Been away from pool action for a good while and never heard the term set in relation to action . A set in poker is 3 , a silverware set can be what you want it to be , 4 or 8 etc . To me set indicates 3 . Are people playing races to whatever , best 2 out of 3 ? Are they betting on each race or on the whole set ?
Defining what a set is .
- Thread starter david(tx)
- Start date
I think you may be too set in your ways.
Check out my post on the 'nit' issue. To answer this question directly, however, races can be to as little as two, but a race to five is about the shortest you will see, and that is considered WAY too short by most 'better' players, particularly since any 'A' player is capable of running a five pack on you. For me, a race to seven is the minimum for 'funsies', and if we start to talk about serious money I would definitely look for at least a race to nine (unless I KNOW I'm stealing--then we can shorten the length, 'cause I'll want the sets to go quickly
).Mind you now--I'm talking about nine-ball or ten-ball. Eight-ball and one pocket sets tend to be shorter, with a race to 4 being respectable in one-hole. In 8-ball you see all kinds of lengths, as the skill, interest and experience levels span a MUCH wider range.
Thanks for the info everyone . A race is a race to me and playing by the game is just that . A set to me would be best 2 out 3 or 3 out of 5 in predetermined races for a agreed upon bet . In reality it is whatever people agree too.
But a race in poker is something different too! How are we going to figure this out?
Hey , i'll go with the flow , as long as i know where the river is going . As long as everyone involved knows the terminology it doesn't matter , so if a race to 11 is a set , okay.
I like how you dont let yourself getting pushed in a direction you dont want to. Thanks for asking btw I recently came accros the word too and also wondered what it was.
Thank you . Things change , just trying to get some clarity , see guys talking on stream chats about playing sets and didn't know how they were defining this , now i know .:smile:
it's like anything else with pool and gambling. just ask someone to race to seven (my preference is you must win by two games) and play three sets for whatever a set. I'm sure you will figure it out. The best education for pool related issues is and has always been the the pool room or wherever it is you play pool. Have fun, too.
I agree , but my circumstances now are that going to a decent poolroom are not possible and have been for many years , i get my pool fix watching streams and yakking here . Hopefully i'll get back to it someday.
Definition
The prior posts have been good, but incomplete.
The term set usually refers racing to win a certain number of games. Back in the day, you would race to 5 for $50, 7 for $100, 9 for $200, and I shot several sets to 11 for $500 and $1,000. Whether you have to win by 2 games is dependent on the 2 players playing. Today, any sets played for more than $100 are usually longer sets than in the past. For instance, $200 or $300 sets might go to 11 or 13, $500 sets might go to 15, and $1,000 sets might go to 21. It just depends on what the 2 players playing decide.
Then what noone has mentioned before is 'ahead sets'. This is where 2 players play until one player gets a certain number of games ahead of the other player. For instance, an ahead set to 6 would be over when 1 player got 6 games ahead of the other player. Ahead sets, though, can take forever to play if 2 players are pretty evenly matched. I quit playing ahead sets long ago after spending over 16 hours once playing an ahead set, for one set.
The prior posts have been good, but incomplete.
The term set usually refers racing to win a certain number of games. Back in the day, you would race to 5 for $50, 7 for $100, 9 for $200, and I shot several sets to 11 for $500 and $1,000. Whether you have to win by 2 games is dependent on the 2 players playing. Today, any sets played for more than $100 are usually longer sets than in the past. For instance, $200 or $300 sets might go to 11 or 13, $500 sets might go to 15, and $1,000 sets might go to 21. It just depends on what the 2 players playing decide.
Then what noone has mentioned before is 'ahead sets'. This is where 2 players play until one player gets a certain number of games ahead of the other player. For instance, an ahead set to 6 would be over when 1 player got 6 games ahead of the other player. Ahead sets, though, can take forever to play if 2 players are pretty evenly matched. I quit playing ahead sets long ago after spending over 16 hours once playing an ahead set, for one set.
If you think about it, best 2 out of 3 is equivalently a race to 2 and best 3 out of 5 is just race to 3.