The reason I prefer 8 ball over 9 or 10 ball.
- Thread starter jaime_lion
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I realize some people hate that as much as you do. The way i see it is...its no different than tapping the cue ball with youf cue..just hitting the cue ball to a rail or just hitting it a few inches. Infentionally hitting a illegal ball into another ball locking them up...or eeven po keting your opponents ball which i have seen many times ..
All of them are intentional fouls and are marked as defensive shots in apa.. The end result is the same so i dont see what difference it makes on what method you use to commit an intentional foul.
Is there a foul rule in league? That’s what is confusing to me.
Not trying to get in a debate over how to strategize games but intentional fouls, usually occur, when shot selection is very limited, as in rotation games or one pocket. Can’t imagine an 8 ball game where you get back to the table in better shape than when you picked up, for the foul.
But as I posted earlier in the thread, why I prefer 8 ball is the creativity allowed in the game. Which is why I deleted my opposing post. Don’t want to argue strategy.
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When I play 8 ball, I approach every shot like I do at the Snooker table. ‘Is there a safety that will give me an advantage?’ Then I add part two which is how American pool players approach the table...‘is there a ball to sink? And, if I sink it, where to leave the cueball.’
I can watch Pool lesson after lesson and it’s so startling. It’s akin to a football coach spending all 10 hours Of practice time on offensive plays and then telling his defense on the day of the game ’just go out there and do your best’.
Anyways 8 ball just adds a whole another dimension to the game. I enjoy being pro active and tying my opponent up in knots and knocking him out. In contrast, in nine ball, I feel more passive, and relying more on my opponent to make a mistake.
I can watch Pool lesson after lesson and it’s so startling. It’s akin to a football coach spending all 10 hours Of practice time on offensive plays and then telling his defense on the day of the game ’just go out there and do your best’.
Anyways 8 ball just adds a whole another dimension to the game. I enjoy being pro active and tying my opponent up in knots and knocking him out. In contrast, in nine ball, I feel more passive, and relying more on my opponent to make a mistake.
vnea masters, they get out, alot
the best defense is keeping your opponent sitting in his chair
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4KQ7Kpl4eU
the best defense is keeping your opponent sitting in his chair
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4KQ7Kpl4eU
In the league Lorider is referencing, APA, there isn't any sort of foul limit, or safety limit. If you were to hand the ball back, as you suggested, each player could continue to hand it back and forth, and thus the game ends in a stalemate (neither player willing to shoot). Rarely happens, usually only when the 8 is in the pocket with other balls around it, or some crazy scenario.
It isn't unusual to see a player forego shooting and hand the ball over, rather than risk breaking out a trouble ball, as Lorider did. the incoming player needs to also think creatively, and has ball in hand, so this only increases the strategy element, particularly with 8-ball.
It depends on 9-ball format. Sometimes making the 9 wins the game, but in my league it's all points, 1-8 balls are 1 point, 9-ball is worth 2, keep playing until one persons hits the required point total. In that format there's actually more luck involved in 8-ball if it goes in early off a crazy roll no one saw.
I watch some league matches and it's so startling. The APA 3 is playing another APA 3 and doesn't know what to do and the coach tells them during the time out that they should play safe. It's akin to the coach of an 8-and-under soccer program explaining in detail to his kids how each position is properly played and how positions on the field should be arranged and the positions of the other team's players noted. And then the game starts.
If the pool instructors in your area don't teach defense as needed or asked for you need to get some better instructors.
Save for the guy who can see his object ball, but no easy way to pocket it, and just smashes it, to see if anything falls, and he can keep shooting. No penalty like in 8-ball, where you could accidentally put the 8 in and lose, or put in your opponents balls...that smash and hope stuff aggravates me, moreso because the few times I ever have tried it, i end up scratching, or making something and hooking myself, if i make anything at all. Yet whenever certain players in my league do that, they get something AND shape, every time, it seems...:shrug::scratchhead:
I'm no instructor, but have been in position to give teammates time-outs fairly often. Many lower level players resist the idea of defense. OR they don't ever try it, even when in practice games, so they inevitably hit it too hard... I try and suggest it to players when playing practice games, but even that time is limited.
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Two things, 9 ball is more difficult because it is rotation and only one ball creates a good hit. All of the 10 ball I have seen is called pocket and no combos but only lately in a few tourns. Now in fact, many tourn,. have gone to called 9 ball.
8 ball is the growth in league play because it is easier and 9 and 10 ball are still the growing tourn. and money games even though one pocket has blossomed lately into a real gambler's game. I have watched it at $5,000 a game here in Vegas.
You see that in 9 or 10 ball occasionally but to me, that's serious gambling and you never see anything close to in 8 ball.
8 ball is the growth in league play because it is easier and 9 and 10 ball are still the growing tourn. and money games even though one pocket has blossomed lately into a real gambler's game. I have watched it at $5,000 a game here in Vegas.
You see that in 9 or 10 ball occasionally but to me, that's serious gambling and you never see anything close to in 8 ball.
Ya but, 8 ball is more difficult because there's more traffic on the table to navigate around....
...of course in 9 ball you need to be a good shot maker so you can make those difficult shots and still get on the next 'single' object ball.
...but in 8 ball greater touch is required to maneuver around obstacles.
...however in 9 ball, you only have one ball to kick to if snookered.
...safeties in 9 ball are easy, try snookering an opponent with 5+ object balls on the table.
see how that works
8 ball is easier in the fact that you have half the table to choose to shoot at and position isn't very Paramount to start, hell after the break you can literally hit any ball but the 8 in
9ball you have to be on one ball
9ball you have to be on one ball
...ya but after the break in 9 ball if you don't have a shot you like you have the option to not hit a ball at all.
...in 9 ball if you can't make the next ball then you simply play safe. Which is way easier because the opponent only has the same object ball to shoot for.
9 ball is easier because the decisions are simpler, and there far less to consider.
This will go on forever, so I'll bow out now. I will leave it with this though. For anyone that believes 8 ball is the easier game. Somewhere in the mountains of streamed matches on YT, there is an 8 ball set between Darren Appleton and Dennis Orcollo in some semi recent tournament Darren organized. Watch it and tell me that some of the table-IQ battles they had were easier than just having to hit the next ball in rotation.
This is very similar to the snooker v pool debate...
As with that, the logic is the same here in that to win any game it is tough, its no easier to win at 8-Ball or 9-Ball against any given opponent (assuming equal skill levels), but it doesn't change the fact that the game of 8-Ball is fundamentally far easier.
Look at it this way, I'd imagine that anyone on here could go months without picking up a cue, head to a pool room, rack up 15 balls and then complete an 8-ball run out.
Try that with 9-Ball and its far less likely (I'm only talking about practice here of course, a match is a totally different thing).
Your example (arguably) validates that 9-Ball is harder in that its not possible to run out as possible after the break, whereas in 8-Ball there is a far higher chance you can.
That of course in no way is the same as saying 8-Ball is easier to win at, as then you need to factor in the skill level of your opponent, not just the fundamentals of the game.
push out is not in every rule set and ONLY after the break
8 ball just as easy to hit behind half the tables worth of balls for a safe
Your use of sound reasoning pulled me back...
Assuming we only consider the below:
9 ball: You have to sink the balls in order and are required to hit the lowest numbered ball first.
8 ball: You must sink all of your designated balls in any order prior to making the 8 ball
I will agree that if that we solely focus on these most basic concepts of the two games, that 8 ball is easier.
Of course by doing so I'm ignoring the realities of actual game play.
Your use of sound reasoning pulled me back...
Assuming we only consider the below:
9 ball: You have to sink the balls in order and are required to hit the lowest numbered ball first.
8 ball: You must sink all of your designated balls in any order prior to making the 8 ball
I will agree that if that we solely focus on these most basic concepts of the two games, that 8 ball is easier.
Of course by doing so I'm ignoring the realities of actual game play.
Absolutely, that's kind of the debate I guess (and probably why no-one will ever agree
To me its crystal clear that the game is different to the way you play the game, therefore there's no argument...however many (most perhaps) disagree, hence the debate lives on