(Ahem.) I think I may have invented a new pool game. Naturally, it is ever so coolio!

sunnyone

sunnyone

cum grano salis
Silver Member
Dear Gentle Readers,

(Mea maxima culpa if this is an old, stale idea. One that has already been proposed and rejected.)

Here’s the deal … my new game is one-pocket with a 9-ball rack. First boyo to make five balls prevails.

The unanticipated wizardry? All balls have to be made in numerical order.

So ... it’s Rotation One-Pocket!

The concept came to me in a flash. The other day I was able to catch a few minutes of the stunningly-gorgeous one-pocket stream from Stix Billiards.

I like to keep my own scorecard when I’m watching one-pocket; in the game I saw, one of the contestants was cutting in the six ball. Which was, coincidently, the sixth ball of his total.

Ergo, the Newtonian apple plopped down onto my noggin! (I don’t mind if that particular legend is apocryphal -- even dim school kids (moi!) remember the concept. Not that I think for a nano that there’s an Isaac / Sunny correlation!)

Admittedly, there are a few details to be worked out in my Rotation One-Pocket concept. Merely:

> How dopey is the idea?

> Rules.

> Strategies.

> How does the game affect tournaments? Okay ... with neither rhyme nor reason on my side … I’ve moved an imaginary game up to the tournament level. So sue me! My question, though, is would Rotation One-Pocket speed up the game (fewer balls) or slow it down (only one score-contributing ball at a time)?

> Legal rights. Can I patent this? Or copyright it? Or flee from it without stupidity charges hounding me into perpetuity?

> Name. Of course ever so many of you ... well perhaps some of you ... or maybe a few of you will want to incorporate ‘Sunny’ into the appellation to honor the brilliance of the inventor. So ceded.

Modest innovation is my life,

Sunny
 
Not so dopey; there is a precedent here: Action 8-ball.

4 solids, 4 stripes, and the 8. Rack with the 8 in the center. First to pocket his/her group in rotation fashion, then pockets the 8 wins.
 
9-ball one pocket is not a new concept.
I played t years ago....One-Eye Jesse out of Detroit even showed me
a great way of breaking at this game.

Playing it rotational is different....but it may not work.
In one-pocket, you have to play safe on ALL the balls to your opponent's
pocket.....only guarding against one ball into one pocket would be much
more simple.
Gonna be a long game....I calculate that if you play 3 ahead for a g-note...
......table-time tab will be $823.74

..now if you bring ball-in-hand into the rules, it'll hurt my head to think about it.:scratchhead:
 
We used to play this back in the early to mid 90's. After I would call "last call for alcohol & last game on the tables & don't do anything I wouldn't do and if you do, name it after me" at the bar/poolhall I run. I'd get the bar area cleaned & prepped for the next day and spent about 15 minutes back in the office with the register tapes & accounting stuff. While I was busy with this, every night without fail, 2-7 of my buddies stuck around for after hours fun after I locked the doors.

They would take a couple tables and battle it out until I got done. The games varied with the moods and usually lasted until 8am or at times noon (and sometimes we would lose track of time and sobriety, and as my daytime bartender showed up at 1:45pm to open, we'd have to scramble cleaning up so the bar could open at 2pm). Sometimes rotation, sometimes 14.1 or 1hole, other times it was a 3-ball/9-ball ring games and then there were those creative times when boredom (plus other chemicals) would influence creative thoughts of combining games.

One of those many creations (not all worked out well) was rotation 1-hole, another was rotation 8-ball, another one was rotation 14.1 each ball being worth 1 point. Very similar to what Joe Tuckers "American Rotation" is today, but not as complex rules or scoring. We just played the made up hillbilly version.

We played rotation 9-ball pretty much as you'd expect, the only wrench in it was any spotted balls, were spotted up on the kitchen spot & in line towards the top rail if it were multiple spots. Other than that everything else was played as you'd think it should. Just like regular 1-hole, some games went quick, while others went on for quite a while. Not all players were of equal caliber so we would play 7-2, 6-3 & on occasion straight-up to 5.

It was a fun game but did suffer a couple fatal flaws. Examples being, to easy of a safe on the break (Heh, we were soft breaking 9-ball without knowing its potential until Corey used it. hmmmmmmm), get a pack of balls up table and get the object ball locked up in the corner surrounded by balls preventing a legal hit by anyone, so after 3 consecutive fouls we would pull the ball and spot it on the kitchen spot and resume play. Another was the never ending volley, at times it would be like a tennis match (back and forth chasing the same ball until someone made an error or pulled off a killer shot) That was 20+ years ago and the other flaws escape my memory at this time, but I do remember there were a couple issues that did arise, nothing we couldn't work out though.

My thought is any game that keeps people playing is good pool, it should be fun and never get boring. Be creative, try new things. Every game, even the dumb ones there can be lessons and strategies learned that will apply to all games and help build your person toolbox of skills.

Dopc. Longing for the past but a single day of it would kill me now....
 
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