Bonus Ball...Re-examined !

I bet you've shot a million balls in that same corner pocket

SJDinPHX said:

Dear Mr. VPBB, (I do not know your name)

But thats OK, you may not know mine either..The other thread on the subject,(Bonus Ball) became a little too convoluted, and appears to be headed for a mini-flame...You seem to be a level headed guy, just trying your best to promote something you believe in, and apparently created...Please let me furnish you with a link, to my take on it. It is from the "Rant" thread, on 'Onepocket.org' posted 1/30/13

http://www.onepocket.org/forum/showpost.php?p=106796&postcount=13

I rarely post here, but I am very active on 1P.org..(we also have a lot of comments on BB, on our site..Check them out)...I hope you will accept my post, in the spirit it was intended...If you don't know me, I am about as far from a 'newbie' as you can get (and still be above ground)..I was somewhat 'under the radar' most of my pool life..(65 years) but I was recently honored to be inducted into the One Pocket HOF..(not bragging, just a way for you to better identify me) Hope you found my above post, informative, and interesting.

Dick Mc Morran (aka; San Jose Dick)

PS..Wishing you the best in your efforts with BB...SJD

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Hello there, Mr Morran, I've heard your name many times in my travels. We have many mutual friends. Maybe I'll check out the one pocket site sometime, and congratulations on being inducted into the Hall of Fame. I bet you've shot a million balls in that same corner pocket

CJ Wiley

Thank you for your insight and professional post. Congratulations on being inducted to the One Pocket Hall of Fame. Like CJ, he and I differ on the merit of Bonus Ball and Nine Ball. One thing we do agree on is neither game is meant for all players in general. Hell, as much as One Pocket truly bores me to death watching, but I still see the merit of playing this super strategic game that nobody in my area actually plays. Maybe 20 to 30 league players are ever seen playing Nine Ball but everyone plays Eight Ball. Bonus Ball, where I travel I get players playing the game! If I leave, everyone more or less stops playing.

Why, you ask? Simple, there is no structure for amateurs to participate. This will quickly change in time, that I know because of my success promoting the game in Winnipeg. I sold out my first amateur tournament and my first amateur league. The reason, we brought professional players to Winnipeg to play the game. When the amateur players saw top players like Archer and Bustamante playing the game, it allowed them to step forward and play too. People are like that! They don't always want to be seen different. That's where I am in life. I have been successful at my careers and Im not afraid of people taking swings at me. If the game had no merit, I'd be gone long ago.

Im in the caribbean right now still communicating with people about Bonus Ball on my own dime. I like to explain questions about the game or why Larry choses this new game over Eight Ball or an established game like Snooker or One Pocket. My opinion is Bonus Ball is so similar to all games that it is easy to love. It really is fun to play and I encourage players to give it a try. Personally, I love the game. Now, I disappear from azbilliards when the haters get wound up but I can be reached at any time at the address below.

Barry Bremner email: barry@playbonusball.com

SJDinPHX said:

Dear Mr. VPBB, (I do not know your name)

http://www.onepocket.org/forum/showpost.php?p=106796&postcount=13

Dick Mc Morran (aka; San Jose Dick)

PS..Wishing you the best in your efforts with BB...SJD

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Very good post Mr. Mc Moran,,,,,,,,,while I wish anyone well that tries to promote pool in general, I just can't seem to get on board with the BB thing.


I think the worst thing that ever happened to pool is TV, because that's when world championships began being decided by 9 ball Texas Express match highlite reels rather than One-pocket and Straight pool. The majority needs to all get behind one game and the sponsors need to be onboard the same game, whatever the game is,,,,,,,I just can't see BB being "The Game".

The beauty of auto racing is anyone can chose a "game". NASCAR has it's fans, INDY has it's fans, Drag racers has a different following, local amateur dirt track drivers have their fans. It's still auto racing. I have no trouble cheering on Archer at what ever game he plays and I have a favorite Snooker player.

Let's be honest, NASCAR was ridicuded for years until their "game" stole the spot light from all the others! That is how the world works, like it or not, racers follow money too. However, they don't gamble and take money from fellow players to survive. They put on a show and are paid by fans and merchadize sales. Ask Archer how much money he has made from merchandise.

I personally believe that pool is just fine with Eight Ball as a starting point. (That is the game I first played but knew it as Boston in the bars). Not sure if anyone else played Boston? I also see nothing wrong with Nine Ball for the pros or a game like Bonus Ball which is so much harder to runout.

I do not believe billiards needs one game for many levels of players. Like golf, although they play the same game over and over, they make
the courses much harder for the professionals. To compare pool to golf does not work because if we introduced sand traps in Bonus Ball, players would call it a gimmick game! LOL.

That is my opinion!

Many games, yes!

vpbb123 said:

The beauty of auto racing is anyone can chose a "game". NASCAR has it's fans, INDY has it's fans, Drag racers has a different following, local amateur dirt track drivers have their fans. It's still auto racing. I have no trouble cheering on Archer at what ever game he plays and I have a favorite Snooker player.

Let's be honest, NASCAR was ridicuded for years until their "game" stole the spot light from all the others! That is how the world works, like it or not, racers follow money too. However, they don't gamble and take money from fellow players to survive. They put on a show and are paid by fans and merchadize sales. Ask Archer how much money he has made from merchandise.

I personally believe that pool is just fine with Eight Ball as a starting point. (That is the game I first played but knew it as Boston in the bars). Not sure if anyone else played Boston? I also see nothing wrong with Nine Ball for the pros or a game like Bonus Ball which is so much harder to runout.

I do not believe billiards needs one game for many levels of players. Like golf, although they play the same game over and over, they make
the courses much harder for the professionals. To compare pool to golf does not work because if we introduced sand traps in Bonus Ball, players would call it a gimmick game! LOL.

That is my opinion!

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I agree. One of my favorite pool games back in the '60s was golf (we played two of the many versions). I don't think I've seen the game played since maybe 1972.

Even though I love 8-ball, I'd get pretty bored if that was the only game available.

What I'm still waiting for is World Standardized Rules THAT PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT AND ACTUALLY USE.

Donny Lutz said:

I agree. One of my favorite pool games back in the '60s was golf (we played two of the many versions). I don't think I've seen the game played since maybe 1972.

Even though I love 8-ball, I'd get pretty bored if that was the only game available.

What I'm still waiting for is World Standardized Rules THAT PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT AND ACTUALLY USE.

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I agree, Donny -- especially with the bolded part. It's pretty sad when you have a standardization committee (WPA) create a set of rules for a then-new game (10-ball) that was designed to completely address the shortcomings of the then-pro-standard game (9-ball), yet we have tournaments even today that completely ignore those rules and play 10-ball with Texas Express 9-ball rules.

The "you'll pry my so-and-so rules from my cold, dead fingers" crowd (e.g. Texas Express) is definitely part of the problem.

-Sean