I was on an ocean cruise back in 2016 to Europe ending in Rome Italy on a Celebrity Cruse ship. Believe it or not they had 2 - 8 ft. pool tables in one of their bars. The tables were set up to move adjacent to the ships movement which kept the table always level! No other ship has this remarkable engineering feet! My question is They had tournaments on different days same game. Once the rack was broke if that person shooting sunk a ball on the break they kept shooting any ball until they missed. Their ball count was added up and the person with the most balls made during the game won. Like straight pool but wasn't named straight pool. The players had more then one turn as balls were racked and game continued until either a set number of balls were made by any player. (I think) I never heard of or played this game. The other players knew it and had played it for years. Some U. S. players and some European. Anyone know its name? I forgot. I won first place and second place out of three times playing. Seemed to be a popular game as many said was one of their favorite games.
Pool Game Name
- Thread starter artevt1
- Start date
boogieman
It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that ping.
The most similar game I see in the "Over 300 Ways to Play Billiards" book is called "Basic Pocket Billiards." The only trouble is, this isn't to a set number, you have to make any 8 balls before your opponent. I'll keep looking, not sure if it's in here or not.
EDIT: I don't see anything else that seems similar.
EDIT: I don't see anything else that seems similar.
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middleofnowhere
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Straight pool was once played like that before 14.1 was invented in the early 1900's
History - Pool History
poolhistory.com
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middleofnowhere
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Did you play any pool in Italy? I was there for a couple weeks. I was in one gambling place and no kidding guys were sitting around betting with brief cases open full of money.
I don't know about those tables but I have read about tables set on gimbals
on ships.
The pool table that levels itself in rough seas
A pool table on a cruise ship is gyroscopically controlled so that it moves with the waves and the balls don't slide at all.
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Royal Caribbean has a whole class of ships with pool tables. Here's the table:
www.royalcaribbean.com
That's for Radiance of the Sea, and other ships in the same class should have tables as well.
As others have mentioned, the game was played as the championship game prior to 1910. Long runs were very problematic with a smash break every rack.
The cruise line "hires" pool table guides. The last I heard, they only charged the guides $50 per day for the privilege, which I guess is pretty good for a few hours of hanging around the pool table and doing some light instruction and TD work. You get to visit the ports and eat the food. Maybe drinks are free.
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As others have mentioned, the game was played as the championship game prior to 1910. Long runs were very problematic with a smash break every rack.
The cruise line "hires" pool table guides. The last I heard, they only charged the guides $50 per day for the privilege, which I guess is pretty good for a few hours of hanging around the pool table and doing some light instruction and TD work. You get to visit the ports and eat the food. Maybe drinks are free.
Back in the late 1970s Jerry Briesath showed me a game he used as a teaching aid that was very similar to this. He called it Equal Offense. He also had tournaments using this at his room, QueNique Billiards, in Madison, WI. Really easy game to handicap.
In a Tim Dorsey novel, I can’t remember which one after so many glasses of port, there was a storyline about four old retiree ladies who found that with all the deals it was cheaper to live going from cruise to cruise than living in an ACLF. I can just picture old retired pool players doing the same thing and hustling the tourists on one of these fancy leveling tables.
Back in college we'd play on a 9ft Brunswick Goldcrown with 4 score counters embedded on the end rail. Four of us would play straight pool with no safeties. We'd each throw in $5, and first player to reach 25 or 50 would win the pot.
Pin
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I think I remember reading that the official record in that game was 95, for Alfredo DeOro (left unchallenged after modern straight pool came in). It looks like a really tempting record to try to break. None of this Mosconi 500 balls nonsense
Continuous Pool, the precursor to 14.1 Continuous (Keough).
That sounds as if it is it. They had a different name for it but I believe the rules were as you said. I didn't know cruise ships had pool tables on them! We were on the Celebrity Constellation. Interesting game. Not hard for me as I practice and mostly play straight pool. My preference. Thanks for the info.
Pin
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On the break, did they take ball in hand behind the headstring, or play from where the cue ball lay, or what?
They didn't call it that but you are correct. It was simular to straight pool or 14 to 1 continues.
The 524 or 526 ball run was by Mosconi but not in a sanctioned game. It was an exabition game. I would be thrilled if I could pocket 50 balls! Have done 22 but that was my best and a long time ago when I could see better. I am 72. Pool became my passion at age 11 when an oldder cousin told me I would never be good at pool since I was born blind in one eye. When I was 23 we went to a bar and he lost every game to me! Most were he having 4 balls still on the table.I think I remember reading that the official record in that game was 95, for Alfredo DeOro (left unchallenged after modern straight pool came in). It looks like a really tempting record to try to break. None of this Mosconi 500 balls nonsense
Ball in hand behind the headstring. Ball in hand placed anywhere was created by the professionals that shot 9 ball on TV some time in the 1990's. They made up the rule if the other player fouled (scratch or missed object ball) the other player could pick up the cue ball and put it anywhere and shot from there. Reason why you ask? TV is restricted by time. They did it to speed up the games to get the matches video taped in the time allotted for the TV show.
That sounds cool!
No didn't play in Italy didn't have my cue or time. Though spent 3 days there sight seeing. On 3rd day flu to Germany to spend a month with my wife's sisters family. I lived in NYC from 1968 to '73 and was at a billiard parlor practicing. An announcement came over the loud speaker and the dude talking challenged any player to 100 dollar a game 9 ball. That was a lot of money back in 1968! For refference Cigarettes were 35 cents a pack of Marlboro in NYC and gas was 34 cents a gallon!Did you play any pool in Italy? I was there for a couple weeks. I was in one gambling place and no kidding guys were sitting around betting with brief cases open full of money.
I don't know about those tables but I have read about tables set on gimbals
on ships.
The pool table that levels itself in rough seas
A pool table on a cruise ship is gyroscopically controlled so that it moves with the waves and the balls don't slide at all.www.cnet.com
Thanks for all the responses. Enlightening.
What did they called it? Cruise Rules?