Professional pool played on 7 footers... I don't get it

vjmehra said:
Maybe its a cultural thing, over here we have English pool on 7 footers and American pool on 9 footers. I don't think I've ever seen a an American 7 foot table in the UK, but I guarantee you if you showed anyone here a US style 7 foot table and told you pro's played on it, they'd think you were insane!!!

I have only ever seen a 7 foot US table in bars in the US, so perhaps my perception is skewed, but I would assume everyone associates 7 footers with bars and larger tables for tournaments.

To look at it another way, I have paid for a Kazoom subscription to watch pro's play on the Eurotour (which is exclusively 9 footers and 9-ball) and I also have a Eurosport subscription to watch snooker (all 12 footers).

I wouldn't ever consider paying to watch anyone play on a 7 footer (although I accept that is personal preference, I'm not suggesting there's anything wrong with doing so, I just struggle to believe given the state of pro pool that there are many that disagree with my stance...if I was wrong it would be pool players playing for circa $450k tomorrow night not snooker players).
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All your perspectives seem valid.
The bottom line though is, over here in the U.S., when someone calls a 7 footer a "bar box/table," it is a legacy reference. Any pool player of consequence knows very well that "bar tables" don't carry the same negative connotations as before.
As I mentioned, the impressions have changed a bit over here.
 
Pros have been playing on BB's, both in action and BB tournaments since they came out in the 1950's. What never happened before is WORLD tournaments played on 7' tables. Johnnyt
 
I have no problem with pro's playing 8 ball on a bar box as I think it's a game that is actually harder on a bar box with balls clustering up more. Watching them play 9 ball is rediculous ... the game looks like a joke to them. 10 ball isn't terrible as that 1 extra ball seems to change everything. Balls seem to cluster more and it's not as easy to control the break. You can't soft break.
 
Pushout said:
I, for one. will NOT pay to see pro players play on 7 foot tables. I know better. Sadly, this is becoming more and more common for a variety of reasons, some of which are that a lot of bar table players know nothing else.
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In some area's of the country we have no choice. I live in york pa and unless you have a membership to a private club it's all bar box. i drive 45 mins to play on 9 foot tables at a bowling alley. Pool halls are dead around here.
 
The show Bergman and SVB just put on in the finals at the Upper Midwest pro 8 Ball was amazing i don't care what size table it was, watching SVB come back from 11-3 in the 1st set and run the last 5 or 6 racks to win a hill hill match and force a 2nd set was awesome.

Then in 2nd set Justin ran the set out from 11-10 and SVB never got back to the table it was amazing to sweat 7ft tables and all :smile:

It was one of the best finals i think i have ever seen on any table lol
 

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Small tables are to pacify the bar shooters. It isn't real pool. The top players are so hungry they'd play on a bumper pool table if you held a tournament. Naturally you'll want someone to do commentary that knows how to nut-hug and nothing about pool.
 
I would have to imagine they were very disappointed with the pro turnout. Expected fullfield of 16 with a nice $6K added, but only got 8 entries. Maybe the players didnt want to travel up north? Seems like the recent 7ft tourneys in LA and TX had a huge turnout.

No Sky, Thorpe, Shane Mcmin, etc
 
gxman said:
I would have to imagine they were very disappointed with the pro turnout. Expected fullfield of 16 with a nice $6K added, but only got 8 entries. Maybe the players didnt want to travel up north? Seems like the recent 7ft tourneys in LA and TX had a huge turnout.

No Sky, Thorpe, Shane Mcmin, etc
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A lot of the other top guys were committed to playing The TX Bar Box Open in Austin this week end.

Sky won it by the way lol
 
For all the griping about events on 7'ers...we do all realize that its not as if these events would happen at all, if they had to be played on 9' tables, right?

It ksnt as though most events pick 7s, in lieu of 9s.
 
i also understand why players play where the money is......only i will never see it again, boredom at best, no matter how much boring racks they run (not even for free)! but hey, each to their own!
 
Just few days away for all you bar table haters some real pool to sweat lol

How about a 10ft Diamond Bigfoot table with 4 inch pockets :eek:


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trob said:
In some area's of the country we have no choice. I live in york pa and unless you have a membership to a private club it's all bar box. i drive 45 mins to play on 9 foot tables at a bowling alley. Pool halls are dead around here.
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I know what you mean. When Jimmy Hodges's place closed in Greenville, SC years ago now, it meant bar table, playing on crap, or nothing. I pretty much gave up playing in public years before that. I'm not fond of most of the places within striking distance. I play at home, if you want to call hitting balls every day with no competition playing. I have someone at the house once in a while but not often.
 
mvp said:
I personally like the idea of pros playing on 7fter's. Most of us when we play competive ether state,local, or national level, we (amateurs) play mainly on 7ft tables. Most homes only accommodate a 7 or 8 ft table so I find it refreshing to relate to the professionals by playing and practicing with the same equipment more readily available to the common player.
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Yep, like to see how they run out when there are more than a few cluster fcks on the table, and they come up with some really interesting ways to find a way out. What's not to like about that ;)

I mean, afterall, most of us all play on 7 footers. Kind of like watching pro's baseball players play in softball charity match and letting them launch mammoth home runs. Nothing wrong with that :)
 
I can see both sides of it. Personally I like to see a more unified umbrella that they played under, and a "season" with some sort of grand finale tournament. PGA has different courses, NFL has astrotruf and grass w/different weather conditions, MLB has different outfield configurations; but, being a NASCAR fan and seeing all the different tracks and such .... I'm just saying that a season of different venues: 7', 8', 9', 10' would be great. That's not even counting all the different disciplines (8-ball, 14.1, 9 or 10-ball, 1 pocket, etc.) And one thing that makes it really difficult for many novice and/or spectators are all the different "rules" various tournaments have.

Yes - I'd like to see more "organization" to cue sports. One governing body with a purpose. Oh well ... "Wish in one hand, ..."
 
Ched said:
I can see both sides of it. Personally I like to see a more unified umbrella that they played under, and a "season" with some sort of grand finale tournament. PGA has different courses, NFL has astrotruf and grass w/different weather conditions, MLB has different outfield configurations; but, being a NASCAR fan and seeing all the different tracks and such .... I'm just saying that a season of different venues: 7', 8', 9', 10' would be great. That's not even counting all the different disciplines (8-ball, 14.1, 9 or 10-ball, 1 pocket, etc.) And one thing that makes it really difficult for many novice and/or spectators are all the different "rules" various tournaments have.

Yes - I'd like to see more "organization" to cue sports. One governing body with a purpose. Oh well ... "Wish in one hand, ..."
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I think there is some potential for this idea to work, but you need some uniformity still (as you rightly say). If you could standardise rules I would also standardise table sizes for each game as follows:

10ft- 10-Ball & 14.1
9ft US- 9-Ball
9ft Chinese- 8-Ball

If you really wanted to get creative you could throw in 12ft snooker and 7/8ft English tables too...but that's a bit of overkill!
 
JazzboxBlues said:
First off I've had a long layoff from pool and have always thought real pool was played on 9' tables. Since I've returned to the game it seems that 7 footers are more common place. I can appreciate the table quality of a 7' Diamond and would buy one if it was my only option. Now to the point of my post.

I was watching the Midwest Pro Am 8 Ball tournament last night and will be watching this afternoon. I just think these games should be played on a 9' table. I get the balls will be bunched closer on a 7 footer but think a 9' foot table would increase the overall difficulty. I could be off base but this is the way I see it.
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Can you name ONE pool tournament that requires all players to be Pros ONLY? And is OPEN to any Pro wanting to play!
 
vjmehra said:
I think there is some potential for this idea to work, but you need some uniformity still (as you rightly say). If you could standardise rules I would also standardise table sizes for each game as follows:

10ft- 10-Ball & 14.1
9ft US- 9-Ball
9ft Chinese- 8-Ball

If you really wanted to get creative you could throw in 12ft snooker and 7/8ft English tables too...but that's a bit of overkill!
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There has been "potential" for more years than I care to remember. It ain't happened and probably never will.
 
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