Drop Pockets vs Ball Return Tables in Tournaments

dreamhouse

dreamhouse

New member
Why do the large tournaments like the US Open, Florida Open, and others, use drop pocket tables?

They seem to exclusively use drop pockets every year. It seems like a ball return would save time for the referee to rack, rather than manually removing balls from every pocket each frame.

Is there a practical or technical reason why drop pockets are used for the largest events?
 
I don't know but here are my suspicions. Drop pocket tables are quicker to set up and take down. Drop pocket tables never get a ball hung up in a runway either!

Just as an extra, easier for old farts to retrieve balls from drop pocket tables than from ball return tables.

Hu
 
I wonder whether when all has been said and done if the difference in total match time or average player time per
inning is tangibly or perhaps inconsequentially affected? My gut tells any added time, i.e., delay, might intitally seem
like it could be appreciable when in actuality, it really is insignificant. I don’t think total match time is materially affected.
 
I played a set of straight pool on Monday on a drop pocket SAM table. When my run ended my opponent proceeded to take out the last half-dozen balls. However, neither of us had moved any of the balls that were in the one, now full, corner pocket. When he powered a ball in to the said pocket, in order to break a cluster, the object ball clipped the very top of one of the pocketed balls and bounced back on to the table. No other balls were moved by the offending phenolic resin sphere, so I let him have it.
I'm not sure how this would be dealt with in tournament play, but this wouldn't have happened on a ball-return.
 
DeeDeeCues said:
I always wonder why anyone would want a table that wasn't drop pockets.
Click to expand...

I love drop pockets.
Keep moving get your steps in.

Unless I'm in a tournament I rarely sit down. I understand that you can burn about 100 calories an hour playing pool if you don't sit down especially if you are walking around the table pulling balls out of pockets. 4 hour session, 400 calories. Little by little, steady as she goes. It's just math.
Five 4 hour sessions a week is 2000 calories burned. That's over 100,000 calories burned in a year.
 
Matt_H said:
I played a set game of straight pool on Monday on a drop pocket SAM table. When my run ended my opponent proceeded to take out the last half-dozen balls. However, neither of us had moved any of the balls that were in the one, now full, corner pocket. When he powered a ball in to the said pocket, in order to break a cluster, the object ball clipped the very top of one of the pocketed balls and bounced back on to the table. No other balls were moved by the offending phenolic resin sphere, so I let him have it.
I'm not sure how this would be dealt with in tournament play, but this wouldn't have happened on a ball-return.
Click to expand...
It's a miss, balls stay where they are, and he will never make that mistake again.

NB: Unless it's the cue ball - then it's a foul, ball in hand behind the head string.
 
Matt_H said:
I played a set of straight pool on Monday on a drop pocket SAM table. When my run ended my opponent proceeded to take out the last half-dozen balls. However, neither of us had moved any of the balls that were in the one, now full, corner pocket. When he powered a ball in to the said pocket, in order to break a cluster, the object ball clipped the very top of one of the pocketed balls and bounced back on to the table. No other balls were moved by the offending phenolic resin sphere, so I let him have it.
I'm not sure how this would be dealt with in tournament play, but this wouldn't have happened on a ball-return.
Click to expand...
Ok so drop pockets are not good for straight pool. Not sure what the chances are of this happening in,8., 9 or 10 ball.
 
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