uk_9_ball_convert said:

I know Jayson's final when he won the Blackball world championship was against a Frenchman, think they hosted that year so France must have a bit of a blackball culture.

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there's a girl from france, quite young, that beat siming chen in heyball, they said she came from blackball background. in southern france they play carom billiards, so maybe blackball is a more northern thing.

I like the concept and wish I had one 70years ago. Very rudimentary but this will be refined over the years and will put many pool instructors out of business. Everybody laughed at VELCRO...

"Man can neither love nor hate what he does not know".

Next time I play them, I will kindly offer to let them break

SBC said:

I hate alternating break because when a player is down it makes it much harder to string racks together.

In a long race alternating break is really pointless. Each player would have several chances in a race to 11. This isn't race to 5.

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It is unbelievable how strong Fedor is when he makes these sort of comebacks.

Absolute champion.

Is this the size of machine that you are looking for ?

skor said:

I don't mind the WNT format, but add the 3 point rule.
Maybe do alternate breaks up to the last 32 because up to that stage you get a lot 9-1 results, give the dead money a chance...

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The only problem with the 3 point rule from the break box is you can break hard and still not meet it. Especially with the cut break, which, let's be honest, everyone is gonna use the cut break except Earl.

I would much prefer to, maybe I'll make a purpose built one with bluetooth, have them use break speed with audio estimation. I mean you have the app that's available, but I think a specific device mounted on the lights would probably be better. Just make 16 or 17 mph the minimum acceptable break speed.

If they're using tablet scoring, you could easily add the results of the break speed as a plugin if it's already a bluetooth serial connection with the device.

It would also be pretty easy to program the device to trigger for the next break measurement when the game is marked up and a threshold can be set so that it doesn't use the sound from nearby tables. It's all doable, especially if a directional mic is used and it's pointed in between the break box and the one ball.

Chris said:

The difference (breaker wins vs non-breaker wins) is not statistically significant. It's a coin toss with this sample.

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I did find 3 players at my skill level that lose significantly more if they break... I am not surprised because they are good at making balls but don't play defense so they attempt a run out every time. When their opponent comes to the table, it is wide open.
For instance, one guy wins 57% when he breaks and 75% when his opponent breaks.

Sheldon said:

I've seen (hard) ferrules ground to an hourglass shape from chalking.

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Yet there are idiots that call themselves cue makers that think ferrule-less shafts are a good idea. It started with Black Boar Tony and one of his disciples Anthony Milanisi is carrying on with it as well. I mean what do they think ferrules are for?

Jaden said:

But it doesn't allow for big comebacks. I used to be a fan of alternate break with a standard break, and this setup with the 3 point rule isn't bad, but I prefer the WNT format to any other 9 ball format now.

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I don't mind the WNT format, but add the 3 point rule.
Maybe do alternate breaks up to the last 32 because up to that stage you get a lot 9-1 results, give the dead money a chance...