As far as loving to play one pocket as opposed to 9 ball, here's an interesting, never mentioned aspect of one pocket that I think is a big part of it's appeal ( I know for sure it's a big part of it for me ) > I think one pocket appeals to independent thinkers and people that don't like being told what to do ( which I think is probably most all of us pool players ).......What I mean by that is that in 9 ball you never, ever, have any choice in which ball you shoot at - the lowest number ball that's on the table is what you HAVE to shoot at - you don't get any choice in the matter - for me, for that reason, 9 ball has always seemed way too restrictive, and same-old, same-old, rack after rack......But in the best pool game in the universe, one pocket ( and straight pool and banks also ) you can do anything you want, shoot at any ball that you want, don't even hit a rail if you don't want to, exercising that good old American freedom of choice............And so then, I guess we could say, since there's no freedom of choice in 9 ball, 9 ball is the communist pool game ! ^_^