Race to 5 or 5 ahead?

[jay helfert]

My experience with short races is that if you lose the first set and get even the second set it's over! When you play ahead sets and win a set, your opponent will usually play one more to try to get even. Playing races it's hard to keep a guy playing for several sets. Maybe they will go for two sets if you're lucky. You need to get them stuck and keep them stuck, that's my opinion. I made my best scores playing 9-Ball getting ahead from the get go. Losing the first set usually meant I was now playing to get even.

 

[Get_A_Grip]

My experience with short races is that if you lose the first set and get even the second set it's over! When you play ahead sets and win a set, your opponent will usually play one more to try to get even. Playing races it's hard to keep a guy playing for several sets. Maybe they will go for two sets if you're lucky. You need to get them stuck and keep them stuck, that's my opinion. I made my best scores playing 9-Ball getting ahead from the get go. Losing the first set usually meant I was now playing to get even.

I know that this is true, because I have lost the most money trying to get even.

Also, if you are winning, don't let your opponent keep switching the game on you until he finds a game that he can beat you at -- even if you are "technically" the more skilled player. (That's happened too!)

 

[Michael Andros]

My experience with short races is that if you lose the first set and get even the second set it's over! When you play ahead sets and win a set, your opponent will usually play one more to try to get even. Playing races it's hard to keep a guy playing for several sets. Maybe they will go for two sets if you're lucky. You need to get them stuck and keep them stuck, that's my opinion. I made my best scores playing 9-Ball getting ahead from the get go. Losing the first set usually meant I was now playing to get even.

:yeah: :yeah: :yeah:

 

[Black-Balled]

My exact sentiments. Burns my ass to lose it all 7-6 or 9-8. Yes, you can go back for more sets but the outcome can still be a 1 game loss.

Shiiit! Not only that, but with sets, one can win more games than his opponent and still be loser by the money. That'll piss ya off.

I prefer to play by the game and am fine with putting up a few games worth, to ensure an amount is possible.

I will play better as we go along and I like to think part of my skill set is reading what the other guy does and using them smarts to improve my side of it.

 

[jrctherake]

My experience with short races is that if you lose the first set and get even the second set it's over! When you play ahead sets and win a set, your opponent will usually play one more to try to get even. Playing races it's hard to keep a guy playing for several sets. Maybe they will go for two sets if you're lucky. You need to get them stuck and keep them stuck, that's my opinion. I made my best scores playing 9-Ball getting ahead from the get go. Losing the first set usually meant I was now playing to get even.

True for me as well.

Best I ever did was:

We play 8 ahead even for $200. We played a set every day for over two weeks.

He comes up and says....your up let's play for it all.....i said sure.

We played a race to 11 for $2000. I won 11 to 3(memory).

He then wanted a spot. I gave 5 on the wire in 10 ahead and got another 5k off him. He want even speak to me today...lol.

If I had played him by the game or short races at first my winning would have been much less and my action (with him) still ruined.

Rake

 

[Badbeat13]

Ahead sets are better for big money, unless you play a
long race to 21 or something. Either one of the above
mentioned is going to result in the best player winning
almost every time, unless you have 2 truly equal players
going at it.

Short races are fun if you're playing cheap and pressed
for time. But as far as serious gambling, no thanks to
short races.

 

[jrctherake]

Hill - hill for the cheese is a sweater's delight. For betters? Not so much. At least not for me.

Oh yeah. Sweater's delight for sure. No player like h/h matches for the cheese.

Even though there are some known to let it go that far just to keep from losing their fish. I've done it a time or two. Lol...one time sticks out. I let the poor bastard get by and turned around and dogged the cheese.

Sets like that stay with a player.

 

[Michael Andros]

Oh yeah. Sweater's delight for sure. No player like h/h matches for the cheese.

Even though there are some known to let it go that far just to keep from losing their fish. I've done it a time or two. Lol...one time sticks out. I let the poor bastard get by and turned around and dogged the cheese.

Sets like that stay with a player.

Been there, done that. :banghead:

 

[old fart]

depends

how much is the bet and how long can you play. if you got all day(or more)& betting high i'd prefer 5 ahead. if you got the nuts, play a bunch of races & get paid off as much as possible. Remember tho, if you beat a guy to death set after set you probably wont get him to play much after that. you're better off winning a couple if 5 aheads than a plethora of races that cost you future action.