So here is my assessment of the 9-ball match with Earl & John in which I was able witness at Kings of Billiards for the live match-up. I had a seat right behind John for the match up.
1st a big kudos's to Chad who did a great job with the new place and a big Thank You for bringing these two players locally for a challenge match. I look forward to stopping by and playing some of the tournaments there.
I will start by saying I'm not a fan of earl's antics at the table sometimes but his game is still
one of the best in the world IMO. He is a fast player who plays very confidently and I think if he can hold it together mentally for a whole tournament he has the game to win the US open still. It seems a mental issue with Earl these days, it's not his game.
John's game is very good and I enjoyed watching him play even though I have seen him as well as Earl a few times at the Derby when I played there so I knew what to expect.
I think they were playing by similar rules as last week's World Cup Of Pool. The 9-ball was on the spot and 2-3 balls had to go past the head-string, alternating break and call safe. Before the match John got out his jump stick and Earl of course made a comment in which John replied something to the order of " Earl, you can't make all the rules for this match", leading me to believe that most of the rules for play were Earls.
I think one of the big swings of the match from what I saw was that John was not making many balls on the break or if he did a shot on the next ball was not there or very tough. Earl was making more balls on the break and generally getting some form of shape after the break.
This is one of the reasons the score line was so lopsided which at the professional level is probably the most important part of the game and likely dictates a match and winner which was the case here. John also made a few positional errors and missed some very tough kick shots which did not help his cause.
I personally liked John's break better than Earl's, he had much better control over whitey IMO but in the end Earl was making balls and controlling the table.
Earl played pretty much flawless UNTIL:
Earl attempted a combo in the corner pocket in which he made but whitey rolled back behind a ball basically hooking earl with no shot. A fan in the bleachers was clapping with his approval of Earl's shot not knowing Earl had just hooked himself. It was impossible for the fan in the bleachers to see because he was so far away. That's when it started and the score at that time was something like 13-5 in favor of Earl.
Earl turns toward the fan and says WHAT ARE YOU CLAPING FOR ? Earl took this literally the wrong way with the wrong meaning. Earl being Earl assuming the fan was clapping because Earl hooked himself go figure - haha. The crowd started laughing not because Earl hooked himself but because he was acting up as he usually does. Earl took it the wrong way got enraged, this went on for 2-3 minutes until earl kicked and left John a shot.
Mind you this whole time John was sitting in his chair , very professional and did not say a word. I think he did smile at the antics of Earl but I'm not sure.
John got up and went to the table and Earl was still talking his talk. John asked Earl to be quiet and have some curtsey and to be quiet when he is at the table. .John told Earl he is up like 13-5 and so he gets 1 bad roll and goes off. Earl said Shut-up in which John replied No You shut Up.
Then Earl made a dumb comment telling John he can have this place and that he would not be coming back. Very bad demeanor from Earl , Chad the room owner who basically put up the $3000 had nothing to do with Earl's bad roll and the events that took place. Earl lost some fans after that stupid comment.
Basically Earl was being Earl and John was very professional during the whole thing. I'm sure John was not surprised by Earl's antics as most of the Professional players are use to it by now.
That's basically my take on the night and the events that happened. Overall was an entertaining match to watch. I only wish the score was closer.
Sorry for the long rant