2023 World Pool Championship, Kielce, Poland

sammylane12

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Two balls on the break, but Hoang had to push out. Safety first. Shane kicks at the two. Well done. Good return safe by Hoang. Shane kicks and hits, leaves a long cut on the two. Hoang makes a combo but is hooked. Makes a great jump shot. Must play safe on the three. A great final game in progress. Shane blinks. A chance for Hoang. He hangs the three and it wobbles and drops. Looks like he’s got it now. Shane is out! What a match!
Jay, I was wondering what you mean when you say Shane blinked. Did he miss a shot or sell out?
 

iusedtoberich

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Jay, are you watching from the Phillipines? How is the coverage over there? Are people going to bars/pool rooms to watch this? Or watching from home? Or not watching at all?
 

Vahmurka

...and I get all da rolls
Silver Member
Well they are consistent

Wrong scores

Wrong ball colors

Well played
To add to the consistency, here's the graphics mistakenly showing it is Shaw at the table (white triangle). Been like that throughout the whole rack.
MR_turnerror.jpg
 

VarmintKong

Cannonball comin’!
to Ouschan's credit, he's grown into a formidable opponent. He is much like a boa python now, just squeezing the good living out of his victims. Flawless pocketing and precise safety play.
Albin was down 0-4 to Styer last night, but his confidence never wavered.

He absolutely smothered Styer with precision safeties; calmly relentless. Albin took 10 of the next 11 racks.

I’ve always heard momentum isn’t real, but Tyler could not get a decent look after Albin’s innings. You could see Styer’s confidence melt away with each time he sat back down in his chair. Tough to take, I’m sure Tyler will learn from it.
 

iusedtoberich

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
You guys are nuts IMO asking for tighter pockets. No matter how "tight" the pocket, there will always be some shots on the edge of staying out or falling in. Whether the pocket is 10" or 3". The number of those shots has been quite small this event.

Furthermore, most of the shots that bobbled in seem to have been hit on the "pro" side of the pocket. They didn't rub the rail on the way in, like when most shots bobble. They hit the opposite tit of the pocket, and fell in. The players hit them well enough, hit them on the pro side, and were rewarded for them dropping.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it:)
 

garczar

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
You guys are nuts IMO asking for tighter pockets. No matter how "tight" the pocket, there will always be some shots on the edge of staying out or falling in. Whether the pocket is 10" or 3". The number of those shots has been quite small this event.

Furthermore, most of the shots that bobbled in seem to have been hit on the "pro" side of the pocket. They didn't rub the rail on the way in, like when most shots bobble. They hit the opposite tit of the pocket, and fell in. The players hit them well enough, hit them on the pro side, and were rewarded for them dropping.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it:)
Agree 1000%. I guess peopl don't play much on new cloth. Lots of shots go on new cloth that won't in a week or so. So tired of hearing this same bs about the pockets not being tight enuff.
 

iusedtoberich

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I was born in '78 after the Vietnam war, but watching Hoang play, I was envisioning him as a soldier and never giving up. He just had that look about him like he was calm, all business, but was going to kill you, and never stop until he did. I put him as the favorite to win the event from the remaining players.
 

garczar

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I was born in '78 after the Vietnam war, but watching Hoang play, I was envisioning him as a soldier and never giving up. He just had that look about him like he was calm, all business, but was going to kill you, and never stop until he did. I put him as the favorite to win the event from the remaining players.
He looks like he belongs there. The magnitude of the moment ain't fazing him.
 

Poolplaya9

Tellin' it like it is...
Silver Member
It's not just that -- it's that you routinely use such strong language when discussing this topic. "Everybody will play to their maximum potential when they play slow..." disregards the obvious evidence that many, many players at the very top, not only don't play slow -- but they play fast. So you need to send this info to Strickland, Filler, Shaw, SVB when he's rolling, a recent Sky who's been playing better and faster, AND possibly the greatest cue sportsman of all-time -- Ronnie O'Sullivan.

If you went to them with this data you would be laughed out of the room. Sometimes the data doesn't tell the whole story.
SVB isn't in the fast player group. Conversely, he is a careful, deliberate player. Your claim that Sky plays better fast is so obviously not true I don't see how you can say it with a straight face. If you have paid any attention you certainly can't believe it, but maybe you just don't pay attention or keep up with people's games. Sky slowed down his game a good bit and that directly resulting in a BIG jump up in his game, a night and day difference (as it did with Shaw as another example, although they could continue to see more improvement by being a little more careful and deliberate yet). You also try to paint it out as if there are fast players everywhere in the top ranks and that simply isn't true either, not as a percentage. Only a relatively small percentage of the top players are fast players, and even among them the trend is that when they slow down they tend to shoot better. It's all pretty telling when one is willing to look at the evidence with an unbiased honest mind.

Notwithstanding all that, you are arguing against something I didn't say, a strawman. I agree that phenomenal pool has been played fast but that has nothing to do with what I actually said. What I actually said is that everybody will on average play to their fullest potential when they play at a slower (careful, deliberate) pace. The evidence for this is everywhere you look. The trend is that the better the players, the more time they tend to take, and the top of the heap has always tended to be filled with the more careful, deliberate players. Particularly telling is that every single player that has ever slowed down their game has ended up playing better as a result of it. I can't think of a single exception. Yes, you can find examples of guys like Earl who played great fast. What you are ignoring is that the evidence says that he would have been even better had he slowed down a bit and been more careful and deliberate.

Common sense tells you that slower, careful, deliberate play will lead to the best results as well. It's all about reducing errors, physical and mental. Reducing errors requires being careful and deliberate, and you just can't be as careful as you need to be when shooting fast.

Obviously you aren't a careful, deliberate enough player or you wouldn't arguing what you are arguing and would already know that it results in the best pool. So I challenge you to give it an honest try and find out for yourself. Take just a little more time to analyze your best option in shot choice, positional route, strategy, etc. Take just a little more time to make sure you are fully committed to the shot. Take just a little more time to as best as possible work past the nerves you are feeling on a shot. Take just a little more time to make sure you are fully grooved in your stroke and aim etc. Take just a little more time to reduce the tension in your arm and get it as relaxed as possible. Etc. I'm not saying get stupid about it, just slow things a little to be just a little more careful and deliberate about everything. Your game will improve, guaranteed.

Maybe not right at first when you dislike it and have a mental block against it, or when you just aren't yet used to it, but after you let it become your new rhythm of comfort it will result in you shooting better. It has worked for literally every other single person that has ever done it that I am aware of (which is tons and tons of people, including 100% of the many pros that have done it). Even if there are some one in a hundred exceptions that can be found the odds say you aren't likely to end up being one of them. I know with some honest thought you will see the same thing, tons of examples where players have improved when they slowed down and got more careful, but you are going to struggle to come up with any examples where a player's game suffered when they slowed down and became more careful (if they gave it the time to get used to it). So go do it and then come back to me and tell me it didn't work. You aren't going to be that unicorn exception and if I hear back from you what I'm going to hear is "for whatever reason I just never thought it would be true but you were right, thanks for that, it upped my game".
 

VVP

Registered
I was born in '78 after the Vietnam war, but watching Hoang play, I was envisioning him as a soldier and never giving up. He just had that look about him like he was calm, all business, but was going to kill you, and never stop until he did. I put him as the favorite to win the event from the remaining players.
Yes, he impressed me with his mental attitude/game. I didn't get to see him against SVB, but given that he won a hill-hill match it looks like he is a machine. Albin is also a machine, but he falters if things are not going his way and self implodes. I would love to see a championship with Hoang vs Albin.
 

iusedtoberich

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Speaking of the time clock, IDK if it was the players I just watched (Shane vs Hoang) being "not slow", or the clock itself, but they both had a big pep in their step. The simple act of walking around the table was quick and with a purpose. Maybe having a clock forces the players to do that subconsciously, and they just move faster. Even if they rarely go near the clock beeping.
 

iusedtoberich

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Man, that was a tough loss for Shane. They both played super well, and were firing balls in from nowhere. I think Shane will remember that 9 ball he hung most. He hit it pure, just not hard enough. Hoang ran a 2 pack I believe after that.
 

Nick8400

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Rly.
A deeper shelf would allow to get back to even 4.5" corner pockets which would play much less forgiving than current setup when a shot is poor. And at the same time leave a bit more room to utilize the whole pocket when needed.
Recent MR events regularly prove that it's not the pocket throat size which defines proper equipment.
I understand that.

But the match went hill-hill. They both played great. What more do we want?

The tables are more than a fair test. I am just super bored with the insta-pocket size-debate I guess.
 

Poolplaya9

Tellin' it like it is...
Silver Member
Rly.
A deeper shelf would allow to get back to even 4.5" corner pockets which would play much less forgiving than current setup when a shot is poor. And at the same time leave a bit more room to utilize the whole pocket when needed.
Recent MR events regularly prove that it's not the pocket throat size which defines proper equipment.
You have it backwards in my opinion. Deep shelves (and/or the wrong pocket angles) reject too many malls that have been "made" and should fall. Once the majority of a ball is past the pocket points it should fall 97% of the time, but deep shelves result in rejecting good shots. The pocket throat size absolutely does control what makes for good equipment assuming you have shelf depths and pocket angles that are fair. And as someone else has already mentioned, you can't use a bobbled ball that falls as evidence of poor equipment as balls are going to bobble and fall at times on any table no matter pocket types or sizes it has.

My opinion is that Diamond is already pushing it as far as shelf depth go and if anything should consider very slightly less deep pocket shelves. From what I've seen the pockets at this event have been playing about right though. It you want them to be a little tougher just tighten the openings up a bit more but you definitely don't want to deepen the shelves any more so that they start rejecting good shots that should have fallen.
 
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