Fast Player or Slow Player?

DarkPoseidon6

Registered
Just for fun, but maybe an interesting psychological part of the game....

When it comes to your opponent, what gets under your skin the most - A fast player or slow player? This has probably been touched on here before, but any thoughts now?
 

HawaiianEye

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Slow players are the worst.

I don't mind if they take a little bit, but when it starts taking minutes and minutes for every shot, it gets old.

I can play as fast as pretty much anybody unless we are playing speed pool.

I don't mind fast.
 
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evergruven

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
interesting question
I can only envision that a slow player would annoy
and a fast player would, if anything, intimidate (if they're also playing well)
personally, I try not to let either bother me
and focus on my own pace
 

HawaiianEye

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
interesting question
I can only envision that a slow player would annoy
and a fast player would, if anything, intimidate (if they're also playing well)
personally, I try not to let either bother me
and focus on my own pace

I wouldn't mind playing every game, with anybody, with a shot clock of some sort.

There should be some sort of time limit that a person can stall around and stall around.
 

straightline

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, I worked in a couple rooms, had free table time after hours and was able to get into automatic mode. Back then slow was a sign of weakness and I didn't mind the slow players. There was lots of chair time to cringe and make faces. Couple decades later I had slowed down my play considerably; maximizing competence instead of attempted intimidation. Well I don't know what the law of quantum thermodynamics actually states but the most psychologically debilitating style of play nowadays is slow and perfect. There are lots of turnovers at my level but you are still faced with taking your performance into some very difficult territory instead of waiting on gravy.
 

evergruven

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I wouldn't mind playing every game, with anybody, with a shot clock of some sort.

There should be some sort of time limit that a person can stall around and stall around.

I admit the idea of a shot clock can be a tempting one
but if the play is slow, I'd rather just deal with it
maybe bail if it was really bad..
I pretty much just play for fun tho
so when I'm in a pool room, I enjoy
and sometimes
you get a nice give and take with the other player
without a watch on it

I do like a shot clock for watching pool on tv
pretty uncomfortable watching a player take a day to shoot
when you can't even see the table right in the first place
 

Bic D

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I would love a shot clock.

I try not to let anyone see that anything bothers me...and usually it doesn't but if I think someone is intentionally playing slow to get under my skin then when it's my shot, I might take a bathroom break, wash my hands, talk to a couple of people.
 

Scratch85

AzB Gold Member
Gold Member
Silver Member
Easy Answer

Slow bothers me way more.

I played APA 8-ball about 25 years ago. Our captain was a friend of mine and played well. He was a 7 in 8-ball and a 9 in 9-ball. At the time, he was considerably better than me and would beat me regularly. He played at a normal pace and it didn't bother me at all.

About 5 years ago, we got together to play. He had not been playing much over the last 10 years and now we played at about the same skill level. He discovered quickly that we were about the same skill level and he put the stall on. It was maddening. At one point, during his turn at the table, he actually stopped and approached a player on the adjacent table to ask, "I notice you put chalk on your cue after every shot. Why do you do that?" Then he had a conversation with him before coming back to our table. I knew he was doing it to disrupt me and as I said, it was maddening. :mad: We have not played since.

Fast opponents are great. Win or lose, you spend less time int he chair. :smile:
 

Geosnooker

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I don’t mind a slow player ‘if’ they are actually concentrating on what’s on the table and not just a slow routine they have.

A fast player has no impact on me. I need not react to his style.

Pro Snooker keeps meticulous stats over decades. Top players average about 20 to 25 seconds...there is a lot to strategize on the table. It’s also a big table to walk around. There is no shot clock and a player can take a few minutes but it’s considered bad etiquette unless an extraordinary situation with big consequences.

I play is 3 pool leagues and all are for fun. No money, etc. We tend to be considerate of each other. In general we are ready to play and likely don’t take more than 20 seconds. If someone takes a minute, nobody would likely notice or care.
 
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Cron

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
About 9 months ago I watched a player in a wheelchair move faster than a man who would endlessly "study" the table. If you need to take so much time you're either sharking or indecisive and either is a sign of someone who isn't confident. That's typically good to see in someone you're gambling against but otherwise just inconsiderate.

Note: wheelchairs need some kind of hydraulic lift attachment. The guy shooting in the wheelchair was at a severe height disadvantage, it didn't look comfortable at all and surely the match wasn't even (although he won).
 

ShootingArts

Smorg is giving St Peter the 7!
Gold Member
Silver Member
One of my "mentors"

I put mentors in quotes because Old Joe or Gentleman Joe didn't deliberately mentor me. I was playing pretty decent bar pool at this point, making money consistently most nights, booking few losses until I ran into Joe. This story is long, pass if you are in a rush. It is about slow play and dealing with it though.

Joe was tall, thin, and ancient. He was at least in his seventies, possibly his eighties. We played on a ratty old nine footer in a 24-7 bar. It was the front room of a house built in a style once pretty common on the busier roads. The big room served as store or other business with living quarters in the back. This place was maybe forty by forty, had an ambitious sixty feet or so of bar that ran front to back and across the back wall, and one ratty old nine foot table. The place didn't have a name but the table was open to challenge and the bet was three dollars almost all the time. You could pump up there any time if you were willing to chop wood at that three dollars a game and lose one now and then to keep others interested. The action was like the bar, 24-7.

Anytime I showed up Joe wasn't far behind if he wasn't there already. Did somebody drop a dime? Did he own the place? I don't know. Seemed like every time I came in I ended up playing Joe whenever I visited for months. Joe was s-l-o-w! Without stalling, glaciers grew and shrank while he walked around the table. He never shot hard enough an object ball lost contact with a pocket bevel. The hell of it was that Joe could run out and take ten or fifteen minutes doing it.

The chinese water torture was nothing compared to playing Joe. I was in my late teens and would sit literally on the edge of a bar stool waiting for Joe to miss. If and when he did I would jump up impatiently and shoot too fast. Either I failed to pocket a ball or I blew shape, failed run out after run out. Joe would just take a swallow from an Old Crow half-pint bottle and totter up from his stool and finish the table! The place only sold beer but Joe always toted his own drink in his ancient sport coat he always wore. He never ran out. Only years later did I wonder if some of those multiple bottles had tea in them instead of alcohol.

I felt sure that I had better table skills but Joe owned me. I was several hundred down never playing for more than three dollars a game. Minimum wage was $1.25 an hour and that was all most in there made. That worked out to a dollar an hour after taxes so three hours work was on the line each game, not that small of a bet viewed that way. I had to find a way to get by Joe!

After a lot of thought I decided the ticket was to go from eager and even anxious competitor to mildly interested spectator while sitting well back on the bar stool, feet off the floor. Lean the house cue somewhere, no need to hold it every moment.

Joe never beat me again. After a couple of sessions he would only play me one or two games and he would get off the table. Never got my money back from Joe but that was some of the best money ever spent. In the next seven or eight years learning to cool my jets in the chair made me thousands total.

Aside from anything else, I burned a lot of energy in attack mode all of the time. A six or eight hour session wore me out, sometimes a lot shorter sessions. As a mildly interested spectator I got some rest in the chair and twelve hour plus sessions left me far less tired than sessions half that long had before. When I catch myself on the edge of a chair now I deliberately slide my back all of the way to the backrest. I might fake a yawn or two to tell my body to relax. Nothing to do but watch for fouls or the other person's time at the table to end. Fast play, slow play, speed no longer bothered me. If you want to spend five minutes on a straight in shot I'll sit in my chair seemingly half asleep.

Sailor's advice is excellent when it is your turn to shoot, no nonchalanting at the table, mentally or physically. Seeming nonchalance in the chair is a good thing. If your opponent wants to spend four times the amount of time you do standing and walking around, remember he is the one wasting energy, let him. It is likely to get under his skin when his stalling is totally ignored.

Hu
 

CocoboloCowboy

Cowboys are my hero's
Silver Member
I mostly play one pocket, it's is like Chess on a Pool Table, I play slow, it seems to help me make better choices about the game.
 

DynoDan

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I think, rather than a ‘shot clock’, maybe some limit of the number of times you can get down on a shot. There is nothing more aggravating than playing someone who’s gets down, strokes a few times, then changes his mind and gets down on another choice, strokes again, decides against that one, walks around the table, gets down on another and strokes, then gets up and starts the whole process all over!
 

Geosnooker

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I’ve played hockey for over 50 years.

I know an opposition player has played a good game if at the end of the game , a hole opened up in the ice, he fell through and I wanted to jab him with my stick to keep him under until he perished.

He has got under my skin. Psychology is as much a part of competitive sports as other skills.
 

DynoDan

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I think, rather than a ‘shot clock’, maybe some limit of the number of times you can get down on a shot. There is nothing more aggravating than playing someone who’s gets down, strokes a few times, then changes his mind and gets down on another choice, strokes again, decides against that one, walks around the table, gets down on another and strokes, then gets up and starts the whole process all over!

ADDENDUM:
Of course, this wouldn’t apply to rotation games, where a shot-clock may be necessary. But, for 14.1, 8-ball, etc., it makes sense to me. A rule should be created to insist, that while you ARE allowed to go down on any/all shot choices at least once, you should be forced to shoot whichever you get down and stroke for the second time.
I would be less annoyed by slow players who merely take extended time studying the table layout, or perform excessive aiming/practice strokes on their shot, IF I knew for sure they actually HAD to finally shoot it! Otherwise, the repeated anticipation letdown Is MADDENING (and IMHO, crosses over the ‘sharking’ line).
 

ChrisinNC

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Just for fun, but maybe an interesting psychological part of the game....

When it comes to your opponent, what gets under your skin the most - A fast player or slow player? This has probably been touched on here before, but any thoughts now?
Little reason for a fast player to get under my skin - unless they are beating me badly and making their runouts look effortless. The slow players are the ones that get to me - again especially if they are beating me. I have a hard time watching them while they play through their agonizingly slow routine. I find it easier to just look away until just before they finally pull the trigger. Regardless of whether my opponent is a fast or slow player, I try to remain focused and not let their pace of play in any way change my routine / pace of play.
 
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jrctherake

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Depends on:

How much is in the middle.

and

My chances of being the favorite.


Pool is like a dirty job. If the money is right, I was always willing to endure unpleasantness.

On the other hand, if the money wasn't right, well....time to drag up unless it was a super cushy job.

When playing cheap sets I will not put up with much drama, sharking etc...etc. Just like a job, it's not worth the money it pays. On the other hand, if a player will lay down enough cheese, well...I will put up with a lot before reaching that point where I'm done.

Jeff
 

Maniac

2manyQ's
Silver Member
If I'm playing somebody that plays VERY fast and they're making everything they shoot at, then that bothers me as much as a slow player.

I play some shots sort of fast, but if the shot needs attention, I give it all the attention it needs. I don't let anybody or the speed at which they play change the way I play.

On average, I probably am a medium speed player.

Maniac
 
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David in FL

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
In pool and golf, slow play bothers me.

I also understand that that’s an issue for me to work on. Not my opponent.
 
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