snooker vs pool
Since Trent himself says the thread has ran it's course I'll divert to an earlier subthread here, snooker vs pool.
For starters, Ronnie O may be the best snooker player ever. He didn't set the IPT pool world on fire with a snooker or pool cue. He slapped around pool saying it was like playing miniature golf, he also said it would take him five years to play it at the same level he plays snooker or words to that effect. I think the truth is somewhere in between.
Not too long ago, a decade or two, snooker players often had flat mushroomed pieces of leather for a tip that looked like they came from an old belt or shoe. Now you are more likely to see very well shaped and manicured tips although some still favor letting the tip mushroom so they are playing with a tip a few millimeters larger than the snooker cue's shaft. Watching old snooker video and new, it is obvious that snooker players use side spin much more than they used to.
While it would have seemed more reasonable for pool to become more like snooker the opposite has happened, snooker has became more like pool. If watching top players of either sport, I think you are more likely to see snooker players use huge side spin today.
Comparing pocket sizes isn't easy since snooker is a half table or even end table game. Of balls pocketed, I suspect 75% or more of snooker balls are pocketed in the bottom two pockets when playing the full rack game. Then to finish the player is usually looking at the same "drill" they have played countless times before, all of the numbered balls are sitting on their home spot. Perhaps we should consider snooker to be played mostly on a six foot surface, the width of the table and the distance from end to side pocket. If we were to consider the percentage of shots played cross side vs the number of shots played up and down the table it would vastly change calculations of degree of difficulty I believe.
With two tables sitting side by side I would almost always choose to play snooker. On a nine or ten foot pool table, tight pockets change the game played, the style of play. On seven footers, tight or loose doesn't much matter. Somebody mentioned a five foot table earlier in this thread I believe. I didn't know such a thing existed without bumpers. Four inch pockets might be buckets on it!
We are pretty much comparing apples to oranges. The closest game comparison would be one pocket to snooker. One Pocket players generally like tight pockets and I can't remember ever seeing it played on a seven foot table.
Just some thoughts and things to think about.
Hu
