One Pocket tournament - how to keep the schedule?

Roy Steffensen

Roy Steffensen

locksmith
Silver Member
This coming weekend there is the Norwegian 8-ball Masters, but as a warm-up on Friday evening we are 8 players who will play a single elimination one-pocket tournament, race to 3, with $ 300 to the winner.

So, how to prevent that some games last for hours?

One idea to prevent long uptable-matches could for example be:

*If 6 balls or more ends up behind the head-string, the 3 balls closest to the end rail will be spotted.


Do you like this idea? Any other ideas?
 
Roy Steffensen said:
This coming weekend there is the Norwegian 8-ball Masters, but as a warm-up on Friday evening we are 8 players who will play a single elimination one-pocket tournament, race to 3, with $ 300 to the winner.

So, how to prevent that some games last for hours?

One idea to prevent long uptable-matches could for example be:

*If 6 balls or more ends up behind the head-string, the 3 balls closest to the end rail will be spotted.


Do you like this idea? Any other ideas?
Click to expand...

The way they play the monthly tournament at HardTimes in Los Angeles is anytime more than 4 balls are behind the head-string the balls closest to the line are spotted immediately. So there are never more than 4 balls above the head-string. The tournament in Hollywood run by Jay Helfert used the same rule but the balls spotted were the ones closest to the top rail which I think is even better to speed things up. (Make sure that the players are paying attention to this rule because a failure could lead to an easy shot when someone is playing safe and forgets the rule.)
 
Roy Steffensen said:
So, how to prevent that some games last for hours?
Click to expand...
Roy, I think you'll find that most race-to-3 matches will complete within two hours. However, whatever game-shortening rule you use should be instituted after a pre-announced period of time. For example, you could say that if the first two games haven't been completed in 75 minutes, then the game-shortening rule will be used; or perhaps if four games haven't been completed within two hours. Be sure to make a note on the tournament chart at what time each match starts.

In a recent tournament I directed, I shortened one match by having them race to 5 balls each, using a full rack. That moved their final game right along.

Whatever you decide, just make sure that everyone understands that super slow play will not be tolerated. That alone will tend to discourage painfully slow play.

Doc
 
While taking balls back from the kitchen will speed up play, it might be better to simply put a time limit on the match, with a sudden death (I like the 5 ball rule mentioned above) game if things are tied at the end of regulation time. Also, for a tournment like this one, I'd really cut short the time to encourage shotmaking.

tim
 
All good posts here. One other thing, the use of a 45 second shot clock will definitely move a slow match along.
 
Jay's idea is fair the Shot Clock, One Pocket tends to be slow sometimes.
beatdeadhorse.gif
 
We ended up using the rule I mentioned in my first post, and it worked out great. No complains, and no real long matches.

The first match I won within 15 minutes, but that round used almost 2 hours to finish. Next round finished in about 1 hour (2 semifinals, both 3-0), and the final lasted a little longer than an hour.

I won the tournament, and won my matches 3-0, 3-0 and 3-1 ;)
 
jay helfert said:
All good posts here. One other thing, the use of a 45 second shot clock will definitely move a slow match along.
Click to expand...

This is a good point. The 46 seconds will definitely put a bounce in their step.

Also, ALWAYS< ALWAYS use the 3 foul rule. I did away with in a 1 pocket tourney I ran and lord thelesson was painful.
 
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