What Buddy said about Lassiter

You forgot to mention that Buddy Hall was the only player to beat Efren into a coma! When he came to the USA. Check the records and stats you will see. And this was for big money. Are you aware of this match up? Facts not just a statement either.Thanks for your input. Buddy Hall is a 12 time world champion....
Many Regards,
Lock N Load.

Are you talking about one match here or a bunch over a year or several years? When Earl played Efren the race to 120 over 3 days, Earl was beating the crap out of him for two solid days, but lost overall.

If we took all the players who were the top 10 in the world per decade in the pool scene (not snooker or 3C top players), locked them in a room with a pool table, a snooker table and a 3C table, told them in 3 days they will open the door, I do think Efren will be the one with the cash. He may not beat the top snooker or 3C players, but he will beat the top 9 ball and 8 ball players at least an even amount of times, and would be better overall than anyone.

I learned to play pool from watching Buddy Hall and Efren and Varner, take the different shots they pick, pretty much all you need.
 
It's true that American players learned how to kick from the Philippinos.
Jose Parica was the player that first introduced this skill...Nick Varner
said it changed his outlook to the game....BUT...under the old roll-out
rules, this skill was never developed here because those rules need
shot making, not getting and hitting snookers.

Snookers became an important skill because of the '1 foul,ball in hand'
rule.


FWIW - when Wimpy and George were in their prime, there was no
'push out'. They played shoot-to-hit, if you failed to make a good hit,
your oponent had the option of making you shoot again from where the
cue ball stopped. George Rood told me on several occasions, he thought
push out had ruined 9 ball because it changed it from a 'players' game
into a 'shooters' game.

Dale
 
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FWIW - when Wimpy and George were in their prime, there was no
'push out'. They played shoot-to-hit, if you failed to make a good hit,
your oponent had the option of making you shoot again from where the
cue ball stopped. George Rood told me on several occasions, he thought
push out had ruined 9 ball because it changed it from a 'players' game
into a 'shooters' game.

Dale

I have played 'fire at 'em' many times...but around the sophisticated action
'push out' was the norm.
And I have seen George Rood play, when he was still healthy enough to be
Ohio State champion....he was playing 'push out'...no other way was even
discussed.

I think George would have liked 'one foul -ball in hand'...it does favor
'players' over 'shooters'.
 
No disrespect intended here as I agree Buddy is one of if not the best 9 ball players ever. However, my understanding is that Buddy caught Efren on the tail end of being up gambling for several days straight when he beat him. There's a BIG difference between playing somebody when they're fresh and when they've been up for two or three days straight. Whether or not Buddy had been up for the same amount of time I don't know. I'm willing to bet that if Efren had been fresh, it wouldn't have been such a beating or even a beating at all.

Let me get this straight for you. Buddy did not go looking for Efren. It was the other way around. Efren went looking for Buddy because he wanted to play the best USA players. So if Efren had been up gambling several days he should have avoided Buddy by all means! Now when he found Buddy he wish he had not found him! He was beaten into a coma by Buddy Hall. Buddy did not pick his players, he just beat whoever wanted a beating!!! No matter how you put it a win is just that, a win! If you are playing 9 ball and you luck the 9 do you win? Yes you do.... Efren had a bit of bad luck he found Buddy Hall.
Many Regards,
Lock N Load
 
I have played 'fire at 'em' many times...but around the sophisticated action
'push out' was the norm.
And I have seen George Rood play, when he was still healthy enough to be
Ohio State champion....he was playing 'push out'...no other way was even
discussed.

I think George would have liked 'one foul -ball in hand'...it does favor
'players' over 'shooters'.

You didn't see any push-out in the 50s, sophisticated or otherwise.

By the time you saw George - no one would play the 'old' way.

He didn't like one-foul either.

Dale
 
lassiter was quoted as saying that if it was one person who he would not enjoy playing for money, it would be harold worst.
And then there were stories about no one jumping out of there seat to offer and play harold when he walked into the pool room.

One other thing about the pocket sizes someone mentioned - in lassiter's day the pockets were bigger, and even according to mike sigel the pockets were bigger in his earlier days. Mike wishes we could go back to larger pockets because a lot of the players today cannot do some shots that he did back then.
ask ronnie allen who was the greatest pool player he ever saw. Harold worst, everybody dodged him. He won a world championship in 3 cushion billiards as well! There is a interview of ronnie talking about mr. Worst on youtube!
 
Well, Measureman,
I just got off of the phone with Buddy Hall and the answer to your question about Buddy saying that Lassiter was the best 9 ball player he had ever seen is, yes!! Buddy just told me that he says the same thing right now in 2012!! He was playing One Pocket for $300.00 a game and still answered the phone to talk to me!! That is a real friend! Nice post, Measureman.
Many Regards,
Lock N load.

Man, you gotta' love AZBilliards.
 
Isn't it nit picking after a certain point? I mean once you start talking about the upper upper echelon (Buddy, Earl, Sigel, etc.) it would just be determined by who is having the better day. Right?

Who wins on any given day might just be determined by who is having the better day, but there might be a fact of the matter as to who is the best ever over the course of an entire playing career, or at the peak of their game, even if the actual difference between best ever and next best ever is very slight.
 
No disrespect intended here as I agree Buddy is one of if not the best 9 ball players ever. However, my understanding is that Buddy caught Efren on the tail end of being up gambling for several days straight when he beat him. There's a BIG difference between playing somebody when they're fresh and when they've been up for two or three days straight. Whether or not Buddy had been up for the same amount of time I don't know. I'm willing to bet that if Efren had been fresh, it wouldn't have been such a beating or even a beating at all.


And this is like saying at the end of a boxing match if the fight would have gone 13 rounds you would have WON but you agreed to a 11 round boxing match. So it doesn't matter who had been up for 2 days or who slept for 2 days Buddy Hall beat Efren Reyes straight up even.
 
Of Don Willis---Mr Lassiter stated, Don had the eye of an eagle and the heart of a lion--that's verbatiem--Irvin(Bill) Lawson is another great player that Luther gave many praises to, that was the gent that helped Wade Crane with his break when Billy was young---one great 9 ball player, moved the cueball so smooth , it was scary--
I never got the chance to play Mr Lassiter in my day--but played Billy Johnson many times along with Irvin Lawson,,, Billy had the greatest admeration for both Luthor and Buddy and stated they both made their marks as great ones --World Champs--the days that push out was the game was changed to one shot foul because Lassitor dominated so much in pushout no one could beat him was what I remembered back in the day--Kicking at balls came in to play because of the rule changes from 2 shot foul to one---as far as who was the best in their day--they all were,and don't forget to include include Billy Johnson
 
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And this is like saying at the end of a boxing match if the fight would have gone 13 rounds you would have WON but you agreed to a 11 round boxing match. So it doesn't matter who had been up for 2 days or who slept for 2 days Buddy Hall beat Efren Reyes straight up even.

You should compare apples to apples and not apples to oranges. I'm not arguing that Buddy beat him. Just saying he had an edge in that particular session. To say that a player who is fresh doesn't have an edge over a player who has been up gambling for 2 or 3 days straight is just plain stupid. I don't care who went looking for who either. The fact remains, Buddy had a slight edge due to having less fatigue.
 
You should compare apples to apples and not apples to oranges. I'm not arguing that Buddy beat him. Just saying he had an edge in that particular session. To say that a player who is fresh doesn't have an edge over a player who has been up gambling for 2 or 3 days straight is just plain stupid. I don't care who went looking for who either. The fact remains, Buddy had a slight edge due to having less fatigue.

There was a lot more going in in that match that most people know. There is a whole back story that is relevant to the outcome. I was there, I watched it and even ref's on a couple of shots. Efren (and his backers) had won a small fortune already gambling, plus winning the Red's tournament. There was a lot of heat on them down there in South Texas. That's enough for now.
 
Well, Measureman,
I just got off of the phone with Buddy Hall and the answer to your question about Buddy saying that Lassiter was the best 9 ball player he had ever seen is, yes!! Buddy just told me that he says the same thing right now in 2012!! He was playing One Pocket for $300.00 a game and still answered the phone to talk to me!! That is a real friend! Nice post, Measureman.
Many Regards,
Lock N load.

Is Buddy still in Metropolis IL or has he moved?
 
unabashed plug

There was a lot more going in in that match that most people know. There is a whole back story that is relevant to the outcome. I was there, I watched it and even ref's on a couple of shots. Efren (and his backers) had won a small fortune already gambling, plus winning the Red's tournament. There was a lot of heat on them down there in South Texas. That's enough for now.
================

Guess will have to wait and buy the book. [lol]

Jay , l talked with Medina the other day, told me to tell you hello...pm me
 
This is a great thread.

tap tap tap.

I have a feeling that had Harold Worst not left us early, that Efren wouldn't have been crowned king quite so often, and that Buddy and
Earl would have their hands full. As to kicking in
today's game I can't think of any current top players who were also
world champs in 3c, and IMO no 'pool' player will come out on top kicking against a 3c player.... that's why Efren is so good.

I know they are all in different generations. Thanks to AZB we can all hear about them all!!

td
 
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Jay, if you're out there.... or anyone else that knows.... did Worst and Lassiter ever run into one another? Again, I know they were in different
generations.

td
 
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