China Open

jay helfert

jay helfert

Shoot Pool, not people
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Watching Gorst-DeLuna now. It’s a long, slow, grinding Race To Eleven 9-Ball. 7-7 now after over two hours!

The WPA alternate break rules kills all the momentum. Neither very good player has a chance to catch a gear and get rolling. They run a nice rack and now get to sit down. Momentum killed! And the play often looks like it, somewhat lackluster.

I say let the good times roll! Jmho as always.
 
The ref takes several minutes to rack using a template. More momentum killed!
 
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Referee racks, inspects, inspects and racks again. Only two minutes this time. Gorst gets up and breaks, makes a ball and loses his turn due to the three ball rule. Laughable
 
DeLuna almost misses a short three ball and it wobbles in. He fumbles along to a straight in eight ball and draw back for the nine. He draws the cue ball straight into the side pocket. Nice shot
10-9 Gorst
 
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DeLuna again makes three balls on the break. Push out to a hidden two ball. Weird. Gorst immediately gives it back. Weak response by DeLuna leaving Gorst a shot. He runs the six ball run out. It’s over!
 
jay helfert said:
Watching Gorst-DeLuna now. It’s a long, slow, grinding Race To Eleven 9-Ball. 7-7 now after over two hours!

The WPA alternate break rules kills all the momentum. Neither very good player has a chance to catch a gear and get rolling. They run a nice rack and now get to sit down. Momentum killed! And the play often looks like it, somewhat lackluster.

I say let the good times roll! Jmho as always.
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Alternate break ruins the game.
 
Flakeandrun said:
I used to think otherwise, over the last year or so I have come to staunchly agree.
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Alternate breaks does not let a player catch a gear and perform to their true potential.

There are many people who will try to use statistics to say that it really doesn't matter who breaks.

Ask the players if they prefer to break and see what they say.
 
Agreed here. Alternate break makes pool quite a bit less exciting for the fans. It is a perfect example of when the needs of the players are at odds with what makes pool more marketable.

I know that alternate break, as several have demonstrated statistically on this forum, has little impact on the outcome of a match, but the fans enjoy packages and are not as likely to tune in when they know they won't see them.

All four semifinalists at the China Open deserve to be there and have played the best pool this week, but as noted, the excitement level is toned down when alternate break is in use.
 
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sjm said:
Agreed here. Alternate break makes pool quite a bit less exciting for the fans. It is a perfect example of when the needs of the players are at odds with what makes pool more marketable.

I know that alternate break, as several have demonstrated statistically on this forum, has little impact on the outcome of a match, but the fans enjoy packages and are not as likely to tune in when they know they won't see them.

All four semifinalists at the China Open all deserve to be there and have played the best pool this week, but as noted, the excitement level is toned down when alternate break is in use.
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If pool is to grow, you have to satisfy the audience, not the players.

Some people are taller than others in basketball.

Should dunks be taken out of basketball?

Make matches sufficiently long so that it is unlikely a player will run out the match from the intial break on the first game.

After that, it's game on and whatever happens, happens.
 
HawaiianEye said:
If pool is to grow, you have to satisfy the audience, not the players.

Some people are taller than others in basketball.

Should dunks be taken out of basketball?

Make matches sufficiently long so that it is unlikely a player will run out the match from the intial break on the first game.

After that, it's game on and whatever happens, happens.
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All you have to do is have a rule like equal innings in the carom games. If a player runs a set from the opening break, let the opponent have an inning to break and run the same number. Easy rule to implement and as a practical matter it won’t come up much in a reasonably long race. But I would love to see a player break and run a set. If the opponent stepped up and ran a few it would be great. How amazing would it be if the opponent matched it.
 
JPB2 said:
All you have to do is have a rule like equal innings in the carom games. If a player runs a set from the opening break, let the opponent have an inning to break and run the same number. Easy rule to implement and as a practical matter it won’t come up much in a reasonably long race. But I would love to see a player break and run a set. If the opponent stepped up and ran a few it would be great. How amazing would it be if the opponent matched it.
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It's never come up in 30 years of pool that I can remember. DCC had it since the start. If a player runs out the set (when it was race to 7), the other player has the opportunity to do the same. Never was exercised once in probably thousands of 9 ball matches over 25 years of DCC.

The Earl 11 racks run for the 1MM his opponent had 4 games I believe.

The only other match I can think of that "might" have qualified was when Big Kaci put an 8 pack on Alex Pagulayan. I can't recall if Alex ever got to the table though before/after the run.
 
JPB2 said:
All you have to do is have a rule like equal innings in the carom games. If a player runs a set from the opening break, let the opponent have an inning to break and run the same number. Easy rule to implement and as a practical matter it won’t come up much in a reasonably long race. But I would love to see a player break and run a set. If the opponent stepped up and ran a few it would be great. How amazing would it be if the opponent matched it.
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Exactly.
 
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