Has 9 ball always...

Just found my 1980 Billiard Congress of America rule book.
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9 ball is a hustler's favorite "luck" game. Marty Reisman used to hustle table tennis getting outrageous spot. His scoring shots either hit the net and dribble over or catch the table edge and go sideways. His luck made him lots of money. A strong 9 ball hustler promoted ring games with weaker players. Riding the cheese every shot. They don't appreciate the skill of the luck shot.
Always ride the cheese in ring games with weaker players. Your getting a great price and don’t have to show much skill.
 
Always been a large element of luck in it.
Some players over the last 15 years or so of playing them, can't beat me at 8Ball.
But get the odd win at 9ball, when they miss a intended pocket and it goes in somewhere else.
10ball, they do slightly better than when I beat them at 8ball.
But, that is also rotation pool.
Sometimes a guy wins by potting 1 ball... Lol..
I prefer 8ball for the fact both players have to pot multiple balls to win.
Only play WPA 8ball, call pockets, all ball fouls. Best game IMO.
 
9 ball is a hustler's favorite "luck" game.…..A strong 9 ball hustler promoted ring games with weaker players…..
9 ball ‘ring games’ boosted the popularity of billiards, as the lure of gambling attracted many novice players, and eventually encouraged them to improve. None would play any experienced ‘hustler’ heads-up, but every sucker fantasized he‘d be left a straight-in ‘duck’ shot at the 9 or 5 in a ring game (as soon as I collected my ‘paper route’ money, it was off to the poolhall to jump in).
 
Has 9 ball aways been a slop game and if so should the 9 be called ?
It's always been a cherished and accepted part of the game. I started paying in a pool room in 1968. Most people including you don't shoot like Fedor Gorst and maybe he lucks a ball in here and there.
 
The only time I've seen nine-ball played with "call the nine" was at the International Challenge of Champions. I recall that Vivian Villareal lost a rack when she pocketed the nine after failing to call it. My best guess is that it was in the late 1990s, but the "call the nine" requirement was soon dropped at that event.

Nine-ball has always been a slop game, and so was ten-ball when the PBT switched to ten-ball in what I believe was 1998. Call shot rules, which ruined ten-ball for this fan and ensured that ten-ball remained a fringe game, came later.
 
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The only time I've seen nine-ball played with "call the nine" was at the International Challenge of Champions. I recall that Vivian Villareal lost a rack when she pocketed the nine after failing to call it. My best guess is that it was in the late 1990s, but the "call the nine" requirement was soon dropped at that event.

Nine-ball has always been a slop game, and so was ten-ball when the PBT switched to 10-ball in what I believe was 1998. Call shot rules, which ruined ten-ball for this fan and ensured that ten-ball remained a fringe game, came later.
I remember in some gambling situations a stipulation was call 9 for some players while it was wild for other guys. Slowed down the cheese riders. This was B player action as a rule, sometimes $1000 sets in the 80’s so wasn’t small nickel & dime games.
 
Always been a large element of luck in it.
Some players over the last 15 years or so of playing them, can't beat me at 8Ball.
But get the odd win at 9ball, when they miss a intended pocket and it goes in somewhere else.
10ball, they do slightly better than when I beat them at 8ball.
But, that is also rotation pool.
Sometimes a guy wins by potting 1 ball... Lol..
I prefer 8ball for the fact both players have to pot multiple balls to win.
Only play WPA 8ball, call pockets, all ball fouls. Best game IMO.
Theres LOTS of luke in 8 Ball too, to be truthful more luck. The rules in BCA are if you call a pocket and the ball goes five rails and still goes in that pocket it counts. Often I've played and watched a guy get completely out of line and then just shoot another ball, he was lucky to have the choice of multiple balls. There are plenty of players that can get thru a 8 Ball rack by just shooting what they happen to fall on, but ask them to play the balls in sequence, 9 Ball, 10 Ball or 15 Ball and they couldn't make 3 balls in a row.
 
It should be like 10 ball, call shot. Its always been rail after contact. But it's anything goes, On the shot making side of things!!
The break rules is only thing that has changed.
 
. There are plenty of players that can get thru a 8 Ball rack by just shooting what they happen to fall on, but ask them to play the balls in sequence, 9 Ball, 10 Ball or 15 Ball and they couldn't make 3 balls in a row.

quit talkin about me !!

☺️
 
It was like everything was-then the interwebs came along and all the biz is in the street now. 😃😃
Saturday night Granny's in Federal Way had a $3 eight ball tournament that generated a first place of $112(once) with high lady getting around $30. We had a pretty good 1 and $2 five handed ring game before the tournament regularly. One time Racetrack Rick set the record for money balls in one rack with 4 fives and 3 nines with the narrowest miss on the 4th nine.
 
Saturday night Granny's in Federal Way had a $3 eight ball tournament that generated a first place of $112(once) with high lady getting around $30. We had a pretty good 1 and $2 five handed ring game before the tournament regularly. One time Racetrack Rick set the record for money balls in one rack with 4 fives and 3 nines with the narrowest miss on the 4th nine.
Oops it was 2 fives and 3 nines. The number 4 was stuck in my brain. I had already counted the fourth 9 . My bad 😉
 
The only time I've seen nine-ball played with "call the nine" was at the International Challenge of Champions. I recall that Vivian Villareal lost a rack when she pocketed the nine after failing to call it. My best guess is that it was in the late 1990s, but the "call the nine" requirement was soon dropped at that event.

Nine-ball has always been a slop game, and so was ten-ball when the PBT switched to ten-ball in what I believe was 1998. Call shot rules, which ruined ten-ball for this fan and ensured that ten-ball remained a fringe game, came later.
sjm, Howdy;

Happened to Efren once as well at that place called the Mohican Sun (?). Next rack he was wagglin' his cue at the intended pocket like he was beatin' on a Water Buffalo. chucklin'

hank
 
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i watched this match this morning, and Grady, at 19:04, had this to say:

“Bank pool and 9ball (i think he meant to say 1hole here) are, in this commentators opinion, infinitely nicer disciplines and more skillful pursuits than 9ball…. 9ball in its very housewife-like manner continues to ruin this great sport, in my opinion, and i could be wrong, but i don’t think so.

“They started having 9ball in 1961 with the one-foul rules at the Jansco brothers tournament in Johnston City, Illinois, and it hasn’t ever really progressed too much. Now, enough of that.”
 
any time you make the rules change so that the better players win more often the weaker players start dropping out.

the best players win most of the time anyway why make it so they win all the time.
 
No it hasn’t. It became one when texas express rules became popular after the color of money. Then when you played in a tournament they would always announce it would be texas express rules. At some point it just become The norm. Nothing says you can’t play call pocket 9 ball lol

On another note In my experience playing this game the only people that slop in balls all the time are bad players. You would see it happen a lot when a couple 3s play in apa. It doesn’t happen often with good players . We don’t hit the ball hard unless we have to and we don’t miss by that much. If I see good players slopping a ball in it’s usually they barely miss a bank and get the extra rail into the opposite pocket.

I have never seen the official 9 ball rules be called shot outside of a few events Grady did, but the rules for fouls and things like two pushouts have changed.
 
Re: ‘Ring Game’ rules: We always played any money ball made out of rotation was spotted, but I seem to remember some exception (?). Been too long.
‘Rewatching ‘The Hustler’ movie, just before Paul Newman joined the 5 & 9 ring game at Arthur’s, his eventual heads-up opponent made the nine with a combo, and won that game. Still multiple players then, so likely shouldn’t have happened (?).
 
In my Canadian city friends and I play 8 ball and Snooker. When back in the UK I’ll play Blackball. Chinese 8 ball is growing crazy when I was in China.

I might play 9 ball once a year or so. I can be out strategized by a good 9 ball player. I cringed when Judd Trump tried his hand at 9 ball last year. Those of us who are decent at Snooker underestimate the complex strategy in 9 ball. Ronnie O'Sullivan says he rarely thinks more than one or two shots ahead and admires 9 ball players who have mapped out the whole table.
 
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