SJM at the World 14.1 Event
- Thread starter sjm
- Start date
Robles 94 stalev 36. Tony left the cueball in the rack. It clearly looked in the rack to me. Tony took ball in hand behind the headstring. Stalev insisted it was not. Big hullabaloo over it. Tony missed. Stalev at the table.
When Stalev came to Baltimore about 10 years ago to play Tom Vanover, he was very ignorant and cocky, after someone put him back in his place he was fine.
Stalev ran Tom over playing even 1 pocket!
I haven't watched Tony play that much but thus far I'd say he's playing a bit slow even when he was in the midst of a run. 14.1 being a rhythm game I find it somewhat unusual.
Stalev just attempted one of the strangest (for pros not for me) end of rack patterns I've seen. He had a ball on both end rails and close to both side rails. I was almost going to say who needs good patterns when you have superior talent but he didnt get out. Tony back at the table up 101 to 85
Guys, I love Tony to death, but he did make a mistake. It's not Tony's job to pick up the cue ball from the rack area -- that's the job of the racker. It's up to the racker to agree that the cue ball is in the rack area, and he (the racker) picks the cue ball up and slides it down to the kitchen area.
The problem is, we in the livestream area can't see the angles well, and even the commentators are having a hard time commentating on the match with just a monitor's view. Some angles (and some balls, for that matter) don't look like they "go," but then you see the player get up there and shoot them as if they were hangers.
It is Evgeny's right to inspect where the balls lie, and attempt to rack the balls where those balls lie. Even if it's a futile attempt, and he ends up handing the cue ball to Tony anyway (which is supposed to happen, remember).
To me, that cue ball was eclipsing the outline of the drawn rack area on the table, therefore it was in the rack area. But that's not Tony's job to just go up there and pick up the cue ball before Evgeny had a chance to inspect and agree. Fair is fair, and no, it's not a pedantic thing. We teach players here to never touch the cue ball unless the opponent hands it to you. Avoids a ton of arguments.
EDIT: by the way, when Tony subsequently missed the breakshot and slapped the shaft of his cue on the bed of the table, he's lucky that Evgeny didn't choose to leverage the 15-point unsportmanship foul (the commentators Geoff Conway and Gene Mann both mentioned this). That would've added insult to injury. Fortunately, Evgeny didn't.
With that said, let's go Tony!
-Sean
Last edited:
Totally agree. He should not have touched the cueball even though it did look to be in based on the rack outline. I'm rooting for Tony as well.
To me, that cue ball was eclipsing the outline of the drawn rack area on the table, therefore it was in the rack area. But that's not Tony's job to just go up there and pick up the cue ball before Evgeny had a chance to inspect and agree. Fair is fair, and no, it's not a pedantic thing. We teach players here to never touch the cue ball unless the opponent hands it to you. Avoids a ton of arguments. You are right esp in a world tourney such as this