Slow play by pros
- Thread starter middleofnowhere
- Start date
That's pretty much my view. Just deal with the snails. I think the shot clock is necessary for weak promotions, but someone like Matchroom should be able to deal with the slow players. Using a shot clock isn't all positive as there is quite a bit of drama that is lost when the the game is played to a metronome.
Tick...tick...tick...5
Tick...tick...tick...5
If you want that to happen to the pro tour, I think you need to convince Emily. Good luck. While you're at it, have her change the five ball back to orange and the four to purple, if she has to have a purple ball.
I’d be interested in the games but will leave the orange 5 ball to Fatboy!
cueball2010
Active member
When did they reduce pocket size? 30 years ago? What was the size?
With the advances in Cloth, Pocket facings, rails, cue tips, etc.. Don't the pockets play just as big as bigger pockets in the stone age? I feel like the ability to move the ball must have went way up through the roof in comparison to any reduction in pockets size. My first clue would be Dr. Dave and his new, smaller pockets playing bigger then his old bigger pockets.
Don't know when they went with 4-inch pockets; it wasn't like that in 2010. I think that it was 4.5 to 4.75 back then and before.
I agree that a well-maintained table with tight pockets will play wider than a badly maintained table with wider pockets. I wrote about it in the past.
But a lot of players come from countries where tables are not that great and humidity is high.
High humidity will make the rails very bouncy, and the balls will return short, and it'll change from hour to hour, so no rail system works... (somebody said waxing?) This makes players less dependent on banks and CB accurate paths and more on the ability to pocket balls with sometimes very hard shots and extreme cut shots. But with 4 inch pocket, some of those shots are impossible, so you play safe.
I first noticing this change in the game with young asian players like Wu Jiaqing back in early 2000's and pockets were still wider back then.
This is just the third full season in which 4" pockets have been used in WNT play. Many of the Matchroom specs in use today (nine on the spot, narrow break box, tighter pockets) were first used at the 2022 European Open and became the norm for the 2023 season.
In 2010, 4 1/2" was the typical pocket size at the 9ball majors.
Did the result of the match likely change? If this happens when you’re up 6-0 or down 0-6 then it doesn’t matter.
Luck is part of 9 ball in every game due to the randomness of the break. You can get lucky or unlucky by being one inch in the wrong direction to be perfectly straight in or having an angle. You can get lucky or unlucky with balls being open or clustering repeatedly on your breaks or your opponent missing and not giving you a shot. Luck and rolls are inherent in 9 ball and pool in general.
You can lose a hill-hill match with your opponent making a slop shot. Your opponent continues in the tournament and you’re out. I’m not going to go through every tournament to see who would have been eliminated if it weren’t for luck, it shouldn’t be part of any game of “skill”, horseshoes maybe, but not pool
Agree big time. Luck is just part of the game. Trying to 'sterilize' the luck out is impossible. If you want a game with less of it play call shot 10b, not 'call safe' tho. That is the worst game ever as it removes the two-way shot. 9b was never designed to be a tournament game, it was designed for GAMBLING. Over time it became a tournament game and luck is just part of it. It should not be as slow as today's pros play it. It was envisioned as a fast-n-loose gambling game not safety filled drudgery.
in magor tournaments it gets harder as well by day 2 or 3
the point of the pockets drop a bit and they become tighter
Cmon, you know that would be virtually impossible because you cant prove a negative. But we have seen slop help teams get game wins even in the Mosconi. I bet it wouldn't take long just watching only MC games and picking the lucky shots that had a bearing on the game at hand.