Recent content by midnightpulp

Lol. Don't like them using the jump cue, but it's a fine shot played with your regular cue. The existence of the jump shot makes safety play all that more exacting and demanding.

You had money on it, so I'm sure it was entertaining to watch for you, but I can't imagine one pocket on a rounded pocket table having a good "game flow," since it's nearly impossible to play a lot of those clever banks on a rounded pocket table (though I'm sure you saw a couple of great shots...

Don't get me wrong, 147s and centuries are fun to watch as a cue sport fan to see excellence in action, but they're not all that relevant to winning a frame, while going 150 and out in 14.1 is relevant (while at the same time being a "feat"), since if you crap out at 149, it's possible your...

Yeah, One Pocket illustrates the superiority of the pool table design over the snooker table design. A snooker table is a peach basket hung on a rafter, while a pool table is a modern hoop with a backboard. One Pocket would be silly on a snooker table due to the game's emphasis on bank shots...

I honestly think snooker's rule set is convoluted and inelegant, with gimmick rules like multiple attempts at an escape, no requirement to hit a rail after contact, playing away from frozen balls, a player having no mathematical chance to comeback in a frame, making efforts like centuries and...

The "deep international" field criticism is probably the dumbest thing I've read on here regarding SVB. He has no problem fighting his way through to the final rounds of those WPA events, where he'll lose to a Ko, Ouschan, or some other tier 1 player. Players he also beats all the time in other...

Shane has finished runner up in the World Championship twice in a row, and the player he lost to today has the second best Fargo rate in the world. You're making it sound like Shane lost to an International unknown. Deep fields or not, it's the same 15 players every tourney usually in the hunt.

Nice story. Yeah, his mental decline or whatever you'd like to call it has been tough to watch. My earliest memory of him was of course watching him on ESPN in the famous Z-Bank match, and when Eften hit that shot, Earl applauded. Today, he'd probably have a meltdown at such a "lucky" roll.

Was he always like this or has his increasingly bad attitude gotten worse with age? You watch old Earl videos, and while he might beat himself up for a bad play, he's well behaved. Seems like he changed for the much worse after 2000 or thereabouts.

It's almost like both games have different offensive standards. 9 ball comes down to rack stringing ability and also lock up safety ability. This is another flip side you don't consider. You can get away with a lot of defensive play in snooker that would be unacceptable in ANY pool variant.

Great post. The bold point is key, and something that seems to be totally ignored by the snooker side in this debate. As I keep saying, no one is impressed if you can run an open table of 8 ball or 9 ball once in a blue moon, or run 20 balls in straight. The "performance expectations" for high...

Agreed. I will say there is probably a "point of no return" area where your head will be too far away from the cue to play effectively, but I think a range of chin-on to about 6" is fine, depending on your perception. A baseball swing is a more mechanically demanding action than a cue stroke...

Yep. As I said, pool variants don't make a lick of sense on a snooker table, which is why I never understood the snooker vs. pool comparison in the first place. Growing up, I always saw them as completely different, and never realized pool fans or players had some kind of penis envy toward...

Yeah, cause pool pockets have flat facings and a bit larger ball to pocket ratio. Fascinating concept. In any event, if we want to make pool somewhat less offensive, move the game to the 10 footer, keep the 4.5 inch standard pro cut buckets, but go with the nap cloth the IPT used. Cloth choice...

I'll have to go back to cricket and baseball. You too easily dismissed them as team sports to suggest the comparison isn't a good one. I think it is. Both sports are kind of individual sports masquerading as team sports and the primary objective for the batter in both is to hit the ball where...