Pool Vs. Snooker?

[Cameron Smith]

Depends on the pool game I suppose. If you compare snooker to straight pool, I think you will find the challenge is roughly even. But You can't really compare the games in simple terms. It may be more difficult to pot balls on a snooker table, but the top pros miss easy shots all the time, whereas top pool players rarely miss the easy ones or anything at all at times.

So is it more difficult to make 90% of your shots on a snooker table, or 98% of your shots on a pool table? My point is that pool may be easier in a general sense, but the players make up for that by being impossibly consistent.

 

[Siz]

... It may be more difficult to pot balls on a snooker table, but the top pros miss easy shots all the time, whereas top pool players rarely miss the easy ones or anything at all at times.

So is it more difficult to make 90% of your shots on a snooker table, or 98% of your shots on a pool table? My point is that pool may be easier in a general sense, but the players make up for that by being impossibly consistent.

Good point. Although a lot of the balls snooker players miss all the time would go in on a pool table.

 

[SWN99]

Give Ronnie O Shane's break and 3 months practice to adjust to the balls/pool cue, he'd likely dominate.

Ronnie is a machine, posted a link to his fasted to 147 frame for people to see the precision.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IHkQE5uQtc&spfreload=10

 

[Buckzapper]

I never say a guy with baggy shorts, a hat on backwards, covered with tattoos and piercings playing snooker.

 

[KRJ]

All I can say is you need to learn some history.

The vast amount of money in Snooker is due solely to:

promotion
popularity on TV
cigarette stealth advertisement

none of which has a snit to do with the relative merits of the games themselves

Prior to 'Pot Black', which more or less started it off, the lot of a Snooker player
was much the same as that of a Pool player.

Dale

Nope, it's the 12 foot table with tight pockets and rounded corners that makes it a tougher game. I played recently at a snooker club just to give it a try. Holy Bat Shet !! If you ran 3 balls, you felt like a champion. 12 feet, straight in, and going against the "grain" is tough. Anything on the rail was a coin toss if it would actually go in, and that included the very good snooker player showing us the ropes.

I'm not sure why folks get offended about pool? Heck, there are 100 sports more difficult. I don't get upset when someone says badmitton is harder than bowling.
Go play on a Snooker table, and come back and talk to us.

This is NOT like going from a 7 footer to a 9 footer, it's like going from a 9 footer to a small pond

PS: I'm NEVER going back. It's a fun, and interesting game, but being 50, I'm too old to get good at it. I've recently decided to get a diamond bar box, and get rid of my 9 footer. your stoke has to be perfect, and I mean perfect. I have no problems shooting straight in shoots on a 9 footer all day. Heck, you can see my cloth is worn where I've practiced it over thousands of times. Still didn't matter on many shots on the snooker table !!!

 

[macguy]

I never say a guy with baggy shorts, a hat on backwards, covered with tattoos and piercings playing snooker.

Are you kidding? I never see very many pros like you describe in pool or snooker. On the other hand I have played in Europe and played snooker in England.

You go in the average snooker room in England and half look like they are from another planet. With piercing green hair all spiked up, crazy clothes and so on. I walk in the average american pool room and all I see is everyday people. Europeans give americans the 5 ball when it comes to looking weird.

 

[macguy]

Nope, it's the 12 foot table with tight pockets and rounded corners that makes it a tougher game. I played recently at a snooker club just to give it a try. Holy Bat Shet !! If you ran 3 balls, you felt like a champion. 12 feet, straight in, and going against the "grain" is tough. Anything on the rail was a coin toss if it would actually go in, and that included the very good snooker player showing us the ropes.

I'm not sure why folks get offended about pool? Heck, there are 100 sports more difficult. I don't get upset when someone says badmitton is harder than bowling.
Go play on a Snooker table, and come back and talk to us.

This is NOT like going from a 7 footer to a 9 footer, it's like going from a 9 footer to a small pond

PS: I'm NEVER going back. It's a fun, and interesting game, but being 50, I'm too old to get good at it. I've recently decided to get a diamond bar box, and get rid of my 9 footer. your stoke has to be perfect, and I mean perfect. I have no problems shooting straight in shoots on a 9 footer all day. Heck, you can see my cloth is worn where I've practiced it over thousands of times. Still didn't matter on many shots !!!

Was this in the US? In Europe the snooker tables have pretty big pockets. In the US we are used to seeing snooker tables with really tight pockets. I was at the world championships at the Crucible in England.

I was shocked at how big the pockets were. I am not saying they are easy, but not the perception we have when we are used to tables they play golf on here in the US.

 

[KRJ]

Was this in the US? In Europe the snooker tables have pretty big pockets. In the US we are used to seeing snooker tables with really tight pockets. I was at the world championships at the Crucible in England.

I was shocked at how big the pockets were. I am not saying they are easy, but not the perception we have when we are used to tables they play golf on here in the US.

It was in the US, but his table was set up to "snooker standards" as the guy really loves the game. I've seen Ronnie O shoot plenty of times as I wanted to learn the game a little before I went to this snooker club.

You're not really telling me that the tables I saw Ronnie and friends playing on had "buckets", are you

 

[macguy]

It was in the US, but his table was set up to "snooker standards" as the guy really loves the game. I've seen Ronnie O shoot plenty of times as I wanted to learn the game a little before I went to this snooker club.

You're not really telling me that the tables I saw Ronnie and friends playing on had "buckets", are you

By no means buckets but pretty big. I had no problem knocking balls in and running points. The major thing is the table size. A shot at the side pocket looks a mile away.

It is funny, in bars in Europe the bar tables they play pool on also has the rounded pockets. I guess it is what they are used to seeing.

 

[pdcue]

Nope, it's the 12 foot table with tight pockets and rounded corners that makes it a tougher game. I played recently at a snooker club just to give it a try. Holy Bat Shet !! If you ran 3 balls, you felt like a champion. 12 feet, straight in, and going against the "grain" is tough. Anything on the rail was a coin toss if it would actually go in, and that included the very good snooker player showing us the ropes.

I'm not sure why folks get offended about pool? Heck, there are 100 sports more difficult. I don't get upset when someone says badmitton is harder than bowling.
Go play on a Snooker table, and come back and talk to us.

This is NOT like going from a 7 footer to a 9 footer, it's like going from a 9 footer to a small pond

PS: I'm NEVER going back. It's a fun, and interesting game, but being 50, I'm too old to get good at it. I've recently decided to get a diamond bar box, and get rid of my 9 footer. your stoke has to be perfect, and I mean perfect. I have no problems shooting straight in shoots on a 9 footer all day. Heck, you can see my cloth is worn where I've practiced it over thousands of times. Still didn't matter on many shots on the snooker table !!!

Except my post had NOTHING to do with which game is more difficult, but thanks
for stopping in.

Reading is 'handy'

Dale

 

[pdcue]

It was in the US, but his table was set up to "snooker standards" as the guy really loves the game. I've seen Ronnie O shoot plenty of times as I wanted to learn the game a little before I went to this snooker club.

You're not really telling me that the tables I saw Ronnie and friends playing on had "buckets", are you

That is exactly what the pockets are compared to even the standard American
tables. If fact, the pockets are not really all that much bigger, it is the flatter curve
of the pocket opening that makes them play so much easier. Add in the fact that
English balls are also smaller - and many shots that go routinely would never go
on an American table.

Dale

 

[Ron Swanson]

Was this in the US? In Europe the snooker tables have pretty big pockets. In the US we are used to seeing snooker tables with really tight pockets. I was at the world championships at the Crucible in England.

I was shocked at how big the pockets were. I am not saying they are easy, but not the perception we have when we are used to tables they play golf on here in the US.

What ARE you on about?

 

[SakuJack]

You go in the average snooker room in England and half look like they are from another planet. With piercing green hair all spiked up, crazy clothes and so on. I walk in the average american pool room and all I see is everyday people. Europeans give americans the 5 ball when it comes to looking weird.

lol, when/where is this???

 

[Ak147]

In my opinion only skill snooker player might be inferior is the break shot.

Snooker pro has chances to reach last 16-32 in 9 ball world class event. Steve davis, Jimmy white, Tony Drago has done it in past when they were not at their peak. Mark Gray was part of Europe Mosconi cup last year his best rank on pro snooker tour was 71. Where as pool pro might find it hard to qualify for any pro/world snooker event e.g. chris melling, alex pagulayan.

Having said that pro pool players are capable of making century breaks (Chris have 147 break against his name, Efren - 132 odd, some other local pool players have 100+ breaks) but perhaps their break building ability is not consistent enough to hit top 64 snooker ranking.

Bottom line - It is easier for snooker player to break into top 32 pool ranking than vice versa.

 

[Siz]

...Having said that pro pool players are capable of making century breaks (Chris have 147 break against his name, Efren - 132 odd, some other local pool players have 100+ breaks) but perhaps their break building ability is not consistent enough to hit top 64 snooker ranking....

I believe that Chris Melling was a pro Snooker player for some years before he started playing 9 ball competitively (although he was also a top player at UK 8-ball)

 

[jay helfert]

For me in descending order, the most difficult cue sport is Three Cushion Billiards, second most difficult is Snooker and third is Pool. That said, to excel at all the major pool games (Straight Pool, 9 & 10 Ball, One Pocket, Banks and Eight Ball) might be more difficult than learning to play only one game at the other disciplines. There are only a handful of players I've ever seen that excelled at all the various pool games. Mike Sigel, Nick Varner, Jimmy Fusco, Efren, Parica, Shane, Earl, and Dennis Orcollo. These guys can (or did) play at the highest level in all games. There are many other players who excel at some or most of them, but not all! Mizerak and Hopkins didn't play Banks, Buddy didn't play Straight Pool and Johnny won't play One Pocket.

 

[ineedaspot]

Snooker is tougher. OK, in one sense, any game is only as tough as your opponent, but in another sense, 9-ball is tougher than say 6-ball, and playing on tight 9-footers is tougher than playing on a bar box with buckets. And in this sense, snooker is tougher.

Also, top snooker pros are generally better overall cueists than top pool players. The reason is not so much that snooker is a tougher game, but that people in England treat it like a sport, sort of like golf or tennis in the US, with instruction and development programs and kids that practice for hours a day from a very young age.

 

[pt109]

What ARE you on about?

I agree with Macguy.
The tightest pockets I saw in Britain were 3.25 at the fall....
...these were old English Billiards standards....
...one club had one....one century run in 70years.

In the US, I have played on many 10-footers and a few 12-footers where the pockets
were less than 3 inches....and most are under 3.25.

There are a bunch of regulation snooker tables now, but there were hardly any in the
time period that Mac is talking about.

 

[itsfroze]

=============

 

[KRJ]

That is exactly what the pockets are compared to even the standard American
tables. If fact, the pockets are not really all that much bigger, it is the flatter curve
of the pocket opening that makes them play so much easier. Add in the fact that
English balls are also smaller - and many shots that go routinely would never go
on an American table.

Dale

Plays easier. Surely you gest. There is nobody on the planet going to say snooker tables play "easier". There is no "facing" to bounce the object ball off, that's like shooting basketball without a backboard. It can be done, but it's much harder when you get to only "hit" net versus getting some help from the backboard.