Is 10-ball the perfect game?

[tom mcgonagle]

Gentlemen,

There isn't a game of pool that doesn't interest me in one form or another. Usually your skill level, or better yet, the people you play with, determines whether or not the game is boring.

To each his or her's own. As long as your playing, that's the good part.

 

[cajunfats]

Gentlemen,

There isn't a game of pool that doesn't interest me in one form or another. Usually your skill level, or better yet, the people you play with, determines whether or not the game is boring.

To each his or her's own. As long as your playing, that's the good part.

Tom, you are right. I said in an earlier thread,the majority of casual pool played involves Stripes and Solids(The alternate name for 8 Ball),and are not looking beyond that next beer. As long as they play,that is good. It supports the industry. The more competitive players will always seek out their opportunities accordingly,as you stated. We,in that regard determine what the popular competitive game becomes,and that changes every few decades. What's New becomes Old and what's Old becomes New again. I think Aristotle said that..or was it Ben Franklin?

 

[Tramp Steamer]

Tom, you are right. I said in an earlier thread,the majority of casual pool played involves Stripes and Solids(The alternate name for 8 Ball),and are not looking beyond that next beer. As long as they play,that is good. It supports the industry. The more competitive players will always seek out their opportunities accordingly,as you stated. We,in that regard determine what the popular competitive game becomes,and that changes every few decades. What's New becomes Old and what's Old becomes New again. I think Aristotle said that..or was it Ben Franklin?

I think it might have been Jack Benny, or Phyllis Diller. :wink:

 

[cajunfats]

I think it might have been Jack Benny, or Phyllis Diller. :wink:

:yikes::shocked2:...Phyllis Diller..Priceless!!
For the record, I do Like 10 Ball as a competitive Challenge.

 

[Island Drive]

I would say its the best game to come along since the invention of 9-ball, and to me the perfect game (14.1 is still in my heart) is 8-ball on a Diamond bar table with the traditional rules. Perfect amount of congestion, you must have the knowlege of a great 14.1 player and the run out patterns have such great variation. The only thing nowadays taking the fun out of it are the open break rule. I'm much rather see a player make a ball and have way the worst of it with ball group choice yet win with knowlege and ball movement, similar to 1 hole.

 

[supergreenman]

You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig. 9-10 ball are boring as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore.

Seriously, I can't think of a less challenging billiards game than 9 ball, 10 ball is 9-ball with lipstick.

 

[Blackball75]

Seriously, I can't think of a less challenging billiards game than 9 ball, 10 ball is 9-ball with lipstick.

What game do you prefer then?

 

[NineballBEN]

10 ball is just perfect, 15 ball just takes too long and makes it difficult too difficult to run out with too many flukey safeties.

In a nutshell,there's your answer,for most the other games are to difficult and people (us in the good ole u.s of a.) are just too impatient to learn,practice,and master them.

 

[David_Smith]

Could you point us to any good links on these pool variants?

Just like real 10 ball, they are played exactly like 9 ball. Add one ball in the center behind a 10 ball rack for 11 ball. For 12 ball place two balls behind the 10 ball rack leaving a space in the middle.

Eleven ball is far harder than 10 ball. The break is much more sluggish, even with a perfect rack. To beat the ghost you'll need to make A LOT more combos and breakouts.

Twelve ball has a lot of balls wired on the break if the rack is frozen. Both corner balls will fly in so you might average 3 balls on the break. Four and five balls on the break are fairly common if you have a good break. If the rack is bad, it gets a lot harder of course.

 

[gromulan]

10-ball is the perfect rotation game for the pros. Eight ball is just a joke - it's waaay too easy for pro-level players, and nine-ball has become similar with the way the balls break so easily (it's like it's been 'solved'). One pocket is by far the most interesting game for pool fans to watch, I think, but obviously neither 1p nor 14.1 work very well on television. Ten ball really works best. It has a broad appeal and it's easy to understand. It's fast, but not too fast whereby games fly by in minutes, and there's far more complex positional requirements compared to nine ball. I think it's a better competition game than say, 11-ball or something because you still want that explosiveness factor where someone can get rolling and run a bunch of racks. You also don't want to see the games bogged down in safety play all the time.


Snooker is obviously an excellent television game, especially insofar as the games last about the perfect amount of time for commercial breaks and stuff, and how easy it is to follow and understand. It also looks great on TV with the bright green cloth and the brightly colored balls (which are far easier to distinguish than pool balls). However, snooker suffers in getting new players into the game in places where pool is played because it's so hard to pocket balls and so I think it's gradually losing a lot of popularity - though the growth of the game in China is notable. I've said for years that if Americans played snooker the game would explode internationally - maybe Chinese players will be the catalyst. It's definitely stagnating as of right now.