slop frustration

Any slop too much...

This, a thousand times. The better you play the more luck gets eliminated from the equation.

I agree with what Buddy Hall has been saying for years. There's no place for slop in pool.
Yes, the better you play, the less luck plays a part. But some years ago, I played a fella a race to 7 for some nice $. We played 12 games without a miss, going to 6-6. On the hill, he ran out from the rack but slopped in the 9. One lucky shot ruined a truly great match...

Donny L
PBIA/ACS Instructor
 
I agree with what Buddy Hall has been saying for years. There's no place for slop in pool.
Yes, the better you play, the less luck plays a part. But some years ago, I played a fella a race to 7 for some nice $. We played 12 games without a miss, going to 6-6. On the hill, he ran out from the rack but slopped in the 9. One lucky shot ruined a truly great match...

Donny L
PBIA/ACS Instructor
So 9b is 7.15% luck. Or is it .86%?
Thread closed.
 
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I agree with what Buddy Hall has been saying for years. There's no place for slop in pool.
Yes, the better you play, the less luck plays a part. But some years ago, I played a fella a race to 7 for some nice $. We played 12 games without a miss, going to 6-6. On the hill, he ran out from the rack but slopped in the 9. One lucky shot ruined a truly great match...

Donny L
PBIA/ACS Instructor

It didn't ruin it for the other guy.
 
It is hard for me to fade fortunate rolls as well but you really have no control over what your opponent does as the table. The less you let if bother you the better off you will be when it's your shot
 
No, I didn't mean can't make a ball as literally as you are taking it, but he was missing easy cut shots and couldn't get shape when he was at the table (we were playing alternate break) So he just started splashing them. I know it's just words to everybody on here but if you seen it you would completely agree. Even he admitted it.

Please understand this is completely light hearted but my response to that would be... How well could you really have been playing that he could literally continue to out slop you long enough to come back and sweep the whole set ? Alternate breaks no less.

I still think your in denial. ;)
 
Please understand this is completely light hearted but my response to that would be... How well could you really have been playing that he could literally continue to out slop you long enough to come back and sweep the whole set ? Alternate breaks no less.

I still think your in denial. ;)

Many things come into play there, not making balls on the break, not getting out myself, leaving him safe and he hits the ball and either gets safe or makes a ball with shape. The guy is one of the best players around, can run with pretty much anybody on a barbox (we were on 9ft though) That is why it's so disgusting what happened, the second set was all in my own head and he was still banging balls, I was frustrated from the first set and I couldn't make a ball when I did have a shot.
 
So I was playing one of the top guys around here last night and we were playing 9 ball for cheap $20 sets and I was walking through him with ease the first set, I was getting out from everywhere and he couldn't make a ball. So the first set I'm on the hill and he just starts banging balls and it was like they were magnetic for the pockets. He was hitting the cueball so hard it was bouncing around the table and off rails but balls kept going, so several games of this and he gets it hill hill so we double up and play again, and same freaking thing he just starts slamming balls and they are falling left and right and I never won a game. He never actually ran a rack on me in the usual sense of playing right and getting position. He even admitted he was just splashing the balls. So frustrating.

Who'd you play? PM me if you don't want to say it publicly. ...please! :)

Dave
 
Many things come into play there, not making balls on the break, not getting out myself, leaving him safe and he hits the ball and either gets safe or makes a ball with shape. The guy is one of the best players around, can run with pretty much anybody on a barbox (we were on 9ft though) That is why it's so disgusting what happened, the second set was all in my own head and he was still banging balls, I was frustrated from the first set and I couldn't make a ball when I did have a shot.

When I see an opponent getting rattled or discouraged I will often claim luck or feign embarrassment when I appear to "slop" one in. A lot of the time it's just a fun game or a league game and I don't want to deal with a bad sport for cleaning his clock. Better he direct his anger at luck or kismet or karma or whatever. I don't want the drama of the sore loser. This is not to say you are a sore loser...

People say a lot of things, none of them true. You also might have let his reputation preceed him. I once played a "top guy" in a league 9 ball singles qualifier. I beat him without needing the handicap the first time around, but when I saw him on the one loss side, it was a different story. I expected him to play tougher, lock me up safe etc, and I psyched myself out and lost a match I could have won. This top guy (now the league owner) wasn't playing his best pool that day, but his reputation won the second set...

:cool:
 
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"Other guy" didn't like the slop win, either.

It didn't ruin it for the other guy.

Actually, it was the "other guy" who immediately said, (after slopping in the nine) "Sorry 'bout that, - it was a great match till I s--- that nine!"

Personally, I don't much like winning on a slop shot, either....

Donny L
PBIA/ACS Instructor
 
Actually, it was the "other guy" who immediately said, (after slopping in the nine) "Sorry 'bout that, - it was a great match till I s--- that nine!"

Personally, I don't much like winning on a slop shot, either....

Donny L
PBIA/ACS Instructor

Maybe I'm strange, but timing of the luck is irrelevant to me. I'm not going to feel bad about one lucky shot that happened to occur on the last shot of the match any more than I would be if it were the first shot, or a shot in the middle of the rack. I got to the hill, I did well to get there, one shot doesn't cheapen any win in my mind.

I would say the same thing about feeling bad about winning on the slop but that's only because it's an easy out to make someone I just beat feel better about losing.
 
Simple Solution

Quit playing the game that has slop. Switch to call shot 10 ball that will cure your blues. Better Game IMHO. I think the main thing that will help you when you switch to Call Shot 10 ball, is those negative thoughts will not creep back in your head. When you play him in 9 ball again and after the first slop shot, you will be thinking, oh crap here we go again. Sorry but that is how the mind works. Your physiology will change, and he will notice it. It builds his confidence and attitude and subtracts from yours.

A little tip. If you do play 9 ball again, and he does slop in a ball, close your eyes after the slop in and say the words cancel, cancel three times to yourself. Do the same anytime a negative thought creeps in.

Now go get your money back, and some of his.
 
Quit playing the game that has slop. Switch to call shot 10 ball that will cure your blues. Better Game IMHO. I think the main thing that will help you when you switch to Call Shot 10 ball, is those negative thoughts will not creep back in your head. When you play him in 9 ball again and after the first slop shot, you will be thinking, oh crap here we go again. Sorry but that is how the mind works. Your physiology will change, and he will notice it. It builds his confidence and attitude and subtracts from yours.

A little tip. If you do play 9 ball again, and he does slop in a ball, close your eyes after the slop in and say the words cancel, cancel three times to yourself. Do the same anytime a negative thought creeps in.

Now go get your money back, and some of his.
I know what you mean, no one is saying you have to call every kiss or bump; but ball and pocket is not too much to ask, It should be part of every game by serious players. Luck is part of every sport, the foul ball that goes foul by a foot that could have been a home run. Making an unlikely putt from 60 feet to win the US Open.

Luck is in every sport but in a precision sport like pool, winning by just breaking the balls or missing a ball completely and having it fall somewhere else and it counts, come on. It cheapens the game so much. This could be changed almost over night by the powers that be who run tours and would become the accepted way to play.

This is really to important a subject to just be hidden in this thread, it needs to be a sport wide campaign to make the game better and a more professional sport. The amateurs will always follow the way the pros play and they need to play a more championship form of pool. Luck shot pool needs to be phased out on the pro level and the rest will follow.
 
While I actually like your post for most situations and agree with it in most situations, in this case it doesn't really apply to me. I think that the poster right above you (12squared) could attest to this, I play enough of the top guys constantly enough and win a fair enough amount of the time that repuation doesn't really get to me. I play better under more pressure and against better players. While I do not blame most of the posters on here for thinking that I am just being a sore loser or making excuses or whatever the case may be...this was truely one of those times that he literally was just getting the rolls, everybody goes through it at times and there is nothing you can do about it. I never mind losing, especially against someone like him, the frustrating part about it was the fact he is so good and he played like a banger, he knew it, he admitted it, everybody around admitted it. When someone as good as him is hitting balls so freaking hard they are literally bouncing around the table, they are playing like a banger.
When I see an opponent getting rattled or discouraged I will often claim luck or feign embarrassment when I appear to "slop" one in. A lot of the time it's just a fun game or a league game and I don't want to deal with a bad sport for cleaning his clock. Better he direct his anger at luck or kismet or karma or whatever. I don't want the drama of the sore loser. This is not to say you are a sore loser...

People say a lot of things, none of them true. You also might have let his reputation preceed him. I once played a "top guy" in a league 9 ball singles qualifier. I beat him without needing the handicap the first time around, but when I saw him on the one loss side, it was a different story. I expected him to play tougher, lock me up safe etc, and I psyched myself out and lost a match I could have won. This top guy (now the league owner) wasn't playing his best pool that day, but his reputation won the second set...

:cool:
 
So I was playing one of the top guys around here last night and we were playing 9 ball for cheap $20 sets and I was walking through him with ease the first set, I was getting out from everywhere and he couldn't make a ball. So the first set I'm on the hill and he just starts banging balls and it was like they were magnetic for the pockets. He was hitting the cueball so hard it was bouncing around the table and off rails but balls kept going, so several games of this and he gets it hill hill so we double up and play again, and same freaking thing he just starts slamming balls and they are falling left and right and I never won a game. He never actually ran a rack on me in the usual sense of playing right and getting position. He even admitted he was just splashing the balls. So frustrating.

I'm guessing you lost?
 
The problem with calling every shot is you take away the two-way shots. I probably play one two-way show in every other set because they come up alot.
I used to gamble with a guy who always slopped in a ball or two a set. I hated that crap but recovered quickly. The problem was that every time he slopped in a ball and got out he was almost a lock to break and run the next rack. For whatever reason, slop put him on fire. It was funny but frustrating beyond belief. It became something we all laughingly accepted about playing the guy. He'd sh!t a ball in and the guys playing on the next table would immediately say something like, "Now you're in trouble." We all knew what was coming for the next five or ten minutes -inspired pool.
 
So I was playing one of the top guys around here last night and we were playing 9 ball for cheap $20 sets and I was walking through him with ease the first set, I was getting out from everywhere and he couldn't make a ball. So the first set I'm on the hill and he just starts banging balls and it was like they were magnetic for the pockets. He was hitting the cueball so hard it was bouncing around the table and off rails but balls kept going, so several games of this and he gets it hill hill so we double up and play again, and same freaking thing he just starts slamming balls and they are falling left and right and I never won a game. He never actually ran a rack on me in the usual sense of playing right and getting position. He even admitted he was just splashing the balls. So frustrating.

Drive two thousand miles, have the lead at 5-1, get sharked and then he runs a 9 pack on ya. Next break he makes a ball, and locks me up, I lose 11-5. Final 8 Reno 9' pro event. I'm up 10-8, opponent trys to cut a ball in the corner, clips the impending ball, then goes three rails into another pocket, loose 11-10. Pool, slop, luck, skill and all that goes on in any pool game parallels what unexpectedness we encounter ea day we're alive. If you can't handle or grow from the frustration of being beat by luck, might as well stay home and complain about things you cannot change, and in turn become more miserable. Pool will show ones true character in life, good or bad.
 
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