Question for strong barbox players only!

[JolietJames]

We have zero quality 7 footers near me, but I play some bar box tournaments and I find that speed is my biggest adjustment. If I can focus on playing the right patterns and minimize cue ball movement, then I usually can play a similar speed.

THIS.
I have a 9' at home and only practice on it (maybe 4 hrs/wk). Every tournament in the area is on Diamond 7 footers.
My results are on par with the local favorites who exclusively play on the bar boxes daily and are 30-50 fargo points above me. (the tournaments I play do not report games so my fargo remains unchanged despite these results.)
I wouldn't worry about the break unless your opponent is on that table often. We have 14, 7 foot Diamonds in town and no two break alike.
As REO wrote, choosing the patterns that put you least at risk to hook yourself from lack of the proper speed will be the key for you imo.


ETA: If agreed by both players, the results would be an interesting share. Action like that is always of interest to the degenerates in here, and it may prompt some future challenge matches if you two are up for that.
I know players in IL, AZ, and TN who would entertain match-ups like that, myself included. I am currently starting up a new business as well as working my normal job, so time is limited atm.

 

[BasementDweller]

THIS.
I have a 9' at home and only practice on it (maybe 4 hrs/wk). Every tournament in the area is on Diamond 7 footers.
My results are on par with the local favorites who exclusively play on the bar boxes daily and are 30-50 fargo points above me. (the tournaments I play do not report games so my fargo remains unchanged despite these results.)
I wouldn't worry about the break unless your opponent is on that table often. We have 14, 7 foot Diamonds in town and no two break alike.
As REO wrote, choosing the patterns that put you least at risk to hook yourself from lack of the proper speed will be the key for you imo.


ETA: If agreed by both players, the results would be an interesting share. Action like that is always of interest to the degenerates in here, and it may prompt some future challenge matches if you two are up for that.
I know players in IL, AZ, and TN who would entertain match-ups like that, myself included. I am currently starting up a new business as well as working my normal job, so time is limited atm.

This is good. This is my same experience as someone who practices exclusively on a 9 footer but plays a bit on bar tables.

Couple other things:
One thing I have to constantly remind myself on the bar table is to play position to shoot balls up table. I naturally avoid this on the 9 footer but on the bar table it makes more sense to do so since it's still a relatively easy shot. The other thing is often times the largest positional window to play into on a bar table can be all the way at the opposite end of the table. I avoid this on a 9 footer because I could miss the shot it's easy for those two positional things to get overlooked on the bar table.

 

[MattPoland]

Never thought about it that way before. Great explanation that makes a whole lotta sense. I just learned something and it makes more sense why I’m overrunning position by a couple inches playing the “lines”. Thanks Matt.

It's also interesting when I watch top players just how effective they are at bleeding off speed. Where I look at a shot thinking I would hit that long rail and bounce out for a wider cut on the next shot than I'd ideally like, they accomplish so much with a little check spin or dragging the ball. I'm well aware there's a level of finesse and control they are employing that would serve me well to incorporate into my game.

 

[Cornerman]

I often wonder if the folk who always act as if 7 footers are child's play ever actually play on 7 footers against anyone who is performs highly on them. I'm not exactly a world beater or anything, but I've owned both a 7 footer and 9 footer, and the difference is fairly considerable. In my experience there is a less room for error on a 7 footer, the stroke is different, patterns are different, and cue ball control is more precise.

Maybe try...

Shorten the stroke, more of a poke stroke.

On your 9 footer throw out 10 balls on either the top or bottom half of the table and run them all, limiting cue ball travel and pockets to that half of the table. Not necessarily in rotation, it is to get a feel for the more limited cue ball movement and dink stroking...

100% correct on 7 vs 9.

 

[Cornerman]

I agree. A few years back I played a regular here who was about 10 years older than me (73 to my 63), on our lone Diamond barbox. He wouldn’t even play me on a big table which I play on exclusively, but said he’d play me on the barbox, on which he still played a strong game.

I gave him a similar spot to what I’d feel quite confident giving him on a big table. Needless to say he got the better of me, and I was in no hurry for a rematch on the barbox. The games/sets go by incredibly fast on a barbox, so you’d better be ready.

I wish more people would read your post and absorb it.

 

[Tennesseejoe]

Practice by playing straight pool on the bar box.

 

[ShootingArts]

I agree. A few years back I played a regular here who was about 10 years older than me (73 to my 63), on our lone Diamond barbox. He wouldn’t even play me on a big table which I play on exclusively, but said he’d play me on the barbox, on which he still played a strong game.

I gave him a similar spot to what I’d feel quite confident giving him on a big table. Needless to say he got the better of me, and I was in no hurry for a rematch on the barbox. The games/sets go by incredibly fast on a barbox, so you’d better be ready.

I'm in with you and Cornerman. My eyes aren't what they were but I still shoot like a house on fire on seven footers sometimes, Valley or most particularly Diamonds. In my natural prime I played everything from seven to snooker tables and usually gambled on barboxes. The reason was simple. There weren't a dozen people roughly my speed to find big table action with. Didn't take long for them and anyone watching to have my speed down.

There were hundreds of barboxes around for every big table and there is nothing like barbox eightball for hiding speed with nine ball not being too far behind. Hundreds of cowboys to play every Saturday night on the barboxes, good times!

I can't remember why I was working out on the barboxes and seven foot Diamonds a few years back. Probably thinking about a tourney. After shooting the big Diamonds exclusively for a few years the Valleys plain old weren't fun to shoot. The seven foot Diamond though, lit it up like a Christmas tree!

Hu

 

[Badpenguin]

I wish more people would read your post and absorb it.

I wonder if all of the old timers called the new fangled 9 footers woosie tables during the switchover from 10 footers to 9 footers, lol.

 

[Badpenguin]

Practice by playing straight pool on the bar box.

I recommend only using 10 balls instead of 15 for attempting straight pool, or one pocket for that matter, on a bar box

 

[soyale]

I wonder if all of the old timers called the new fangled 9 footers woosie tables during the switchover from 10 footers to 9 footers, lol.

i wasn’t there but i would wager that to be the case.

 

[garczar]

I agree. A few years back I played a regular here who was about 10 years older than me (73 to my 63), on our lone Diamond barbox. He wouldn’t even play me on a big table which I play on exclusively, but said he’d play me on the barbox, on which he still played a strong game.

I gave him a similar spot to what I’d feel quite confident giving him on a big table. Needless to say he got the better of me, and I was in no hurry for a rematch on the barbox. The games/sets go by incredibly fast on a barbox, so you’d better be ready.

Yep. Agree. There is a big difference, i don't care what FR keeps saying. A barbox specialist will beat his equal or often higher FR's that don't play much bb pool. Different game.

 

[Dimeball]

I’m flying out of state next month to play 10b, 3 sets on a barbox ( diamond ), 3k a set, races to 15. I’m the favorite on paper ( fargo ) but I haven’t been playing. The problem is I only have a 9’ diamond at my place and the closest diamond barbox to me is 40 min away. The break is obviously gonna be a factor… Question, can I get ready on my home table or do I have to train on a 7’? I have a few cheap barbox practice sets lined up with friends. My work schedule is crazy ( I own a biz ), so I only have 2-3hrs a day this month to get ready. Not worried about the heat, not my 1st rodeo, but the other guy has been around too. I’ve asked a few pro friends and got completely different answers. I’m nowhere near pro speed myself.

Scotty Townsend told us that when you move to the small table it's playing shape... he said one rail shape on the bar table, everything looks easier, but if you don't a natural line of shape, one rail will keep your arse out of the frying pan.
OH, he was pretty strong on the bar table too....

 

[Rocket354]

Yep. Agree. There is a big difference, i don't care what FR keeps saying. A barbox specialist will beat his equal or often higher FR's that don't play much bb pool. Different game.

Agreed. Perhaps at the pro level where everyone has an unbelievable amount of practice time on every table imaginable there isn't a huge skill-level difference between the two, but at the league/local hotshot level there can be big differences for a single player between the two. I own a 9ft at home and it's always an adjustment trying to play league on 7 footers. And there are many league heroes who fall apart on a big table.

 

[alphadog]

I’m flying out of state next month to play 10b, 3 sets on a barbox ( diamond ), 3k a set, races to 15. I’m the favorite on paper ( fargo ) but I haven’t been playing. The problem is I only have a 9’ diamond at my place and the closest diamond barbox to me is 40 min away. The break is obviously gonna be a factor… Question, can I get ready on my home table or do I have to train on a 7’? I have a few cheap barbox practice sets lined up with friends. My work schedule is crazy ( I own a biz ), so I only have 2-3hrs a day this month to get ready. Not worried about the heat, not my 1st rodeo, but the other guy has been around too. I’ve asked a few pro friends and got completely different answers. I’m nowhere near pro speed myself.

Well how did it go ?

 

[WardS]

I recommend only using 10 balls instead of 15 for attempting straight pool, or one pocket for that matter, on a bar box

At one of the bar box tournaments in La. Guys were playing 1pocket on bar tables. In the tournament in La yesterday I saw Fedor playing a guy 1 ball 1 pocket, I didn’t know that game even exist. I watched and it looked like fun.

 

[BRKNRUN]

IMO.....The higher the actual Fargo...the less of a difference it will make between 9 and 7....The lower the Fargo....the more difference it will make in performance between 9 and 7.

There is the obvious......play the middle of the rails for shape (don't scratch) and play patterns into bigger shot zones (don't hook yourself) etc. etc. blah blah........making balls is the easy part....weak players can make balls on a bar box with regularity (so don't leave weak players a shot)

The break is a little bit different between tables..... and....because of the ease of making balls and running out open tables.....control of the table is very important......or at minimum first choice of balls in 8-ball .....Practicing a Bar Box break is a good idea.

But from my observations.....there are going to be clusters........The "BEST" bar box players are the ones that are very skilled at breaking up those clusters in such a way that leaves an out vs weaker bar box players that maybe know how to run into a cluster but are not as skilled at knowing what is going to happen after they run into that cluster and thus end up eventually selling out the rack.

 

[Badpenguin]

I’m flying out of state next month to play 10b, 3 sets on a barbox ( diamond ), 3k a set, races to 15. I’m the favorite on paper ( fargo ) but I haven’t been playing. The problem is I only have a 9’ diamond at my place and the closest diamond barbox to

Well, how did it go?

 

[ShootingArts]

Scotty Townsend told us that when you move to the small table it's playing shape... he said one rail shape on the bar table, everything looks easier, but if you don't a natural line of shape, one rail will keep your arse out of the frying pan.
OH, he was pretty strong on the bar table too....

Scotty got me twice, or at least I ran out of money as he himself liked to say about not winning. I was in the habit of traveling light. That plan wasn't working so time for plan "B". I stuck enough cash in my pocket to be able to get down and root awhile and went looking for Scotty. I made several trips, never did find him. Probably saved me some money.

Hu

 

[Mustardeer]

Well, how did it go?

i got it. Sorry haven’t been online much lately.