I got on with no problem

tournament rules change all the time between who is running them. they have someone in charge who can make a final decision.

unfortunately many in pool rooms try to emulate them and are changing time tested pool room rules that would mostly eliminate problems.

Bob Jewett said:

Just look across the table even with the two headstring diamonds. See whether the ball is more to the left or right of the diamonds. I think that is easier than seeing whether the edge of the ball is to the left or right of the center of the diamonds, because the situation is symmetrical and humans are good at seeing small asymmetries.

In any case, the official rule has always been the base/center of the ball.

Click to expand...

We always played "base of the ball" in every 14.1 tournament I ever refereed in. Same applied in 9-Ball. The real history of Texas Express rules begins with the McDermott 9-Ball Tour during the early 1980's. It was introduced by the three guys who ran that tour, two of them still alive today. Richie Florence then decided to use it for the 1983 Caesars Tahoe Billiard Classic, a tournament that I directed for him. I was completely horrified that he would ask me to make such glaring changes to our beloved game. I knew it would throw a large element of luck into a very skillful game. But Richie was the promoter and he prevailed, saying it would speed up play for television, and he was right about that. The final three matches were televised on ESPN. That was the beginning of the end for "push out" 9-Ball.

To this day I will still say that "push out" 9-Ball is the best way to play the game. More thinking involved and more creativity in shot making. Yes, the matches take longer but there's nothing wrong with that a shot clock won't fix. We used to allow two hours for Races to Eleven, and that worked well for most of the players. There were always a few guys who played too slow and we had ways to speed them up.

The small arenas (usually 3-500 seats) we used for tournaments back then were always packed with people, often with standing room only. There was no TV or streaming (until the 1980's) and I used to say it's performance art. You had to be there to see it! I loved my job and watching pool back then. So many great players and tournaments in the U.S. every year. I was mad if I had to miss one.

Where have all the flowers gone, a long time ago!

you DO NOT call a pushout, all you do is take a foul. and 2 in a row is ball in hand. so if you get it behind the line and make a foul he gets ball in hand.

Still looking

Bob Jewett said:

When you break at nine ball, do you put the cue ball fully behind the line?

Click to expand...

Yes. Unless in a MR satellite event.

always yes in the past gambling. behind the line was behind the line.

lakeman77 said:

Maybe a collector pays up, but for intrinsic value 200-400. The cue world has moved on. CF shafts, Predator etc. $1900 in 1991 ?? That's like $10,000 in today's dollars. I can't imagine players lined up to buy it.. Good Luck.

Click to expand...

I didn't get the cue to sell it. Probably only a collector would want it. I would rather play with this cue than anything Predator makes. The cue plays great. This is a collectible cue worth a pretty penny.

And then there are the top snooker players who have the toe of their "back" foot more forward than the other. I wonder if that's the best way for them to stand. Maybe it is. It looks bent and awkward and uncomfortable to me.

iusedtoberich said:

Or a private gambling match. (one hole or banks is the only modern game it comes up). Before each one hole match I'm in, I always ask if center or edge of the ball must be past the line. Everyone in 30 years of gambling one hole always has said edge. Not a single center.

Click to expand...

When you break at nine ball, do you put the cue ball fully behind the line?

fastone371 said:

I gander that you would measure the center (base) of the ball the same way you measure the edge, lay a cue across the diamonds.

Click to expand...

Just look across the table even with the two headstring diamonds. See whether the ball is more to the left or right of the diamonds. I think that is easier than seeing whether the edge of the ball is to the left or right of the center of the diamonds, because the situation is symmetrical and humans are good at seeing small asymmetries.

In any case, the official rule has always been the base/center of the ball.

church66 said:

... Outright Markets​

Winner
Wu Yize
2/1
John Higgins
2/1
Mark Allen
11/4
Shaun Murphy
7/2

Click to expand...

No love for Shaun? He's the favorite now.

Clarifications, for the push out on the "spotted balls version"....

1) If someone pocket scratches and the ball spots and its BIH behind the line.... can the incoming player still call a push-out?

2) If someone makes an unintentional "bad hit" by not hitting the lowest ball and pockets a ball, does it spot?

3) If someone calls a push-out and intentionally pockets a ball, does it spot? Edit: does the answer change if it was the lowest ball on the table, vs the non-lowest ball?

How about thin off white and then long, short, short. At least three ways to score. I think the kiss can be avoided.

Get in there! John Higgins out. Come on Wu - give us a final that we can enjoy tomorrow.

Badpenguin said:

Yeah, no, none of that is going to happen any time soon. AI replacing all jobs, outside of maybe some low level developer jobs, is a myth. No one is making a profit using AI or doing anything any better with AI. Actually it isn't a myth, it is fraud. It is tech companies covering up their losses or making their investors happy by laying off people. Not only that, we simply don't have the electrical grid and other infrastructure to do what these morons are claiming. There is still plenty of white collar work to be done, once this pyrafraud bubble bursts.

Click to expand...

You are sorely mistaken and I think you will be surprised very soon. I work for a small sophisticated fund and we are delegating to Ai left and right. One of the main features our head developer is working on is creating Ai agent teams that are field experts. You can feed Ai research papers and get a field expert in seconds. They analyze strategies and data in deep and meaningful ways, they construct plans for tax and legal implications, they backtest hundreds of thousands of variable parameters and make hotspot matrices that humans were previously incapable of, and they do every ounce of grunt work you could imagine on top of that. I used to be of the same mind as you and I agree Ai is not as sophisticated as people think, but I’m seeing first hand how powerful it is as a tool. We’re are currently being evaluated to be bought by a large financial institution, and the main draw is how small we have been able to remain trading the amount of capital with the variety of strategies we use, and that is explicitly because Ai has allowed us to do so. This financial institution has also said they want to model future departments after us. So yes it is coming. And to your point about driving, we’re already surrounded by driverless Ubers here in LA (Waymo’s).

wuhoo, my murphy bet landed. and what a finish. thrilling

iusedtoberich said:

To this day, I've never been to a local event that did NOT go by the edge of the ball. Was it really never in any rulebook?

Click to expand...

Or a private gambling match. (one hole or banks is the only modern game it comes up). Before each one hole match I'm in, I always ask if center or edge of the ball must be past the line. Everyone in 30 years of gambling one hole always has said edge. Not a single center.