One Pocket Challenge

jay helfert

jay helfert

Shoot Pool, not people
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This has been one of the most exciting things happening so far at DCC. The first two days are over, and Mika is in the lead with a 58! Alex hit back to back a 53 and then followed with a 52! You have no idea what it takes to break 50 in this discipline! A combination of amazing/miraculous shot making, cue ball control and steely nerves. The room has been packed and they are five deep in the doorway trying to get a glimpse of the players at the table. We could probably pack the TV arena if we moved it out there. It may be the best show in town right now!

Fourth place is Beau Runningen with a 46, but I doubt that will hold up on the final day (today). The good news is that TV Mike is here and much of this fantastic pool is being recorded. Parts of it will be available on You Tube later (that is the plan) and the very best runs will be made into a DVD(s). Mika had a great chance to break Gabe's record of 60, made two years ago, but failed to get position with six balls left on the table. I was fully prepared to fork over $1,000 if he broke 60! Alex is the one who scares me. I KNOW now that he is fully capable of going into the 60's. And this is being played on a tough Diamond table, which makes it all the more remarkable. If you dangle money in front of these guys, they are capable of some amazing things.

It's so much fun to see Alex, Mika, Darren, Schmitty and Corey (plus other luminaries) all packed into one small room (the very popular AZ Room) and talking about how best to run the balls. Hopefully a lot of this conversation will be heard on the DVD's. It's a mix of humor, pool knowledge and gentle ribbing that has been going on all day. Today is the final day and I expect to see them lined up trying to break 60 and win the cheese. First prize this year could be close to $1,500. Not a bad payday for a $50 entry fee!

Tomorrow, the Fatboy Challenge kicks off and that is one more SUPER event at DCC. Check out the thread about that and see what a great field we have lined up there! Nothing but pool champions!
 
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What is this one pocket challenge?

Edit: what are the rules? Tried to google, but wasn't too lucky.
 
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Basically, you are playing the One Pocket Ghost, trying to run balls into one corner pocket after the break shot. You can break the balls wide open and then begin shooting until you miss. A good break shot is all important here. You have five racks to accumulate the highest score you can. A perfect rack is a 15. So 75 is the best possible score for five racks.
 
jay helfert said:
Basically, you are playing the One Pocket Ghost, trying to run balls into one corner pocket after the break shot. You can break the balls wide open and then begin shooting until you miss. A good break shot is all important here. You have five racks to accumulate the highest score you can. A perfect rack is a 15. So 75 is the best possible score for five racks.
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My brother and I practice 1pkt this way. It's amazing how simple it is to get stuck on 4-5 because you get a bad bump or something. Would love to watch the Pro's do it !
 
jay helfert said:
Basically, you are playing the One Pocket Ghost, trying to run balls into one corner pocket after the break shot. You can break the balls wide open and then begin shooting until you miss. A good break shot is all important here. You have five racks to accumulate the highest score you can. A perfect rack is a 15. So 75 is the best possible score for five racks.
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These are extraordinary scores. These guys are outstanding, I will however confess a slight sigh of relief after reading the rules. :grin:

I thought they were running 50s without missing, like straight pool, only in one pocket! These rules make the scores almost humanly possible ...... almost. :)
 
As a point of reference, when one pocket shoot-out was introduced in this area, top players were going broke trying for 20. Nick Varner was doing about 30 half the time on a visit here in the 1990's. The game is tricky for one pocket specialists because defensive moves are useless. I've heard that Efren was shooting at 35 or so at Hardtimes in Bellflower. At one time Allen Hopkins would be that he could run a 15 in five tries.
 
Bob Jewett said:
As a point of reference, when one pocket shoot-out was introduced in this area, top players were going broke trying for 20. Nick Varner was doing about 30 half the time on a visit here in the 1990's. The game is tricky for one pocket specialists because defensive moves are useless. I've heard that Efren was shooting at 35 or so at Hardtimes in Bellflower. At one time Allen Hopkins would be that he could run a 15 in five tries.
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Bob,

Thanks for these reference points...

I think this is very tangable evidence that players skill levels has improved over the decades.
 
That's just some ridiculous numbers!! Wow...
There should be a concerted effort to get this on DVD next year. Edited down to the best (x) number of attempts - say 2 to 3 hrs worth.
If it was a product Jay would be proud to turn out in the end, I'd pay a generous price for it...
 
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jay helfert said:
Basically, you are playing the One Pocket Ghost, trying to run balls into one corner pocket after the break shot. You can break the balls wide open and then begin shooting until you miss. A good break shot is all important here. You have five racks to accumulate the highest score you can. A perfect rack is a 15. So 75 is the best possible score for five racks.
Click to expand...

After the break, do you get ball in hand, or shot from where it lays?
 
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Shoot from where it lies, so you could get a tough break on your opening shot. 50s are amazing. Many of the pros I watched really had a tough time making it to 40. Making half the balls is pretty tough.
 
Samiel said:
Shoot from where it lies, so you could get a tough break on your opening shot. 50s are amazing. Many of the pros I watched really had a tough time making it to 40. Making half the balls is pretty tough.
Click to expand...

Thanks.

Lastly, do you have to call the pocket before you break? Or can you break and then decide which pocket you will play? Also, if you scratch on the break what happens?
 
You have to call the pocket beforehand. I was fortunate enough to rack for Efren a couple of years ago. On the first break, he ran all 15 balls and he ended getting 40-something I believe... enough for 4th place I think and his first time attempting the challenge. I believe Roy put him up to it! :p
 
jay helfert said:
This has been one of the most exciting things happening so far at DCC. The first two days are over, and Mika is in the lead with a 58! Alex hit back to back a 53 and then followed with a 52! You have no idea what it takes to break 50 in this discipline! A combination of amazing/miraculous shot making, cue ball control and steely nerves. The room has been packed and they are five deep in the doorway trying to get a glimpse of the players at the table. We could probably pack the TV arena if we moved it out there. It may be the best show in town right now!

Fourth place is Beau Runningen with a 46, but I doubt that will hold up on the final day (today). The good news is that TV Mike is here and much of this fantastic pool is being recorded. Parts of it will be available on You Tube later (that is the plan) and the very best runs will be made into a DVD(s). Mika had a great chance to break Gabe's record of 60, made two years ago, but failed to get position with six balls left on the table. I was fully prepared to fork over $1,000 if he broke 60! Alex is the one who scares me. I KNOW now that he is fully capable of going into the 60's. And this is being played on a tough Diamond table, which makes it all the more remarkable. If you dangle money in front of these guys, they are capable of some amazing things.

It's so much fun to see Alex, Mika, Darren, Schmitty and Corey (plus other luminaries) all packed into one small room (the very popular AZ Room) and talking about how best to run the balls. Hopefully a lot of this conversation will be heard on the DVD's. It's a mix of humor, pool knowledge and gentle ribbing that has been going on all day. Today is the final day and I expect to see them lined up trying to break 60 and win the cheese. First prize this year could be close to $1,500. Not a bad payday for a $50 entry fee!

Tomorrow, the Fatboy Challenge kicks off and that is one more SUPER event at DCC. Check out the thread about that and see what a great field we have lined up there! Nothing but pool champions!
Click to expand...


Like we said when Gabe ran 60, that record IMO and most of us thought it would hold up for a few years and I still believe it will, 58 is amazing. Anything over 50 is amazing. I'm glad to see that Beau had a good high run. Its a bit easier than 1P because you break to move more balls over and open them up more, the balls the end up on the wrong side bank over at the right time in the rack, so running 15 is much easier than it is in regular 1P-but it still real tough to get all 15. And to run 15 back to back-wow thats real hard. I believe that someone like Gabe, Mika, Alex could run a perfect 75 if they did it more than once a year here, at some point one of the elite players would run the 5 pack to get the perfect 75. But since its once a year, Gabe's 60 is gonna last for at least 4 more years, IMO.

Gabe was playing Dip the other night 18-4 one pocket, Dip had 3 in his hole and Gabe needed about 15 I think, The balls were opened up good and nothing laid funny, Gabe ran 15 and out(or what ever he needed, mite have been 16). when all the balls are down the rule is spot one at a time, so Gabe got perfect on it and when the first ball spotted he just had to draw back 8" for the next ball to be spotted, he popped in 3 in a row like that-game over. I think he had made 5 already and spotted them, He owes 8 at the start of the game That last 3 he spotted is why i believe he needed 15 to win. That was the highest run I ever saw in action one pocket in my life, just 3 nights ago. Pretty cool stuff I think. I might have my numbers a bit off here. I need to think about it, a bit more..I just know he shot every ball off the table, 12 were on because Dip had 3 in his hole and Gabe ran out the rack every ball on the table, and then at least 3 maybe 4 were spotted one at a time at the end of the rack on the spot because Gabe owed more balls than were on the table. It would change things alot if they didnt spot one at a time, it would have ended his run.



Prior to that this is the best I saw:


In 89 or 90 I saw Efren(before everyone was sweating him) playing a guy 12-4 So they wernt spotting anything, all balls stayed down, Efren had a dead one in the stack, it was about the 3rd or 4th inning of the game, he made it and ran 12 and out. The guy ran off to his backer and the other 3 balls were laying on the table, they were all uptable, So after a few minutes picked up his cue and shot the 3 balls into his hole while he was waiting he 2 railed banked 2 of them in his hole and the last one was a simple straight back, So he ran 15. I knew that within a year or two people would figure out this Efren guy was for real. The pool room was busy and I was the only person sweating Efren, when was the last time Efren only had one rail bird watching him??? I feel old now:frown:

It has taken a lot of hours of sweating pool to see this sort of stuff, So I tryh and remember the good stuff, I cant recall it good as Jay, Bobby Cotton but I do my best.
 
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Jay it was a blast hanging out with you guys over the weekend. I think you really have something great going on with the 1p challenge! all the pros are REALLY trying to break that record because they all know how tough it is. I see Corey putting up the next big number.I can see the AZ/1P room growing next year.

If you all werent there.......Corey D at one point had 7 tries with 3 15's!!! and a 12! i think :eek: the dude is a freak!

Sorry I didn't bring the ball cleaner back, I actrually sold it to a guy down stairs this morning :) I will get one out to you in a couple of weeks.

I packed it up this morning and drove back home to PA..... i was going to stay til wednesday, but I have been running a fever and have the flu so i came home.

thanx again for all the fun at the 1p challenge.

Gerry
 
8 and out seems so yesterday. After watching Alex and Gabe running so many balls and reading about all the high runs happening this year I feel totally awful if I don't run out the table when I get a good open shot.

This reminds me of a story I heard about Buddy Hall. Buddy's backer called him up to come to the pool room to play some high dollar one pocket. Buddy shows up and the backer tells him he is giving up 15-5 against a jeweler. Buddy says he doesn't want to give up that weight and the backer takes his cue and heads to the table. Buddy says what are you doing and the backer says the money is posted and somebody has to play.

So Buddy plays and ends up beating the jeweler out of 30 large. The way I heard it was that Buddy ran 3 15s in that session. So I asked Buddy about it when I saw him in Vegas. He looks at me and says, "naw it didn't happen that way, I ran a 15, a 16, and a 17."

:-)
 
After three lonnnng days featuring some sensational play by a line-up of great players, the One Pocket Challenge for 2011 is over! Mika's fantastic 58 held up for first place, Alex won second with a 55, third with a 53 and shared fourth with John Schmidt, both shooting 52's. Mika won $1,760, Alex totaled $2,440 and John got $220. I had three serious scares at the $1,000 bonus I put up for anyone breaking Gabe's record of 60. Mika, of course, had me going on his 58, and had six balls left on the table when he failed to get position for the run-out. Then Alex had all the balls open on his last rack during his 55, and also left six balls in play. He needed them all for a 61. Finally, John Schmidt had 51 after four innings (13, 11, 12 and 15!) and looked like a good bet to go all the way, when he broke and got the balls wide open once again. He had a fairly long straight-in shot and needed to force the cue ball over for position on the next shot. If he executes this shot, I like his chances. Well, he made the shot but couldn't move the cue ball over enough to have a good second shot. So after all that great shooting, he scored a 1 in his final inning, and I could breathe a sigh of relief.

This has become a favored event for the top players, as only the most skilled have a chance at this game. It may be their hardest test all week, trying to run all the balls in one pocket. Corey expressed this to me as well. Fortunately, thanks to TVMike, we have a lot of it recorded for all to see. Some will go on UStream and there will also be a couple of DVD's made available of the most spectacular play. I'll keep you posted on that when they are ready.
 
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The break

Jay, or anybody that was watching the one pocket challenge, how were they breaking, or what break produced more opportunities. If after they broke they didnt have a shot at the hole, was the inning over. What happens if they scratch on the break.

Did they use a standard one pocket break but with more pace to spread the balls and bring the cue ball up table?, or were they all out breaking them wide open?

Thanks....
 
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