Who is the most boring pro to watch

sjm said:
Let's face it, for maximum boring factor, only really slow players deserve mention.

On the men's side, the one I find most unwatchable today is the very gifted but lethargic Jeremy Jones.
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Jeremy Jones is the most unwatchable pro that i've tried to watch play. The only US Open 9 ball final i've been able to stay and watch in Virginia was between Jeremy Jones and Jose Parica and my good friend and I got up from our front row seats and left before the match was half over.

We couldn't take Jeremy's slow play anymore. He would go to his chair and wipe his hands and his entire cue down after EVERY shot. Even if the next ball was sitting in the pocket he would still stop and wipe everything down. I'm not saying you shouldn't take reasonable time between shots, but his play was rediculous. I never thought i'd leave in the middle of a US Open final match, but I couldn't take watching him. I actually saw Jose Parica sitting in his chair with his eyes closed like he was bored to death waiting for Jeremy to finish so he could shoot.

SCCues
 
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The Kiss said:
Archer is pretty painful to watch...I can't confirm this but Archer and Santos played a race to 20 for some big cash a while back...I heard it took 8 hours to finish the set???
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When Johnny Archer was young and hungry he was one of the most exciting players to watch. Now, since he's older and has a family he's slowed to a snail's pace and honestly not that much fun to watch. I've got Accu-stats tapes of Johnny in his early days and he was exciting and fun to watch play 9 ball, but now it's like he's a different person. He still plays GREAT it just takes quite a while longer to finish.

SCCues
 
If anyone has web space to post it on, I can include the most painful runout of all time...if you were on the receiving end.
 
In my younger days, I beat a guy in one of my first tournaments ever by slow playing him.

He just couldn't stand it and it killed him. Put him so far out of his mental game that I was able to win with my low ability. Hahahaha! It was a guy named Lonnie from Fort Collins. Someone else here may have played him. He is a gem among men, to be sure.

I barely had to make a ball after he got worked-up... he sunk himself! Hahaha!
 
SCCues said:
When Johnny Archer was young and hungry he was one of the most exciting players to watch. Now, since he's older and has a family he's slowed to a snail's pace and honestly not that much fun to watch. I've got Accu-stats tapes of Johnny in his early days and he was exciting and fun to watch play 9 ball, but now it's like he's a different person. He still plays GREAT it just takes quite a while longer to finish.

SCCues
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Absolutely, I've seen a match (IIRC the 1990 US Open) between him and Earl Strickland and it's just beautiful to watch how fluidly he was shooting. I honestly don't think he plays one bit better now but presumably he has good reasons for playing the way he does. It is notable Archer is one of the "fast movement" slow players, that is he goes through a rapid set of pre-shot movements that look like he's just going to stroke and shoot, but then jumps up again and does what appears to be an identical set of movements over and over.

I have also noticed that on several seperate occasions that on shots he has taken a REALLY long time over he's missed. One very memorable occassion was during the 2003 Mosconi Cup. He'd hooked himself and was trying to jump the blocking ball from only about a 1" distance, possibly less. It was a very hard jump shot, and easier kicks appeared to be available. He went back and forth on that jump shot for what must have been at least 5 minutes before finally shooting it and scratching just like everyone knew he would.

BUT - How many of us wouldn't give our eye-teeth for a talent like Archer's? Consider this : Perhaps one thing that makes him such a good player is having the mental discpline to be able to spend so much time focusing on every single shot like that. I know I can't.
 
vader93490 said:
Takeshi Okumura from Japan comes to mind for being the slowest player I've observed. When he made his first appearance at the Cleveland Classic 10-ball he played so slowly it irritated his opponents to no end. If memory serves, enough complaints were made about him that the tournament staff finally said something to him about it.

From what I recall about him, he played well at both pool & 3 cushion billiards. But his pre-shot routine was, to my recollection, just painful to observe in my opinion. He would get down on the shot, then up, then down, up again, wipe his hands on the wrap of his Szamboti, down again, up once more, walk around the table, then down again & finally shoot.

However, he did manage to somewhat pick up the speed of his game. When he played at the 1991 U.S. Open, his speed was a bit better but still somewhat slow. He also kicked pretty well from what I remember about him.
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And i believe he played Earl in finals of the US Open-Good thing Earl won.
 
hahaha

efren reyes is no to watch at all. makes it look to easy. i wanna see some kick shots and jump shots and crazy stuff =)
 
wannaplaySOME? said:
Danny does NOT stall... a few players have asked him, "danny, why do you take so long to shoot a hanger?" and he answers because i know i can make the ball but i want to make sure i can make the next one... he does not STALL its just the way he plays... now i can't vouch for archer or jj but i know danny and he would be very offended if someone accused him of stalling when thats just the way he plays.
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See thread #26 where it is explained that he took several minutes to make an easy shot to win the match. What was he playing position for "the lag on his next match?"

Wayne
 
pooladdict said:
You are so right about Ralph. I have seen him play many times (been in the receiving end twice). He can take his time analyzing the table or the situation, but when he has decided what to do he has a nice steady rythm.
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I agree about Souquet. He is deliberate in deciding what to do and how to execute the shot, but once he decides he gets on with it. He is not spending his time wiping his stick and hands, getting a drink or fooling around.

I enjoy watching him play and trying to follow his thought process.

I also think that the really good players, amateur and pro, have a pre-shot routine that they follow on every shot, easy or hard, Sometimes it seems unnecessary, but how many times have you missed an obvious and easy shot and then kicked yourself in the a$$ because you rushed it?

Somebody smarter than I said something to the effect that " matches are not won by making the extremely difficult shots, but rather lost by missing the easy shots."

I missed an eight ball hanger last week. The cue was on the rail and the shot straight in. I was afraid of following it in and scratching so decided to play the cue off the pocket corner clipping the eight and avoiding the scratch. Unfortunately, I did not take the time to walk to the other end of the table and see how deep the eight was in the pocket and subsequently missed it all together, giving my opponent ball is hand and an easy win. Not only did I lose but I felt like a fool.
 
GADawg said:
I agree about Souquet. He is deliberate in deciding what to do and how to execute the shot, but once he decides he gets on with it. He is not spending his time wiping his stick and hands, getting a drink or fooling around.

I enjoy watching him play and trying to follow his thought process.
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That's how I see it. Souquet is, without question, a slow player because he is so meticulous in his planning. In this regard, he is not unlike another all time great, Nick Varner.

Players that labor over the decision making process are far less annoying than those that have a pre-shot routine that goes on and on and on.
 
recoveryjones said:
What Danny Basavich did to this Chinese Taipai player at a recent WPC was unbelievable.

He left himself a bit of a straightish rail shot to the side pocket on the nine ball to win the match.He then took almost 2-3 minutes to make that shot to finish the poor guy off.It was tourterous to watch Danny get down-get up-get-down -get up, powder-re-powder,wipe and re wipe his cue.
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Do you think he was just stalling hoping the opponent would throw in the towel and save him having to shoot a shot that was even a little bit difficult?
 
bizboy313 said:
However, if you ever see Reyes, he always has the same disposition no matter what his opponent is doing and he always seems to play at the same rythmn regardless of the game or opponent.
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Heh. Reminds me of a great anecdote I heard about Reyes and a slow player I posted here a while back.
 
Most Boring

Efren Reyes

"here another Rack that Efren is going to finish"
"here another Rack that Efren is going to finish"
"here another Rack that Efren is going to finish" and another

for some entertainment just watch the ball bangers...

"Did you see that shot, the 9 ball is two inches from the pocket and this ID10T missed it !!!"

"Look at that flying cue ball, this guy tried to do a jump shot by scooping the cue ball !!!"
 
vader93490 said:
Takeshi Okumura from Japan comes to mind for being the slowest player I've observed. When he made his first appearance at the Cleveland Classic 10-ball he played so slowly it irritated his opponents to no end. If memory serves, enough complaints were made about him that the tournament staff finally said something to him about it.

From what I recall about him, he played well at both pool & 3 cushion billiards. But his pre-shot routine was, to my recollection, just painful to observe in my opinion. He would get down on the shot, then up, then down, up again, wipe his hands on the wrap of his Szamboti, down again, up once more, walk around the table, then down again & finally shoot.

However, he did manage to somewhat pick up the speed of his game. When he played at the 1991 U.S. Open, his speed was a bit better but still somewhat slow. He also kicked pretty well from what I remember about him.
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Damn good player, but definitely SLOW!
 
hilla_hilla said:
West coast players/short stops Arturo Rivera and Mike Defino. It's like watching paint dry.
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Two of the all time slowests players! Make Danny, Archer and Varner seem like speedsters.

Arturo has consistently played the longest matches in any tournament he is in.
 
bizboy313 said:
Id have to say the most boring player I have ever seen is Ralf Soquet. The guy shoots lights out, but man he makes the game look really hard and really boring IMHO.
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No way...Ralph is very methodical, smooth, and never loses his concentration. He only takes his time when he is presented with a very tough situation. When it's a open table, he doesn't shoot slow at all. Ralph's pace is exactly like Jim Rempe's. Ralph used to run together with Rempe, and he developed almost an exactly similar rythm and pace as Jim. Jim is by no means a slow player.

As for the most boring to watch, I think it's definately Basavich.
 
well not for nothing but but these guys are some of the best players to ever grace the sport, so maybe we should all play alittle slower and play better?
 
wannaplaySOME? said:
well not for nothing but but these guys are some of the best players to ever grace the sport, so maybe we should all play alittle slower and play better?
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Danny is an incredible player when he is on. I have seen him play a few times, and a few matches that he won, his opponents (who are world class players) played poorly. I got the impression that Danny's slow play took them out of their game. In one of the matches, his opponent was playing well, and after a dry break, Danny ran out, and then broke and ran the next game. It took him 20 minutes to run two racks. When his opponent got back to the table, he couldn't make a ball. People have told me that they have witnessed Danny play fast, i.e. two or three stroking every shot, not getting up and down, etc. They said he looked like he could beat anyone in the world. If he could incorporate that into his game when he is in a tournament, I think he would have a ton of fans. He is such a likeable guy, a true gentleman, and he has a great sense of humor. Everyone just wishes he didn't play so slow.
 
1) Danny Basavich---10 pump strokes, get up look again...10 pump strokes, get up look again...10 pump strokes, get up look again..etc..etc. At last years world summit of pool, I counted 42 pump strokes on one shot....AND IT WAS STRAIGHT IN!!!!!

2) Double J---Make shot, go to your seat, wipe down cue, drink water, wipes hands, powder hands, go back to table, preshot routine, Shoot.....
Make shot, go to your seat, wipe down cue, drink water, wipes hands, powder hands, go back to table, preshot routine, Shoot.....etc, etc, etc
EVERY SHOT!!

3) Charlie Williams---Chalk up, look at shot, get down on shot, pump stroke 8-10 times, get back up........
Chalk up, look at shot, get down on shot, pump stroke 8-10 times, get back up........
Chalk up, look at shot, get down on shot, pump stroke 8-10 times, get back up........etc. etc


The amazing thing is, whenever these guys are playing in a "shot clock match" they ALL play at the same level as they do with slow play:confused:
SO WHY DO IT:confused:
 
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