9-Ball
Topic: Is it just me?....

The major put off for me, is everything being 9ball, 8ball or 10ball, simply because I'm sick of seeing the same disciplines over and over again, which is why I don't even play on the Irish tour or any other tour(s), in fact this is the biggest reason as to why I have stopped competeing/practicing at all, but I will give credit where it's due, the Irish tour did have 1 Straight Pool event and another one advertised, but never heard anymore details about it.

Untill there are a better range of disciplines inc, 1 pocket, banks (9Ball or Full Rack) and Straight Pool (14-1), then I don't see the point in putting up the time and money to travel to events where I would very easily get bored and lose complete interest in playing.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy American Pool, in every discpline, but I'm fed up of looking at the same 3 disciplines all the time, and so, with this in mind, I have found myself wondering if there are any other players who have stopped competeing as much or at all, because of this same thing?

What are your thoughts on this people?

Willie


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If ya got 'em, smoke 'em

In my opinion, American Pool isn't established enough over here to introduce more disciplines just yet, I guess the odd event here and there might be good.

Lets hope that with the introduction of the GB9BT, we will end up with a strong nucleus of players who would be interested in playing different disciplines.

yes it is just you.

Got to agree with Buckster - American pool is not established enough to get bored of. And the only time you can be bored of something is when it becomes too easy or too predictable.

Until you are breaking and clearing up 3 or 4 times in a row it's not too easy and if different players are winning events then its not too predictable. Having said that, it's always interesting to play other games like Straight pool, bank pool, one pocket etc.

But, (now I'm making up figures here but you get the idea) Say there's 100,000 regular pool players English and American. Maybe 1,000 play american 8 or 9 ball to a decent standard. 200 of them play to a high standard (BPPPA) 30 a very high standard and 6 or 7 professional.

The only people interested in other games Willie is talking about are mainly in the top 30. It would be a sideshow and never a main event in the UK. Well that's my view anyway.

Abracadabra..........

Fistful of Dollars.........


darkside9@hotmail.co.uk

Thanks Gareth, but the proposed event(s) that you are organizing, aren't any different to any other event(s), as reguards the choice of discipline(s) used, which are still 8ball, 9ball and/or 10ball, and whether it is call shot or not, makes no difference.

Also, what on earth is the point in playing 10ball anyways? it's just the same as 9ball, only with an extra ball in the stack, and if you're gonna have a tournament with the option of 3x disciplines, they should be completely different disciplines, not 2 of the same and one different, there's no reason to not have 9ball Banks (Races to 7 or something), as the 3rd discipline.

Willie


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If ya got 'em, smoke 'em

On 2007-08-06 19:59 , TheWizard Wrote:

The thing is willie I agree withwhat you are saying but the point is the reason everybody knows how to play 8, 9, and 10 ball to a good standard that they would enter a comp. There is not enough people that know how to play 14-1, bank shot and one pocket they are very good games so i have been told by Martinho Correia but it still leaves the fact that not many people play these disciplnes. Maybe you should go along to the tours take atable out when one becomes available or talk to the organizers and ask if you could use one of the tables for an hour and show players how to play these games. You know as well as i do until you start seeing players playing the different disciplines you not going to play them because you don't know how. Talk to the organizers and see what you can come up with.

Willie

As you know, I agree with your sentiment 100% - we should be trying to introduce more American Pool disciplines to UK players. We've been playing 8-Ball in the UK (granted in different forms) for over 30 years (possibly longer) and 9-Ball has been in the UK since around the mid-80s in a small way, then in a much larger sense since the early to mid-90s. This is now 2007, don't you think it's now time to introduce another discipline or 2 to the UK American Pool fraternity on a regular basis? Sure, there's 10-Ball, but that really just 9-Ball with one extra ball, so we've now got a second rotation-style discipline.

I have to admit, though, that I am a bit of a realist. Let's look at the other disciplines that have been mentioned. Banks is fun, but it's only really played on a serious basis in 2 parts of the World - Kentucky and Chicago - and there's only one regular tournament - the Derby City Classic - so sadly, I don't see it taking off over here that much. Sure, there'll be a few of us that will play it, but not enough to merit holding a tournament.

One Pocket is a great game. Love it to bits. But it is a total head waster and, rightfully, is described as chess on a pool table. Unless you know what's going on, you're going to find it THE most boring thing you've seen in ages. "20 minutes without a ball being pocketed? What's that all about?" Until people get into the finer points of the game, they'll think it's boring, slow... everything people think chess is. If they see Efren play it on DVD or the internet, they'll think it's the easiest game in the world, until they get annoyed trying to play it!

Then there's Straight Pool. The Daddy of pool games. Love this game to pieces, too. Some of my favourite DVDs are Straight Pool - just watching a guy manage to run 100+ balls, ball after ball. But if you've never seen a Straight Pool match before, that's all that people think there is to the game. The tactical battles that make up a chunk of Straight Pool matches aren't that well known. Yet they, like safety battles in Snooker matches, can be as intriguing and interesting as the high runs are.

For me, it is Straight Pool that we should look at introducing to the UK next. Heck, some of the guys already play it when they play in the European Championships and a fair number of us here on Pro9 have watched videos on YouTube or Google Video that we could get through a match without too much trouble. The snooker backgrounds of a lot of American Pool players here in the UK could surely make us a force to be reckoned with in a short time.

SAPPA held their first ever Straight Pool tournament back in May in Inverness as a night before event prior to our Tour Event up there. It was a great success and I am hoping that it will become a full Ranking Event in the 2008/09 season.

Didn't realise I had been going on so long there. Anyhow, those are my thoughts on the matter at hand.

Best wishes

thecardman

www.scottish9ball.com and the Forum's back!
SAPPA on MySpace
The Cardman's Blog
Heck, I'm even on MySpace!

Wow Pete, the length of that post startled me a bit!

wizard have you ever played 10 ball?

I can tell you there is a lot more to it than (an extraBall)

the cardman has pretty much summed up the thoughts of many,great post pete...............

Gareth

darkside9@hotmail.co.uk


Darkside Prmotions.................

Hey Gareth,

Yes I have, in fact, I have played every single American Pool Discipline, inc Cribbage, cowboy, and many others, I have played them all and have been doing so from the time that, of when everyone else in the UK was only getting round to start playing 9ball.

Straight Pool and 9ball were the first 2 discplines, that I played, and f course, I was lucky enough to get details of other American Disciplines, at a time, when I had a table to practice on at home, and that was about 14/15 years ago.

I know that the break is different and safety play is a little bit easier in 10ball, but the principle of the game, is exactly the same as 9ball, and so, there is no point in have 2x of the same discipline, especially since 9Ball and 10Ball are both rotation pool disciplines, which came from the game, "Rotation", which was the world championship game untill the mid 1900's or so, before straight pool came into play as the world championship game.

Willie

I think the fact that a the BPPPA tour failed shows that American pool isn't established enough in this country to start introducing different disciplines.

It will depend on how many people get into the GB9BT. I find there are lots of American Pool players around the country but very few want to take it to a higher level and compete on a tour.

On 2007-08-07 00:47 , TheWizard Wrote:

Willie

I'm going to have to pull you up on something here, mate. Rotation has never been the "World Championship" discipline. The game that you're possibly getting mixed up with is "61 Pool" where, as in Rotation, each ball is worth the value marked on it (the 1-ball worth one point, the 2 is worth 2 and so on) but, unline Rotation, in "61 Pool" you can hit any ball on the table at any time. So, if you break the balls and the high-valued stripes are sitting pretty, then pot away! You didn't have to worry about hitting the lowest ball, etc.

Start playing Straight Pool!

Best wishes

thecardman

www.scottish9ball.com and The SAPPA Forum's back!
SAPPA on MySpace
The Cardman's Blog
Heck, I'm even on MySpace!

I hate straight pool! How can a game that looks so easy, where the rule is 'pot as many balls as you can', played on tables with buckets for pockets be as hard as it is

On 2007-08-08 13:56 , Riggers Wrote:

Riggers

Have you ever played it properly? Not just (adopts a John Virgo-style voice) "pot as many balls as you can" but with safety battles and intential scratches in an attempt to tie your opponent in knots?

Or have you been watching the likes of Reyes and Sigel running ball after ball on YouTube or Google Video and making the game look amazingly easy?

Until you've tried it, you don't realise just how difficult it can be. Give it a go, you never know, you may enjoy it!

Best wishes

thecardman

www.scottish9ball.com and the SAPPA Forum's back!
SAPPA on MySpace
The Cardman's Blog
Heck, I'm even on MySpace!

On 2007-08-08 13:40 , thecardman Wrote:

Hey Pete, I see what you mean , and I happily stand corrected on that one

I was confusing rotation with "61 Pool" or as it's now known "15 ball" (See BCA Rules and records books/website)

Thank you Pete for clearing that one up

Willie


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If ya got 'em, smoke 'em

as it turns out that was the first pool game i played, i had to go down into the vaults where dave keeps the rules for these games to be sure it was the same game we played, but the thing is i was playing this as long ago as 1970 and we played it on a snooker table and it was known as sixty ones and i had not yet seen a pool table as that would be another 2 or 3 years down the road, we would play sometimes maybe 6 handed and from what i can remember the balls were a little smaller