Slow Play

[drivermaker]

Now, that's something I can get behind! The problem is how to compensate for the time needed on critical shots with routine shots.

For whom, the player to decide this? If it's a routine shot...then shoot the motherf*#ker!!
It shouldn't take more that 10 seconds for anyone, and that's no lie!!

The question I have is...with this "bank of time", how do you compensate for 3 balls knocked in on the break and only six balls left on the table? If you get a "full bank" like with 9 balls left, the slow poke asses will still use it all up to the end and be pissing everyone off.

 

[vagabond]

For whom, the player to decide this? If it's a routine shot...then shoot the motherf*#ker!!
the slow poke asses will still use it all up to the end and be pissing everyone off.

Hi,
I do not like even to socialize with them let alone not play with them.
Vagabond

 

[dmgwalsh]

slow players

Slow players tend to drive me nuts. Sometimes, I'll just shoot faster which doesn't always help.

Lately, I just watch another game or shut my eyes and relax when one of these guys is looking at the table from every angle, getting down on a shot, getting up, walking around loking at the angle, getting down, practice stroking, etc. We play two matches in a straight pool league and sometimes it takes 4 or 5 hours.

One guy that plays real slow was down about 25 or 30 balls on me and I must have said something that pissed him off, cuz he started getting focused, shooting faster and nearly caught me. I pointed out to him later how much better he shot when he moved a little faster in an effort to educate him for the future. We'll see if it takes.

Dennis

 

[Qnut]

In one league I play, there is a guy who is by far the slowest player I have ever seen. Decent shooter, APA 6-7 level, but incredibly slow. He analyzes every shot, from every angle. Sometimes he'll do this, decide on a shot, address the ball, then just when you think he's about to shoot he stands up and does it all again. I don't think he does it on purpose, it's just the way he is. If he's got 3 easy, straight in stop shots for his out, he'll still walk around the table and analyze it after every shot.

I played him one night, and the match went to the hill with him breaking the last rack and running 7. He missed his last shot, giving me a wide open table to run out and win. When he came over to shake my hand, he told me "I shot that last one to fast."

If I had been in the middle of a drink, I would have snorted it out my nose.

 

[drivermaker]

Hi,
I do not like even to socialize with them let alone not play with them.
Vagabond

I don't blame you one bit. I've given this problem considerable thought and very careful consideration and this seems to be the best solution I could come up with.

Slow players (to be determined by any fast players criteria and guidelines) throughout the country should be identified, tagged, captured, and placed in high security barbed wire compounds like a leper colony. While there, they can play 24/7 if desired with other slow players and can either continue to play slow or learn to get faster. It would behoove them to get faster.

You see...each year they'll have a parole board hearing where they'll have to prove themselves in a playing test in front of a panel of fast players. If they fail, not only are they not released back into society again, but they must go through a punishment phase to learn to move quicker.

They'll have a 70 meter head start in a hundred meter dash agains 5 vicious, hungry pit bulls that just got their asses whipped for no good damn reason. At the end of the finish line is a steel trap door that they'll run through which will immediately shut to keep out the dogs.

The following year they'll be up for parole again and if they fail, they'll only have a 60 meter head start against the pooches.

Now in the third year if they're still dragging ass according to the panels guidelines, they'll have a choice as to their poison. It'll either be a 50 yard head start against the dogs...or...a 10 yard head start against LS77 with her Lorena Bobbitt butcher knife. If I were in that position and had to make a decision, I don't know what the hell I'd do. I couldn't imagine the terror of looking over my shoulder and seeing the sun reflecting off of that blade, the maniacal look in LS's eyes, and watching her streak down that track like Marion Jones (on steroids) wanting to do a lot more than give circumcisions.

If THIS doesn't make a slow player play faster, I don't know what will.

For all fast players interested in being a part of the elite undercover team that ferrets out slow players, please leave your name and you'll soon be notified and deputized for the position and captures can start taking place immediately.

Yours truly,
Warden Drivermaker

 

[sjm]

I've given this problem considerable thought and very careful consideration and this seems to be the best solution I could come up with.....Slow players (to be determined by any fast players criteria and guidelines) throughout the country should be identified, tagged, captured, and placed in high security barbed wire compounds like a leper colony. While there, they can play 24/7 if desired with other slow players and can either continue to play slow or learn to get faster. It would behoove them to get faster.

This solution is so obvious I can't understand why I didn't think of it myself. Tacking on some thoughts of my own, those tagged as slow but not yet incarcerated should be given very slow service while in a pool room.

1) even if there are many available tables, when they ask for a table, they shouldn't be given a rack of balls for five minutes
2) they should be given one of the tables furthest from the front desk.
3) once they are given a rack of balls, the pool table's overhead lights shouldn't be tured on for at least another five minutes
4) when they order food or drink, it should be seen to it that their orders are filled very slowly.

.... after all, they're in no hurry.

 

[JAM]

The slowest match I've ever witnessed was the 2003 U.S. Open finals between Jeremy Jones and Jose Parica.

I don't know if Accu-Stats edited the between-shot ritual of Jones between each and every shot, whether a ball was pocketed or not, but poor old Jose couldn't overcome the slowness of Jeremy's play.

Parica's score of 4 in a race to 11 says it all. 920 versus 720 [source: Accu-Stats]

I have recently seen slow players be warned by a referee or TD, if a player is prone to slow-play. If an opponent is vocal about it, a 30-second stopwatch will be in force. This is especially true with televised and/or recorded matches.

JAM

 

[chefjeff]

Last night I sat in a frickin' bar for 4 hours and played 3 games!

Karaoke had several players singing while their games were in progress!

And the other table was covered with Karaoke equipment!

Feelings, nothing more than feelings...trying to forget my feelings of wanting to kill someone....Teardrops, running down my face...teardrops...

Jeff Livingston

 

[drivermaker]

Last night I sat in a frickin' bar for 4 hours and played 3 games!

Karaoke had several players singing while their games were in progress!

And the other table was covered with Karaoke equipment!

Feelings, nothing more than feelings...trying to forget my feelings of wanting to kill someone....Teardrops, running down my face...teardrops...

Jeff Livingston

So...do you want to be deputized? We need to get this movement going nationwide or they're going to get worse and worse.


While I'm at it on this post, I have a question for all of the "not so fast" players on here that have been opposed to a shot clock or amount of time given.

Does anyone on here think that a shot clock should NEVER be used...for ANY length of time...at NO tournament...on NO players?

 

[vapoolplayer]

Does anyone on here think that a shot clock should NEVER be used...for ANY length of time...at NO tournament...on NO players?

i don't think it should be used ALL the time..........only when the person is shooting extremely slow.

i like the way the wpba has their tourney set up, if at a certain point the match hasnt seen at least a certain number of games, the shot clock goes into effect.

i think this should be the way it is doen the entire tourney, i don't think that in the t.v. rounds that the shot clock should always be on..........but i also don't think they should shorten the race either, but thats another strory.

i think that extremely slow play isn't really a big problem, as most players play at an adequate pace.

if you're going to enter a tourney, then you should be prepared to face all kinds of players, fast, medium, and slow speed players. if you want to get picky with your opponents..........then don't enter a tourney.

if you want to pick your opponents, then just stick to gambling, as you only have to play who you want to.

VAP

 

[drivermaker]

i think that extremely slow play isn't really a big problem, as most players play at an adequate pace.

if you're going to enter a tourney, then you should be prepared to face all kinds of players, fast, medium, and slow speed players. if you want to get picky with your opponents..........then don't enter a tourney.
VAP

I don't know what "most" players means. I sure as hell know that FAR from "all" players play at an adequate pace. And as soon as you get out of the upper echelon of players, it gets slower and worse and slower and worse with each level.

Not entering a tourney isn't the answer. Making it an even playing field with a fair amount of time alloted for everyone is a better solution. The same problem exists in golf and they've been making strides at all levels of play for speeding up the game. Hey...do you have any idea what it's like to play a 6 f*#king hour round of golf? It's excrutiatingly torturous, and it can occur in a tournament, a US Open qualifier, a top amateur event, and a course full of hacks. Pro's on the PGA tour that are notoriously slow are watched and other players hate being paired with them. They're on the clock and warnings are issued during play. If it continues they can be and are penalized and sometimes fined. Public courses are now demanding that rounds of golf are played in 4 hours to 4 hours and 20 minutes. If you're behind, you get a warning and if it persists you'll be asked to leave the course.

Pool is no different. There HAS to be a time limit somewhere. Otherwise it penalizes too many players that don't function at a snails pace. THEY are always the ones hurt. The slow player is NEVER hurt by a fast player. They could give a shit less and are never apt to speed up as a result.

 

[chefjeff]

I(snip) Public courses are now demanding that rounds of golf are played in 4 hours to 4 hours and 20 minutes. If you're behind, you get a warning and if it persists you'll be asked to leave the course.

(snip).

On what planet do YOU play? The courses around here are really slow.

How slow are they?

They're so slow they hired a snail to be ranger.

They're so slow they think a 4 hour round is how long it takes to walk around the green.

They're so slow that Abe Lincoln just finished the 18th.

I quit golf because of the slow play. It kept just getting worse and worse as the game popularized. After it took 3 hours 20 minutes to play 9 holes on a Tuesday afternoon and the pro wouldn't refund my money for the second nine or the cart, and I was pulled back by my friend as I was climbing over the counter to get at said pro, I decided to give up golf for good and just play pool.

Jeff Livingston

PS Sign me up, Marshal Dillon.

 

[drivermaker]

I quit golf because of the slow play. It kept just getting worse and worse as the game popularized. After it took 3 hours 20 minutes to play 9 holes on a Tuesday afternoon and the pro wouldn't refund my money for the second nine or the cart, and I was pulled back by my friend as I was climbing over the counter to get at said pro, I decided to give up golf for good and just play pool.

Jeff Livingston

PS Sign me up, Marshal Dillon.

I know exactly what you mean about a 3+ hour round for 9 holes. They do exist and I've been stuck in a couple with no escape. NO MORE though!
Another pro friend of mine and I played last week in 4 hours 20 minutes and it was truly enjoyable. Usually we go around at that pace when the opportunity avails itself. Oh...I guess I forgot to mention...that was for 36 HOLES!!!

Pool can be just as agravating at times. Hell...sit at a long traffic light some day that measures 1 minute in length. That can be an eternity! Then replace that same one minute that you've been fuming you ass off and imagine some idiotic moron at the table not being able to figure out what the hell to shoot at or being able to pull the damn trigger! How in the hell can you not do that?

Marshall Dillon...we're pleased to have you aboard.