ESPN Speed Pool?

Grilled Cheese

Grilled Cheese

p.i.i.t.h.
Silver Member
I just had the misfortune of watching some of the ESPN Speed Pool today. It's yet another degradation of the sport and even more so yet a further step down the hole of those trying to promote pool on TV. They are stooping quite low. As if the bogus trickshot show with A.S.'s cronyism wasn't bad enough.


But we all already knew that. The purpose of my post is to point out how miserably wrong all the 9-ball promoters have been when it comes to pool promotion on TV. Again, for those who haven't been around or are very new - the transition to 9-ball was primarily for the purpose of faster, more exciting games and a format that would fit television.

Unfortunately, that didn't work out. 9-ball wasn't fast enough. And, presumably, not exciting enough. To make matters worse, NOT EVEN SPEED POOL IS FAST ENOUGH FOR TV, SINCE THEY CUT OUT A COUPLE OF THE RACKS!!!


Folks, we're talking racks that take no more than 90 seconds here. Yet, they had to cut them out, and show highlights or synopsis. Pathetic!


There you have it. Not even Speed Pool, with speed demons like Luc Salvas blasting in 15 balls in under 1 minute is fast enough to allow the format to fit for TV. That should serve as proof positive that nothing can satisfy. Either the promoters are total morons, or the market and industry simply can't support real pool.


Give it up, TV is the past. The new frontier and new world is the internet. If any growth or progress can be made, it might be made there. TAR isn't even close to being a test case - but they are one of the pioneers testing one aspect of it. This frontier is still in its infancy. Most people are still not used to or capable of watching things on the internet. We are the minority in this regard. That will change. The question is whether pool can claim their turf in the new cyber medium when it still has the chance. Some are trying. Some are wasting away on ESPN during their worst times (when the NFL is on) with nonsense like speed pool.


Evolve, or get left behind (again).
 
The last two times I have seen pool on tv have been this speed pool crap, and the just as bad trick shot show where guys are tapping a ball through chalk obstacles.

Decades ago, big crowds came out to see three cushion billiards and straight pool, and now we get ESPN programming as pathetic as this as the biggest show.

Depressing.
 
Speed pool makes me think of the nit in your local pool room trying to get his money's worth for an hour at the table.
 
I imagine there were poker purists that blasted poker on tv that showed the players cards and thought that we shouldn't expose how a player bluffs or that we should watch without seeing all the other player's cards so the viewer would have to figure out what they would do.

The way I see it the guys that tried to make a show of non stop safety play nine ball failed. Some guys that are more business savvy have figured out how to succeed with speed pool and trick shot magic.

One day I believe someone will combine all the aspects of what works and will have some speed nineball with no safeties, speed pool, trick shots and other entertaining pool formats all in one program.
 
Speaking of poker..."speed pool" is to pool as "indian poker" is to poker. Watch for indian poker on the next WSOP on ESPN.

BTW, did anyone notice that the female US Open broadcast started with the score already 1-0?!?!? WTF!

indian-poker.jpg
 
Blackjack said:
It might be crap, but I still think I can win the $50,000.
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Luc Salvas owns a poolroom, you could call and see if he'd play you for his 3 titles/winnings.....sure, it's in Canada, but I'm sure the prize money would be well worth the drive if you can take it.

btw, I bet Toasty was thinking this event might be easy pickens as well, but even with a stellar worldwide resume (champion in multiple disciplines), he didn't make it out of the first round.
 
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I watched the US Open Womens 9-ball right before the speed pool went on and in its 30 minutes there was 15 minutes of APA and Mueller commericals. First thing you saw was Korr breaking down 0-1 then after the commerical it was 5-3 Ga Young :rolleyes:

Its complete shit imho :mad:
 
ESPN Speed Pool

RunoutJJ said:
I watched the US Open Womens 9-ball right before the speed pool went on and in its 30 minutes there was 15 minutes of APA and Mueller commericals. First thing you saw was Korr breaking down 0-1 then after the commerical it was 5-3 Ga Young :rolleyes:

Its complete shit imho :mad:
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I don't think they could destroy pool any worse than by showing trick shots with pennie wrappers and speed pool and only showing womens tournaments 9 out of 10 times if they were trying.
There are only about 10 decent women players and the rest are not fun to watch for me personally and I love pool.
 
trustyrusty said:
Luc Salvas owns a poolroom, you could call and see if he'd play you for his 3 titles/winnings.....sure, it's in Canada, but I'm sure the prize money would be well worth the drive if you can take it.

btw, I bet Toasty was thinking this event might be easy pickens as well, but even with a stellar worldwide resume (champion in multiple disciplines), he didn't make it out of the first round.
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I spoke to Toastie briefly a few weeks ago and he's getting back into top physical condition to compete. If his mind and body are well prepared, Thorsten can win any event he enters. I would train with him if he decides to give speed pool another shot. Iron sharpens iron.

My 24 hour/10,000 ball marathons are a combination of speed, accuracy and endurance. I believe the endurance factor works in my favor with the Speed Pool format against anybody.

To date, I have raised almost a hundred thousand dollars for various local and national charities with speed pool. I started doing this long before speed pool was on ESPN. We've raised money for St. Jude's, United Way, Disabled Veterans, Juvenile Diabetes, Susan G Komen, Ronald McDonald House, March of Dimes, Muscular Dystrophy, and there's many I have left out. I play to raise money.

That being said, I would love to play mano y mano against Luc, or anybody in the world in a speed pool endurance test - to raise money for charity. And... I still think I can win that $50,000, even though I am physically disabled, and living with Parkinson's Disease.

:)
 
I don't know about some of you but if Luc can run out in 8 ball in a minute i think its quite impressive.
All i kept thinking of him playing Johnny Archer.
:grin::
 
I lost in the finals of the speed pool at the VNEA a few years ago and although it may not be the most compelling TV watch, I must say that it is far more difficult than you would expect. My legs burned for 2 days afterwards and I felt like I'd run a marathon.

Sadly, anything that ESPN seems to put on TV related to billiards is chopped, spliced and edited to death and washed down with some unlistenable commentary.
 
I watched the speed pool today, I'll never watch it again. I would watch it in person I guess, but the production and commentary are worthless, the whole thing is worthless.
 
I also watched a little bit of speed pool this afternoon. I was disappointed that the WPBA finals only got 30 minutes of coverage but speed pool got 3 hours worth.

The 25k that this gimmicky speed pool event paid out to the winner was substantially more than many other professional pool events pay out to their winners.
 
PoolSharkAllen said:
I also watched a little bit of speed pool this afternoon. I was disappointed that the WPBA finals only got 30 minutes of coverage but speed pool got 3 hours worth.

The 25k that this gimmicky speed pool event paid out to the winner was substantially more than many other professional pool events pay out to their winners.
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....and it has been scaled back over the years - used to be $50K!!! The 2nd place finisher this year has won two previously (07 & 08). He's a local, and a good "kid" (lol).
 
beerpressure said:
what the hell is speed pool?
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Pretty simple concept really, it's a full rack of balls with the 8 in the middle. You break the balls and shoot any ball in any pocket, with the exception that the 8 must be the last ball down. You may shoot while the balls are still moving so long as the cue ball has come to a complete stop. Fouls include not hitting a ball, pocketing the cue ball or shooting the cueball while it's still moving and they result in a time foul added to your end time.

It is played head to head with a simultaneous break and the first guy to shoot the 8 wins the game.


(As an aside, sub 1 minute times are pretty easy to get. In my match with Francisco Diaz at the VNEA we played 5 racks and between the 2 of us we had 4 times under 40 seconds for a full rack of balls, unfortunately 3 of them were his.)
 
SpinDoctor said:
Pretty simple concept really, it's a full rack of balls with the 8 in the middle. You break the balls and shoot any ball in any pocket, with the exception that the 8 must be the last ball down. You may shoot while the balls are still moving so long as the cue ball has come to a complete stop. Fouls include not hitting a ball, pocketing the cue ball or shooting the cueball while it's still moving and they result in a time foul added to your end time.

It is played head to head with a simultaneous break and the first guy to shoot the 8 wins the game.


(As an aside, sub 1 minute times are pretty easy to get. In my match with Francisco Diaz at the VNEA we played 5 racks and between the 2 of us we had 4 times under 40 seconds for a full rack of balls, unfortunately 3 of them were his.)
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Well, the "straight pool-like" part of speed pool is the 1st round. The second round is 8ball with take what you make on the break, finish off that suit, then the other suit, and then the 8ball. Bobby hasn't lost the 8ball round of speed pool in the 5 years it's been played. (on ESPN) :cool:
 
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trustyrusty said:
Well, the "straight pool-like" part of speed pool is the 1st round. The second round is 8ball with take what you make on the break, finish off that suit, then the other suit, and then the 8ball. Bobby hasn't lost the 8ball round of speed pool in the 5 years it's been played. (on ESPN) :cool:
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I don't doubt it at all, if I recall correctly Bobby won the VNEA speed pool the year after I lost to Francisco and was crazy fast in doing so. The funny thing is that Francisco told me that they had a speed pool league in Spain to prepare for the VNEA tourney while the vast majority of North American guys had almost never played the game before.
 
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