Though it now pays more than the Pool World championship, but there are a lot of Asian players filling the slots, I suspect that the skills are not transferrable enough. No American has made the main draw, or even qualified for the World Championship. This is probably because the prize fund was not large enough to draw many over. I believe that Canadians tend to play both. Mario Morra, a Canadian pool player, made it to the World Championship qualifying rounds.
Tony Drago was a skilled pool and snooker player.
The European team used to include multiple snooker players in the Mosconi Cup, an international pool event. These days, they solely use pool players, and they do significantly better, winning eight of the last 10 games.
What would happen if the best pool player faced up against the best snooker player in both sports?
The pool player would be more likely to win the pool match than the snooker player, but the snooker player would still have a good chance of winning the pool match, particularly if it was played over a short distance (race to 10 in an 8- or 9-ball game, for example).
This is due to the fact that snooker requires exact accuracy to pot a ball and maintain a break, which is a technical need that simply does not exist in pool. Any skilled snooker player can use those abilities to their advantage in a game of pool.
a very good probability of success. Nearly every cue sport requires potting accuracy and cue ball speed control, two skills that are critical to snooker.
However, many of the abilities needed to play at the highest level in pool do not translate well to a game of snooker. Examples include jump shots, which are prohibited, excessive side spin, which will make you miss too many shots, and inventive use of multiple cushions for position, which is uncommon in snooker. While these abilities would give a pool player the advantage in a pool match, they would be of little use in snooker. Moreover, elite pool players are at a significant disadvantage when competing on the enormous 12 foot snooker table because they are not required to improve their accuracy in potting or speed control to the same extent as snooker players.
