Now that would make for some interesting stats. Get an A player and a C player and let them play two sets to 9 each in 9 ball and 8 ball. Lets see which game the C player manages more wins in.
I have a couple of observations concerning your proposed experiment. First, there is too big a gap between the skill levels. The A player is going to drill the C no matter what the game. You would have to alternate breaks, or the C player may never get out of the chair.
There has been a guy coming around the pool room recently who is pretty much a banger. He guess you would call him a D+ or a C-. He will sometimes surprise you with his shot making, but has no clue about position. I have been watching him for about a month, and I have yet to see the guy play an intentional safety. He is constantly riding the nine and shooting sell out banks. He recently was playing two dollar racks with one of our local A players. I don't know what he ended up losing, but there was one point where he lost around thirty racks in a row. I hear a lot of crying about how lucky this guy is, but it isn't being done by the good players. They just shut up and play, knowing that they are going to win ten games for every one he does.
By coincidence, I have been recently playing a C player from across the river some eight ball and nine ball. I am a weak B, so we started with me giving him the called eight. The first night we played two sets and split. The second night I beat him three sets. Now he doesn't want to play without the seven out. So we switch to eight ball.
Now, I haven't played that game since I quit drinking about ten years ago. I don't consider myself a eight ball player at all, and I have a shitty break. I do play straight pool, so that helps me bridge the gap somewhat. I managed to win here as well, but the scores were much closer. He would typically run five or six balls in eight ball, and that was enough to win some racks because I failed to make a ball on the break the entire night.
In nine ball, he is typically out of position after two shots. He has a pretty good stroke, but doesn't have the cue ball control and knowledge of patterns to be successful against good players. Admittedly, we haven't played enough yet to have a valid statistical picture, but the early indication is that his run out percentage in eight ball would be much higher. And the fact that I have superior skills and knowledge doesn't make as much difference in eight ball, mainly because they are just not needed all that often. In fact, it seemed to me that the biggest factor in the outcome was owning the balls with the most favorable layout.
I have also played some eight ball with a D player from my local room. In the weekly nine ball tournament, I have beaten this guy giving him five on the wire in a race to seven. He can't threaten a rail in nine ball, let alone a pocket. But in eight ball, he also put together runs of five and six balls a couple of times. I am sorry, but it's hard for me to swallow that eight ball is a better test that a rotation style game, when guys who have almost no cue skills can clear a rack.
