Who has the best 9 ball safety game now, and who had the best ever?

F

Febreze

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Curious to your thoughts as to who currently has the best safety game in roatation games like 9 ball or 10 ball and why theirs is the best. For current, i would have to say eithier Souquet or Alcano. Souqet wins it for his consistent safeties and Alcano gets a mention for his extremley elaborate and creative safeties.

Best of all time...im going to have to point out the obvious and say Efrens safety game, at his peak, was unmatched.

What do you guys think?
 
I will have to say Nick Varner. In his prime, he could runout with the best of them, but his patience on waiting for the opportunities were unmatched by anyone. His cue ball control on safety shots is/ was legendary. JMO.

Southpaw
 
I would have to say that Efren's kick safes help him take the "ever" title.. He made some of the sickest kicks to get safe I've ever seen!
 
Mike "Captain Hook" Sigel. When your nickname is Captain Hook in the game of pool, you have to be considered as one of the best.

In today's game, I would put my vote on Ralf Souquet or Francisco Bustamante. Both have an excellent safety game.
 
The question didn't specify man or woman, so I'm gonna hafta put Allison Fisher way up high on this list . In her prime (which I ain't too sure she's out of yet) she could hide the $hit out of an object ball or a cue ball. Hell, we've all seen her win matches on the strength of her safety play alone, not to mention her brilliant shooting/cue ball positioning.

Maniac
 
this is kinda of topic, but I played archer(for him to warm up) and I said "hook me much as possible-I'm sick of racking"(and him running every rack. He said "good idea", we only played for 30-40 minutes but when he locked me up, he locked me up. I'm a experienced player and knew waht I was looking at, man a few times he locked me up so tight the Efren couldnt hit them, I would give him back the shot for him to try and make a hit off his own safety and he couldnt make a good hit, How strong is that??? I have never felt so helpless in my life playing pool.


to answere the orignal question, I dont know, Varner, Hopkins, Miz all had diverse back grounds like Efren, the 9 Ballers like Earl, Archer or SVB might not be as creative. the easy answere is Efren, but I would like to hear from Jay, Jerru Forysith(sorry Jerry SP?), Grady, Billy to really get a solid answere. And if it is Efren whos #2?
 
Febreze said:
Curious to your thoughts as to who currently has the best safety game in roatation games like 9 ball or 10 ball and why theirs is the best. For current, i would have to say eithier Souquet or Alcano. Souqet wins it for his consistent safeties and Alcano gets a mention for his extremley elaborate and creative safeties.

Best of all time...im going to have to point out the obvious and say Efrens safety game, at his peak, was unmatched.

What do you guys think?
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Well they didn't call Mike Sigel captain hook for nothing..;)
 
Best defensive player in rotation games, by far in my opinion, is Efren Reyes. Defense, in my opinion, should be viewed as the combination of straight safety play and two-way shots, and if this is the measure, I think Efren raised the bar so high it may never be reached again. Nick Varner was the gold standard in defense before Efren came along, and is probably second best ever.

Today, I'd probably give Souquet the nod.
 
i guess if you believe in actual stats from accustats, they had howard vickery as the player who's opponents pocket least balls after one of his safeties.

this was a while back of course.... he was one of these guy who really took it to another level as far as "where can i put him so he cant hit it," as opposed to just getting a good hook. most good players will TRY and do this, but he really seemed to have a knack for it from what i saw.
 
enzo said:
i guess if you believe in actual stats from accustats, they had howard vickery as the player who's opponents pocket least balls after one of his safeties.
Click to expand...

Perhaps this stat could be tainted by the effect of a player losing position more often on the last few balls on the table. Hence being forced to play a safe. The opponent can only make 2's or 3's instead of 9's from such late safeties.

Joey mentioned that Efren drove Earl nuts in COM. To be honest, Earl lives a short drive from nuts.:p

Colin
 
Colin Colenso said:
Joey mentioned that Efren drove Earl nuts in COM. To be honest, Earl lives a short drive from nuts.:p

Colin
Click to expand...

There wasnt too much safety play in the last tape (last 20 racks or so). Efren broke and ran out like 12 of the first 16 racks on the last tape...

Southpaw
 
Can I Get an AMEN?

All-time best thats easy ... EFREN!

Todays best... if you havent seen "The Mexican" Chavez then watch him on AZBTV. He lock Tony Crosby up in Fort Knox and threw away the key.

He's a friend but i am in no way partial when it comes to his safe game.

Ask the pros down in Florida and NYC.

You would think these guys were bruce lee and not pool pros w/ all the kicking they had to do.
 
I've always liked Buddy Hall's safety game, and Nick's too!
Even though I've never really seen him play, I've heard that Howard Vickery one or two years held the highest percentage of all pros for safeties played that resulted in a ball in hand foul by his opponent! That's pretty sporty if you ask me!
 
In the days of Mike M., Reyes, Varner, and a few others there were just a few at the top of great in safety play. Today it would be hard for me to pick the best ten. It seems like all the top players todays have a very good safe game. If there is one thing that todays players are better at as a whole, it's safety play...IMO. Johnnyt
 
How easy they forget

Long before they were coming here Efren and all others were getting locked up by the greatest safety player Jose Parica. That is why he was called AMANG. It means teacher. As far as cue ball control Parica was tops. You couldnt place it better with your hands. Efren had to learn kicking cause Jose put him into so many jams. And I dont mean Jenny JAM. Cause you dont want to mess with her either.:eek:
 
there are a couple of videos on youtube which shows the great safety play of parica against efren. i think they both improved each other's game.....
 
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