Who is the best small pocket table 9 ball player in america?

I thought that people would think I was crazy throwing Dennis Hatches name out there, but he gets my vote. At Caps Cue Club in Syracuse, Hatch ran 125 on there triple shimmed gold crown and then he and his backer left. This is second hand, but I've heard the story multiple times by different sources.
 
skip2134 said:
I thought that people would think I was crazy throwing Dennis Hatches name out there, but he gets my vote. At Caps Cue Club in Syracuse, Hatch ran 125 on there triple shimmed gold crown and then he and his backer left. This is second hand, but I've heard the story multiple times by different sources.
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Dennis makes it look easy, too. For the cash? Get outta here.
 
predator said:
I think if the race is long enough (make that very long) it won't matter if the pocket is 4.5 inches or 4 inches...the best guys will always prevail.
One thing I noticed about great players is that when they feel confident, balls go straight through the middle of the pocket, so the pocket size won't matter much (if it is reasonable of course). Smaller pockets can still be cheated and pros will use even that sometimes.
Answer? The same guys who you think about when thinking about greatest US 9ballers in general.

Just for the sake of argument, let's say we have a 5 inch bucket pocket table. Also let's assume that for this table we need a race to 100 to determine who is the better player between the two.
Now if we reduce the pocket size to 4.125 let's say, does that mean we won't need the race to 100 to determine who the better player is? Maybe a race to 50 would be enough then?
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I agree; the best players will have the best results, whatever the pocket size. On the big pockets, however, 9-ball becomes all about who can make a ball on the break every time (for the pros, I mean). On smaller pockets, you start to actually see them miss from time to time, meaning you start to see a noticeable difference between the lower-tier pros and the champions.

As far as your second question, I think it's undoubtedly true that tighter pockets will mean the better player will rise to the top, even in shorter races. The more both players struggle and make mistakes, the easier it is to see which one is better.

-Andrew
 
john schmidt said:
all the top guys play great on small pockets.


i got a friendly game for them.
anyone thats played at garys victor billiards can attest to the tightness of table 2. 4 and 1/8 th inch pockets.

anyway my friend one day in there said john ill let you play the 12ball ghost for cheap sets.
anyway races to 13 i ran a 13 and out ,two 11 packs and ended up about 40 ahead in 2 days.after about 8 or 9 sets i was 40 games winner and never came close too losing a set.

this was in front of the whole poolroom.


believe me if somebody wants to try the game anybody but a world champ can get action at that game on the table i did it on.as a matter of a fact i bet gary would let anybody try it.

i played some of the greatest pool of my life too beat the game that bad.
anyway alot of guys can play on 4 inch pockets ,to figure out whos the best is going to be tough.
gary said no one on earth could have played better than i did .
if only i would play as good against humans as i do the ghost lol.

and yes i lost a 6 ahead set for 2000 playing the 12ball ghost in vegas on a horrible table.


garys is tighter but is clean and plays more accurate so ill try it again.
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i like to see you try this and video it. john i have great respect for you and your game.
 
Andrew Manning said:
I agree; the best players will have the best results, whatever the pocket size. On the big pockets, however, 9-ball becomes all about who can make a ball on the break every time (for the pros, I mean). On smaller pockets, you start to actually see them miss from time to time, meaning you start to see a noticeable difference between the lower-tier pros and the champions.

As far as your second question, I think it's undoubtedly true that tighter pockets will mean the better player will rise to the top, even in shorter races. The more both players struggle and make mistakes, the easier it is to see which one is better.

-Andrew
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I agree that the best players will win regardless of the pocket size, but I'll bet they all prefer the smaller pockets when playing a lesser player. One pro once told me that he hated not only playing on a bucket table, he hated practicing on one. He said buckets cause you to play bad position after awhile because you get into a false sense of security thinking you can make any shot from anywhere because the pockets are so big.
 
i think dennis is definately one of the stongest players in the country if not the world when it comes to small pockets. hes got more natural talent in his little pinky than alot of players have in their whole body. i think any of the top pros will tell you hes a force to deal with on any table.
 
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