Top Billiards Players Pool Players Should Know About

 

Do you know the top billiard players? In our first part of this series we gave all you avid players out there a top list of today’s pool companies.

 

Now, we bring you the second part of who you should know with this list of top past and present players of our billiards world! You may know a lot of these names already as a player and lover of pool, but we want to bring you a list today about these top ones and who knows, maybe you’ll learn about someone new or something new about them.

 

Top Women in Pool

 

Jeanette Lee

 

American professional pool player, known as “The Black Widow”. Jeanette has claimed more than 30 national and international titles. Formerly ranked as the number 1 player in the world and currently ranked number 3. She was inducted into the WPBA Hall of Fame in 2012 and BCA Hall of Fame in 2013.

 

Ewa Mataya Laurance

 

Swedish–American professional pool player, known as the “Leading Lady of Billiards”.   Ewa is also known for her position on the WPBA, as a sports writer and a sports commentator for ESPN. She was inducted into the Billiard Congress of America’s Hall of Fame in 2004.

Jennifer Barretta

 

Jennifer is one of the top ten female 9-ball players in the world. She is not just known for her pool playing abilities, Jennifer was featured as one of the top 25 sexiest women in sports according to ESPN, she was cast as the lead role in the feature film “9-Ball” and has made a handful of other TV appearances.  

 

Emily Duddy

 

She is a WPBA touring Pro and was also a star on the TruTV pool reality show "The Hustlers" in the summer of 2015!  In 2010, she began her professional career in pool at age 26 and also took home the title “Rookie of the Year” the same year.

 

Alison Fisher

 

Alison started playing Snooker when she was 7 years old. She is an English professional pool player and has won over 80 national titles and 11 world titles in total. In June 2009, Alison was inducted into the Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame.

 

Kim Ga-Young

 

Kim’s father taught her how to pay three-cushion billiards starting at age 12 and three years after, she began playing 9-Ball.  Kim is a South Korean female professional pool player who plays on the Women's Professional Billiard Association tour. At age 20, Kim turned pro at the 2003 BCA Open.

 

Jasmin Ouschan

 

Jasmin is a professional Australian pool player. She became a professional player in 2007 when she joined the Women’s Professional Billiard Association. She was the first woman ever to reach a semi-final at a Men’s World Championship.

 

Top Men in Pool

 

Rudolph Wanderone aka Minnesota Fats

 

Rudolph was an American pocket billiards player.  He is known to be the most publicly recognized pool player and entertainer in the United States. He was inducted into the Billiard Congress of America’s Hall of Fame in 1984.

 

Steve Mizerak

 

His nickname was "the Miz". He was a world champion pool player during the 1970s and early 1980s. He specialized in the game of 14.1 continuous and nine-ball. He was known for his part in the famous pool movie, “The Color of Money”.

 

Ralph Greenleaf

 

Ralph was considered the greatest pool player ever. People who saw him play swear Greenleaf could run 50 or more balls in Straight Pool without having his cue ball touch a single cushion along the rails. There is a pool room named after him in Richmond, Virginia attached to the Hotel John Marshall.

 

Willie Mosconi

He was an American professional pool player from Pennsylvania between the years of 1941 and 1957.  He won the World Straight Pool Championship an unmatched fifteen times. Willie is acknowledged as one of the greatest pocket billiards players in the history of pool.

Present Top Men in Pool

 

Johnny Archer

 

He is an American Professional pool player.  Johnny was inducted into the Billiard Congress of America’s Hall of Fame in 2009. He is one of the most successful 9-Ball players in the past two decades, winning over 60 tournaments throughout his career.

 

Florian Kohler

 

He is a top trickshot artist from France who didn’t begin playing pool until he was 18 years old.  Florian redefines the sport of trick shots as he has invented the majority of his own trick shots. Florian has created a set of his own trick shot videos, he has been featured on ESPN, Dude Perfect and other known tv shows.  Florian assisted in the development of the Mezz massé cue, which is designed to execute his trick shots.

 

Efren Reyes

 

He is a Filipino professional pool player, with a nickname of “The Magician”.  He is a winner of over 70 international titles and is the only person in history to win World Championships in two different disciplines in pool.  By defeating Earl Strickland in the inaugural “Color of Money” event in 1996, Reyes took home the largest single event purse in pool history. Many players consider Reyes to be the greatest pool player of all time.

 

Shane Van Boening

 

He is a American professional pool player who is currently ranked number 1 in the U.S. Shane’s family has a strong professional pool background, so he was destined to play as he began to at age 2. He won the first ever world 10-Ball Championship.      

 

Earl Strickland

 

He is an American professional pool player who is considered one of the best 9-ball players.  Earl played in his first professional tournament at age 15.  He was inducted into the Billiard Congress of America’s Hall of Fame in 2006.

 

Mika Immonen

 

Mika is a Finnish Professional 9-Ball player, who is a three time world champion, known as “The Ice Man”. He was named the player of the year in 2009 and inducted into the Billiard Congress of America’s Hall of Fame in 2014.

 

Darren Appleton

 

Darren is an English professional pool player who started playing at age 12. Darren was formerly the number 1 ranked player in the British Style 8-Ball Pool.  He is considered the most Successful British Player of all time and has won over 50 Major titles in career.

 

Andy Segal

 

Andy is the number 1 ranked American Trick Shot Artist, who began as a Professional 9-Ball player back in the 1990s. Andy has won the WPA World Artistic Pool Championship title 4 times, ESPN Trick Shot Magic Champion 7 times and the Masters Champion 6 times, among lots of other titles. He has even written his own pool book, “Andy Segal’s Cue Magic”, describing how to do 120 different trick shots.  

 

William DeYonker

 

William is known as the “Gentleman” in pool.  He is acknowledged as the quickest artistic pool player to rise from an ameateur just starting out to a top 10 ranked player. He has also tied the world record for the highest score in a trick shot tournament in 2015 and was the youngest trick shot artist to win a ranked artistic pool tournament at 23 years of age.  He took 1st place in the 2016 WPA World Artistic Pool Championships, making him number 1 in the world after 3 years.

Present Top Kids (Under 18) in Pool

Matthew Webber

 

Matthew is a 15-year-old pool prodigy who received 250 milion views from his first trickshot video.  He was featured on the front page of Sneaky Pete Mafia Magazine in 2016 along with an article about his pool career thus far.  Matthew even got to perform his pool trick shots on the Steve Harvey show, Little Big Shots in 2015! He has also been seen on ESPN Sports center, Superkids Germany and Galileo Germany. He is constantly uploading new trick shot videos, so I suggest following him on social media!

 

Jaden Dupree

 

Jaden is a 13-year-old artistic pool player with over 12 million views on social media. He created a candy trick shot that aired before the Super Bowl in 2017 and ended up winning tickets to the next year’s Super Bowl. He has been seen on Super Athletes, Whistle Sports, The SPORT Bible, EllenTube, World Star and Nickelodeon. Jaden is constantly uploading new trick shot videos to YouTube, so I suggest following him to see what he can do! (link to his youtube?)

 

April Larson

 

April has been playing pool since she was 9 years old.  She started playing on her family's pool team, where they helped coach her. She has been apart of the Billiard Education Foundation since she was 10, where she placed 2nd in the National Championships. The 5 years following, she won this tournament and was known as the Junior World Champion. 

 

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