Great question. Billiards is the only cue sport that has a true measure of how well you are playing. It is called your average. It is the average number of billiards made per inning. If you go into a pool room in the U.S. and see what you think is a good room-level billiard player, he or she is probably averaging about .4-.5 which means in ten innings, four or five billiards will be made. .5-.6 is starting to be an above average room player who can probably compete locally and do ok. .6-.7 means a strong regional player or "shortstop" as you guys call them in the pool world. .7-.9 is a strong national class player who is able to beat players with higher averages from time to time, just not regularly. Many National championships here have been won with .9 and lower averages. .9-1.1 (9 to 11 billiards in ten innings) is an above average international player who has probably won many minor championships. 1.1 to 1.3 players are consistently in the top 50 in the world. 1.3-1.5 players in the top 30. 1.5+ are in the top four or five in the world. There are several players who have topped 2.0 in a tournament, which, if you ever get around to playing the game seriously you will be amazed at how impossible that feat seems.
Most players here don't keep their averages because they don't want to know. Also, most players I know are so far off about their averages that when asked, they will sometimes say their average is twice what it really is. Those are the same players that usually talk about high runs, which while really cool to have from time to time, really don't impress other billiard players like a nice average does.
To put your open inning thoughts into perspective, it is not uncommon for most players to go a few innings without scoring. Billiards is a difficult game.
And when you look at averages, there are a lot of considerations. There are playing conditions that are good for scoring, and the opposite. If table and ball conditions are not good for scoring, most players' averages will drop...because in the end the average is just the average; we are still trying to win! So there may be more defensive play because it is more difficult to score. Also, because the average is just the average, two players can have the same average with one of them consistently making one or two every inning or so, while the other one is running fives and tens what seems like all the time...the only difference is that the high runner is having several open innings between his high runs. The high runner always looks more impressive to an uninformed crowd...despite both being the same in ability.
I hope this answers your questions.
Deno Andrews
