Sinuca Snobs

AF pool guy

AF pool guy

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Fans of sinuca (a Brazilian variant of pocket billiards with extremely tight pockets) seem very eager to negatively comment about the size of the pockets on American pool tables.

My question is, have any pool-players from Brazil ever made an impact on either the Professional Pool or Snooker scenes?

If not then I wonder why not since playing on super tight tables leads to better shooters (at least according to the folks that comment in Portuguese).


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AF pool guy said:
Fans of sinuca (a Brazilian variant of pocket billiards with extremely tight pockets) seem very eager to negatively comment about the size of the pockets on American pool tables.

My question is, have any pool-players from Brazil ever made an impact on either the Professional Pool or Snooker scenes?

If not then I wonder why not since playing on super tight tables leads to better shooters (at least according to the folks that comment in Portuguese).


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Brazilian players have dominated snooker in the Americas. The recent Pan American snooker championship awarded a snooker tour card to the winner, and all four semi-finalists were Brazilians. Americans and Canadians cannot compete with them on a snooker table.

pabsa.org

Igor Figueiredo Reigns Supreme at 2025 Pan American Open Snooker Championship - PABSA

Igor Figueiredo Reigns Supreme at 2025 Pan American Open Snooker Championship, Earns 2-year Pro Tour Ticket The Pan American Open Snooker Championship 2025 in Sacramento came to a thrilling conclusion with Brazil’s Igor Figueiredo lifting the title after defeating compatriot Fabio Anderson...
pabsa.org pabsa.org
 
Brazil is also a much more sociable and festive culture than here in the US. Most of the commenters probably only view sinuca and pool as bar and gambling pastimes for fun, and don’t think much past the objective of pocketing an object ball.

An experienced snooker player from any culture recognizes different nuances and difficulties for each cue discipline.

Bar sinuca is wild to watch… nossa senhora!

 
AF pool guy said:
Fans of sinuca (a Brazilian variant of pocket billiards with extremely tight pockets) seem very eager to negatively comment about the size of the pockets on American pool tables.

My question is, have any pool-players from Brazil ever made an impact on either the Professional Pool or Snooker scenes?

If not then I wonder why not since playing on super tight tables leads to better shooters (at least according to the folks that comment in Portuguese).


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
I've played almost every billiard game. They all have their own specific challenges and skillsets. Many of them transfer between games. If you are a good snooker player you'll play at least decent pool, and if you are a good pool player you will in fact play a lot better snooker than snooker players try to claim, after some adjustment. Pocketing balls on a Chinese 8 ball table may be tougher in the corners, but it's easier in the middle than in pool. Playing the rails is a lot more intricate on a pool table than a Chinese 8 ball or snooker table. Etc. etc.

Pockets are the same size for you and your opponent. If they think it's too easy, let them play a high level tournament. They might be surprised. I've seen quite a few snooker snobs get brutally humbled by pool players on their own equipment, and have dished out some of those humblings myself though I'm not a pool only specialist. The opposite happens too. It's best in life not to assume too much, and to be humble. A great cueist will adapt quickly to most games.
 
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nataddrho said:
Brazil is also a much more sociable and festive culture than here in the US. Most of the commenters probably only view sinuca and pool as bar and gambling pastimes for fun, and don’t think much past the objective of pocketing an object ball.

An experienced snooker player from any culture recognizes different nuances and difficulties for each cue discipline.

Bar sinuca is wild to watch… nossa senhora!

Click to expand...
It's a captive mob mentality. They do get hot but only as the local culture requires. I'm particularly enamored of Brazilian jazz musicians and particularly those that have expanded into electric guitar. There's more international exposure at that strata and they sound to be prepared to gig anywhere.

As vitally as I hold tight pockets, they are just an element of pool; there to stiffen the requirements of execution and performance. It's probably common to claim tight pockets will improve your playing and with the same local culture mentality, it likely will. Trouble I see and have been and binned, is the game isn't simply target shooting. The player may learn to cinch a few patterns and go out see what falls into his lap. The game requires a far more sophisticated system and application.
 
As long as both players are on the same table I don't care about table specs.

My opinion, pool corners on a nine foot table should be 4.50" to 4.625". A bit bigger might attract more recreational players, tighter, better players and those with delusions of grandeur. The dimensions shouldn't be much different on a seven foot table as I am more concerned with what can be done with the cue ball than the object ball. True happiness is a ten foot table with a 4.75" corner pocket! I like a ten foot snooker table with much smaller pockets too though.

Constant practice on tighter pockets than you usually compete on will make you more accurate while messing with shot selection and position play. Been there a long time ago and don't need a t-shirt to remind me. I like occasional play on tight pockets but don't care for them as a full time diet.

Hu
 
9baller said:
Brazilian players have dominated snooker in the Americas. The recent Pan American snooker championship awarded a snooker tour card to the winner, and all four semi-finalists were Brazilians. Americans and Canadians cannot compete with them on a snooker table.

pabsa.org

Igor Figueiredo Reigns Supreme at 2025 Pan American Open Snooker Championship - PABSA

Igor Figueiredo Reigns Supreme at 2025 Pan American Open Snooker Championship, Earns 2-year Pro Tour Ticket The Pan American Open Snooker Championship 2025 in Sacramento came to a thrilling conclusion with Brazil’s Igor Figueiredo lifting the title after defeating compatriot Fabio Anderson...
pabsa.org pabsa.org
Click to expand...
A Canuck won it last year.
 
AF pool guy said:
Fans of sinuca (a Brazilian variant of pocket billiards with extremely tight pockets) seem very eager to negatively comment about the size of the pockets on American pool tables.

My question is, have any pool-players from Brazil ever made an impact on either the Professional Pool or Snooker scenes?

If not then I wonder why not since playing on super tight tables leads to better shooters (at least according to the folks that comment in Portuguese).


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Sinuca phoentically and linguistically comes from the word snooker, if it wasn’t obvious
 
AF pool guy said:
Fans of sinuca (a Brazilian variant of pocket billiards with extremely tight pockets) seem very eager to negatively comment about the size of the pockets on American pool tables.

My question is, have any pool-players from Brazil ever made an impact on either the Professional Pool or Snooker scenes?

If not then I wonder why not since playing on super tight tables leads to better shooters (at least according to the folks that comment in Portuguese).


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

there was a brazilian snooker player in the 90's, igor figueredo, that was quite good. i think he's senior world champion now.

but nowadays the term sinuca seems to be used interchangeably with sinuquinha, which has little to do with snooker. i guess the diminutive took over. they play barbox 8-ball basically, only instead of stripes and solids it's odd numbers and even numbers, with 15 being the last ball, the equivalent of "8-ball". tables are crazy tight. thousands of matches on youtube, very lively, always money games, seems very unorganized. sometimes they play short rack versions and where it can be over very quickly, money changes hands, and they start over

i don't think i've seen any brazilian player in WPA or WNT events. if they were "better shooters" it should be easy money..
 
ShootingArts said:
As long as both players are on the same table I don't care about table specs.

My opinion, pool corners on a nine foot table should be 4.50" to 4.625". A bit bigger might attract more recreational players, tighter, better players and those with delusions of grandeur. The dimensions shouldn't be much different on a seven foot table as I am more concerned with what can be done with the cue ball than the object ball. True happiness is a ten foot table with a 4.75" corner pocket! I like a ten foot snooker table with much smaller pockets too though.

Constant practice on tighter pockets than you usually compete on will make you more accurate while messing with shot selection and position play. Been there a long time ago and don't need a t-shirt to remind me. I like occasional play on tight pockets but don't care for them as a full time diet.

Hu
Click to expand...
There are models of next level skills in all disciplines so I'd go with the rise of the technoid hotdogs. :ROFLMAO::p
 
straightline said:
There are models of next level skills in all disciplines so I'd go with the rise of the technoid hotdogs. :ROFLMAO::p
Click to expand...

Funny thing, most people don't realize that snooker is more like bar table pool than a nine foot table. You get down in the killing field and you are playing on a three by six area the vast amount of time. Then when you run out of reds you usually run the same "drill" on the number balls, they are on their designated spots. Once you learn what the pockets will accept snooker is only slightly harder than pool.

Hu
 
ShootingArts said:
Funny thing, most people don't realize that snooker is more like bar table pool than a nine foot table. You get down in the killing field and you are playing on a three by six area the vast amount of time. Then when you run out of reds you usually run the same "drill" on the number balls, they are on their designated spots. Once you learn what the pockets will accept snooker is only slightly harder than pool.

Hu
Click to expand...
True and 36 is a runout. Sorry in advance to all the purists but the empire in it's quest for elegant elitism created a really boring pastime. This faux frustration led me to invent the next step.
Minimums. 75 point full breaks. Should be worth something :D
 
skogstokig said:
but nowadays the term sinuca seems to be used interchangeably with sinuquinha, which has little to do with snooker. i guess the diminutive took over. they play barbox 8-ball basically, only instead of stripes and solids it's odd numbers and even numbers, with 15 being the last ball, the equivalent of "8-ball". tables are crazy tight. thousands of matches on youtube, very lively, always money games, seems very unorganized. sometimes they play short rack versions and where it can be over very quickly, money changes hands, and they start over
Click to expand...
Yep, it's often used as a catch all term like "pool" or "billiards" to refer to any game.

The actual game Sinuca (or "Sinuca Brasileira) is a version of the game of snooker. The main differences are that is played with one red ball rather than 15, and that once you have potted a "free" ball (the lowest value ball on the table) you can then opt to play a "penalty" shot on any ball rather the next free ball. For example, if you pot a free yellow (2 points) you can then shoot the free green (3 points) or instead shoot, for example, the pink for 6 points as a penalty shot. A potted penalty ball is respotted. On a penalty shot if you miss your opponent gets the points instead. You need nerves of steel and it's not as much of a novelty game as it might first appear - "English" snooker was often played this way from the yellow onwards in its early days.

Here's a game of Sinuca between Rui Chapéu and Steve Davis from the 1980s:
 
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straightline said:
True and 36 is a runout. Sorry in advance to all the purists but the empire in it's quest for elegant elitism created a really boring pastime. This faux frustration led me to invent the next step.
Minimums. 75 point full breaks. Should be worth something :D
Click to expand...

you didn't actually. shaun murphy, the most recent ranking event winner, has floated the same idea. i would be surprised if stephen hendry hasn't suggested it too at some point. runout players who loathe safety play

back to (the contemporary) sinuca, i think those tables are tighter than snooker tables. from what little i've seen the money ball play can turn into one ball one pocket
 
skogstokig said:
you didn't actually. shaun murphy, the most recent ranking event winner, has floated the same idea. i would be surprised if stephen hendry hasn't suggested it too at some point. runout players who loathe safety play

back to (the contemporary) sinuca, i think those tables are tighter than snooker tables. from what little i've seen the money ball play can turn into one ball one pocket
Click to expand...
See? Even the players are tired of the game. :ROFLMAO:

They use snooker balls?
 
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