whos the greatest pool player of all time?

Michael Phelps

Efren reyes I would imagine,although how he would fare in this country on our tables would be interesting don't know wether he's ever played on smaller bags and our 8 ball very much doubt it.

Tom Cruise

Johnny Barnes

Brian Jones

Len Fairclough

Michael Barrymore.

Kenny Dagleish (nap)

Efren Reyes would probably be my choice.

yeh hed hammer grady seasons for sure

does anybody know...ya know 9 ball pool...are those the same balls as in a full 15 set of american pool balls? or are they different? ive never looked if theyre the same or not. never played 9 ball. im guessing they would be the same and you just dont use 6 of em.

I'd agree with Pokermonster, Reyes is the best I've ever seen. He had some great duals with Bustamente but to me he was the best ever.

Bob, the balls are the same for 9-ball as 8-ball. The reds and yellows of English pool are a lot smaller and lighter.

Best player for in 9-ball is Reyes. I've played a lot of top English pool players myself. I suppose people will say Potts because of his success, but to tbh, Melling is on another planet at times. But too inconsistent to be considered the best of all time. So, on achievements, it has to be Potts. Special mention to Jason Twist as well.

And why are deaf people so good at pool? Phil Harrison and Carl Morris are amazing players.

the pockets on american tables are massive though. you can hit the cushion halfway down and it still goes in no problem. try doing that on our tables.

paul newman in the hustler...different gravy

Serious pool has only been going 30 years in this country so there hasn't been that many truly great players that will be remembered gareth potts as there's now money in the game and big money matches will be seen as the best as he has had the most success but certainly not unbeatable.Nine ball is a very simple game but players over here still can't get anywhere near efren reyes etc when they switch games,similarly I'm sure he wouldn't do any good on our tables and 8 ball.When you look at the snooker players that have switched to pool,the only player who is successful is mark Selby won world title 3 times at 8 ball.

They're two completely different games. It's like saying a rugby player should be good at american football because they use an oval ball and huge goalposts.

9 ball players struggle with our pool due to the size of the table and soft touch to get around it. I've played a regular 9 ball player in pool, and they are unbelievably easy to out think. They have no concept of snookers or covering pockets. Everything's gotta go down ASAP.

ive been learning american terms off the interwebz.

left english
right english
follow
draw
in the kitchen
head string
foot spot
combination
bank

ya gotta love them crazy yanks!

left english - left hand side
right english - right hand side
follow - topspin
draw - screw
in the kitchen - in the baulk
head string - baulk line
foot spot - Spot where the front ball in the rack goes
combination - plant
bank - double

Most pool nowadays doesn't consist of snookering or covering bags as with the world rules it's made the game more attacking,if you play to a decent level then it's breaking and dishing.I played to a high level at snooker and pool and practised and beat many pros and won a couple of pro ams at pool 15 years ago before I packed in,most players who dabble at snooker and pool are pretty good at adapting.Infact before I started pl;aying pool seriously I was playing in snooker pro ams and when I got into pool,even though I made tons for fun playing snooker it took me probably 12 months of practising everyday to get to a really good standard.

i play the old rules, covering pockets, snookers all that mallarky. its much more fun. when i used to play in the league going back 10 years i was known as a potter, funny how times change. wouldnt play in a league again, no interest in it. i love playing for the fun of playing, always refuse to play for money and i couldnt give a t0ss about winning a plastic trophy worth 10 quid.

i did once play a game for a team with the world rules, just as a favour as they were a man short,it was so unnatural to me but i still just about managed to play my normal game and i nearly won. did all the hard work then missed an easy clearance. didnt enjoy it at all, never did enjoy playing for a team even when i was one of the best players in the league a long time ago. the crap you get over "playing the wrong shot" drove me nuts. no mate, trust me, i didnt play the wrong shot. i played the shot that my game suits, i just missed it! never again. ive never missed playing league pool for a second.

I agree with the stick you get when losing.

What's worse is the fact that your teammates decide to start the moment you lose the game. You are absolutely fuming at losing and they start on you. I've told my team now, if you want to talk to me about a wrong shot, wait at least 20 minutes after the game.

my positional play has never been my strong point. i know what i want to do, but i just cant get the cue ball to do it on a regular enough basis. so what i do is take harder pots on whilst im in the area, it makes sense seeing as i am a much better potter than positional player. but then when i missed a pot that looked hard but i normally get with my eyes closed, i got all the "why didnt you go for the easier pot" stuff. obviously, because the tougher pot was on, and i find it easier to pot the thing when its on than try to run off 2 cushions to get back on it again off the easier one! ffs.

also im a lot better at really thin cuts in to the middle than most people are. i usually choose to play those than longer pots in to the corner that look easier. virtually never miss em. but obviously the once in a blue moon when i do, i get told it was a hard shot and the long one in corner was easier!

When I packed in playing, world rules were just being used more in competition,i only ever played word rules once and I got warned byb the ref 2/3 times in finals at blackpool tower.The team I played for we were in the quarter finals I was playing decider against the national French team,got 2 shots but kept going to pick the cueball up got team screaming at me as you can't move cueball.The bloke I was playing threw his cue across the floor as I did it twice went to pick up the cueball before warned at by ref never played the rules before,then I dished them French team were trying to get game taken off me.We went on to lose to the England team in the semi finals 5-3,only time I've ever played world rules,the time it used to take to play county matches first to 17 with old rules you can see why different rules are used.The game is completely open now,so really it's a potters game you can't fudge your way out of it,thats why they have these big money matches now over say first to 30 frames for 20k with the old rules you'd be there for two days...

you cant pick the cueball up?

i cant really remember the rules. i remember going through them for about an hour before the game, but now i cant remember owt. i seem to remember i got really confused about the rule on snookers

i remember once i played an individual knockout, i won 2-0 and the match lasted about 2 hours. i dont think sky would be rushing to get rights to show that!

the different rules drive me nuts. when i played in the league you couldnt pick the cueball up, i thought with world rules you could? christ knows. at one point in my league you could pot the other players ball if you had two shots, then you couldnt, then you could again. the rules on whether you were automatically on the colour you potted first, or you could change colours, basically changed depended on who the ref was that week. to be honest i think our league made up the rules as they went along. if they even had any. total farce at times.

i remember once half the pub had about a 20 minute conversation about the rules when i went to play a shot with an air bridge. as in no hand on the table. you have to have one hand on the table...no you dont, its one foot on the floor...no its one hand on the table as well...no i dont think thats in the rules...have we got the rules? well theres rules here on the wall but they dont mention it...have you got the league secretaries phone number?

You can't pick the cue ball up unless you're in a foul snooker, whereby you cant see one of your object balls after the cue ball has come to rest after a foul.

Also, if you're snookered, you can call a total snooker, whereby you dont have to hit a cushion after hitting your object ball.

"reds in play"...

what?

"reds in play"...

but i was gonna nominate yellows

"you potted a red off the break, youre on reds"

eh? oh. ok then. whatever. i erm. i nominate reds then i erm. i suppose.

ohhhh god its all coming back now. i remember all this boll0cks. never got my head round it no matter how much the guy explained it to me.

It's like everything,i never got a proper chance to play world rules and if you've never played them you think they're dire but pretty sure after a bit of practise they become preferable especially if you've got quite a bit of ability.They don't favour less talented players as you have to pot the balls there's no hiding place,with these rules the best player will win 99% of the time as with old rules you could play someone who can't pot a ball 6'' apart but just fudge for 2 shots over an hour..

If thats what your ref said, then he was a clueless knob.

what kinda stupid rules means youve played a foul shot just cos nothing hit a cushion. utterly bonkers.

he never made the rule clear to me either. can you roll off a cushion to get a snooker? or does a ball have to hit a cushion after the white hits the ball?

Ball has to hit a cushion after hitting an object ball.

Unless you pot the object ball.

does the jaw count as a cushion?

ive been reading the rules and theyre as clear as mud to me. it seems to say to pot the other persons ball after a foul you have to nominate that ball. does that mean as in "red" or do you have to nominate the exact ball you are trying to pot? also if youre on yellows and theres a red over the hole that you want to clear with a yellow how does that work?? do you nominate the red you want to pot or the yellow you are going to hit first or both or neither? or are you just not allowed to do it?

Eightball is mostly blackball rules now not World rules . Great game lots of money in uk Pool these days big money games too.

Sounds to me like the ref did you a huge favour not allowing you to pick up the white up unless you specifically asked him if you could - otherwise he is basically advising you on what to do uninstructed

I play for a team too - some of the garbage that gets bandied about during and after frames is hilarious - if someone plays a tactical shot it gets lauded as being a 'team' shot, regardless of the context of the frame - we had players who potted off the lampshades and won 9 games on the bounce, then he misses one the next week and they are show-ponies

World Rules and Blackball Rules are both dire; a mish-mash of several different rules concocted by organisations who stubbornly refused to relinquish cherished sections of their own laws even though it created something to the detriment of everyone.

selby was quite good also

Me

End of thread

I have the ability but not the inclination.

These threads are on the fist TWO pages alone, stop creating so many shyte threads it's SPAMMING

Few people worthy of mention but rules very dependent for all cue sports:

American Table - 9-ball/one-pocket - Efren Reyes
American Table - Straight pool (14/1) - Too many past hustlers to mention who would beat any of the top players today
English Table - Old rules - Keith Brewer
English Table - Newer rules - Mark Selby
Snooker Table - Billiards - Walter Lindrum
Snooker Table - Snooker - Ronnie O'Sullivan (fantasy I know, but reckon Lindrum could have given him a game if time/equipment/rules the same and Lindrum had been bothered to learn the game)