★Sandcastle - $20,000 One-Pocket Challenge★

It's JBs to lose how do you come to that conclusion when Lou was ahead every step of the way ,, I didn't watch as I was watching mold grow on my counter but from what I read Lou looked like the better player ,, however he did not play great and given that with all this talk from JB how he's playing guys close to even that Lou could not even stand in the same room I'm somewhat surprised he did not play better
The fact is, one of the hardest things to do is keep your foot on the gas when a player appears not to be in your class and if you let up and that guy starts coming back the pockets seem to shrink and momentum swing the other way that's what I think happened to Lou and I give him credit for keeping it together and getting to the Hill

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That is very true, and what happened last night. There was only one person playing pool last night and how this has gone into a second day is a mystery to me. Momentum is horrible, you can feel like you are wading through treacle.
 
I moved away in 2006, and was playing right up to then. Was Buddy not affiliated with that place at all? I coulda swore...

Sucks that place closed. They're dropping like flies :(

There was also a little place up on 4th st that had a carom table. Are they still around?

You mentioned last night about scaring the kids away... man I liked the old guys, but I wasn't betting my lunch money. What caused me to have to stop going to pool halls was the cigarette smoke. Between the honky tonks and pool halls I developed a pretty bad allergy to second hand smoke, and I just can't be around it at all anymore. I think the smoke environment is really hurting selling this sport to younger people.

I have a table at home now, but damn I miss playing pickup games and watching the old guys play one pocket out at a hall.


The place on 4th Street was Westcoast Billiards, Jim Lee was half owner, he is CM's brother, it closed a few years back, but Jim had sold out to his partner Wally years before that, when it first opened during the Color of Money era they had a 9ft Snooker table next to the Carom table, they were so busy back then on Friday and Saturday nights they had a waiting list, after the first year, they converted the 9ft Snooker table to a pool table to be able to accommodate more players.
 
The place on 4th Street was Westcoast Billiards, Jim Lee was half owner, he is CM's brother, it closed a few years back, but Jim had sold out to his partner Wally years before that, when it first opened during the Color of Money era they had a 9ft Snooker table next to the Carom table, they were so busy back then on Friday and Saturday nights they had a waiting list, after the first year, they converted the 9ft Snooker table to a pool table to be able to accommodate more players.

That's the place! Also where I learned that my father was a hustler. Doesn't swing a cue in 40 years, then picks one up and runs like 5-6 on 3 cushion :eek:. Before that I was all trying to explain the basic rules, etc... :cool:
 
One last thing I'll say in both players defense:

I watch a lot of pool on the internet but when I do it's always the best of the best. I think we have all been conditioned to expect near perfect play when we are watching an internet stream.

My (and many others) expectations were probably way too high going in to this match based on what we are used to seeing when we sit in front of our computers, ipads, or phones.

I don't know....I'm trying to give them the benefit of the doubt.
 
No, I think it is. I watched almost the whole thing yesterday, and JB had the better strategy. Lou made the balls early, can bank well and run, but if you kept looking at the layout of the table, JB was in control the vast majority of the time. The wedge was present a few time, but in almost all of the games all of the balls were over JB's side of the table.

If they got down to a few balls on the table, JB won every time. I really think that JB just let the first 2 get away from him, and after that it's incredibly even. Every other rack but one could have gone either way.

But if JB loses, it's because he lets Lou run, which is JB's mistake. That's why I say it's JB's to lose.

Ok, I see the nuance you meant. Normally, in sports, the phrase implies the game (usually the score) is such that they are the favorite. With Lou needing only one game to barton's three, I make Lou the favorite by a wide margin. If each game is a 50/50 proposition, and the score says that it is close to that, Lou wins 7 out of 8 times with the score being 8-6.

Nonetheless, I agree that Barton's end game for some reason is quite a bit better than the rest, which is weird - end game proficiency usually comes last because it is somewhat infrequent.
 
One last thing I'll say in both players defense:

I watch a lot of pool on the internet but when I do it's always the best of the best. I think we have all been conditioned to expect near perfect play when we are watching an internet stream.

My (and many others) expectations were probably way too high going in to this match based on what we are used to seeing when we sit in front of our computers, ipads, or phones.

I don't know....I'm trying to give them the benefit of the doubt.

I couldnt agree more. I actually like seeing players closer to my speed for a change. Watching perfect runout pool over and over can get just as boring.
 
That's what I like about this match. It's pretty much the level of the one pocket games I used to watch hanging around at pool halls.

I agree with everyone that winning is a skill entirely different than any playing skill. You can't do strategy like the pro's do and expect to win. You need to know that you can't pull that crap off, and play strategy accordingly. That's a skill you see here that you won't with the pros.
 
Play will resume in about 2 1/2 hours approx. 4pm EST. with Lou on the Hill and John at 6​



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I thought that ALL of the commentary yesterday was some of the best I've heard outside of high-budget productions like the ESPN stuff with Mitch Lawrence and a female pro or the US Open with Jimmy Wetch and Danny DeLiberto (or Billy Incardona or pretty much anything with Jimmy Wetch and anybody). Thank you for taking the time to do it for us.


I agree. Commentary was very good.
 
Doesn't the "flyer" say there will be ladies playing 10 ball at 1pm?

The stream is currently offline....

They ended up with some sort of scheduling conflict where they couldn't come back today, so they played at 1am last night after John and Lou stopped for the night.
 
One last thing I'll say in both players defense:

I watch a lot of pool on the internet but when I do it's always the best of the best. I think we have all been conditioned to expect near perfect play when we are watching an internet stream.

My (and many others) expectations were probably way too high going in to this match based on what we are used to seeing when we sit in front of our computers, ipads, or phones.

I don't know....I'm trying to give them the benefit of the doubt.
I think part of this is conditioning and part of it is that it's hard to get a grip on just how good the pros play. Non-players don't get it at all because they make it look so easy, but even us pool players have a hard time appreciating what we are seeing when we're watching SVB, Earl, Mika, etc... That realization usually comes for most of us when we play in a tournament and watch a pro run circles around the regional shortstop that we're used to seeing win. The pros make balls better, position the cue ball better, play lock-up defenses, kick better; in short, they do it all. We watch them play entire matches where it comes down to one or two mistakes or a bad roll.

I think Lou and JB play better than a lot of people are giving them credit for, and probably play even better when it's not for $10,000 and streaming. Sure, there are a lot of people on this forum than would beat either one of them, but probably not as many as some of these comments indicate.
 
I couldnt agree more. I actually like seeing players closer to my speed for a change. Watching perfect runout pool over and over can get just as boring.

I watched til the bitter end last night and anticipating a nail-biting finale IF
John can find his way to hill-hill with all the chips riding on a single game.
It was tedious at times and I "felt" the pain during those normally easy shots
that John missed. He was animated, Lou was not.
I leave for League at 6 p.m. Pacific, with my trusty Smartphone charged and ready.

Go John !
 
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