Fight Night 6 just ended, and Darren activated his top
one pocket gear to go from even, to winning the 7 ahead set. Ouch.
To be fair Chip's wheels also fell off a bit, but I never saw him go into give-up mode.
Darren just turned little half-mistakes into multi-ball runs.
Some random thoughts...
• Was positive Darren would win before the match, especially after the first rack.
Then he spent the rest of the night stuck 2-3 games behind chip haha.
So then I'm thinking "good thing I don't bet".
They got back to even near the end of the night, and decide to do one more rack.
Darren takes it, so he was up for exactly 2 racks yesterday... the first and the last.
• Tonight I missed most of the beginning but Chip erased that lead at some point.
I heard the first game took like an hour.
I may be wrong but I think Darren's streak started here? On the 2nd rack?
Do you think only one hour into Day 2, Chip suspected in any way that
it was the beginning of the end and he'd never win another rack?
• Chip probably has more 1p knowledge, but Darren's no dummy.
JJ liked almost everything he shot, and I think JJ disagreed
with more of Chip's shots than Darren's.
Darren's execution and cue ball are amazing.
But Chip is no slouch either, especially his shotmaking.
Seemed to drill every long tough cut when he needed to.
But... I know a guy who does violent JB-style steering
after some shots will never out-execute Darren.
• I can't get over how perfectly Darren hits those lag-speed long banks
off the head rail. I never saw someone hit them over and over like that.
I wonder if he has any secret besides a super straight stroke?
So many balls gennnntly crept into the pocket.
A lot of players try these, the object ball rebounds
a foot or so, and they sell out a cross-corner. Don't think Darren ever did this.
• One pocket has to be the worst game for little-known house rules.
Some shit about a stalemate with two frozen balls at the head rail = you spot one,
and it's either the highest numbered ball or player's choice? lol.
Ball gets made on the break. Spot it? Place it hanging in their hole? wtf...
did they discuss that?
• When guys are playing for $10,000... there definitely aren't any sleepers
that fail to get spotted.
• Decent stream quality, wish it could be a little more HD. And they spaced out
and would periodically remove the scoreboard so we could see the players better...
then forget to put it back up. I spent most of the final rack not knowing the ball
count until someone said Darren needs 2 balls.
But I do appreciate the stream and the commentary was great.
• Except for the part where they hated on everything I love in pool.
JJ and Scott both want to go back to old-school rules, behind the line,
don't call shots, no magic rack, no jump cues, and no handicaps.
Everyone should be proficient at spot shots. I'm sure they want slower cloth too.
Scott would like more dead money entering tournaments they can't win.
• I never saw a pool hall, until now, where literally 100% of the time, for hours,
from open to close, it's straight rap. Not even good fresh rap. Or oldschool 80's stuff.
Just shit that was played out two years ago. Straight Jay-Z, Kanye, 50 Cent, Eminem allll night.
They said Chip's cornerman was helping him by making sure
the jukebox was loaded with tunes he liked. :/
• They were so careful on the final rack that 14 balls ended up behind the head string.
Bunt-bunt-bunt-bunt-bunt.
But Darren did one of his trademark slow-roll full table banks,
converted some marginal cross corners, and just played it smart.
Did I mention he kicks as well as he banks?
One thing Chip does very well is take out hangers in the other guy's hole.
• Chip needs to get rid of that goofy "I'll occasionally get down and 1-stroke this,
just to be cool" habit he has. Or maybe he thinks it helps him pocket tough shots
if he doesn't overthink them. But whatever it is, he's gotta get rid of it.
It's killing him. I know JJ's gonna bring it up with him.
I believe I remember someone telling me at SBE that during a hill-hill rack,
someone missed and left chip a bank, and he walked up and 1-stroked it in.
I guess he thinks that's his 'style' or something.
• I remember Darren said (or people said ABOUT darren) that he doesn't like
long marathon sets. So I thought "well he's at a disadvantage then.
This could go on for weeks." I guess Darren decided to just wrap it up early.
I love that once he was on the hill, he didn't dog it and let the opportunity slip away.
one pocket gear to go from even, to winning the 7 ahead set. Ouch.
To be fair Chip's wheels also fell off a bit, but I never saw him go into give-up mode.
Darren just turned little half-mistakes into multi-ball runs.
Some random thoughts...
• Was positive Darren would win before the match, especially after the first rack.
Then he spent the rest of the night stuck 2-3 games behind chip haha.
So then I'm thinking "good thing I don't bet".
They got back to even near the end of the night, and decide to do one more rack.
Darren takes it, so he was up for exactly 2 racks yesterday... the first and the last.
• Tonight I missed most of the beginning but Chip erased that lead at some point.
I heard the first game took like an hour.
I may be wrong but I think Darren's streak started here? On the 2nd rack?
Do you think only one hour into Day 2, Chip suspected in any way that
it was the beginning of the end and he'd never win another rack?
• Chip probably has more 1p knowledge, but Darren's no dummy.
JJ liked almost everything he shot, and I think JJ disagreed
with more of Chip's shots than Darren's.
Darren's execution and cue ball are amazing.
But Chip is no slouch either, especially his shotmaking.
Seemed to drill every long tough cut when he needed to.
But... I know a guy who does violent JB-style steering
after some shots will never out-execute Darren.
• I can't get over how perfectly Darren hits those lag-speed long banks
off the head rail. I never saw someone hit them over and over like that.
I wonder if he has any secret besides a super straight stroke?
So many balls gennnntly crept into the pocket.
A lot of players try these, the object ball rebounds
a foot or so, and they sell out a cross-corner. Don't think Darren ever did this.
• One pocket has to be the worst game for little-known house rules.
Some shit about a stalemate with two frozen balls at the head rail = you spot one,
and it's either the highest numbered ball or player's choice? lol.
Ball gets made on the break. Spot it? Place it hanging in their hole? wtf...
did they discuss that?
• When guys are playing for $10,000... there definitely aren't any sleepers
that fail to get spotted.
• Decent stream quality, wish it could be a little more HD. And they spaced out
and would periodically remove the scoreboard so we could see the players better...
then forget to put it back up. I spent most of the final rack not knowing the ball
count until someone said Darren needs 2 balls.
But I do appreciate the stream and the commentary was great.
• Except for the part where they hated on everything I love in pool.
JJ and Scott both want to go back to old-school rules, behind the line,
don't call shots, no magic rack, no jump cues, and no handicaps.
Everyone should be proficient at spot shots. I'm sure they want slower cloth too.
Scott would like more dead money entering tournaments they can't win.
• I never saw a pool hall, until now, where literally 100% of the time, for hours,
from open to close, it's straight rap. Not even good fresh rap. Or oldschool 80's stuff.
Just shit that was played out two years ago. Straight Jay-Z, Kanye, 50 Cent, Eminem allll night.
They said Chip's cornerman was helping him by making sure
the jukebox was loaded with tunes he liked. :/
• They were so careful on the final rack that 14 balls ended up behind the head string.
Bunt-bunt-bunt-bunt-bunt.
But Darren did one of his trademark slow-roll full table banks,
converted some marginal cross corners, and just played it smart.
Did I mention he kicks as well as he banks?
One thing Chip does very well is take out hangers in the other guy's hole.
• Chip needs to get rid of that goofy "I'll occasionally get down and 1-stroke this,
just to be cool" habit he has. Or maybe he thinks it helps him pocket tough shots
if he doesn't overthink them. But whatever it is, he's gotta get rid of it.
It's killing him. I know JJ's gonna bring it up with him.
I believe I remember someone telling me at SBE that during a hill-hill rack,
someone missed and left chip a bank, and he walked up and 1-stroked it in.
I guess he thinks that's his 'style' or something.
• I remember Darren said (or people said ABOUT darren) that he doesn't like
long marathon sets. So I thought "well he's at a disadvantage then.
This could go on for weeks." I guess Darren decided to just wrap it up early.
I love that once he was on the hill, he didn't dog it and let the opportunity slip away.
