I've just been reading the thread about bangers who say defense and safeties are dirty pool. I couldn't help but notice when most of you talk about bar rules and bangers, you're referring to guys who refuse BiH, call every detail of a shot and don't believe in defense. Where I live bar rules have always meant:
- no shot calling at all
- no BiH
- fouls meaning only loss of turn
- no requirement to hit the rail
- CB on head spot after scratch
- hitting the opponent's ball first is legal if the CB touches a rail first
- defense is perfectly allowed like any other part of the game
Our own equivalent to "no defense allowed" would be the unofficial rule that every player I know accept, which says you shouldn't move an opponent's ball or the 8-ball away from a pocket by hitting it with the CB, only by using one of your balls. If you hit a rail first and then touched the 8 or the opponent's ball using the cue ball, there would be no actual punishment, but it's frowned upon. People say it's kind of like cheating and that only beginners play that way. If it happens by accident no problem then, but doing it on purpose is what we would call "dirty pool".
I feel intrigued by such vast differences between our rules here and the ones used in the US and maybe Western Europe. What triggered that kind of development? Differences in culture, tradition and the local pool situation. The fact that league play isn't nearly so omnipresent here like it is in the States? Also, I wonder what local rules look like in, say, Eastern Asia, or Russia, or South America? Just some of the questions which keep bothering me, so I'd appreciate if someone knows the answers.
- no shot calling at all
- no BiH
- fouls meaning only loss of turn
- no requirement to hit the rail
- CB on head spot after scratch
- hitting the opponent's ball first is legal if the CB touches a rail first
- defense is perfectly allowed like any other part of the game
Our own equivalent to "no defense allowed" would be the unofficial rule that every player I know accept, which says you shouldn't move an opponent's ball or the 8-ball away from a pocket by hitting it with the CB, only by using one of your balls. If you hit a rail first and then touched the 8 or the opponent's ball using the cue ball, there would be no actual punishment, but it's frowned upon. People say it's kind of like cheating and that only beginners play that way. If it happens by accident no problem then, but doing it on purpose is what we would call "dirty pool".
I feel intrigued by such vast differences between our rules here and the ones used in the US and maybe Western Europe. What triggered that kind of development? Differences in culture, tradition and the local pool situation. The fact that league play isn't nearly so omnipresent here like it is in the States? Also, I wonder what local rules look like in, say, Eastern Asia, or Russia, or South America? Just some of the questions which keep bothering me, so I'd appreciate if someone knows the answers.