Who created bonus ball?

(((Satori)))

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Does anyone know who created the game itself? Who made the rules to the game, thought up the team format, etc.?

I'm not going to lie, I thought the game itself was a great game.
 
Just some Damn Canadian from Winterpeg Manisnowba.

They get 10 months of winter, one month of summer and then fall.

It was probably a culmination of being snow bound and cabin fever, having too much time on your hands which resulted in a new game of pool being invented.

The only reason that he took the game to Las Vegas I suspect is because we already have a game that we play in the winter months called Beaver Bowl.

We capture several Canadian Beavers, dye their fur orange, purple and black.

We hurl them down an elongated sheet of ice and try to land them on colored rings on the other end of the ice.

Then, we use bowling balls and try and knock our opponents Beavers off the colored rings at the other end.

Its quite a lot of fun but Vegas is too hot for Canadian Beavers so we had to keep that one in Canada.

That and we are starting to catch some flack from several animal rights organizations as we tend to go thru a considerable amount of Beavers.

After a fun afternoon of playing Beaver Bowl, we have another game that we play. Its called Trim the Beaver. But, I'll save that one for another time.

Fun fact. Strawberry flavoring is made from the secretion from the anal glands of a Beaver. So, when we are playing Trim the Beaver later, we can have Tequila Strawberry Beaver shots.

Canadians also invented Baja Rosa BTW. We tend to be an inventive bunch up here.

And considering that Beavers do build Dams, maybe that is why we are often referred to as Damn Canadians.

BTW, I do have a couple of recipes if anyone is interested. if you haven't tasted Canadian Beaver, you should. Quite nice actually. Its too cold up here most of the times so it doesn't spoil easily. Spoiled Beaver is quite nasty.
 
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I wouldn't believe anything that the Winterpeg Free Press prints.
The last time I went to get one of their papers, they wanted to charge me a buck and a half for it.

Anything but Free. False advertising as far as I'm concerned.

BTW, don't mess with our Beavers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr5HOQCANGU
 
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I'm glad Satori started this thread because last night I was thinking about the difficulties of Bonus Ball and some factors in the success of televised sports. Here are three thoughts.

1. It is probably best to start with a game the point of which can be summarized in one sentence. In basketball you try to get the ball through the hoop. In football you try to move the ball down the field. In tennis you try to hit the ball over the net into the square. Etc. Bonus Ball is a bit like trying to explain baseball to a foreigner. The point of the game is not immediately clear.

2. You can throw a massive amount of money into the prize fund. Texas Hold 'Em is a complex game, and you certainly couldn't summarize it in one sentence. But, when "life-changing money" is involved, even something as dull as poker becomes watchable. In addition, Texas Hold 'Em dangles the illusion of the potential of earning big money in the eyes of the audience because the skills of the players are not apparent. Everybody thinks he could do that.

3. You can take an already existing, truly dull game and play up the weird personalities involved in it and pit them against one another. How did you know I was writing about snooker?
 
So where did the other BB, Barry Brenner, fit in to all this?

I seem to recall in all his rants, before he got banned, that he was somehow involved in Bonus Balls creation, too.
 
The two things I like about the BB format:

1. Team format. It's a major reason why the Mosconi Cup isn't just another match. Watching players rotate shots adds interest to the game.

2. No, or very few, run-outs. Yes you can play team 8-ball or 9-ball and get the added interest of team play. But watching one team run-out and then the other team run-out gets pretty quickly. But it's more exciting when you know the other team is going to have a chance at the table to win this rack.

I also like how BB combined rotation, 14.1, 1P and snooker. But even then it wouldn't be as interesting if it wasn't a team game.
 
The two things I like about the BB format:


2. No, or very few, run-outs. Yes you can play team 8-ball or 9-ball and get the added interest of team play. But watching one team run-out and then the other team run-out gets pretty quickly. But it's more exciting when you know the other team is going to have a chance at the table to win this rack.

I think the very small BB pockets contributed to this as well.
 
So where did the other BB, Barry Brenner, fit in to all this?

I seem to recall in all his rants, before he got banned, that he was somehow involved in Bonus Balls creation, too.

This article has all the details:

http://www.pro9.co.uk/html/print.php?sid=1530

tldr: He helped promote his friend's racetrack and did very well.
Took up pool and liked it. Got into promoting pool in canada.
Got approached by chiborak who invented BB and wanted to start a league.
Loved the game, especially because he hated people running out on him and felt a good game
would allow everyone multiple visits to the table, like snooker.
Showed some pros the game at the US Open. Claimed they loved it.
Invited them to play an event in canada. Busty won, everyone including fans loved it.

The interview happened a few days after this event.
It's kind of sad, reading about all these dreams he had for the game, and fast forwarding to present
day where they lie on floor like flopping dying fish T_T
 
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