Highest number of ball in hands on 9 ball

hang-the-9

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Tuesday we had a few new players in a weekly tournament I run, one of those new players won his first match 3-0, all 3 games he had ball in hand on the 9 because the other guy scratched when making the 8. In his first game the second set, he again had ball in hand on the 9.

I told him I have never in 30 years of playing pool have seen that happen, I can't even remember two in a row.

Has anyone run into anything close, with 4 ball in hands on the 9 ball 4 games in a row?

I don't think I remember anyone getting 4 ball in hands on the last ball in a whole day of playing in a tournament, never mind in a row or two sets.
 
Tuesday we had a few new players in a weekly tournament I run, one of those new players won his first match 3-0, all 3 games he had ball in hand on the 9 because the other guy scratched when making the 8. In his first game the second set, he again had ball in hand on the 9.

I told him I have never in 30 years of playing pool have seen that happen, I can't even remember two in a row.

Has anyone run into anything close, with 4 ball in hands on the 9 ball 4 games in a row?

I don't think I remember anyone getting 4 ball in hands on the last ball in a whole day of playing in a tournament, never mind in a row or two sets.
What I want to know is where was his opponent the many times I needed him?:angry:
 
What I want to know is where was his opponent the many times I needed him?:angry:

He was actually a pretty nice older fella, lives next town over to the pool hall but this was his first tournament. Has a table at home so is one of those shooters that can play a bit but without any actual lessons or training.
 
Is it ball in hands or balls in hand???..... kind of like mother in laws or mothers in law.:
Just yanking your chain Lazar. I won a local senior center 8 ball tourney a week ago.....last game with blackie in hand. Mitch
 
Is it ball in hands or balls in hand???..... kind of like mother in laws or mothers in law.:
Just yanking your chain Lazar. I won a local senior center 8 ball tourney a week ago.....last game with blackie in hand. Mitch

It is indeed 'balls' in hand

...I also think four in a row is a world record
 
Last edited:
Haha. This actually just happened to me day before yesterday.
One of the few folks I'll shoot 9 ball with gave me ball in
hand on the 8ball , 3 games in a row.
The most brutal part was he scratched in the same side pocket twice, then the opposite side the 3rd time trying to get "perfect" shape.
The last 2 games he ran the rack and rattled the 9 both times. Absolutely brutal.
Was a short set that day. Like $2 in table time. Lol.
In a race to 5, I won by only shooting in 8 balls total.
He quit and admitted how much that fried his nerves.
The guy shoots way too good for stuff like that to be happening to him. Everybody has their days.
Granted, we were shooting in 3 7/8" pockets...
 
I was playing a bit this morning and I scratched 3x in a row. And not trying to get out of a safety or anything that often results in a scratch...
 
Haha. This actually just happened to me day before yesterday.
One of the few folks I'll shoot 9 ball with gave me ball in
hand on the 8ball , 3 games in a row.
The most brutal part was he scratched in the same side pocket twice, then the opposite side the 3rd time trying to get "perfect" shape.
The last 2 games he ran the rack and rattled the 9 both times. Absolutely brutal.
Was a short set that day. Like $2 in table time. Lol.
In a race to 5, I won by only shooting in 8 balls total.
He quit and admitted how much that fried his nerves.
The guy shoots way too good for stuff like that to be happening to him. Everybody has their days.
Granted, we were shooting in 3 7/8" pockets...

I don't think I would ever want to play a real match or tournament on pockets that tight, unless my name was Shaw or Appleton. I lost a decent chunk of cash (for me that is hehe), playing on a tight older Diamond that was my first day playing on it, against a local. Playing per game, I was up for a few games but ended up 8 games loser at the end. I got smart and stopped gambling.
 
Is it ball in hands or balls in hand???..... kind of like mother in laws or mothers in law.:
Just yanking your chain Lazar. I won a local senior center 8 ball tourney a week ago.....last game with blackie in hand. Mitch

Well, it's one ball in hand per game, would that still be balls in hand since each game resets and you only get one ball in hand on the 9? So it's multiple ball in hand, but not balls in hand. Hope that made sense. He had 4 total but one per game so he had ball in hand 4 times, not several balls in hand.
 
Well, it's one ball in hand per game, would that still be balls in hand since each game resets and you only get one ball in hand on the 9? So it's multiple ball in hand, but not balls in hand. Hope that made sense. He had 4 total but one per game so he had ball in hand 4 times, not several balls in hand.

Not going for this explanation, sir
...pluralizing 'ball in hand' would follow the the same rule as 'attorney at law' or..
..'letter of credit'...the plurals are 'attorneys at law', 'letters of credit'.....
...or...'balls in hand'.

Got that from an old pool player...who was really good at english
 
Not going for this explanation, sir
...pluralizing 'ball in hand' would follow the the same rule as 'attorney at law' or..
..'letter of credit'...the plurals are 'attorneys at law', 'letters of credit'.....
...or...'balls in hand'.

Got that from an old pool player...who was really good at english

Agreed. You are getting 'ball in hand', so the plural would be achieved with a simple s:

Balls ins hands.:smile:
 
I don't think I would ever want to play a real match or tournament on pockets that tight, unless my name was Shaw or Appleton.

I think you can take Shaw's name out of that mix after the way he backed-out of the Bergman match. ;)

And do you really think that Shaw and Appleton are the best two examples of straight shooters anyway? :rolleyes:

Maniac (has seen a LOT of straight-shooting Asians)
 
Last edited:
I think you can take Shaw's name out of that mix after the way he backed-out of the Bergman match. ;)

And do really think that Shaw and Appleton are the best two examples of straight shooters anyway? :rolleyes:

Maniac (has seen a LOT of straight-shooting Asians)

For playing on tough equipment and making it look normal, those two are some of the best. Those Chinese 8 ball guys are pretty good, but I don't know any of their names :smile:
 
most ball in hands?

I quit playing 9 ball over this:

$1000 added barbox event, race to 5. I make 42 balls in 5 games, and lose 5-0.
Yep, scratched on the 9 twice and leave my "opponent" straight in 3 times. At least he was gracious enough to admit that I clearly was the better player, and the outcome was unfortunate, but he was going to take the win.

Shortly thereafter, I decided if I was going to make a lot of balls, all of them should count. The Denver Straight Pool Assn. was born in the next few months and has been ongoing for 20 years now.
 
Back
Top