Noone should be drawing too many or too significant similarities between uk style 8 ball, which is what Hann played now and again during a few years when he didn't have snooker engagements......and American 8 ball. Not only are they worlds apart in terms of the table/ball sizes but planets apart in respect of the rules that are played which have a fundamental effect on the entire game philosophies.
It might be hard for some in the USA who have been grinding away at pool all their lives without ever becoming brilliant at it to accept, but Hann is no different from most of the other uk style 8 ball players in respect of the absolutely genuine fact that none of them had any experience of playing any pool game on American equipment before IPT (the biggest excepton being Pat Holtz who did play quite a bit of 9 ball before that but ironically his IPT results weren't actually amongst the best).
The main reason why they did so well after no more than a few weeks (at most a few months practice in some cases) was not their experience of uk style 8 ball (though of course it helped), it was actually the same reasons why John can already run century breaks in snooker......because they are superbly talented cueists and because they have an inherent natural ability to quickly and competently assess the merits and disadvantages of tactical options within any given set of equipment and rules they are presented with. For the same fundamental reasons John would no doubt pick up the safety aspects of snooker much quicker than many might expect.
Neither snooker nor 9 ball would be remotely fair proposals and if there is a more reasonable middle ground than American 8 ball it's difficult to see what game it might be
John wanting to play 9 ball at home seems as unfair and unreasonable as it would have been if Quinten had suggested snooker in Australia. Good opening gambit for some negotiations though
It might be hard for some in the USA who have been grinding away at pool all their lives without ever becoming brilliant at it to accept, but Hann is no different from most of the other uk style 8 ball players in respect of the absolutely genuine fact that none of them had any experience of playing any pool game on American equipment before IPT (the biggest excepton being Pat Holtz who did play quite a bit of 9 ball before that but ironically his IPT results weren't actually amongst the best).
The main reason why they did so well after no more than a few weeks (at most a few months practice in some cases) was not their experience of uk style 8 ball (though of course it helped), it was actually the same reasons why John can already run century breaks in snooker......because they are superbly talented cueists and because they have an inherent natural ability to quickly and competently assess the merits and disadvantages of tactical options within any given set of equipment and rules they are presented with. For the same fundamental reasons John would no doubt pick up the safety aspects of snooker much quicker than many might expect.
Neither snooker nor 9 ball would be remotely fair proposals and if there is a more reasonable middle ground than American 8 ball it's difficult to see what game it might be
John wanting to play 9 ball at home seems as unfair and unreasonable as it would have been if Quinten had suggested snooker in Australia. Good opening gambit for some negotiations though
Last edited:
