finally played some straight pool!

Joseph Ortega

Joseph Ortega

Daddy's little girl
Silver Member
first off, why the hell is this game so hard? i consider myself to play pretty decent most of the time. i play only on 8 footers so i know im not close to being top notch. i can run 9 ball and 8 ball fairly consistently (most the time). i played straight pool and its a whole other game. i couldnt run more than ten balls! i played an older man who showed me some strategy, i had him down like 60 to 20 and thought i was doing good. then he put his foot down and showed me how the game should be played, i lost 100 - 82. i gonna practice and now i want to run 100 within the next year, hopefully on a nine foot table. im excited about pool again!!
 
Now you know why they say that if you can play straight pool, you can learn to play any pool game!
Enjoy!!!!!!
Steve
 
kilojo420 said:
first off, why the hell is this game so hard? i consider myself to play pretty decent most of the time. i play only on 8 footers so i know im not close to being top notch. i can run 9 ball and 8 ball fairly consistently (most the time). i played straight pool and its a whole other game. i couldnt run more than ten balls! i played an older man who showed me some strategy, i had him down like 60 to 20 and thought i was doing good. then he put his foot down and showed me how the game should be played, i lost 100 - 82. i gonna practice and now i want to run 100 within the next year, hopefully on a nine foot table. im excited about pool again!!
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Its always great to see new players getting into straight pool, its a great game.

Why is it so hard you ask? Well there are a few reasons that I can think of. First of all position play is complicated. In 9 ball there is only shot to go for, so you are only concerned about getting the right angle on the next ball. In 8 ball your patterns are dictated very much by the lay out of the table, whether it is open or cluttered. In 14.1 on the other you have so many choices a lot of people tend to get trigger happy, and find themselves in trouble very quickly because they don't know how to identify problem balls, break balls or secondary break balls.

Another problem is that you can often get overwhelmed at the prospect of trying to run 50-100 balls.

Finally you have to realize (if you don't already) that sometimes you need to take a step backwards in order to take three steps forward. In other words, don't be too timid about taking scratches.

My advice is to break the racks down into three, five ball runs. Plan out the first five to break into the rack again and possibly clear out trouble areas. The next is to continue eliminating trouble areas. The next five the purpose is to get to the break ball.

Theres more to it than this but it should help, unless you are already aware of it of course.
 
Cameron Smith said:
Another problem is that you can often get overwhelmed at the prospect of trying to run 50-100 balls.
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If I could run 50-100 balls, I wouldn't mind getting overwhelmed now and then! ;)
 
Absolutely, when playing competetive straight pool (as opposed to going for a high run) taking scratches and safties are huge...and can be complicated. I don't profess to know a lot, but I know they've won me games against better ball runners who didn't know as much of the games strategy. My point? If you're learning straight pool it's great to learn patterns, break shots, key balls, and elminating problem balls, but don't neglect defense.
 
So true, even beyond straight pool.

Now that SJM has gotten me hooked to 14.1, I've started re-evaluating my one-pocket defensive game. Now I know why Diliberto and Incardona are so frustrated about new players these days (including great players like Parica) being so blind to taking intentional scratches. It's such an important shot and can be very productive 2 or 3 innings down the line.

StraightPoolIU said:
Absolutely, when playing competetive straight pool (as opposed to going for a high run) taking scratches and safties are huge...and can be complicated. I don't profess to know a lot, but I know they've won me games against better ball runners who didn't know as much of the games strategy. My point? If you're learning straight pool it's great to learn patterns, break shots, key balls, and elminating problem balls, but don't neglect defense.
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Kilo,

If you really like the game one of the best things to do is get some 14.1 matches from Accu-Stats if you don't have some already. You'll get to see both ball running and the importance of safeties and scratches. Three of my favorites all from the 2000 U.S. Open: Sigel vs. Schmidt-great players (duh) and great commentary by Dallas West, Rempe vs. San Souci -Rempe player review, and Ortmann vs. Rempe- commentary lacks, but an amazing match nearly get to see 100 ball runs by both players.
 
was watching mike sigel play 14.1 on some video recently, and the commentator said he was clearing all the balls from the rails and the problem balls first, so he was just left with all the open balls in the middle area of the table to finish off easily. i've been trying this myself a bit and it doesent seem like a bad idea.
 
StraightPoolIU said:
Kilo,

If you really like the game one of the best things to do is get some 14.1 matches from Accu-Stats if you don't have some already. You'll get to see both ball running and the importance of safeties and scratches. Three of my favorites all from the 2000 U.S. Open: Sigel vs. Schmidt-great players (duh) and great commentary by Dallas West, Rempe vs. San Souci -Rempe player review, and Ortmann vs. Rempe- commentary lacks, but an amazing match nearly get to see 100 ball runs by both players.
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You might also want to look at the Sigel/Zuglan and maybe the West/Zuglan from the 1992 US Open.
 
As an alternative to buying Accu-stats DVDs, it might be cheaper to subscribe to ESPN Classic and record the matches on your VCR.
 
PoolSharkAllen said:
As an alternative to buying Accu-stats DVDs, it might be cheaper to subscribe to ESPN Classic and record the matches on your VCR.
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When is the last time you saw any straight pool on ESPN Classic? I saw a truncated version of a Lassiter/Murphy straight pool championship, but that is it.
 
Yea that's the only straight pool match I've ever seen on Classic...PSA must not have understood what we were talking about. Also I've seen the Sigel/Zuglan match, and it's also one of my favorites of all time. I was just trying to recommend a couple tapes to him that had some back and forth instead of just all offense. But yes Sigel's perfect game against Zuglan in 1992 is a must see.
 
dmgwalsh said:
When is the last time you saw any straight pool on ESPN Classic? I saw a truncated version of a Lassiter/Murphy straight pool championship, but that is it.
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I checked the ESPN Classic listings for the past month, as well as for the next two weeks, and didn't see any Straight Pool golden oldies listed. Since ESPN regularly recycles their billiards programming I would expect that the 14.1 golden oldies should reappear sometime this summer.

I should mention that I don't subscribe to ESPN Classic myself but was thinking I would, so that I can record the 14.1 matches instead of purchasing Accu-stat DVDs.
 
Don't waist your time and money they don't show straight pool I've been watching it for over a year and have only seen one abbreviated straight pool match. Spend your extra cable money on the real deal from Accu Stats.
 
Watch Jim Rempe's, "How to Run 100 Balls", and "How To Run A Rack in Straight Pool". It will improve your game greatly.
 
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