That’s what I would love to see. Kinda like with WNT rules for 9-ball. I don’t mind dead balls (like in WNT the 1 in the side). What I mind the most is repeatedly having the exact same shot on the lowest ball after the break. The look at the lowest ball should be the part that’s random / uncontrollable.
By every bit of logic, there should be more safety play in 10ball than in 9ball, as there is more traffic on the table after the break. At Large's superb stream table stats enable us to compare the SVB vs Gorst 10ball match to the most recent WNT major, the UK Open.
In SVB vs Gorst at 10-ball, the players averaged making 1.5 balls on the break, so, on average, 8.5 balls remained on the table after the break.
By comparison, at the UK Open, the players averaged making 1.0 balls on the break, so, on average 8.0 balls remained on the table after the break.
Hence, in the 10ball, there was about 6% more traffic to negotiate after the break. By every reckoning, you would have assumed that there was more safety play in the 10ball. However, just 35% of the racks had one or more safeties played in the 10ball, while one or more safeties were played in 44% of the racks in the 9ball.
The discrepancy, that defies every ounce of logic, is explained by the fact that the 10ball break has a much more predictable, and controllable, outcome than the break used in WNT play.
9ball played WNT style is the greater test of all-around skills than 10ball.
