This all depends on the situation... if you go into a random bar and rack up 8ball and play with random bar patron... then you pull a safety, you can expect a mouth full of BS and you brought that upon yourself.
lmao defense is a weakness.....
- Thread starter poolguppy
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lorider;4686596 i did not find out until the night i joined that it was bcapl 9 ball. i hated it because of the slop factor. i soon joined a bcapl 8 ball team. 8 ball was better but again there is still slop because its call your pocket" not call your shot. [/QUOTE said:
There is a quote Buddy Hall uttered in some AccuStats match, he was commentating with either Grady or Billy and the match was with an Asian player. After a few games Billy said that it seems the Asians did not play safeties and would take low % shots instead. Buddy asked "do those guys play for money back home?" Reply was "I don't think they do".
Buddy said "When they start playing for money, they'll start playing safeties."
The whole safeties is "dirty pool" thing is about as funny to hear as "well you only had easy shots to shoot that's why you beat me".
Buddy said "When they start playing for money, they'll start playing safeties."
The whole safeties is "dirty pool" thing is about as funny to hear as "well you only had easy shots to shoot that's why you beat me".
under the WSR they're the same. Where I'm from, "called shot" means calling all the details of the shot. Some people even refer to standard called shot,a.k.a. "call pocket," as slop.
Yeah, I figured that. I was playing for many, many years before I even heard of that kind of play in bars, even. I've never been able to understand why anyone would want to play that way. And, I've heard all the excuses, the most common being "that's the way the pros play!" I don't know when or why it changed.
It all depends on what area of the country you are in...sometimes specifically what bar in what area of the country you are in. In a ten square-mile area close to my home...I bet I've played "bar rules" that varied in the rules two or three DIFFERENT ways...depending on which bar I was in.
FTR.....playing bar rules without BIH (and where safeties are frowned upon) can still be overcome by players like us that play "actual" rules. You just have to learn how to make your opponent think you are attempting a shot (and calling the shot, of course) when all actuality....you are secretly going to "miss" the shot, all the while putting the cue ball into a "safe" place :wink:. Then...watch your opponent scatter the balls all over the table while attempting some shot that has ZERO chance for success. It takes a little practice...but it's easy enough to figure out for even most novice players with safety skills.
Maniac
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Your opponent giving you advice on how to beat him. Class!
Never happens to me though!
Never happens to me though!
I hear it every night.
We have 8-ball & 9-ball APA divisions on five week nights and one Women's division on Saturday. On Wednesday nights, there is a "Straight Eight" league that has matches at our location. It's not in-house, because we don't do anything for them and we have no part in it. However, they choose to play on the Diamond tables over Valley's at the other bars. I play in the Wednesday APA 9-ball division and have to hear the "Straight Eight" players bicker every league night. The kicker is, they come to practice and the majority of the players on Wednesday are players. Once they ask to play a few games of "Straight Eight" they get laughed at and that's when the bickering starts.
"Straight 8 is real pool, not that *racial slur* pool!"
"You didn't call that off the rail!"
"That ball in hand crap is stupid!"
My favorite:
I was playing a guy for sh**s and giggles at "real pool" lol
I played a 3 rail jam up safety and he said "You can't do that!"
I asked, "Why not? What if I missed? Do y'all have fouls?"
He replied, "Because the rules say you can't! Yea, we have fouls if you scratch, but none of that Ball in Hand bullsh**!"
I laughed in his face, unscrewed my cue on the spot, and went to the bar.
Edit -
I forgot to mention. I think for "Straight Eight" players, it's about showing off.
On Sundays, we have free pool. So, we get a lot of "Straight Eight" bangers.
One came up to me, when I was practicing 9-ball and said he would play.
I gave him the break and he made a ball, sent the 9 toward the corner and it rattled.
The one ball rolled right up near the 9 and I figured he'd just shoot the combo.
He walks up, calls the 1 in the opposite corner and misses his attempted bank shot by a mile.
I asked why he didn't just shoot the 1/9 and he told me that you can't do that, you have to run all the balls in order... LOLOLOLOL
We have 8-ball & 9-ball APA divisions on five week nights and one Women's division on Saturday. On Wednesday nights, there is a "Straight Eight" league that has matches at our location. It's not in-house, because we don't do anything for them and we have no part in it. However, they choose to play on the Diamond tables over Valley's at the other bars. I play in the Wednesday APA 9-ball division and have to hear the "Straight Eight" players bicker every league night. The kicker is, they come to practice and the majority of the players on Wednesday are players. Once they ask to play a few games of "Straight Eight" they get laughed at and that's when the bickering starts.
"Straight 8 is real pool, not that *racial slur* pool!"
"You didn't call that off the rail!"
"That ball in hand crap is stupid!"
My favorite:
I was playing a guy for sh**s and giggles at "real pool" lol
I played a 3 rail jam up safety and he said "You can't do that!"
I asked, "Why not? What if I missed? Do y'all have fouls?"
He replied, "Because the rules say you can't! Yea, we have fouls if you scratch, but none of that Ball in Hand bullsh**!"
I laughed in his face, unscrewed my cue on the spot, and went to the bar.
Edit -
I forgot to mention. I think for "Straight Eight" players, it's about showing off.
On Sundays, we have free pool. So, we get a lot of "Straight Eight" bangers.
One came up to me, when I was practicing 9-ball and said he would play.
I gave him the break and he made a ball, sent the 9 toward the corner and it rattled.
The one ball rolled right up near the 9 and I figured he'd just shoot the combo.
He walks up, calls the 1 in the opposite corner and misses his attempted bank shot by a mile.
I asked why he didn't just shoot the 1/9 and he told me that you can't do that, you have to run all the balls in order... LOLOLOLOL
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At one time many years ago I probably was in the shoot anything mode, it was how we played. Now I want my opponent to play safe when it's the right thing to do. I don't have any problem with a well executed safe, matter of fact the opportunity try and make the escape is challenging. I also thinks it's funny when someone says that "if it was in a tournament, I'd play safe" as if the ability to execute good safes can just be turned on and off.
cluelesscuer
New member
It's amazing to me, one can still go and play 8 ball in a bar and there are still no real rules (regarding having to make legal contact). It's still stuck on 'no rules'. Guess it will never change...
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I've had this happen to me a few times regarding safety play in hole in the wall bars. The best one was when I was playing in Homer, Alaska at the infamous "Salty Dog". I'm playing this guy maybe late 50's and after I play a safe on him and put him in jail, his face gets beat red and he just looks pissed like someone just called his wife a b*&%* and says "guys get hurt around here that play that kind of chicken sh*&". I kind of chuckled inside and didn't play any more safes after that and let him win the game. We weren't playing for anything and realized winning the game probably meant alot more to him than it did for me. I finished my beer and went back to enjoying the spit in Homer. All in all, Homer is an awesome little city.
My dad was a good player and never understood safety play until I beat it into his head for a couple years that it's really part of higher level pool. He now understands the beauty of laying down a great safety. Most people have the "safety's are a chicken sh** move" are old timers that have only played in bars and never really played "players". Trying to debate the issue of safety play with them is like arguing with a 12 year old that can't see all the angles. When you bring up other sports and how important defense is to almost all mainstream games (football, baseball, basketball, etc.) usually that point won't even get acknowledged.......It's just the way it is I guess. It's the same people who think "kitchen rules" are the only way to go and usually refer to it as "straight 8" and don't understand the various flaws within those rules and why they are mostly extinct at actual pool halls.
just my two cents and of course, there are always exceptions to what I've mentioned above
My dad was a good player and never understood safety play until I beat it into his head for a couple years that it's really part of higher level pool. He now understands the beauty of laying down a great safety. Most people have the "safety's are a chicken sh** move" are old timers that have only played in bars and never really played "players". Trying to debate the issue of safety play with them is like arguing with a 12 year old that can't see all the angles. When you bring up other sports and how important defense is to almost all mainstream games (football, baseball, basketball, etc.) usually that point won't even get acknowledged.......It's just the way it is I guess. It's the same people who think "kitchen rules" are the only way to go and usually refer to it as "straight 8" and don't understand the various flaws within those rules and why they are mostly extinct at actual pool halls.
just my two cents and of course, there are always exceptions to what I've mentioned above
I played "actual dirty" against a guy once because of this very reason. Even though I was playing his rules, he was complaining about why ball in hand is stupid the whole game anyways. So he was down to the 8 ball..... and it was in the kitchen
. And I had heard enough from this guy, I was frozen to the rail with no good shot and he was over there smiling,I looked over and said "wanna know why ball in hand exists" and I shot the Cueball straight into a pocket, and said "I just fouled, but your the one who's punished". Dude started cussing up a storm and just walked out of the placeI guess you're just not guppy enough to play him a real guppy's game.
Same here man. If your playing call shot that means they want you to call everything. If it's going to nip a ball on the way in you call it
I played "actual dirty" against a guy once because of this very reason. Even though I was playing his rules, he was complaining about why ball in hand is stupid the whole game anyways. So he was down to the 8 ball..... and it was in the kitchen
This is priceless
I was asked to play on one of those bar leagues. The team name was "stick that D in you ass". Such a strange name I thought...later found out that it was because one bar out of the 6 or 7 liked to play safeties..
I was playing someone for a table or a beer in a small bar in Sacramento once. I pulled a safety on him when he was on the 8 and he couldn't counter the shot. I ran out an won the game. He was a good sport about it and actually was surprised because he'd never seen anyone play a safe shot before. Sometimes, you get dick players who are poor sports, but it's always fun to find someone who just enjoys the game even if they don't know much.