As far as tournament play, Sigel has to be #1. He had a winning record against Varner overall, who was one of his biggest rivals and best friends. Mizerak and Sigel were the dominant 14.1 players of their era, with Nick, Rempe and Hopkins not far behind. Sigel was also the best 9-Ball player in tournaments, along with Earl. Again Nick was nearly as good and nearly as successful, but not quite. Varner's Bank Pool game is celebrated but Sigel played just as good, and as good as Nick was in One Pocket, Sigel also did better in tournament play.
Now when it came to gambling, that's a whole other story. Both Nick and Mike did gamble, but Nick was a monster for the cash. Mike meanwhile had to be a little more careful. Efren schooled Mike in 9-Ball and Rotation at Red's in Houston. But I saw Mike hold his own playing Banks with Tony Fargo, who was one of the top Bankers in the country. Somehow I have the feeling that one day a long, long time ago these two guys matched up for the cash, as pool players are known to do when they first meet. I would bet that Nick came out on top when that happened.
Nick was a winner in pool and in life, so his all around accomplishments put him on top of my list of pool players. Mike was one of the greatest pool players who ever lived and could play all games at the highest level. That much is a certainty. Both were great all around players, two of the best ever. Let's just leave it at that.
I will only add this. It was a golden era in pool when Mike, Nick, Miz, Rempe, Hopkins, Buddy, Earl, Efren and Parica and a host of others were fighting for the money and the titles, and I was fortunate to see all of them play. I could name a couple of dozen other players from that era who were all capable of knocking off any one of the above on a given day as well. Mike, Nick, Buddy and Earl were the big winners overall though. Efren had a long cold spell when he couldn't win a 9-Ball tournament and Parica wasn't always here to play in them, but when he was....look out!
P.S. I didn't say anything about Johnny because he came along in the 90's when some of the other guys were winding down their careers. Of the above players, only Buddy, Earl, Efren and Parica remained active throughout the 90's. Nick continued to play, but had other priorities in business and family life by that time. Sigel retired in the early 90's and Mizerak's game fell off. Earl, Johnny, Buddy, Parica and Efren were the top guns, tournament wise in the 90's and beyond. I will add this; Buddy Hall had the longest and most successful career of all of them, over 30 years on top. He won more pool tournaments than anyone else by a wide margin. I'm guessing he won over 200 tournaments in his career, counting big and small tables. Of all the players mentioned, Buddy was the only one who dominated the bar tables as well as the big tables. He could switch back and forth week to week and day to day if necessary and never miss a beat. He was the most active of all the top players, riding the roads from state to state and chasing pool tournaments wherever they were being played, week after week, and winning, winning, winning! To this day, I doubt if anyone knows the highways east of the Mississippi better than Buddy Hall.