CreeDo said:
but if they had decided to play an ahead race instead, the only guy who got ahead much was earl (by 8 racks). So if they had been playing 7-ahead, the 'wrong' guy would have won.
How do you figure? Gambling is always about who plays better over a set amount of time or games. If it had been 7 ahead, the "right" person would have won, as Earl played much better the first few days..
And if they had played to 10 ahead they might have ended up playing for months constantly being stalemated.
I take it you thought Earl and Efren played even back then? PA leeze. The only reason Earl came so close is because Efren dogged his arse off for a LONG period of time. When Efren saw the finish line approaching, he kicked it into gear, and Earl effectively got blown out at the end.
I guess my point is, even the race to 120 wasn't enough to point out a clear cut winner in their case
But it was. It was long enough for us to see Earl choke big time at the end. I think the way these two comport themselves today bears out that Efren has more staying power than Earl. This was born out in the race to 120. Seems pretty clear cut to me. I think that if it had been to 100, Efren would have woke up sooner. He played as well as he needed to play.
It's even theoretically possible for the guy who gets 7 ahead to have actually won fewer games (as earl did after 120).
Ummmmmmmm.. WOW. Please detail how it is mathematically possible for a person to win a 7 ahead session and have won fewer games. I'll give you $50,000.00 if you can do it.
No, seriously, I will. Here's a hint. As soon as he got 7 ahead, the session was OVER.
I hate to think that this 10,000 bucks might actually just be pure gambling, like flipping a coin but with lots of hard work.
By your reasoning, no one should ever gamble, because there is the slightest chance they are only two games better than their opponent over their ENTIRE LIVES.
If you hadn't noticed, some players are able to play their top speed more consistently than others. THAT'S why they play ahead sets. Because player B's stroke might break down on the third day, or his mental processes, whatever.
Thinking that champions play top speed every single day without fail is a little naive. if so, they'd never get beat by an amateur.
I was also wondering, how much big action (like 10,000) is happening in the usa (or anywhere for that matter) at any given moment. Are top players doing this kind of thing every day with each other or is 5-digit betting pretty rare? I haven't even seen a game played for thousands of dollars before (outside of tournaments) in my area. If I'm on the East Coast, where can I go to watch money games like this? Just new york, or also NJ and... FLA? boston?!
Matches this big are fairly rare. To catch matches like this, you usually have to know who are the players most likely to get into this type of action are. Normally, this sort of action does not happen amongst players that live together in the same area. The reason is, the players know how each other play, and no one usually wants to enter into this large a game without thinking they have a significant advantage. For this reason, these large matches usually happen with road players, and then only when the road player has sufficiently hidden his skill.
To have the best chance at seeing a big game like this, you basically have to know most of the players in your state, and the surrounding states. You have to give them your cell #, and ask to be called if there is any big action that you can watch.
Or, you can find a few pool message boards for the states around you, and hope action is posted quickly enough to drive over and watch.
These are the only ways I know of.
Russ
