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

Well theres this guy..,

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!
 
First names that come to mind are Mark Tadd and Jon Kucharo. Both set the pro pool world on fire when they first appeared.
 
Cut some Slack!

There are no stupid questions I suppose.

I totally can see a basement player coming out of the blue. How can anyone think that a Pro pool player is the best ever. There is for sure a person who doesn't "care" about his/her game that will beat everyone. Think about chess players, millions who play, few who earn a living.
 
First names that come to mind are Mark Tadd and Jon Kucharo. Both set the pro pool world on fire when they first appeared.

I remember hearing the name Jon Kucharo a long time ago (back in the 90's). I heard he was a really great player. A hustler maybe? This guy from my local area used to talk about him sometimes (saying how he ran pretty even with him one night in a big money game, getting the 7 out, playing 9 ball). He told me that Jon loved the game so much that he would sleep with his pool cue. I thought of him as a road hustler. Never seen him play though. I imagine he was great.
 
The first one I can think of who might fall into that category was Harold Worst. ???
And "Cesar Morales" robbed 'em all at Red's 'way back when'. They didn't know what hit them. (But he was well seasoned from wars in the Phillipines.)

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.
 
Get the video

I remember hearing the name Jon Kucharo a long time ago (back in the 90's). I heard he was a really great player. A hustler maybe? This guy from my local area used to talk about him sometimes (saying how he ran pretty even with him one night in a big money game, getting the 7 out, playing 9 ball). He told me that Jon loved the game so much that he would sleep with his pool cue. I thought of him as a road hustler. Never seen him play though. I imagine he was great.

Accu-Stats has a few of his matches. Don't know where he is but he could really play.
 
mark Tadimy or Tadd was a great player that would play anyone. keep thinking we might see a comeback.
 
Shane was winning things like the VNEA nationals long before he turned pro. Those things made him fairly well known in amateur pool.

Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com

That's true but I remember him (or Big Nasty) posting a thread on AZB saying that anyone who would come to South Dakota could get played. And a lot of posters on here thought he was nuts. I remember people posting things like "So I could bring Corey..." And he was like "Bring 'em."

So even though he was a good player and had won a few things, there were a lot of people who didn't think he had proven himself yet.

I loved it when he started killing it.
 
That's true but I remember him (or Big Nasty) posting a thread on AZB saying that anyone who would come to South Dakota could get played. And a lot of posters on here thought he was nuts. I remember people posting things like "So I could bring Corey..." And he was like "Bring 'em."

So even though he was a good player and had won a few things, there were a lot of people who didn't think he had proven himself yet.

I loved it when he started killing it.

Good post!
 
That's true but I remember him (or Big Nasty) posting a thread on AZB saying that anyone who would come to South Dakota could get played. And a lot of posters on here thought he was nuts. I remember people posting things like "So I could bring Corey..." And he was like "Bring 'em."

So even though he was a good player and had won a few things, there were a lot of people who didn't think he had proven himself yet.

I loved it when he started killing it.

Anyone have a link to this thread or threads?
 
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
 
Are you framing the question as someone who only plays and practice at home, never or rarely interacts with their local pool community such as pool halls, leagues, and tournaments? Or including someone well known elsewhere (say top ten of Greece, Turkey, Taiwan, Philippines ) and sponsoring into a major US tournament?

I am curious about players in the past that have come onto the pro pool scene out of nowhere (players that nobody has ever seen or heard of) and just started beating everyone on the scene.

Have there been many players like this in the past?

Maybe players that just played by themselves on their home table, and never competed, until one day they just went onto the pro pool scene and started beating everyone (including all of the top pro's)?

I assume that if there were any players like this in the past, then it rarely ever happened (like a player that nobody has ever heard of, maybe even including the players home town, who just came onto the pro pool scene, and started to destroy everyone that they competed against).

Just a crazy thought I just had in my mind, but maybe there have been players like this in the past?

You can note international players too, if you do not know of any US players from the past that fit this description (of the way I describe any players coming onto the pro pool scene).

Thanks.
 
Svb

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.
 
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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