Who is the Greatest Female Pocket Billiard Player in History?

On records it has to be Allison. She has won more WPBA titles and more international titles than most of the top ten combined I would think.

Jay is in love with the Chinese players but Kelly Fisher is #1 in China on the Chinese tour right now. I doubt highly that there are very many people wanting to back the top Chinese players against Kelly in long races. So the Chinese are not totally dominant yet.

Jasmin has tons of promise but as yet unfulfilled potential. It seems as if Jazzy's hardest opponent is herself.

For the greatest player category I think it's really Allison at this point. In the future hopefully we will see more integrated tournaments and then we can see more players like Balukas mixing it up with the guys and perhaps someday the world #1 player will be a woman.

Karen Corr could come back and be a huge force again. No one can or should forget the year she swept all the WPBA titles. I doubt that this feat can ever be repeated (lack of tournaments notwithstanding).

Anyway these are always fun threads.
 
Jean Balukas gets my vote. If a she didnt stop playing professionally her game would rival any top player today. Including the men. The pool world was very unkind to her and if it played out differently she would've added more to all of her great titles. Hell.... She has more US Open wins in Straight pool than the miz!! Don't get me wrong Allison, Jeanette, Fisher, Corr and any other top rated female has got big titles and victories but I still like Jean the best. Probably for her grit and brass and a F U attitude when she saw what was going on.

Jean if you are reading this know that you did the right things and that you not only played like a legend but paved the way for womens pool. If I ever come to your poolhall nothing would be greater than to play you some. Hell Ill even buy the soda :wink::lol:

Anybody that doesn't know the real deal with Jean and what happened I suggest you read this article------->http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Balukas
 
Here's my vote, but Allison is 1a at worst. I loved watching both of them play.

Dave
 

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Currently playing, i'll take Jasmin. no fear and lots of game
All time- Jean Balukas has my vote. If you ask the average league player if they know any female players that played before j. lee or allison, the only name i've heard is jean. That says something.
 
I think the best measure would be how the male pros would feel drawing one of the aforementioned females in the first round of a venue like the US Open....

I'm pretty sure the only one who would have them pissing their pants would be Jean Balukas..............
 
jay helfert said:
I think the greatest women players are currently playing today! Most of them are from China. Whether anyone will ever surpass Allison's records is questionable, even improbable. Allison is the Annika Sorenstam of pool.
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China i not doing well against Kelly Fisher.:) Johnnyt
 
sjm said:
This is a close one, and it's hard to consider anyone but Allison Fisher and Jean Balukas, both of whom I've played.

Allison's huge title count in an era where winning WPBA titles was far more difficult than in Jean's era, to me, makes her the best female nine baller ever. I think her case is strengthened greatly by her international credentials, too, with many wins in the Amway Cup and other elite events in Asia.

Still, Jean's nine ball speed in her prime was quite similar to that of Fisher in hers, and given that Jean was also a great straight pooler, I've got to give the nod to Jean as the best ever woman's pool player.

Still, it's tough not to be intrigued by the "what night have beens?"

1) If Jean stuck around, would Allison have pushed her to an even higher level at nine ball? My guess is yes.

2) If Allison had played more straight pool, would she have played it at a level comparable to Jean? Based on what I saw at the BCA US Open 14.1 event in 2000, I'd guess yes. Allison beat elite straight pooler and former World 14.1 champion Loree Jon Jones in the final, not missing a single ball in the final.

In short, things might have been different, but as they stand, I'm picking Jean Balukas as the best ever.
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I would pretty much agree - However...

Ruth McGinnes(sp?) had a high run of 187-ish ON A 5 x 10 back in the
20s - 30s.

Granted it is impossible to evaluate skill from that long ago - but most
people on here have no idea abouit Jeannie either.

Dale
 
pdcue said:
I would pretty much agree - However...

Ruth McGinnes(sp?) had a high run of 187-ish ON A 5 x 10 back in the
20s - 30s.

Granted it is impossible to evaluate skill from that long ago - but most
people on here have no idea abouit Jeannie either.

Dale
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Did she really? That's STRONG!
 
Another "who's the best" thread! :grin:

Queen Jean, hands down, is "the" best female player of my lifetime. :cool:
 
JB Cases said:
Did she really? That's STRONG!
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Her official (exhibition/tournament) records were 85 on 10-foot and 128 on 9-foot. Ruth McGinnis may very well have been the greatest female player of them all, but how are we, who have never seen her play, supposed to compare? Makes me think of Raymond Ceulemans who returned from retirement at least twice, to win another World 3-Cushion title with an average approximately .5 per inning higher than his earlier grand average, and who answered the question why his grand average was just over 1 before he retired the first time, then around 1.5 before he retired the second, that he didn't need to play better to beat everyone. We'll never know how much better McGinnis, or Jean Balukas (the strongest I've seen in person) for that matter, could have played in the context of modern competition (and equipment)?

Greetings from Switzerland, David.
_________________

„J'ai gâché vingt ans de mes plus belles années au billard. Si c'était à refaire, je recommencerais.“ – Roger Conti
 
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The "Black Widow" is from New York

tommyceilings said:
Just curious, aren't the 2 people who picked J. Lee both from Indiana where she's from?
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The "Black Widow" is from New York, and while her tournament record is certainly not #1, she has impressed a lot of people with her money matches playing mostly men. I've played against both Jeanette and Allison and they certainly have enough "fire power" to defeat any man in a race to 9....maybe even 11. imho
 
There is a lot of shoulda, woulda, coulda in this thread. Again, nobody has the record of Alison. Nobody. Until someone beats her winning records, it's all speculation. I like facts.
 
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