Mazin's January 2025 tournament

I saw quite a bit of this B-tournament, being at home with the flu and too much time on my hands. Congrats to Dave on his fine qualifying avg. What always amazes me when I see 0.450 - 0.700 players from the US in action, is their fanatical focus on defense. What are they so terrified of? Your opponent isn't going to run eight if he gets a starter. Show me the position, give me a good reason to play defense, and I'll give you three reasons to try for the point. Unless of course, you have no ambition to learn in you anymore, and you find some joy in making the other guy's life miserable. At times, I was watching two guys bang their heads against a wall (he'll get a headache first, I am not a quitter). If you want to plateau early and cut off any route there might be to a higher average, this is the way to do it.
 
Bert van Manen said:
I saw quite a bit of this B-tournament, being at home with the flu and too much time on my hands. Congrats to Dave on his fine qualifying avg. What always amazes me when I see 0.450 - 0.700 players from the US in action, is their fanatical focus on defense. What are they so terrified of? Your opponent isn't going to run eight if he gets a starter. Show me the position, give me a good reason to play defense, and I'll give you three reasons to try for the point. Unless of course, you have no ambition to learn in you anymore, and you find some joy in making the other guy's life miserable. At times, I was watching two guys bang their heads against a wall (he'll get a headache first, I am not a quitter). If you want to plateau early and cut off any route there might be to a higher average, this is the way to do it.
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Interesting perspective.

What about choosing the 'correct' shot though?

Hard to say scoring isn't correct...but if is a low probability, isn't it better to maintain a bit of control, rather than shoot at the dream?

And we hope you're feeling better, of course!
 
Black-Balled said:
Interesting perspective.

What about choosing the 'correct' shot though?

Hard to say scoring isn't correct...but if is a low probability, isn't it better to maintain a bit of control, rather than shoot at the dream?

And we hope you're feeling better, of course!
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Sure. If your chance of scoring is very low, the "correct" shot will be the defensive one. But if you make a habit of playing to the red in all 40 - 60 to 60 - 40 cases (together, that's the bulk of what you get in life), you'll miss out on all the compound benefits of scoring the tougher points. Having too much courage will sometimes get punished; that's okay, good learning. Not enough courage will silently turn you into a mediocre player.
 
Bert van Manen said:
Sure. If your chance of scoring is very low, the "correct" shot will be the defensive one. But if you make a habit of playing to the red in all 40 - 60 to 60 - 40 cases (together, that's the bulk of what you get in life), you'll miss out on all the compound benefits of scoring the tougher points. Having too much courage will sometimes get punished; that's okay, good learning. Not enough courage will silently turn you into a mediocre player.
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Insight appreciated...as always.
 
Bert van Manen said:
I saw quite a bit of this B-tournament, being at home with the flu and too much time on my hands. Congrats to Dave on his fine qualifying avg. What always amazes me when I see 0.450 - 0.700 players from the US in action, is their fanatical focus on defense. What are they so terrified of? Your opponent isn't going to run eight if he gets a starter. Show me the position, give me a good reason to play defense, and I'll give you three reasons to try for the point. Unless of course, you have no ambition to learn in you anymore, and you findm some joy in making the other guy's life miserable. At times, I was watching two guys bang their heads against a wall (he'll get a headache first, I am not a quitter). If you want to plateau early and cut off any route there might be to a higher average, this is the way to do it.
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Hi Bert, sorry your not feeling well. I can only speak for myself about defense...I'm a coward lol. I play so seldom and even less against competition. I'm an old man trying to keep my head above water. But thank you for the compliment.

I wish you made it to The Hague a couple years ago so you could school me about this in person. But you don't like one pocket and that's what we were playing at Hague5.

Look who I ran into tonight, I'll bet he's not a "ducker" hehe.

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This just in, I squeaked through to the final 32 bracket in the handicapped tourney. Whew, I'm so tired. No money until we win one more game to get to the final 16.

Carry on.
 
12squared said:
Hi Bert, sorry your not feeling well. I can only speak for myself about defense...I'm a coward lol. I play so seldom and even less against competition. I'm an old man trying to keep my head above water. But thank you for the compliment.

I wish you made it to The Hague a couple years ago so you could school me about this in person. But you don't like one pocket and that's what we were playing at Hague5.

Look who I ran into tonight, I'll bet he's not a "ducker" hehe.

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Now there's a guy who knows about courageous play. He made big steps in the past years.
 
I'm out losing my first match in a very competitive game. I played well, he played better. I averaged about .830 for the game falling 3 billiards short.

It's now time to watch Glenn Hofman and relive my 3/4 finish in the Bs. You got to love this game until you don't 🤣😂

Thanks for sweating it with me.
 
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12squared said:
I'm out losing my first match in a very competitive game. I played well, he played better. I averaged about .830 for the game falling 3 billiards short.

It's now time to watch Glenn Hofman and relive my 3/4 finish in the Bs. You got to love this game until you don't 🤣😂

Thanks for sweating it with me.
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Thanks for keeping us in the loop- same to mr Frankel too!

Imo, a hi finish in the handicapped event is super strong, especially since your handi is likely quite accurate, as you are in no way an unknown. You had to play well and did.

Looks like you are on the improve, young fella!
 
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