure, he played tournaments, and cash games, and played leagues and stuff, and for a couple of years people knew someone in SD was playing well. But he wasn't running the roads for 5-10 years with other top players that took him under his wing. He drove himself, by himself.

Normally it takes a top player to breed another top player. Someone to show what the game can look like so you can stand on the shoulder of giants.

Every once in a while, though, a player can do better without those outside influences. Someone comes along that has a picture of what the game should look like in their mind that has never been seen before. Instead of limiting their imagination, they just practice in their basement until that is a reality, and it turns out that level of play was MORE than enough. SVB took pool to another level with his break and run game, and everyone has been playing catchup for 10 years.
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Shane come from a line of champions,,that might have been a huge help??
 
LAMas said:
When McCready was 21 and embarked on competing in professional pocket billiards in his homestate of California, he made an impression when, coming from behind, he ran nine straight racks of nine-ball in the finals, defeating Larry Hubbart, 11-6, to win the Sacramento Open Nine-ball Tournament.[17]

On St. Patrick's Day in 1984, McCready won the Clyde Childress Memorial Nine-ball Tournament at The Maverick Club in Richmond, Kentucky, which had a star-studded field consisting of pool phenoms Earl "The Pearl" Strickland, Buddy Hall, Ronnie Allen, Allen Hopkins, St. Louis Louie Roberts, and Terry Bell. Handing Earl "The Pearl" an 11-to-2 thrashing earlier in the double-elimination pool tournament, McCready faced him in the finals. Strickland had been a dominating force on the American pool tournament trail, and racing to 11 games for the win, the score became tied, 9-9. McCready triumphed, running out the next two games to claim the victory.[18]

McCready scored his first professional win, in October 1985, undefeated at the then-annual B.C. Open in Binghamton, New York, pocketing $25,000, which was considered a large purse for a pool tournament at that date. The venue featured capacity audiences each day. "A worthy champion and a colorful, exciting player, he deserved to win," writes pool veteran Grady Mathews.[19]

Wiki
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I backed Keith in the BC Open. 25K was a huge score then and would still be a big win today. Keith got 12.5K and went to Philly to gamble with Jimmy Fusco, giving him the eight ball on his home court. He came back to L.A a week later broke. I picked him up at the airport, drove him home to Orange County and loaned him $200 to get back on his feet. That was Keith, all in for everything, feast or famine! :smile:
 
justinb386 said:
No, it was just an example (of maybe why nobody would know who the player was), but I see now that it was a stupid example, lol.
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Justin , what's wrong with you bro? I can not believe this is still a question after I brought Mr. New York and Arizona Cash to your attention. Did you not bother to read the links At Larger so nicely has provided us ? Read them and that will put all questions to rest brother. " Unbelievable " players and accomplishments my man! Read up homie!!!!!

On A different note, not sure if this qualifies but I remember it was either 2007 or 2008 and I ran into BmoreTallPaul over at Running Out billiards one day and he asked me if I had ever heard of a kid named Van Boeing? I had not nor any of our local pool brethren. BmoreTallPaul had just gotten back from Derby and told us he had just seen a kid that was a world beater and was gonna be a stone cold champion. Tall Paul was ( is ) a respected pool guy, but we have all heard that kinda stuff before and take it with a grain of salt. Well; Mr. TALL was in fact correct, in every sense of the word. At the time the tails of what this kid SVB was doing was just that - tails - like the stories about the fish " that got away "! Lol. Well shortly after that those " fish tails " became reality and the rest " is history " as they say!!!
 
Cornerman said:
To the original question, I think names like Roger Griffis, George Breedlove, and CJ Wiley qualify. Of course they were known, but not known on the pro tournament trail until they seemingly came out of nowhere and did amazingly well in an era of Varner, Strickland, and Archer.

Freddie <~~~ not in the know
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To add, a good resource is the top 32 list billiards digest used to heave (not sure if they still do that). There are many "unknowns".. One comes to mind, Billy Aguero (sp?). Dominated the Bay Area in CA, went pro tour, cracked the top 32, then MIA. He was solid.
 
I think the star of this thread should be Keith Thompson

He was very young, nobody had any advance warning.....
...he won the 9-ball division and the all-round title at the 1970 Johnstoo City.
 
Earl Strickland. He showed up in New York with a as a teenager and beat a bunch of players and high rollers. No one knew who he was at the time, but by the time he left, they all knew who he was.
 
bstroud said:
Jay,

Do you have memory loss?

Remember the guy with a funny name that showed up for the first time at Red's Billiards in Houston?

Bill S.
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One of my friends first saw him play at a room in California. He called his friend on the house phone and said " You are never going to believe this, but some homeless Mexican is running racks of rotation right now."
 
EddieBme said:
I think the only player Efren Reyes aka (Cesar Morales) didn't beat, was Buddy Hall. Buddy watched the last few matches Efren played, and after Efren won the tournament, he and Buddy played a $20,000 challenge match, (I think 7 ahead, 9 ball) which Buddy won.
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.


:scratchhead:


Well if that happened, maybe because Efren was up almost all night playing around the
clock every night and had very little sleep. I was there and remember well.

He might a been a bit tired and when Buddy was more rested.

:eek:



.
 
poolguy4u said:
.


:scratchhead:


Well if that happened, maybe because Efren was up almost all night playing around the
clock every night and had very little sleep. I was there and remember well.

He might a been a bit tired and when Buddy was more rested.

:eek:



.
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Efren is the magician....but Buddy has always had a better stroke.
 
justinb386 said:
I am curious how known SVB was before he came onto the pro pool scene. Was he known just locally where he is from, or was he known nationally from amateur accomplishments? Sorry, I have always been pretty clueless about the pool scene, because I was never really in it, and never purchased the billiard magazines.
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Pretty well known. He's the son of Timi Bloomberg (former national champion) and, as Scott Lee mentioned, Shane won some big amateur events, so he was not some surprise out of nowhere.

Also, with the Derby City Classic, he was a young gun that everyone who attended got to watch year after year grow into a superstar.

Here's a thread. I apologize for the format (it happened a lot in those days of copy and paste where object linking wasn't so seamless), but it's nicely fixed in someone's quote of the initial post. I also apologize for horrible writing/non-editing. That also happens as a result of much drinking and loss of sleep at the DCC.

http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=24216

Freddie <~~~ needs more sleep
 
King T said:
Josh Roberts!

Double dipped Alex P in the finials..., double dipped Dennis O last week in the finials

No body other then Alex, Tony and Frost have to like play'n him One Pocket.

That might qualify you as a player!
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You forget Dennis and Jason Brown
 
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