Pool Competition on a Snooker Table?

allanpsand

allanpsand

Author & PBIA Instructor
Silver Member
(bringing this over from the golf thread)

How about we start seeing pros play pool with regular balls on a 12 (or 10) foot snooker table?
Same playing rules, just on the tougher table.

TOURNAMENT DIRECTOR CHALLENGE:
Would any tournament directors out there try this venue out?
You could get quite a lot of players with a single game match format - single or double elimination.

Might even attract some advertisers over from the snooker world?
 
allanpsand said:
(bringing this over from the golf thread)

How about we start seeing pros play pool with regular balls on a 12 (or 10) foot snooker table?
Same playing rules, just on the tougher table.

TOURNAMENT DIRECTOR CHALLENGE:
Would any tournament directors out there try this venue out?
You could get quite a lot of players with a single game match format - single or double elimination.

Might even attract some advertisers over from the snooker world?
Click to expand...

I don't think is is a worthy pursuit.once an OB gets on the rail, it is 'safe'.
:boring2::boring:
 
krupa said:
Let's just have 'em play 9-ball on a billiard table.
Click to expand...
Love it... I laughed a good minute, and I needed a luagh today. Thank you Krupa......



In my youth, I worked/lived in a hall/bar and spent hundreds of hours playing 9ball on a 10' Gandy snooker table with regular balls ( not including the multiple hundreds of hours of snooker/golf ). I have no idea how my stroke would have been without it, but I truly believe it taught me skills I otherwise would have never honed through normal practice/play.
Now, the owner was none to pleased with me until he spent some time watching me "Not" abusing the table (meaning, not slam banging on the table etc). He was a player himself, and I believe he allowed me (and only me) to proceed this practice as he saw I was truly trying to better my "touch" style of play, and boy it sure did. That table was removed in the mid 90's for 3 Valley coin-ops and it broke my heart to see it go, and to this day I have not seen or touched a 10' snooker table since.
With the new Bigfoot 10' diamond table, I would LOVE to get on that table and spend countless hours on and re-live some of those precious memories in addition to working on that "touch" style of play once again. I play on some 9' gold crowns once in a while but it is no replacement for those itsy bitsy pockets on that huge table.
I sure would like to thank old Charlie for allowing me to go against his own house rules. We had some ups and downs in our relationship (mostly due to my youth and lack of life knowledge), but he was a good man and taught me way more about life than he did about the "pool/bar biz". I used all of those skills to further my career and the life lessons I use to this day. I'm not in that line of work any more but the lessons carry over outside of that line of work.
To the original poster, I would love to see this come to be. But I think we all know there's a better chance of free icewater in hell. Spectators, unless they truly loved the game, would get bored in about 42 seconds and move on. Today's railbirds want pattern and jump-shot play with flawless run-out sets leaving thier opponent seated. Not that it is a bad thing, just different than the play would be on a big snooker table with regulation balls.

Dopc. (to lazy today to scan for grammar and spelling)
 
is "Pool" easy ??

Taking about rotation game here, I don't know why people say pro's need to play on a tougher table, small pockets etc ??
The game is not easy they "make it look" easy, and the reason being their years of practice,dedication and mental focus.
I didn't even like the idea of 10 foot table when they started doing it, what's the point of it? If you keep increasing size of tables and other material factors then how would you define a game of pool ?
People enjoy when pro's are running racks as it's not boring to watch. Why you think 1 pocket to some people is boring ? cuz it's slow, it takes time to get a shot and make ball. If you let pro's play on snooker table then it will get boring and stupid.
Pro's in every game practice very hard to become good at their sport. When it comes to pool somehow people think that it needs to get tougher. I don't hear the same talk about tennis, golf, racing, boxing, swimming and almost any other sport.

What is pool ?
Pool, also more formally known as pocket billiards (mostly in North America) or pool billiards[1] (mostly in Europe and Australia), is the family of cue sports and games played on a pool table having six receptacles called pockets along the rails, into which balls are deposited as the main goal of play. (taken shamelessly from Wikipedia)

When people talk about 9 ball or any other game they are actually talking about different versions of a pool game. Pool in its purest form is a tough sport and right now by "Pool" I mean a combination of all kinds of games like 8ball, 9ball, rotation, str8 pool and 1 pocket and almost every other kind of game you can play on a pool table.
How many players you know that have mastered "pool" ?? and do you still think that pool is easy ??
 
I play 9 Ball and 8 Ball every day on my Riley 6 x 12 with 2 1/16 numbered Aramith balls.

Great fun but sometimes frustrating:wink:
 
I think that pros playing on a 10 or 12 foot table with regular (or snooker-sized) balls would be able to bring in some of the snooker advertisers plus the already existing snooker audiences across the world.

It could start out as a "novelty" game on the BBC snooker channels. Frankly, I'd like to see the snooker champions compete on their tables with pool balls.

That additional "difficulty" factor might help cross the interest gap that fascinates golfing audiences and regenerate popular interest.
 
Two games that work well with pool balls on a snooker tale are golf and one pocket.
 
Last edited:
Pool is too hard to be played on the snooker table....

Out of the mouth of Alex Pagulayan came the following statements...

Snooker is all about pocketing balls. Once you learn how to pocket balls on a snooker table, snooker is an easy game... Pool is way fkin harder to play.... Way fkin harder.... As far as the games go....

This as close to verbatim as I can recall... He said this in New Jersey during the One Pocket Invitational after the last match was over when someone asked him if he thought snooker was harder than pool....

Chris
 
The Renfro said:
Pool is too hard to be played on the snooker table....

Out of the mouth of Alex Pagulayan came the following statements...

Snooker is all about pocketing balls. Once you learn how to pocket balls on a snooker table, snooker is an easy game... Pool is way fkin harder to play.... Way fkin harder.... As far as the games go....

This as close to verbatim as I can recall... He said this in New Jersey during the One Pocket Invitational after the last match was over when someone asked him if he thought snooker was harder than pool....

Chris
Click to expand...

Alex is a great pool player but he talk b.s. at times. I am sure Alex, Darren A, and many others would love to be given a chance to compete in major snooker event in Europe where the pay day if they get to final 32 is guaranteed thousands of $$$$$, let a loan 300k for 1st prize, i would love to hear Alex answer the question, why he is not competing in Snooker in Europe, since it is easy!!!
Snooker really, tests one's ability to maintain extremely high focus, not easy by any stretch of imagination, especially trying to make somewhat high break!!
 
naji said:
Alex is a great pool player but he talk b.s. at times. I am sure Alex, Darren A, and many others would love to be given a chance to compete in major snooker event in Europe where the pay day if they get to final 32 is guaranteed thousands of $$$$$, let a loan 300k for 1st prize, i would love to hear Alex answer the question, why he is not competing in Snooker in Europe, since it is easy!!!
Snooker really, tests one's ability to maintain extremely high focus, not easy by any stretch of imagination, especially trying to make somewhat high break!!
Click to expand...

Alex has won the Canadian Snooker championship the last 2 years... To me that qualifies him to answer the question and not call B.S.....

I know Jim Wych is Canadian and did fairly well on the snooker circuit so I will ask him about what it takes to be able to compete...

Jim has said a similar thing about pool.. He said it's the most brutal game he has seen.. Snooker won't chew you up and spit you out just on rolls alone......

I think I will go out on a limb here and side with the professionals and their opinions :cool:

Chris
 
Agreed. He can't hang with even the lower tier of pro snooker players

http://www.snookerline.com/ has good info



naji said:
Alex is a great pool player but he talk b.s. at times. I am sure Alex, Darren A, and many others would love to be given a chance to compete in major snooker event in Europe where the pay day if they get to final 32 is guaranteed thousands of $$$$$, let a loan 300k for 1st prize, i would love to hear Alex answer the question, why he is not competing in Snooker in Europe, since it is easy!!!
Snooker really, tests one's ability to maintain extremely high focus, not easy by any stretch of imagination, especially trying to make somewhat high break!!
Click to expand...
 
The Renfro said:
Alex has won the Canadian Snooker championship the last 2 years... To me that qualifies him to answer the question and not call B.S.....

I know Jim Wych is Canadian and did fairly well on the snooker circuit so I will ask him about what it takes to be able to compete...

Jim has said a similar thing about pool.. He said it's the most brutal game he has seen.. Snooker won't chew you up and spit you out just on rolls alone......

I think I will go out on a limb here and side with the professionals and their opinions :cool:

Chris
Click to expand...

Not looking to start a war or anything just want to clarify. Wych was never top tier and was pretty much done by the end of the 70's.

The Canadians is an amateur event there are no pro level players in Canada currently, none.

And Alex is full of shit on the pool is harder nonsense :smile: maybe it's harder to win cause of the luck factor but it aint harder to play. Snooker has had many players dominate over the years because the rolls are not a big factor, the best player almost always wins.
 
Last edited:
allanpsand said:
I think that pros playing on a 10 or 12 foot table with regular (or snooker-sized) balls would be able to bring in some of the snooker advertisers plus the already existing snooker audiences across the world.

It could start out as a "novelty" game on the BBC snooker channels. Frankly, I'd like to see the snooker champions compete on their tables with pool balls.

That additional "difficulty" factor might help cross the interest gap that fascinates golfing audiences and regenerate popular interest.
Click to expand...


cushion profile on a proper snooker table dont work so well with 2 1/4" balls.
 
allanpsand said:
(bringing this over from the golf thread)

How about we start seeing pros play pool with regular balls on a 12 (or 10) foot snooker table?
Same playing rules, just on the tougher table.

TOURNAMENT DIRECTOR CHALLENGE:
Would any tournament directors out there try this venue out?
You could get quite a lot of players with a single game match format - single or double elimination.

Might even attract some advertisers over from the snooker world?
Click to expand...

Darren Appleton and SVB will tell you playing on a 10 footer is a different game than playing on a 9 foot. Daz explained on the Alcano/Shaw podcast, that playing on a 12x6 involves skills most players don't possess and it involves a different strategy and mindset. I think the 10 foot tournaments are neat exhibitions, but are a bit silly if it were to become part of the mainstream.

It's not that the table is tougher, it's an entirely different game at that point. Kicking would become near impossible, banks would be non-existent, and the B&R packs would be gone.

Would any directors try this out? Doubt it.
Attrack advertisers from the snooker world? Doubt it.
 
Just FYI, I like the concept as I play on a 5 x 10 snooker table all of the time. However, there is no way they can play unless they use a 2 & 1/16 or 2 1/8 ball as a 2 1/4 standard size will have them bouncing balls of the table. The L shaped cushions which are set lower just won't take it. I look forward to seeing them try to slop rail shots in with snooker pockets and rails. Games like 14.1 become really tough on break shots. Don't get me wrong the pros will adjust. But IMO the average Joe will find out quite quickly there is no comparison between a pool and snooker table 10 x 5 or 12 x 6. A 10 x 5 might seem easier but in snooker when you try to stay on the black, even though the angles are the same it requires a deft touch on a 10x 5 , though some purists would argue otherwise. I've played on both and IMOwhen things are going good you only use one half of the table for 90% of the game anyway. Anyway I applaud your idea.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top