Predator World 8 Ball Championship (Nov 19-22), Puerto Rico, Winner $60K

skogstokig said:
good thing that the predator tables are funky and that puerto rico is humid
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I don't like playing on dodgy equipment, but it doesn't need to be perfect, either. I think they have two different predator cloth blends. One is quite fast, the other is moderately fast. These tables don't seem particularly fast so maybe the humidity is slowing the table down.
 
tomatoshooter said:
What were his rules? I liked the IPt rules. Ball in Kitchen after scratch on break, no mixed combos on open table, scratch on 8 loses.
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I'd have to review them specifically. I know the end result was a more compelling game, while still not my favorite test for the world's best players.

I THINK he had an inverted break box (had to break from the sides) and could not break 2nd ball for some reason. Think this created more difficult layouts. Then, I'm pretty sure it was take what you make, so the runouts were way more interesting.

There were some other rules about jump cues too.

Whatever the details were, Darren and company had a very well thought out rule set.
 
BasementDweller said:
I THINK he had an inverted break box (had to break from the sides) and could not break 2nd ball for some reason. Think this created more difficult layouts. Then, I'm pretty sure it was take what you make, so the runouts were way more interesting.
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Exactly right. Just one other rule: if you made two solids and one stripe on the break, you did not have choice - you were solids. You only had choice if you made the same number of stripes and solids on the break.
 
BasementDweller said:
Furthermore...I love pool and have played and watched a lot of it. If this format doesn't do it for me, that's worth discussing. I think Darren Appleton tried his best to create a format for American style table 8 Ball. I liked his rule set, he just didn't have this level of production behind him.
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tomatoshooter said:
What were his rules? I liked the IPt rules. Ball in Kitchen after scratch on break, no mixed combos on open table, scratch on 8 loses.
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The rules and equipment in Appleton's World Pool Series 8-Ball events changed at least to some degree with each event. He continually tinkered, trying to reach an optimum degree of difficulty for pros. Apparently he agreed that he had gone too far with the 4th 8-Ball event (e.g., successful breaks 37% and B&Rs 17% in the streamed matches), and he pulled back a bit for the 5th 8-Ball event.

I don't want to take the time right now to enumerate all the changes from event to event. Here is my stats thread from the 5th event. It shows what the situation was by that event. And post #15 in that thread has some discussion of the changes in conditions over the course of the Series, along with a comparison of stats for each of the 5 WPS 8-Ball events (streamed matches only) and some other 8-Ball events.

Break Stats -- World Pool Series, 8-Ball Classic Championship, August 2018

Here are some 8-Ball stats from the seventh event (third of 2018) of Darren Appleton's World Pool Series -- the 2018 8-Ball Classic Championship. It was played August 7-10 at the IDM Club in Bucharest, Romania with free live streaming on the...
forums.azbilliards.com
​
Similar threads for each of his other 8-Ball events (in 2017), listing the rules and equipment, can be found in the list of threads I have started.
 
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BasementDweller said:
I've only watched one match, but I'm pretty shocked anyone would still have an 8 ball tourney with the - open after the break rule. Way too easy on any American style table for these guys. Run out or rack um.

This style of 8 ball does nothing for me as a fan.
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Are they at least alternating the break? I've only been watching casually here and there and didn't notice
 
tomatoshooter said:
I don't like playing on dodgy equipment, but it doesn't need to be perfect, either. I think they have two different predator cloth blends. One is quite fast, the other is moderately fast. These tables don't seem particularly fast so maybe the humidity is slowing the table down.
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probably humidity, and the tables have been played on already, in the tournament preceding this one. all that plus the suboptimal racking is a good thing for 8-ball at this level and with these pockets. makes it more interesting.
 
9ballhasbeen said:
I'd suggest a more accurate comparison would be the total prize fund, not just first. Mind you, I don't have the time or inclination to make a comparison, so this is just one person's opinion.

Many of the US Pro Billiards Events pay high for first, but if you don't finish in the top 3-4, you can't even break even on entry fee and travel costs. [...]
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I'm going to push back on both pieces of this narrative a little.

Total prize fund is a good measure if you're comparing events of similar size and can be misleading otherwise. Consider events with $500 entry and $50K added. The prize fund will vary a lot whether it is 64, 128, or 256 players [82K, 114K, and $178K]. But these three events will all have a 1st place prize of around $30K and will be similarly hard to win. They won't look all that different to the top pros.

The distribution (prize fund falloff) doesn't vary all that much. Here I compare the US Pro Billiard Series event (Puerto Rico) that just finished to the International Open from a few weeks ago. Both had 128 players, so it is apples to apples. With my "first place prize" measure, I call the US Pro Billiard Series event $25K, and I call the International Open $30K, i.e., 20% higher. Below are the details.

First, the total prize funds are $100K and $114K. So INO is 14% higher, not 20% higher.

Second you will notice both pay 25% of the field and the payouts are essentially the same for those who finish 5 through 32. So this actually makes the International Open a little more top heavy with 58% of the prize fund to the top 4 (as opposed to 52% for the US Pro Series Event)

When talking about how much money is in pro pool, it is common to compare to a favorite spectator sport or to some other goofy gaff competition. But there is only one reasonable comparison that actually informs pro pool's trajectory, and that is how do we compare to ourselves of a few years ago or a decade ago. By that measure we are exploding. Between men and women, and with the $20K 1st place standard, there are this year 25 events! (13 10-Ball, 9 9-Ball, 1 8-Ball and 1 One Pocket). This would, I believe, be in the single digits anytime before the pandemic going back a long time.

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garczar said:
Ko just played a near perfect set. down 3-2 he wins 8-3 with a 5-pack to end it. Some fine 8b i guess.
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i wonder what fedor ran yesterday. i was watching the snooker so only glanced, but may have been 6 or 7 until the poor chilean guy got to participate.
 
Scrunge19 said:
He

He hurt his calf goofing around at a waterfall yesterday. Was considering withdrawing from the tournament since he can barely walk.
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alex won a hardtimes tournament limping around like that. similar circumstances, but indoor jumping antics. will be tough to play like that with a shot clock though!
 
We need to fast track Gorst's citizenship for the Mosconi Cup :LOL:

Super interesting last couple games in the Makkonen-Yoshioka match. Petri would have had ball in hand were it not for the referee waving Yoshioka off from grabbing the cue ball without cause. That on top of Petri having couple brutal rolls.

Yoshioka's cue ball control appears terrible compared to the rest of these top pros but he can pocket from everywhere.
 
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