More questions for the IPT and Deno

[macguy]

In what case isn't it???

My examples were just to make a point about crappy rules.

Why don't we just make it so the BETTER player is REWARDED for being better. It's unfortunate if some people are...too short, too shaky, too big breasted, too big bellied, too handicapped, etc. etc. to be great players or champions but thats life. Life isn't always fair. Good things don't always happen to good people. Hard work doesn't always pay off.

If this is to succeed and mean something, we NEED the players to get better and better and better. It's not that you were able to beat so and so, it's more that you PLAYED GOOD. I've felt better when I've played good and lost, than when I've played bad and won. (well not always)

Rules are like laws, any rule that is unenforceable, causes problems or the need to create more rules is no a good rule. In the case of fouls on all balls you would have to play with a referee at all times, every match whether tournament or gambling. I seriously doubt you are going to get players to sign an agreement that they will call fouls on themselves and play honestly. There is nothing wrong with playing by strict rules you just need the ability to enforce them. Rules come and go there was a time when they did away with the one foot on the floor rule, you had guys in world class tournaments sitting in the middle of the table shooting but it didn't last because it was a bad way to play and they went back. Rules in many cases create themselves from an obvious need and disappear because they don't work. I would rather play two foul push out but the game is just not played like that any more, so be it.

 

[macguy]

I just read an article in which Mike Sigel was proud of never having been called for an object ball foul in all the years he played in 14.1 championships. He also said that "cue ball fouls only" at 9 ball were pitiful (or something like that). I think most of the object ball "non-fouls" occur because the players are careless and they have become careless because of the lax rules.

When I play snooker or carom billiards, it is always "all fouls." That's what the rule book says. There's rarely a problem.

I once heard Minnesota Fats in an interview say he never miss-cued in his life.

 

[LastTwo]

Like someone else said, when people get used to playing cueball fouls only, they get sloppy. I have alot of tapes where they play all balls foul, and the only player I saw that unintentionally touched a ball was Tony Drago during the 2003 WPC against Alex. That cost him the match. Everyone else was super careful, they would always make sure their shirt or body wasn't even coming close to object balls, and when they had to bridge over other balls they did so with extra care. In cueball fouls only, people move balls all the time when bridging over them and nobody gives a crap. Alot of times this changes the outcome of a game, especially when balls are in a cluster and wired a certain way, when someone accidentally moves them and you try to have the balls put back to where they were, often they aren't gonna be put back in the same exact spot they were in before.

 

[BlackDragon]

I was called at World's for my hair grazing a ball! I think if the touching does not alter the shot or the outcome, it should be opponent's option to put it back.

The primary rule is that pool is played in the spirit of the game.
Like hair grazing is totally absurd to be called for. The ball doesn't move.