One Pocket Challenge

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....

Yeah I was wondering the same thing. I would think it would be a standard 8 ball break hitting the head ball, or hitting the second ball with inside english?
 
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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....


I happened to be in the 14.1 Challenge room when John Schmidt asked Mika to demonstrate the break he used for the 58 he scored at the 1pocket Challenge. Mika racked the balls and said he used just a bit of inside english. The only thing I'm not 100% on is his exact CB placement. He hit them kinda medium soft speed.

CueTable Help




Lou Figueroa
 
I was recently looking through Ted Brown's book on the "Wagon Wheel" system of position play, and was startled to see what inspired the book. This is from the preface of the book:

In 1957, a player by the name of Virgil Fillmore from
Los Angeles once showed me a game called "One-Pocket-
Points" which utterly fascinated me. You break a fifteen ball
rack any way you like and after the break you must immediately
start pocketing balls in a pre-chosen corner pocket.
As soon as you miss, you count each pocketed ball and re-rack
the balls. Players commonly shoot five racks and total
the points. Each pocketed ball counts one point. Should you
pocket all fifteen in the correct pocket, you get a new, free
break without a penalty, and the first ball after the break in
the second rack is number sixteen, so you could conceivably
run any number of balls in one inning. If you scratch, you
lose one point, but since no player follows you, you would not
be penalized for an illegal safety. Should you make fourteen
balls correctly, but the fifteenth ball fell into some other
pocket, you are limited to a score of fourteen for that inning
and there is no way to get another free break. When you first
play this, it becomes an obsession to run all fifteen. Then
after you have had several runs in the twenties, it becomes
an obsession to run thirty and get into the sacred third rack.
I've only been in the third rack three times. I had two thirty-
fours and one thirty.

The book doesn't have a printing date, but an event from 1988 is mentioned.
 
Forgive me if you answered this in the past JAy.. But doesn't Scott participate in this advent..?
 
Bob,

Thanks for these reference points...

I think this is very tangable evidence that players skill levels has improved over the decades.

well, the 58 is where they have maxed out. mika could pick a table, make the pockets as big as he wanted, and id show up and let him shoot that that all day for whatever he wanted.

yes efren shot at about 35 i believe. i watched it all night. he more or less broke even, i had to leave at 4am. sometimes hed reach 35 in 3 or 4 racks. remember this was 3.5 inch pockets too though. a good, top local pro like tang hoa may shoot at a little over 20.

anyway, point is i dont think skill level has increased myself. i think there are more good players, but not better ones at the top.
 
I may get flamed for this, BUT.....the 1p challenge is becoming very popular, and you may not want to hear it ,but it is a breaking contest first, then a ball running contest second. Once you take a few hours and perfect the break, a good 14.1 player can run in the 30's easily on a standard 4-1/2" pocket table. The diamonds at the DCC were not easy by any means......don't get me wrong.

I feel as the 1p challenge becomes more popular 14.1 players will have the best averages....it's actually not really a 1p players game because there is no moving.....basically its running balls, finding dead ones, opening up clusters, and some banking, but not as much as you might think.

You might not agree with me now, but that is how i feel. I am no world beater, but while practicing the 1p challenge at home I would say my over under is 30.

When I get some time I will record a few attempts and put them up on vimeo.

G.
 
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