what are the biggest spots you've seen/heard of given?

A guy I used to play with came from Irving Crane's home town (Rochester). Irving used to give my friend 100-1 at straight pool. My friend won if he got to 1 and when I knew him he could run a rack occasionally. But if he never got a shot it would be hard to win. I think Crane's motivation was to never leave the table after a mistake. I doubt that they were playing for much.

At one pocket, two guys at the pool hall had a standard 12-3 game. The 12 had the edge.
 
A few spots I gave bangers: Make one ball and the money ball. Another was regulation eight ball except I couldn't make any ball straight in. I could shoot banks, kicks, combo's or caroms. Seems like a much bigger spot than it is when I was playing shape for these shots. I did shut down a pool room in Atlanta when I realized I had thoughtlessly given a pretty good player this spot. Belly to the ground and I was getting out in one, two, or three trips to an old bucket pocketed nine footer. All of the three inning games were because I had to massage the eight ball to bank it. I was pretty strong one rail, decent three rails, couldn't bank for beans otherwise! It was during the day and when I noticed the less than a dozen people in the place that had been playing when I walked in had quit play to watch me and the counterman was on the rail too! They wanted to make a few phone calls and see some serious action but I had to catch a bird out and was just killing an hour or so before I had to be at the airport. I didn't lose a game in that session.

While I have heard of bigger spots like the other player only having to hit a legal ball I haven't seen anybody do that.

Hu
 
One league night a few years ago, Mike Decahine was in our room, doing prop bets and such, hanging out. He settled on a game for the league players...he got the break and racked his own (with a template) and he had to win 9 games of 9-ball before the league player made one ball. Diamond 9 footer. Can't remember the bet, $20 or $40, nothing huge, but enough to make it fun. He had several takers, none successful. The closest was after several others had tried and failed, one guy actually had a reasonably makeable cut into the side pocket. Not a gimmie but a shot that player would make more than he would miss...and he was so nervous he shanked it badly. Everyone, including him, burst out laughing. Fun night.
 
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This story has changed as I have heard it from him and then people who heard it from another person.
Varner used to give up some of the biggest one pocket spots, but used to say they always had to go to 8.
30-8 etc. I think the part of the game where it became interesting is where you had to just shoot the balls in a line and draw back one rail (like a line drill)
 
Biggest Spot I've Seen
Against adequate players (B player at most), Abe Rosen, who was John Ervolino's mentor, used to request a spot of 99 balls in a race to 100, but there were a couple of provisions:

1) There was no deduction for any of Abe's scratches.
2) Abe had to shoot every shot with the sharp end of a pencil rather than with a cue stick.

He could only hit the cue ball a couple of feet with the sharp end of a pencil, so he was betting that his opponent would hang a ball and leave him pretty close to it. With 99 on the wire in a race to 100 and these rules, Abe won a lot more than he lost.

Biggest Spot I Was Given
Once in London in the late 1990's, just to pass some time, I gambled super cheap with a top snooker player and the spot I got was that he couldn't shoot the black, pink, or blue until there were no other balls on the table. I had no chance!
 
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pt109 said:
I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer...I’ve had seven centuries at snooker....where I’ve lost the game.
Click to expand...

When I was a kid and working in the pool hall, I would spot some people 60 on the wire playing snooker.

Of course, none of them were name pt109 or Ronnie O'Sullivan.

I once spotted a guy 100 and beat him.
 
usually it was break and ball in hand and the opponent just had to make a ball hit a rail. it wasnt without the break and ball in hand.
 
Nothing too crazy like some of the others in here. I spotted someone 5 games to 6 and it was 8ball, for a small amount. I thought this was ridiculous and I had no chance. But, too my surprise I actually pulled it off and won lol. He's about a 500 Fargo, he can definitely run out a rack of 8ball, if things are sitting properly.

I actually started to chuckle, when I was running out, to win 6-0. He was pretty discouraged and immediately wanted to play again lol. Funny thing is, everybody wanted a piece of that action and they were weaker players. "Oh, I just gotta win 1 game? I wanna play!" lmao

I definitely wasn't a favorite here, but it was fun to try.
 
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I played Finnish Kaisa tourney couple years ago and lost first round match(double elimination kinda chart). I saw I got 3 Champions in row if I win so I decided to start have fun and started playing snooker for drinks while I was not playing tournament matches. It was around 1 PM. I gave 40-90 point handicaps to all who wanted to play. Lost first frame in around 10 PM haha. I was then quite drunk ;)
Also i got in stroke and managed to go in top 4 in tournament that went to final happening later that spring. I did beat 5 Champs in way :). Finals i lost my match and got 3rd place.
 
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