Stats -- Efren Reyes vs. Billy Thorpe One-Pocket, June 2019

Here are some stats from the Efren Reyes vs. Billy Thorpe One-Pocket match played June 6-9, 2019 at Arena Billiards in West Monroe, Louisiana. Pay-per-view live streaming was provided by PoolActionTV.

This match was a best of 5 races to 10 games, with one race to 10 scheduled for each day. Reyes won the 1st, 3rd, and 4th races to win the match three sets to one. The commentators were Jeremy Jones and Ray Hansen.

Conditions -- The conditions for this match included:

• - Diamond 9-foot table with blue Simonis 860 cloth;
  - Aramith Tournament balls with a measles cue ball;
  - triangle rack;
  - rack your own with alternating breaks;
  - re-break if a ball is made on the break;
  - cue ball fouls only;
  - 3 fouls in a row is loss of game (did not happen);
  - no shot clock, and
  - lag for opening break each day (Reyes won the lag on Days 2 and 4, Thorpe on Days 1 and 3).

■ Match results, in games

• Set 1 -- 10-8 Reyes
  Set 2 -- 7-10
  Set 3 -- 10-9
  Set 4 -- 10-8
  Total -- 37-35

■ Games won by breaker

• Reyes -- 18 of 36 (50%)
  Thorpe -- 17 of 36 (47%)
  Total -- 35 of 72 (49%)

■ Breaks by side of table -- 71 of the 72 breaks were from the breaker's right side of the table. The exception was by Thorpe in Set 4; he lost that game and went back to his right side thereafter.

■ Games won by player who scored the first point (or had it scored for him)

• Reyes -- 26 of 39 (67%)
  Thorpe -- 22 of 33 (67%)
  Total -- 48 of 72 (67%)

■ Scratches on the break -- 2, both by Thorpe. He won one of those games and lost the other.

■ Balls made on the break -- 1, by Reyes, causing a re-break.

■ Games in which the player had the lead at some point

• Reyes -- 59 games, his 37 wins plus 22 games he lost.
  Thorpe -- 56 games, his 35 wins plus 21 games he lost.

■ Ball counts by length of run -- The total ball counts resulted from the following runs and fouls. Counts are given for Reyes first, then Thorpe, then the total.

• 1 ball -- 64 times, 71 times, 135 times
  2 balls -- 35, 28, 63
  3 balls -- 15, 13, 28
  4 balls -- 13, 17, 30
  5 balls -- 7, 11, 18
  6 balls -- 6, 4, 10
  7 balls -- 8, 2, 10
  8 balls -- 6, 5, 11
  9 balls -- 1, 0, 1
  Plus balls pocketed by opponent -- 35, 21, 56
  Minus fouls -- 56, 38, 94
  TOTAL ball count -- 394, 350, 744
  Average game score -- 8 - 2.3

■ Distribution of run-outs to win the games. Counts are given for Reyes first, then Thorpe, then the total.

• 1 ball -- 16 times, 15 times, 31 times (43% of the 72 games)
  2 balls -- 6, 4, 10
  3 balls -- 2, 4, 6
  4 balls -- 0, 1, 1
  5 balls -- 1, 2, 3
  6 balls -- 2, 2, 4
  7 balls -- 5, 2, 7
  8+ balls -- 5, 5, 10 (14%)
  Average (mean) "out" run -- 3.4 balls
  Average (median) "out" run -- 2 balls

■ Distribution of lengths of games

• ≤10 minutes -- 12 games
  11-20 minutes -- 27
  21-30 minutes -- 19
  31-60 minutes -- 13
  61+ minutes -- 1
  Total -- 72

■ Match length (including racking and timeouts) -- 26 hours, 35 minutes

■ Average minutes per game -- 22.2
[Note: Sets 1, 2, and 4 averaged about 5¾ hours apiece (19½ min./game). Set 3 went 9½ hours, or 30 min./game.]

pt109 said:

When I first started to play one pocket, the consensus amongst good players was....
....the break was worth a ball and a half.

According to these figures, there is hardly any advantage for the breaker.
...I suspect it’s because one pocket is being played at a higher level.
....kinda like a chess player learning how to crack the French defence.

There are still cases where the break is a big advantage....but that’s where the table
favors one side...tournament conditions say no big deal who breaks.

‘Course, somewhere in an off the beaten path pool hall....on a back table....
...Corey Deuel is working on a shot to give the breaker back his edge....

Thanx, AtLarge....I’ll be looking at more break stats in the future.

Click to expand...

The breaker-won-game percentage fluctuates quite a bit from event to event.

For the streamed matches I have watched from the DCC and Southern Classic events from 2011 through 2019, the breaker-won percentage (for the games for which I have that information) varied from 41% to 84% over those 11 events! Small numbers can produce atypical results. Aggregating all 464 of those games, the breaker won 260 (56%), or about 5 wins for every 4 losses.