The Lag

ShootingArts

Smorg is giving St Peter the 7!
Gold Member
Silver Member
Reminds me . . .

I prefer the "heads I win, tails you lose" flip of the coin.


I was working construction in a petro-chem plant. After being fifteen minutes early since I started work months before I was a little late one morning. Just jacking with me the foreman yelled, "Hu, you are late!!" as I walked by him to grab my tools and get to work. Without missing a step, I told him I would leave early to make up for it. "Well you had better!" I made another hundred feet before the ball dropped, "HUUUU!!" A good guy but not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

Hu
 

pt109

WO double hemlock
Silver Member
I prefer the "heads I win, tails you lose" flip of the coin.

I don’t completely trust people who call “what the cat’s got”..:rolleyes:

Or Larry Liscotti sometimes called “heads on the table”...if tails came up, he claimed a win.
 
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Triggerhippy

Registered
First off, I don’t think any tournament or league or room owner should be encouraging the flipping of coins onto the table (that being said, I’d be hard pressed to remember a gambling session where we didn’t just flip for first break of each set.)
Secondly, I always insist on a lag in league or tourney play simply because it’s a skill based method as opposed to random chance. If that rankles my opponent, all the better, that’s worth a quarter point right off the bat. Besides, sometimes the lag was the extent of my warmup. Yikes.
 

Floyd_M

"Have Cue, Will Travel"
Silver Member
Coin flip is almost 50-50.
Lagging 'can be' considered a hustle.

Coin toss, winner usually has choice to break or pass.
Same for Lag, choice, but the actual lag shot is either precision/experience or a purposeful attempt at displaying being an amateur to throw off your opponent.
The latter may be different these days.

Lately I've dropped the balls in the ball return tray, take out one ODD numbered ball. Swish around the balls and ask the opponent to pick ODD or EVEN then without looking, pick a ball.
For me, the main reason is, no cloth tears via coin tossing.
 
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Brookeland Bill

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Have any of you folks ever experienced any push back from an opponent when asking to lag instead of flip in leagues or tournaments? Is it considered rude to ask for a lag if everyone in the tournament or league is flipping for the break?

My wife and I were talking about random stuff while playing a set and the subject of the lag came up. She mentioned that some people take offense if you ask to lag instead of flip, as it can be considered poor etiquette. I had never thought about it and never had that experience myself, at least not that I noticed. I usually just do what everyone else is doing. The only exception is if I’m playing alternate break and it’s an important match. I prefer to lag because I want the break if the match goes hill-hill, and I’d rather not leave it up to chance.

What do you folks think?

Never gave it any thought. Guess I’ll have to put that on my list of things to ponder along with Iran possibly developing a nuclear weapon and global warming.
 
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