Best pool player in the world???

[Opie]

SJM,
Perhaps race to 5 in 9-ball will not give you the results you desire. Are we positive that short race 9-ball is the truest test of "who is best"????

I don't think short-races in 9 ball determine the better player. Take the DCC for example. It's probably one of the top 3 tournaments of the year. But in a race to 7 with winner break, when two pros match up it often times mainly comes down to who won the lag. By that I mean, the player might not run 7 racks, but he might put a 4 or 5 pack on you, play a lock up safety, and then run two more. If you think that tournaments determine the better player, the races need to be FAR longer than 5 or 7 games.

 

[sliqueshot]

I just don' think that the 9 ball tournament can determine the best player. The game is just too basic, any pros can knock out a better player when he's on. Look at the WPC, it's anybody's game on the knockout stage.
I think they should they should have like A POKER kinda tournament where everybody like 128 players put 10 grand , winner breaks and the elimination round is race to 9 and knockout stage is race to 15 with the semis race to 17 and final race to 21. The winner get the million and 2nd will get 280 grand and the rest will go home broke. I think that's the ultimate tournament for 9 ball. Everybody's nerve will be on check and there won't be nothing to lose crap.

 

[sjm]

SJM,
Perhaps race to 5 in 9-ball will not give you the results you desire. Are we positive that short race 9-ball is the truest test of "who is best"????

Yes, we're positive. Seven races to five is plenty enough opportunity to justify your inclusion in the knockout event that determines the champion. Anyone who isn't up to going 4 - 3, a near but not total guarantee of qualification for the knockout stage, has no right ot bemoan their exclusion form the knockout stage.

In the knockout stage, as we saw, a race to eleven on tight equipment makes the better players far less vulnerable to the upset. A last eight of Hohmann, Immonen, Wu, Kuo, Morris, VanDenberg, Huang, and Manalo, is enough evidence for me that this format brings the cream to the top and crowns a champion that must be deemed a towering presence in the sport.

Let's not forget that the straight pool championships of yesteryear did not necessarily crown the best player, but the double elimination, race to 150 on tough equipment, format did ensure that the late stages included many of the true superstars of the game and that a glittering pedigree was needed to win the championship.

That was good enough for me then, and today's WPC format is good enough for me now. It wasn't, however, until they began using tough equipment. On loose pockets, a race to 150 in straight pool is awfully short. On tight pockets, a race to 150 is a match of considerable length in which the better player has a big edge. It's exactly the same with a race to eleven in nine ball, and the final race to seventeen in the WPC is very much to my liking.

 

[sonia]

Varner

It's good to see Nick Varner's name mentioned. He's an extremely well rounded player, excelling in many different games. I think he gets way too little respect.

AMEN, AMEN