15 Ball Rotation on a 12x6

Pidge

Pidge

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Anyone else struggle to watch run out after run out on a televised 9 ball event? I can't remember the last time I watched a game in its entirety. I even find it dull to play.

15 Ball played as a rotation game might be the answer! We have some 9ft Chinese snooker tables at my pool hall, and the balls are numbered 1-15 and are 2". I thought I'd give trying to run out 15 balls a try. Surely it can't be that hard. It was extremely tough going. Clusters everywhere! So I moved onto a snooker table and tried it. Not so many clusters but the challenge came from long shots, I mean 11ft distance between balls long, and having to move the CB a lot further than normal. I must have played about 20 racks and broke and ran out 2...but man did I feel proud of my self when I broke and ran out them 2 racks.

I honestly think this is how the pro game should be played, 15 balls, 12x6 Diamond tables, 2 1/4" balls. I think even the pros would struggle. Especially when you think of the "long pot" success in snooker. Anything above 66% is amazing unless you are O'Sullivan. And those guys practice it daily. Chances are pros wouldn't take that kind of percentage shot on in a rotation format, so safety play becomes HUGE.

Please let me know your thoughts on it, how popular it would be and how you think the pros would get on.

Cheers
 
You should feel proud. I'd pay to see someone break and run out a rack of 15 ball rotation on a snooker table with pool balls.

If the game is too easy now I'm thinking this might be a little too extreme the other way.
 
sydbarret said:
You should feel proud. I'd pay to see someone break and run out a rack of 15 ball rotation on a snooker table with pool balls.

If the game is too easy now I'm thinking this might be a little too extreme the other way.
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The balls were numbered snooker balls, I doubt pool balls would fit in the pocket. Well, maybe with a cm or 2 to spare.

Because I didn't have diamonds to judge the head string or racking position I just broke from behind the balk line and racked the head ball on the pink spot and classed 4 balls past the middle pockets as a legal break. Potting isn't the hard part, the pros would eat that up for breakfast. What I found hard was say the 1 was in the bottom quarter and the 2 tied against the top rail...finding a path was extremely difficult with all those balls in the way. The 2 times I managed to find a path from 1-2-3-4 I ran out. The rest I was out of position so bad after making a ball I ended up snookering my self trying to do an Efren-like positional shot.

It may be too extreme, but I found it harder on a 9ft table. Too many balls in such a little space vs enough balls in a huge space. I prefer the latter.
 
I used to practice 9 ball on a 12 footer with golf pockets. Best I could ever do was a 4 ball run. Mostly 1-2 balls with some 3 s in there. It's brutal. Regular sized snooker pockets wold be a little easier but not a whole bunch.
Chuck
 
Pidge said:
Anyone else struggle to watch run out after run out on a televised 9 ball event? I can't remember the last time I watched a game in its entirety. I even find it dull to play.

15 Ball played as a rotation game might be the answer! We have some 9ft Chinese snooker tables at my pool hall, and the balls are numbered 1-15 and are 2". I thought I'd give trying to run out 15 balls a try. Surely it can't be that hard. It was extremely tough going. Clusters everywhere! So I moved onto a snooker table and tried it. Not so many clusters but the challenge came from long shots, I mean 11ft distance between balls long, and having to move the CB a lot further than normal. I must have played about 20 racks and broke and ran out 2...but man did I feel proud of my self when I broke and ran out them 2 racks.

I honestly think this is how the pro game should be played, 15 balls, 12x6 Diamond tables, 2 1/4" balls. I think even the pros would struggle. Especially when you think of the "long pot" success in snooker. Anything above 66% is amazing unless you are O'Sullivan. And those guys practice it daily. Chances are pros wouldn't take that kind of percentage shot on in a rotation format, so safety play becomes HUGE.

Please let me know your thoughts on it, how popular it would be and how you think the pros would get on.

Cheers
Click to expand...

I've never seen 9ft chinese snooker tables in the UK, nor have I seen numbered snooker balls - where did you get them?
 
I dont know if you were playing on a snooker table with larger than standard pockets, but a rotation break and run on a snooker table is an incredible feat even for a professional pool or snooker player. The english required to get shape in rotation games makes shotmaking a huge challenge. Plus breaking 15 balls wide open means you will likely have several balls on or near a rail somewhere on the table, and on standard pockets, those are shots that even top snooker pros avoid because they are just too difficult to make.
If anyone can post a video of themselves breaking and running out a rack of rotation on a snooker table with proper pockets, I would pay to see that.
 
I think the owner got the tables from an event that was held in London about 6 years ago. They're used mainly for lessons with children who aren't yet able to play and learn on a 12ft table. I have no idea where he got the balls though, they appeared fairly recently, maybe 8 months ago.

The table I played on was a regular club table, the pockets are forgiving enough to play frozen balls down the rail at medium speed. On a TV or championship table, even the snooker greats would struggle, and they play on them 8 hours a day. Still wouldn't put it past Ronnie to run a 3 pack.

Next time I'm at the club and if its quiet enough (I don't want to look like a weirdo with a tripod filming himself play) ill record some footage of me playing the ghost.
 
Pidge, thanks. That's still an amazing feat with the club pockets. And yeah, I can imagine Ronnie making it look ridiculously easy, even on a TV table.
 
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