New Respect For Snooker Players.

mnorwood

mnorwood

Moon
Silver Member
I consider myself a decent pool player and have even crossed over and played snooker on the 10 foot table and felt good about how I played.

Yesterday I got the opportunity to play on a 12 footer with the felt that the professional game is played on. Its almost a cliche for people to point out how much harder snooker is than pool, but it takes on a whole new meaning when you actually play it. I learned there are no hangers in snooker, there is no grazing a rail or hitting the side of the pocket. You also don't play english at all. You don't move, you don't jump up you don't have any technical slop. With that said I believe that snooker is indeed the superior cueing game. Some experienced posters may see this as a statement of the obvious, but for this self taught 8 foot table with buckets player, yesterday was quite an epiphane.

This also magnifies my admiration for guys like Stephen Hendry, Ronnie O and Alex Higgens.
 
With that said I believe that snooker is indeed the superior cueing game.
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it can seem like that at first when u play snooker, but i don't agree.

they are completely completely different styles of game, and completely different styles of cueing are used.
 
i agree snooker is more difficult, but i use english more frequently playing snooker than when I play pool.
 
I also base my opinion on the fact that Higgins, Davis, Hundal, Hendry, Drago, Hahn and Osullivan have crossed over and been competitive in 9ball. What American pool player has done well in a snooker tournament? This is in no way meant to be disrespectful to pool players, its just my opinion.

I played at a guy's house. There is no decent place to play snooker in texas that I know of.
 
hi

its relative to what other top players can do.to play world class snooker you have to run centuries and to play world class pool you have to run racks.in snooker a century is almost one rack.in say 14.1 its 8 racks.both are extremely difficult to play great .the reason snooker players have done well in pool tourneys is because the luck factor in 9ball.believe me if i played ronnie osullivan a race to 100 frames of snooker i would get robbed.if he played me say a race to 1000 14.1 he would get robbed.snooker has little luck and so does 14.1. by the way i have run centuries on a six by twelve and i understand its extermely hard.but trust me running 147 is not harder than 403 at 14.1.thats 28 .5 racks.a 147 at snooker is 1 rack.pool and snooker take different skills to play world class and anyone who thinks its easier to be world class at one or the other just does not know what they are talking about.respectfully john schmidt
 
the short race pool format makes it much easier for snooker players to cross over than vice versa

snooker players are world class cueists and any world class cueist can beat a nine ball pro in say a race to 5 on any given day, hence the reason a few male snooker players have achieved marginal success with none of the aforementioned players winning anything of significance

Mark Williams, Steve Davis and Ronnie O'Sullivan have a dozen world titles between them, all entered majors pool tourneys and none have placed any higher that 16th, afaik

additionally, snooker players don't neccesarily have to change their cue when playing pool, it's almost impossible to shoot snooker with a 13mm tip

In any case, although I feel it somewhat ludicrous for one who just played his first 12 foot game to make such a proclamation, I do believe that out of the 3 major disciplines that you could make a case of ranking them in order of difficulty, with three cushion definetly taking last spot
 
and as John has pointed out, relativity is the most important aspect in these types of discussions, more often than not goes overlooked

what's harder, pool or chess? poker or basketball? soccer or baseball?

Rempe and Mizerak failed miserably in their pursuit of Snooker, Allison and Karen switched and dominated, Blohmdahl shot some damn good nine ball against Efren and claims 100 centuries in snooker, Efren shot some great 3c against Blohmdal, Stephanov and Stalev shoot world class pool and russian billiards, they say Efen beat O'Sullivan in a snooker match, Mosconi claimed he hung with all the top snooker players of his day, Caudron is dominating his second carom discipline, etc, etc, etc.......

no patterns here, so much is dependant on the individual
 
True about almost anything

To be world class at anything, the difficulty is defined by the number of people competing, not so much by the event. Shooting good snooker doesn't make much use of the whole table which most people tend to forget. Red ball, seven, over and over until the red balls are gone is pretty close work. You are shooting cross side so even on a six by twelve the object ball rarely travels much over three feet and the seven always travels just over three feet from it's spot. After the red balls are cleaned up then there is a pattern to shoot but it is a pattern that you face every game and are very familiar with. Allison Fisher is well known as a snooker player who switched to nine ball very successfully. In early interviews she commented she was having a hard time adjusting to the longer shots typical of nine ball.

Working out for several hours a day on a snooker table made me a very strong shot maker but taught me little of anything else. Next to no strategy involved once you learn what is needed to pocket balls.

Hu
 
if you are to gauge the size of the field when judging difficulty, then Pool is enormous, and carom tiny, with snooker somewhere in the middle

this would be at a somewhat competitive level of course, not using the numbers some groups like to throw around citing pool as the most popular game in the world
 
If you want to play snooker badly I suppose. Why do you think they call it English?. Over there it's called side, and they use a ton of it.
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you're right but he does have a point. it's not used in the same way as in pool, and it's used a lot lot less. u don't shoot a quarterball shot in with natural low right lol. and when it is used it's mostly a lot closer to centre ball than in pool.

actually there are a number of players who don't use english at all pretty much. terry griffiths has said he never used it. this is a world champion and top coach to hendry, williams, and marco fu btw.
 
smashmouth said:
and as John has pointed out, relativity is the most important aspect in these types of discussions, more often than not goes overlooked

what's harder, pool or chess? poker or basketball? soccer or baseball?

Rempe and Mizerak failed miserably in their pursuit of Snooker, Allison and Karen switched and dominated, Blohmdahl shot some damn good nine ball against Efren and claims 100 centuries in snooker, Efren shot some great 3c against Blohmdal, Stephanov and Stalev shoot world class pool and russian billiards, they say Efen beat O'Sullivan in a snooker match, Mosconi claimed he hung with all the top snooker players of his day, Caudron is dominating his second carom discipline, etc, etc, etc.......

no patterns here, so much is dependant on the individual
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Mosconi made a lot of claims. Unfortunately he never envisaged the internet and the ability of future generations to check them. Don't kid yourself that Mosconi could play snooker.

Boro Nut
 
years ago I used to long for a round robin type tourney with all the best carom, pool, and snooker boys

now, after playing all three extensively, watching, reading, conversing with pros on the matter, and learning from those who have participated in more than one discipline, I'm convinced, more than ever that no pro on earth can ever be world class in two disciplines

to me, it's like hoping for the world's top soccer player to become the world's best baseball player

I simply cannot count Allison and Karen (despite their phenomenal achievements-remember size of fields? women's snooker in the Uk has less participants than women's darts)
 
Boro Nut said:
Mosconi made a lot of claims. Unfortunately he never envisaged the internet and the ability of future generations to check them. Don't kid yourself that Mosconi could play snooker.

Boro Nut
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kid myself? lol, he played and defeated a world class snooker player on multiple occassions while on tour in the UK, if you can name him without googling it right away I might be convinced that you know what you're talking about
 
smashmouth said:
what's harder, pool or chess? poker or basketball? soccer or baseball?
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Aren't those comparisons pointless? At least pool and snooker involve the same basic premise - a cue, a white ball, object balls, and a table with pockets. You're comparing things that have absolutely nothing in common. You really think comparing pool and snooker is like comparing poker and basketball?
smashmouth said:
Mark Williams, Steve Davis and Ronnie O'Sullivan have a dozen world titles between them, all entered majors pool tourneys and none have placed any higher that 16th, afaik
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How many pool players have finished that high in a world snooker championship?

Steve Davis has placed 2nd at the World Pool League, losing in the finals 9-5 to Efren. He has been a member of two winning Mosconi Cup teams. He also has done very well at the WPC. Tony Drago has never won a snooker world championship, but he has won a top-level pool tournament (2003 World Pool Masters) and managed to go 4 for 4 in singles at this year's Mosconi Cup (earnng MVP honors). Daryl Peach couldn't make a living at snooker, but he's this year's World 9-ball Champ. We all know about all the women who have switched from snooker to pool. I'm not sure what Davis's best finish is at the WPC, but I believe just last year, he placed tied for 13th. One year, he beat Reyes, Souquet, and Takahashi in succession (all former world champions at the time). Can you name a pool player who could take on the likes of Ronnie O'Sullivan, Graeme Dott, and John Higgins in snooker matches and beat all of them in succession?

With all the money available to top-notch snooker players (especially in the not-too-distant past), you would think the greatest pool players would jump ship to snooker to chase that money since pool money is pale by comparison. For some reason, that never happened successfully, even during the glory years of snooker. I think the reason is obvious - it's better to play pool and eke out a living than try to play snooker and starve. There are quite a few players have gone from snooker to pool, and done very well, but I find it difficult to name any former pool players who have won a snooker world championship.

-djb <-- agrees with the OP - snooker's harder than pool
 
worriedbeef said:
you're right but he does have a point. it's not used in the same way as in pool, and it's used a lot lot less. u don't shoot a quarterball shot in with natural low right lol. and when it is used it's mostly a lot closer to centre ball than in pool.

actually there are a number of players who don't use english at all pretty much. terry griffiths has said he never used it. this is a world champion and top coach to hendry, williams, and marco fu btw.
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I never heard Of Terry Griffiths not using side (English) before. I know Eddie Charlton was reputed not to use it. I've seen TG use side before, from a few feet away. Hell of a nice guy by the way, he even agreed to take part in a joke on my ex-wife once!

Also, whatever happend to Frank Callan? I know he used to coach Hendry. He also spent some time with a youngster at our local snooker hall, sadly the kid let being a teenager get in the way of some promising talent.
 
"you Tube" has a lot of the top snooker guys running perfect "147's", and their skill blows me away. And they use lots of 'english' too. A friend and I went to this room that had several English snooker tables. We played for an hour, and never was I so glad to get out of a pool room...couldn't make a thing.Those snooker balls are much smaller than you think.
 
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