Here’s what I’ve learned…….I win a whole lot more games on a 9’ table playing a lower ranked opponent 9 ball than when playing them on a 7’ table. I can easily beat them on a 9’ table playing safeties and get BIH more often and they only slop the 9 ball in rarely. On a 7’ table, unintended object balls drop in pockets, including the 9 ball, a lot more often and that tends to resultantly help their win probability %. Playing 8 ball on a 7’ table is easier than on a 9’ table & so is 10 ball.
When you transition from a 7’ to a 9’, cue ball position necessarily gets extended because of the larger playing surface (50”x100”). When you play mostly on a 7’ table, your judgement about stroke speed and extension thru the cue ball becomes oriented to moving the cue ball for position on a smaller playing surface. So generally speaking, playing on a 9’ involves a little more cue ball speed and if you’ve mainly played 7’ tables, you’ll discover your cue ball shape comes up short or long more often than you wanted.
I always viewed 7’ tables as a beginners table but that’s because growing up, I played on 9’ and 10’ tables. The only 7’
tables you’d find were in a tavern or some after school program run by the local church. In fact, I don’t even recall ever seeing a 8’ or oversized 8’ in any pool parlors. As far as I can recollect, back in the 60’s, the pool parlors had either 9’ or 10’ in NYC. From an industry standpoint, 7’ tables have been the salvation for the majority of pool room operators because of socialized pool leagues. Plus pool rooms also get to squeeze in more tables in the same amount of space.
If APA, BCA, or any other pool league franchisors substituted, or else added, 9’ tables to their venues, I think it would admittedly take some time but the caliber of pocket billiards played in the USA would get elevated from what it is now.
