Could Pool have a Hole in one Prize or something like that?

[Melissa Herndon]

If you want some basis for comparison here are the golf approximations involved.....

In a PGA Tour field of 132 players on a course with 4 par 3's you will have a large proportion of the world's best golfers having about (4 x 2 x 132) + (4 x 2 x 66) = 1,584 attempts at making a hole in one. By reference to past results the bookies rate the likelihood of that happening at roughly 3/2 against or if you like, they think it will happen in at least 2 out of every 3 sets of 1,584 attempts.

If you want to compare it to any particular contingency in pool perhaps someone with enough knowledge of the pool factors involved could try to place a reasonable "odds against" value for a collection of the world's very best pool players having 1,584 attempts between them at achieving it (whether it's a 10 rack run or clearing a golf table or whatever). You can then compare the odds you assess for that to the 3/2 above. My own gut feeling is that the odds against a 10 rack run in 1,584 attempts would certainly be higher but that there might not be that much difference from the hole in one odds if we are talking about something like say a 5/6/7 rack run on a table with average size pockets within 1,584 attempts.

Footnote....obviously the odds against a motley collection of some poor, some average and some very good pool players found in a run of the mill regional pool tournament in USA achieving whatever the 'run' target is in 1,584 attempts would be a lot higher than the odds against a collection of 132 of the world's best pool players achieving it within 1,584 attempts.

The Golf Channel is stuck on my TV...and so I just watching a Hole-in-One special like 2 days ago. For a pro golfer, their chances of making a hole in one are about 3500-1 and for an amateur, the chances are 12000-1. This is based on a 150-yard par 3. (And there have only been 4 million-dollar hole-in-one winners since the mid-1990's.)

I haven't done any other kind of research on how to implement something like this in pool....but I think you could get an insurance company to back it up if you provided the right challenge.

Also, I have researched Hole-in-Challenges for golf events...and the cost to insure one is actually quite reasonable. You can get $25K prize or a car usually insured for a flat $200-300. The insurance companies are actually raking in the profits like this. For example, they are having a hole-in-one contest near my home next month. Only 25 golfers will be allowed an attempt. If you figure that the odds are 12000-1, the insurance companies could potentially back 480 of these events without ever having to pay out. At $300/event for insurance....that is $144,000. However...I know a golfer who plays every weekend...and who has played for 15 years, is about a 10 handicap....and yet has never made
a hole-in-one.

Anyhow...I'm not really sure what I am rambling about now...but I just figured I'd provide a little more general trivia knowledge about the hole-in-one challenges.

Melissa

 

[ScottW]

I don't know about the IPT and any 'perfect set' prize, but I do recall - at least during the tour card qualifiers they had - that KT offered up $5k to anyone who broke and ran six racks in a set (races to eleven). I'm pretty sure that's accurate, but it's been a few years.

I seem to recall that at the qualifier that was held in Atlanta (that I spent most of the time there watching), two people nabbed that bonus over the weekend.

And like someone else said earlier regarding holes-in-one - it's a dice roll for that. I got a hole-in-one once when I was like 13 or 14. It might be a fun little extra prize, but it's no major feat.