a game for pool players vs. billiard players

[bruin70]

i read about this game long ago that george fels created, called two-ball. .....

the game is played with a CB and 2 ob's. the ONLY way a point is scored is when you pocket one(either) ball AND hit the other. you can hit as many or no cushions before hitting the second ball. the game starts with cb in hand after a lag, with the 2 ob's spotted on both opposite spots. when an ob is pocketed, it gets respotted on IT'S spot before the player continues. scratches are ball in hand.

this is a tough tough game. i played this only once with ginky and he ran four points only. this is a 9ball player's game, imo, because many times the player must opt for a very difficult shot in order to make the carom. i think the 3 cushion player is slightly disadvantaged because of the added pressure to pocket the ob, but his carom play would be superior.

 

[sjm]

i read about this game long ago that george fels created, called two-ball. .....

the game is played with a CB and 2 ob's. the ONLY way a point is scored is when you pocket one(either) ball AND hit the other. you can hit as many or no cushions before hitting the second ball. the game starts with cb in hand after a lag, with the 2 ob's spotted on both opposite spots. when an ob is pocketed, it gets respotted on IT'S spot before the player continues. scratches are ball in hand.

this is a tough tough game. i played this only once with ginky and he ran four points only. this is a 9ball player's game, imo, because many times the player must opt for a very difficult shot in order to make the carom. i think the 3 cushion player is slightly disadvantaged because of the added pressure to pocket the ob, but his carom play would be superior.

Another game that blends the two disciplines with a cue ball and two object balls on the table is one in which you can only score a point by hitting the cue ball into one object ball, then hitting exactly one rail and then hitting the other. It is not necessary to pocket the object ball. Like your game, Bruin, this game is much tougher than it sounds. I've seen Efren Reyes include it in his practice on occasion.

Still, the best game for a pool player to play against a billiards player is, drumroll please, billiards. Learning how to play all the angles and strokes that the beautiful game of billiards requires is invaluable to any pool player who wants to get a more instinctive sense of the geometry of a pool table.

 

[bruin70]

Another game that blends the two disciplines with a cue ball and two object balls on the table is one in which you can only score a point by hitting the cue ball into one object ball, then hitting exactly one rail and then hitting the other. It is not necessary to pocket the object ball.

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it's like balk-line or straight rail.......not an even match....the pool player would get trounced. he'd be sittin' there watching a good billiard player run 10's, dozens, or even 100's if the player was REALLY good.
http://www.eaba.co.uk/articles/walterLindrum/walterLindrumProfile.html

 

[sjm]

it's like balk-line or straight rail.......not an even match....the pool player would get trounced. he'd be sittin' there watching a good billiard player run 10's, dozens, or even 100's if the player was REALLY good.
http://www.eaba.co.uk/articles/walterLindrum/walterLindrumProfile.html

Efren didn't have any long runs when I watched. The "exactly one rail" rule makes it far tougher than if it were "one rail or more". Doubt he ran a single twenty in about ten minutes of trying.

 

[bruin70]

Efren didn't have any long runs when I watched. The "exactly one rail" rule makes it far tougher than if it were "one rail or more". Doubt he ran a single twenty in about ten minutes of trying.

i'm not THAT familiar with the game, but i've watched intermediate 3 cushion players play single rail and gather the 3 spread balls into a cluster after one or two tries. from that point on all they do is massage the 3 balls and rack up points.

 

[sjm]

i'm not THAT familiar with the game, but i've watched intermediate 3 cushion players play single rail and gather the 3 spread balls into a cluster after one or two tries. from that point on all they do is massage the 3 balls and rack up points.

Point well taken, Efren did not approach the game that way, trying to play shots that translated better to pool. It would probably be fair to say that he played no position at all and played most shots at medium speed, letting the balls finish where they liked, and ensuring that the angles remained fresh and new. I suspect that had he tried to group the balls into a cluster, as you said, he could have had a very long run.

Thanks for the education, Bruin.

 

[rodrigo1508]

LOL I have just arraived from the pool hall, and my frind and I played exactly this game, my friend and I usually play first a race to 15 of 8 ball then if we are not tired of the pockets a race to 7 of 9 ball and finally a race to 30/35 of carom. and today the carom tables were all taken so we started to play 3-C carom in the pool table but with the rules you described. It was quite entretaining but It was a little more difficult than the carom mainly because of the table, the balls dont run as much and you had to be more careful because of the pockets.

 

[Colin Colenso]

Bruin,
I think that game is an excellent test.

I actually play a drill that is quite similar. Instead of 2 balls I use 3 balls becuase often with just 2 balls you are forced to play for crazy pots. With 3 object balls and therefore two 2 cannon target balls there is usually a near standard option to choose.

This version is still not easy and a great way to improve cue ball control.

btw: I respot the 3 balls on the head spot, centre of the table and the foot spot. (However, this can lead to many of the same shots so I would recommend some random re-spot method such as splitting the table up into a 6 * 6 grid and tossing a dice twice to determine the position for re-spot. This will mix up the range of shots played.)