Billiards - Texas Hold em

J

jjinfla

Banned
Anybody watch this on ESPN yesterday (Sunday)?

I thought it was pretty interesting and adds some excitement to the game. It might be fun to play in the pool room.

However, eight top ranked players competed for first place prize of $100,000 and only one got that. Only one got paid for his performance. 1 in 8 odds is not very good. Especially when all of the players are world class. The cameraman made more money than 7 of them did.

I wonder if the others received travel expenses and lodging/food.

Of course the average Joe would jump at this chance to make 100 K but these are top rated pros and I think ESPN is exploiting them for basically free in the hopes of making a ton of money on advertising.

Jake
 
I have not seen it yet. I had to Tape it cause i was watching the Daytona 500. I will watch it this weekend. :)
 
Had company and was trying to watch the 500. Figured since it was on ESPN they will rerun it to death anyways.

That $100,000 winner takes all is more than some of those $25,000 or $50,000. winner takes all and still is more money to chase after than a tournament that pays $10,000 and $3,500 to 2nd with hardly anything to the others in the top 10. I don't know how players can afford to play in some of the tournaments that they do. Apparently the sponsor helps them but where is the return. I can't remember any player thanking their sponsor after winning or during a interview. If you watch NASCAR the sponsor is usually the first words mentioned during any interview.
 
Appearance fees for all involved i would think. I know for sure some other winner-take-all events are done this way.
 
I liked it the only things I did not like about it was you are rewarded for not making a ball on the break. Archer really got hosed at the end when marlon did not make a ball on the break and had to kick at the one ball. Hits it but gives up ball in hand. If I have to hear mitch lawrence say another word I will go crazy "If you have never been to the basketball hall of fame you owe it to yourself to make a visit" about a 100 times per match. Or "You have no idea how difficult that shot and to play it in this match WOW you really have got some nerves ALLEN" about 100 times per match. I bet allen feels like smacking the shit out of him because he is such a nit.
 
I watched it...it was an interesting format with some decent payouts....

If I have to hear mitch lawrence say another word I will go crazy "If you have never been to the basketball hall of fame you owe it to yourself to make a visit" about a 100 times per match. Or "You have no idea how difficult that shot and to play it in this match WOW you really have got some nerves ALLEN" about 100 times per match. I bet allen feels like smacking the shit out of him because he is such a nit

^^LOLz...I hate Mitch Laurances babbling too...he should be a salesman, not an announcer...

"There's Johnny chalking up....that is Master chalk, the official chalk of the tournament"....As Scott Smith racks the balls, those are Bruswick centennial balls, and he's using the Sardo rack, all the official blah, blah, blah.....
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it was ok

I thought Johnny should have tied up balls on that last rack, when he had a very low chance of making a ball and a high chance of selling out.
As for winner takes all, there were probably some 'saver' deals going on between the 4 players.
 
jjinfla said:
Anybody watch this on ESPN yesterday (Sunday)?

I thought it was pretty interesting and adds some excitement to the game. It might be fun to play in the pool room.

However, eight top ranked players competed for first place prize of $100,000 and only one got that. Only one got paid for his performance. 1 in 8 odds is not very good. Especially when all of the players are world class. The cameraman made more money than 7 of them did.

I wonder if the others received travel expenses and lodging/food.

Of course the average Joe would jump at this chance to make 100 K but these are top rated pros and I think ESPN is exploiting them for basically free in the hopes of making a ton of money on advertising.

Jake
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I don't think you can exploit a volunteer. There was some good pool, but the push-out rule must be re-instated into their rules. It's insanely stupid as it stands.
 
I like the format and it made for better televison. I agree the commentary sucked. It always does. On a side note -I noticed the Rocket had Predator sponsered on his shirt. It didnt look like he was playing w/ a Predator.
 
I really enjoyed watching, which says something since I'm not a big fan of watching 9-ball. I think the producers have pushed Mitch to "turn up the personality and volume" and it's over the top (I've seen the same thing with poker and boxing commentators - there are about 1,000 of us over at the ESPNZONE site who bash ESPN about this). I thought the contrast in styles (Luc going warp speed, Johnny picking lint, Charlie sizing up all the angles) was kinda cool, and I was real impressed with Marlon's 9-ball game. I guess the transition from snooker to pool that we saw with Allison and Karen is now happening with the men. Anyway, well done to ESPN for putting on a good program and to Marlon for winning with skill and class.
 
I didn't see it but I do think this format sounds like it has a lot of potential - I sure hope so anyway! I read about it in the latest edition of BD.
 
It is a little disturbing to me to see everyone chiming in saying they liked the Texas Hold Em' format which allows no safety play.

It was twice as bad as the usual ESPN billiards broadcasts because I not only had to live through Mitch and Allen making fools of themselves, the game itself was an insulting bastardization of 9-ball attempting to cater to the average joe who doesn't understand defensive play to begin with.

I felt sorry for the players who had to whore themselves out to this circus to make a buck. How depressing.

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JMB
 
JMBoyd said:
It is a little disturbing to me to see everyone chiming in saying they liked the Texas Hold Em' format which allows no safety play.

It was twice as bad as the usual ESPN billiards broadcasts because I not only had to live through Mitch and Allen making fools of themselves, the game itself was an insulting bastardization of 9-ball attempting to cater to the average joe who doesn't understand defensive play to begin with.

I felt sorry for the players who had to whore themselves out to this circus to make a buck. How depressing.

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JMB
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I agree with most of the above.

If you're going to bastardize 9-ball and call it "Texas Hold 'Em," make people put up an ante and then let them actually bet on stuff, like whether the guy at the table will break and run out or whether they will (if they're second or third in line, etc).

It wasn't 9-ball, it wasn't at all like Texas Hold 'Em, and it wasn't a pure ring game. It was pretty bad. If you're gonna bastardize something, go all the way with it and make something truly unique.

Funny that today the 1995 Tournament of Champions match between Hopkins and Chao was on - they traded four or five or more safeties in a row in a few games. It was exciting.
 
misterpoole said:
I thought Johnny should have tied up balls on that last rack, when he had a very low chance of making a ball and a high chance of selling out.
As for winner takes all, there were probably some 'saver' deals going on between the 4 players.
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Your right. After he tied up that ball in the first all in game and ended up winning I bet the tournament director said something to him because that is kinda like a safety......
 
iacas said:
I agree with most of the above.

If you're going to bastardize 9-ball and call it "Texas Hold 'Em," make people put up an ante and then let them actually bet on stuff, like whether the guy at the table will break and run out or whether they will (if they're second or third in line, etc).

It wasn't 9-ball, it wasn't at all like Texas Hold 'Em, and it wasn't a pure ring game. It was pretty bad. If you're gonna bastardize something, go all the way with it and make something truly unique.

Funny that today the 1995 Tournament of Champions match between Hopkins and Chao was on - they traded four or five or more safeties in a row in a few games. It was exciting.
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Indeed. At least if they had been allowed to bet etc. there would have been some point to what was otherwise basically a Sudden Death 7-ball ring game.

Also, I was a little hard on the commentators, I know Mitch is just doing his job by hyping everything up, and Allen isn't really that bad except for his many meanings for the word "break."
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JMB
 
I like allen its just mitch gets on my nerves. I know its his job but its just torture to hear the man butcher everything he says. I would take allen over jimmy wytch anyday.
 
5ballcharlie said:
I like allen its just mitch gets on my nerves. I know its his job but its just torture to hear the man butcher everything he says. I would take allen over jimmy wytch anyday.
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I keep wondering how long can Mitch play the "dumb guy?" Surely he knows something by now, but a few times per match he "plays dumb" so that Hopkins can play the part of the expert (which, duh, he is).

I know it's TV, and that they're setting each other up for comments and lines, but what's wrong with two experts calling the game? You get two or three (though calling them all "experts" is a stretch) for football games. :)
 
I think the format has potential, but really all it did was make the luck factor greatly increased -- something a lot of people already want to trim down. The way the bets increased, you could get one bad roll at the wrong time and be out of it. I think something more of tiered betting where breaker bets 80k, second bets 40k, 3rd bets 20k, last bets 10k would work out so there's a lot less of that luck. Or maybe the breaking rotation would be the player after the winner of a rack breaks the next instead of a true alternating break.

Like the skins game, the early racks were worth too little and the late racks were worth too much. Even it out some more and it would be a better game.
 
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