billiards_watch said:

imagine if SVB lost 15 pounds. He can prolong his career and level. He’s lugging around unnecessary weight.

Stamina and endurance is a big factor.

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He looks huge compared to what he looked like in the 2000's. His head looks like he's taking those Joe Rogan supplements

nataddrho said:

The opening lag is supposed to be difficult enough that there is a clear winner by inspection. We don’t want to start creating arguments on who won a lag by a millimeter. When that happens the players lag one more time and there is never a second tie.

A skill shot executed perfectly by two players to both repeatedly land on a rail is the opposite of a coin toss, which is also used to start games.

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Good point, but you can always repeat a lag. It's possible you get lots of ties and its not practical.

It could be more meaningful or fun if it was close more often. Especially at the pro level and you could have a ref decide. A lot of pros are just going through the motion and don't practice it. So it's essentially random.

poolscholar said:

3. Less chance of table roll affecting the lag result. Sometimes you'll get a scratch

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The softer you hit, the more table roll is a factor, not less...

billiards_watch said:

imagine if SVB lost 15 pounds. He can prolong his career and level. He’s lugging around unnecessary weight.

Stamina and endurance is a big factor.

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Yea.. except he's arguably the greatest stamina player of all time.

I may not always be right but I'm never wrong just leave it the way it is.

still early in the second half, anything could happen

Does anyone know the Cues YAPP is playing with

garczar said:

Oh so to reply to any thread we have to like and agree with it? Its called a open forum dipshit. Feel free to put ME on ignore. As long as people keep starting these inane threads i'll keep hammering them.

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We can disagree without hurling insults. Let's change speed here just a little. Thank you for your cooperation.

poolscholar said:

Because it's always been done a certain way is not a good argument. Change is fine if it's better

People say the lag is skill. This method increases the skill

Is there a reason 2 table lengths is better than 1 table length lag?

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I think both players should hit their lag shot, and then fire at the moving object ball with a .22 caliber revolver. Safety glasses optional.

bud green said:

I was just going to post a link to the same match. Excellent video quality.

Good Lord, hard to fade runs like that in a match to 40. As always, classy response from the loser of the match.

Anyone know when Caudron switched to carbon shafts?

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I think it's the Armonia cue he talks about here. I think the shaft is graphite.

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slugrack said:

7 straight for Yapp. Shane's gotta be regretting that 2 ball right now.

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For sure.

poolscholar said:

The fact that most lags are not close means it's not a good indicator of skill and pretty random.

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Define "close" and in what setting? The reason I ask is "close" is a very subjective idea.

Just for funsies I took a couple of minutes to try to track down a full pro tournament bracket that included scores. The first one I found was for The 2023 American Straight Pool Championship (https://americanstraightpool.com/.) I'm sure there are more out there but I didn't want to spend all night searching for something that might not be out there. Anyway, the average margin of victory on the winner's side was 73.53 points going to 150. (I didn't do the loser's side because they played to 125 and it would have skewed the average.) We're not talking about Billy Bob who "paid his way through college" here. These are some of the best straight pool players in the world. And yes, I understand how straight pool works and that once a player gets a shot, they're very capable of running 150 and out. But my point and question is this: Was the average match during this tournament close enough to warrant it being an adequate test of skill? And I'd bet most tournaments have set results similar to these. Hill/Hill isn't as common in nine ball as 13-6 or a similar score.

I prefer a coin flip, too. But where it's required the lag is fine as it is.