Onepocket, how can you watch it?

[instroke75]

I know I'm gonna take heat for this, but how can people watch one pocket, it is sooooo boring! I tried to watch Gabe and Parica playing, and I literally about fell asleep in my chair!
It is like slow death,and i just don't understand the attraction!



Jeremy

 

[Samiel]

9-ball can be pretty boring too.

 

[TommyT]

Lol

You obviously don't play one pocket. Its like a miniature golfer who can't understand why anyone would want to play the real game and have to learn all those shots.

TommyT:wink:

 

[instroke75]

I can play the game, and actually have won a good bit of money doing it, but I still can't stand to play it, and even more so hate to watch the game! Just my personal feelings, and I'm not some banger who can't make a ball, I am a decent player who just doesn't like the game!


Jeremy

 

[Kevin Lindstrom]

Possibilities

I can play the game, and actually have won a good bit of money doing it, but I still can't stand to play it, and even more so hate to watch the game! Just my personal feelings, and I'm not some banger who can't make a ball, I am a decent player who just doesn't like the game!


Jeremy

As you get older you will probably start to enjoy the beauty of the game. Most young people find the game too slow with not enough "action" or excitement involved. Time will change this if you stick with the game of pool.
I used to hate 14.1 and it is now my favorite game.

Kevin

 

[instroke75]

Well alot of people call it an old mans game!lol But I'm nota teenager or anything, and I've been playing the game awhile. Maybe one day, just not today!

Jeremy

 

[Jude Rosenstock]

It's one thing to say you play this game and another thing to say you understand it. Now, please understand I'm shooting from the hip here. I know very little about you other than this post. However, this post looks like it would come from someone who doesn't have overwhelming knowledge of 1pocket.

I used to feel the same way about straight pool. You sit there and you count runs or you wait for unusual shots and you THINK you see what they're doing but really, I didn't. Watching a straight pool game is like watching someone drive. You think you know where they're going just because they're turning right? Obviously there's a much bigger plan and the more you learn, the more you can predict what every move will be. The balls get broken open and you immediately pick up what the last three balls are going to be and possibly the three or four balls before that will lead to it. It really gets exciting because you can sense immediately when the shooter is in trouble, maybe even before he does.

One pocket is the same way. The more shots you learn, the better you get at reading the game, you can sense how the tide is turning and how one might turn it the other way. You see a game that looks like it will end in favor of one person only to have it turn upside down and you can trace every step to what led to it.

 

[ceebee]

I like playing One-Pocket & watching it too. I like to watch the shots, as I try to learn more about the subtle nuances of a particular shot. Even a bunt, in One-Pocket, can be rewarding or become a disaster. When the players gets into a runout mode, it's just becomes straight pool in a dedicated pocket.

If the game ever progressed to pocketing balls in a numeric order & a required racking configuration, It would become most difficult for most.

The skill to play one-pocket is amassed by playing all the other games, for several years.... IMHO.

 

[jimmy-leggs]

I would rather pull my teeth out with pliers.
I would rather listen to a Beatles song for the billionth time.
I would rather slide down a huge razorblade and use my knackers for brakes.
I would rather watch sisterhood of the traveling pants.
I would rather eat yams.
I would rather watch archer pick lint for hours.
I would rather hope that the plane i'm on crashes.

BUT it's pool,and if it's a live feed,I'M WATCHIN.LOL:smile:

 

[sfleinen]

Could be a troll, but I'll give benefit of doubt & label this an "advocacy thread"

Jeremy:

We as players all have our preferences, likes, and dislikes, when it comes to the various cue sports and the games associated with them. You know the old adage, "one person's junk is another person's treasure." Personally, in the circles I hang around in, there are some that think 9-ball is "pool on training wheels" -- these folks think it's "pool 'color by numbers'." Then there are those that think One Pocket or Straight Pool is boring. Neither viewpoint should be taken as the de-facto description of each game -- every game has its strategies, attractions, advantages, and disadvantages. Also keep in mind that one day you may find One Pocket boring, and then one day, while watching two players play it in real life (not on TV or DVD), your eyes may light-up and you'll take a liking to the game. This is what happened to me. Many years ago, I'd gotten so sick of playing 9-ball (e.g. "if I ask somebody to play a game of 'pool' and they default to racking the balls in a diamond shape one more time, I'll scream!"), that one day I was watching a couple "lights out" players play a One Pocket match, and I was enthralled. The strategic parrying and severe punishment if someone was just a little off on their cue-ball placement really grabbed me. Then, those same TV/DVD/Internet matches I previously thought were boring, were suddenly quite interesting to me. And the game has had a positive effect on my other games -- when I do partake in the occasional match of 9-ball, my ability to play "touch" safeties (when I don't have an obvious run-out, of course) is much more accurate -- being able to gently kill the cue-ball off an object ball and hide behind an obstructing ball was a skill that I found was honed through One Pocket.

I'm very fortunate in that I have such formidable players as Earl Herring and Gil Black Sr. in my area. I really, REALLY enjoy locking horns with Gil in a set of One Pocket. Really gets those brain circuits lighting up, rather than "playing by rote" (playing on autopilot) as I find happens with me in other games.

Anyway, that's my thoughts on this, from the "pro" (vs. "con") side of One Pocket. Hope this is helpful/insightful!
-Sean

I know I'm gonna take heat for this, but how can people watch one pocket, it is sooooo boring! I tried to watch Gabe and Parica playing, and I literally about fell asleep in my chair!
It is like slow death,and i just don't understand the attraction!



Jeremy

 

[Patrick Johnson]

I can play the game, and actually have won a good bit of money doing it, but I still can't stand to play it, and even more so hate to watch the game! Just my personal feelings, and I'm not some banger who can't make a ball, I am a decent player who just doesn't like the game!


Jeremy

(As others have said) no offense, but if it bores you to watch pros play it, then you don't know what you're watching (even if you've "won a good bit of money" at it).

pj
chgo

 

[Alex Kanapilly]

I know I'm gonna take heat for this, but how can people watch one pocket, it is sooooo boring! I tried to watch Gabe and Parica playing, and I literally about fell asleep in my chair!
It is like slow death,and i just don't understand the attraction!



Jeremy

I enjoy playing it and watching it, especially high level one pocket. I am equally perplexed as to why you don't like watching it, especially if you really do play the game.

I've come to the conclusion that people who don't like playing or watching one pocket equate playing pool to simply making balls.

 

[SJDinPHX]

I can play the game, and actually have won a good bit of money doing it, but I still can't stand to play it, and even more so hate to watch the game! Just my personal feelings, and I'm not some banger who can't make a ball, I am a decent player who just doesn't like the game!


Jeremy

Sorry Jeremy, But you come off as a "banger who cannot make a ball"
If you were otherwise, you would realize that the reason all the big boys gamble at 1 pocket is because its the greatest test of skill on green felt.

Banger Dick

 

[jimmy-leggs]

I enjoy playing it and watching it, especially high level one pocket. I am equally perplexed as to why you don't like watching it, especially if you really do play the game.

I've come to the conclusion that people who don't like playing or watching one pocket equate playing pool to simply making balls.

Thats not true,I love pool,have played for decades,but I think one of the reasons I never got into it is because I live in canada and hardly if EVER do you see or hear of anyone playing 1pocket.

 

[Terry Ardeno]

Once you start playing the game, it's very addicting. So many little nuances, traps, strategies and tactics. Look at it like soldiers on a battlefield. Protect your side while hammering your opponant. Or really, to be more accurate, trying to out-fox your opponant.
When you play somebody enough times, you'll pick up what agitates them. Making them deal with stuff they'd rather not is all part of the mental game, which runs deep because there are so many choices every time you're at the table.

There's also many different STYLES to play. There's the slow, methodical gring 'em down style of Nick Varner, who invented what's called "the wedge"....Scott Frost's "shoot 'em up", Allen Hopkin's old fashioned but very effective style, Efren's cue ball mastery, where he nudges balls while pocketing, or ties up balls while playing safe. efren always sems to be doing two things at once. Billy Incardona's percentage style is tough to beat. Corey sometimes breaks them like an 8 ball break. Every pro has a style that's comfortable for them.

If San Jose Dick adds to this thread, you'll get some golden nuggets and true gems from a great practicioner (sp?) of 1P. In fact, I would love to see Grady, Billy and SJD all chime in on this thread. They're geniuses at 1P.

Slower paced than 8 & 9 ball....but will most definitley sharpen all your pool skills. You develop a real nice touch playing 14.1 or 1P.

Banks is another game that really, really grows on you. Throw all 15 balls out on the table or break like an 8 ball break and try to bank all the balls in. Keep track of how many shots it takes you to pocket all 15. Talk about fun!!!

Heck, I could get into a nice discourse on the merits of Rotation! Every pool game has it's own beauty.

 

[Jerry Forsyth]

I used to love to watch One Pocket. But then I had to go cover an event and had to report on a match between (if I remember correctly) Buddy Hall and Marco Marquez. It was a race to three games. The first rack took seven and a half hours and it ruined me for the game.

Actually, I could love it again very easily with the insertion of a single rule: "It is legal for the players to push the balls uptable, away from their pocket, as a defensive strategy. It shall also be legal for any fan to shoot the player who does so."

I do appreciate the defensive ballet of One Pocket. But there is a limit to how long one's butt can sit on steel bleachers.

 

[Alex Kanapilly]

Thats not true,I love pool,have played for decades,but I think one of the reasons I never got into it is because I live in canada and hardly if EVER do you see or hear of anyone playing 1pocket.

OK, well you foreigners are exempt.

Seriously, if you really watch what they are doing (and play well enough to understand it), you will eventually come to the conclusion that it's the best game. The game of 9 ball is so simple compared to one pocket that they just can't be compared.

I guess there really is a great divide amongst pool players on this issue. I started a thread a long time ago about how I just don't understand how anyone could not like the game of one pocket. It was basically the exact opposite of the OP's position.

 

[instroke75]

I only have one question for all of you, what about pro speed players who don'tlike onepocket? Some won't even play,but are they not great players in there own right, even though they don't play the game, or at least enjoy it? Alot of people don't enjoy it, but make themselves learn because there is more action in one pocket than any other game right now.

Believe me or not I fully understand the game, I just think it is boring! I am not saying that I never see any shots that are new to me or even make me say wow, but overall it is pretty boring to me.

And I have tried to give it a fair shake, I sat up all night last year during the DCC watching Shane and Cliff play.( with the same result)

Oddly enough, I really enjoy straight pool, which bores alot of others. So I guess its just a case of to each his own!

jeremy

 

[supergreenman]

Thats not true,I love pool,have played for decades,but I think one of the reasons I never got into it is because I live in canada and hardly if EVER do you see or hear of anyone playing 1pocket.

We have many one pocket players in Edmonton, maybe it's because you live in Calgary where everything is fast paced and full of bling.

Oh yeah, I've played one pocket in Calgary too.

 

[Fatboy]

I can play the game, and actually have won a good bit of money doing it, but I still can't stand to play it, and even more so hate to watch the game! Just my personal feelings, and I'm not some banger who can't make a ball, I am a decent player who just doesn't like the game!


Jeremy

Archer wont play it he says "slow ass boaring game". and how good would he be if he played it??? even if he couldnt move the fire power alone would beat alot of 1P players, everyone but the top 1P guys. And he WONT ever play it.