Slowest pro players?

JAM said:
Danny Basavich, but he can play fast too. I have seen him play under a 30-second shot clock at Glass City Open, and he ran a six-pack on Corey Deuel.

JAM

shot clock is good for him. maybe they should implement a 30sec DB rule.
 
The award for longest break shot goes to...... Leil "JR" Gay. No less than 19 warm up strokes on every break.
 
J. Learned Hand said:
I am sure oyu know all about this as you are the master of the slow role, sir. :grin:

Not only am I the master, I even wrote a book on it:eek: . One of the very first times I played NaNa he gave me a stern lecture on my slow play. I didn't realize that what I was doing was a form of sharking, but after he pointed it out to me I saw it from his perspective. Once I learned to play a little faster, my game improved quickly.
 
senor said:
All due respect, there is a difference between playing within your own pace and slow-rolling your opponent. Purposeful slow-rolling is not in the spirit of the game IMO.


Tap Tap!


I don't agree with the ones who are saying that the slow play doesn't affect the popularity of watching the game.

I used to be slow myself, still am at times, but nowadays much faster than few years back, and I got criticized a lot then by my opponents.
Few times when under the shot clock, I probably played better than without it - but I never play or have played slow on purpose.

I do think, for the sake of the popularity of the sport, that there should be a shot clock in use, at least in the TV-tables. Not too fast though, so it wouldn't be all messy and take away the strategy part, but for example 40 seconds per shot and one extension per rack.
 
alstl said:
That is all well and good, but the ipt is hoping to get people to pay a monthly fee to watch their videos. Sigel counted 32 warmup strokes for Robles on one break shot. I counted seven minutes for him to run a rack after his opponent came up dry including a minute to study a straight in shot in the side pocket where he rolled forward two inches. Even Sigel was commenting on the slow play. It simply isn't entertaining to watch that. The straight pool was far more entertaining.


It's post like this that show that the intent of this thread was to knock the players that are believed to play slow!

Golf has to be one of the SLOWEST sports on the planet and it is a HUGE success on TV. Tiger Woods takes his sweet time and thus he wins. He's not interested in the crowd thinking he too slow. Why would he care? And yet, he's a huge success both on and off the green.

Pool barely has the luxury of air time. This was a race to 15 8-ball game. Anyone who knows the game knows it doesn't go as fast as 9-ball and you really gotta play the right pattern to have the highest percentage chance to get out. Robles played at the speed that guaranteed him the win. If your entertainment value wasn't fulfilled, go watch a 9-ball match race to 5. That'll go really fast for you. But 8-ball race to 15! Expect to be there a while!

Fun players play to win the crowd, smart players play to win the game!

Instead of people complaining about the length of time a player takes, maybe you should take note of what they accomplished with that length of time, ask why they took that long, and try and learn something from it.
 
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SHOT CLOCK=NO PROBLEM. Slow play is sharking to most others. Players play slow because they don't feel they can make the shot. Players play slow because they can't think as fast as most other players.

But I have to agree if I would have taking 30-60 sec. a shot ior longer for tough shots, I would have been an A+ player with no problem. Johnnyt
 
GG11 said:
It's post like this that show that the intent of this thread was to knock the players that are believed to play slow!

Golf has to be one of the SLOWEST sports on the planet and it is a HUGE success on TV. Tiger Woods takes his sweet time and thus he wins. He's not interested in the crowd thinking he too slow. Why would he care? And yet, he's a huge success both on and off the green.

Pool barely has the luxury of air time. This was a race to 15 8-ball game. Anyone who knows the game knows it doesn't go as fast as 9-ball and you really gotta play the right pattern to have the highest percentage chance to get out. Robles played at the speed that guaranteed him the win. If your entertainment value wasn't fulfilled, go watch a 9-ball match race to 5. That'll go really fast for you. But 8-ball race to 15! Expect to be there a while!

Fun players play to win the crowd, smart players play to win the game!

Instead of people complaining about the length of time a player takes, maybe you should take note of what they accomplished with that length of time, ask why they took that long, and try and learn something from it.
The best part is, if I could play like Tony Robles and win like Tony Robles, but I had to slow down my game to do it... I'd do it in a heartbeat. Anyone here who wouldn't?? :confused: :confused:
 
GG11 said:
It's post like this that show that the intent of this thread was to knock the players that are believed to play slow!

Golf has to be one of the SLOWEST sports on the planet and it is a HUGE success on TV. Tiger Woods takes his sweet time and thus he wins. He's not interested in the crowd thinking he too slow. Why would he care? And yet, he's a huge success both on and off the green.

Pool barely has the luxury of air time. This was a race to 15 8-ball game. Anyone who knows the game knows it doesn't go as fast as 9-ball and you really gotta play the right pattern to have the highest percentage chance to get out. Robles played at the speed that guaranteed him the win. If your entertainment value wasn't fulfilled, go watch a 9-ball match race to 5. That'll go really fast for you. But 8-ball race to 15! Expect to be there a while!

Fun players play to win the crowd, smart players play to win the game!

Instead of people complaining about the length of time a player takes, maybe you should take note of what they accomplished with that length of time, ask why they took that long, and try and learn something from it.

I've met Tony a few times and he seems like a great guy on and off the table. He plays jam-up. But this riding in on your White Horse everytime someone says anything a little neg about Tony is getting real old. Johnnyt
 
AZE said:
I don't think the speed of the players play is what is keeping pool from 'making it on TV'.
AFAIK golf is a much slower paced game than pool.
....

Yes, but in golf they move from place to place, they don't follow one pair of players for every stroke. It gives the illusion of more lively action.

That wouldn't work for pool though. Paradoxically pool is too quick to move from match to match, you'd lose too much in the transition time from table to table.
 
I agree that if the players speed up it would be more entertaining but if playing slower (not to the point of sharking slow) gets the job done for the pros thtas what they will do I believe. I am almost tempted though to go back and look at some of the threads that talked about speed pool as alot of people said they hated speed pool. I wonder how many people in this thread have said speed it up it will be more exciting and in the other thread said that speed pool is crap.
 
Johnnyt said:
I've met Tony a few times and he seems like a great guy on and off the table. He plays jam-up. But this riding in on your White Horse everytime someone says anything a little neg about Tony is getting real old. Johnnyt
Woah there... hold up. What is the big freaking deal? Maybe if the negativity was justified, the white horse wouldn't be necessary. What amazes me more is that someone can be a great guy, on and off the table, and that people still have to come on here and crucify him for no reason. GG11 is perfectly entitled to defend whoever she chooses. There is no need to call her out for that. You have a fairly one-track posting mind as well, and people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
 
JAM said:
Dick Lane is about the slowest I have ever experienced watching, but he sure is a sweet guy, so very nice.

JAM

Here's a Dick Lane anecdote:

I viewed Dick Lane's player review Accu-Stats tape (excellent, excellent commentary by the way); and Dick mentioned that in preparation for the 14.1 tournament he played about 6 hours a day of straight pool by himself, for a couple of weeks before the tournament.

I mentioned this preparation method to a noted road player, who snorted, "hell, Dick plays so damn slow that he HAS to play alone, no one will play with him."
 
Johnnyt said:
I've met Tony a few times and he seems like a great guy on and off the table. He plays jam-up. But this riding in on your White Horse everytime someone says anything a little neg about Tony is getting real old. Johnnyt


It's funny b/c in this reference in particular, I was more defending people like myself as I have been accused of playing slow! But your attack has been noted.
 
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lodini said:
Woah there... hold up. and people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

I also firmly believe that these people should dress in the basement!

Lodini, did you start you post with "Whoa there" because of the white horse? Good job! You always make my day.
 
GG11 said:
It's post like this that show that the intent of this thread was to knock the players that are believed to play slow!

Golf has to be one of the SLOWEST sports on the planet and it is a HUGE success on TV. Tiger Woods takes his sweet time and thus he wins. He's not interested in the crowd thinking he too slow. Why would he care? And yet, he's a huge success both on and off the green.
See my previous comment about golf. It is comparing apples and oranges. The only time the slowness of any individual player slows down the broadcast is in the one-on-one suddend death playoffs after a tie. Generally it isn't the time a pool player actually takes to shoot that is the problem, but the time he/she stands around with their thumb up their butt thinking about the next shot.
Pool barely has the luxury of air time. This was a race to 15 8-ball game. Anyone who knows the game knows it doesn't go as fast as 9-ball and you really gotta play the right pattern to have the highest percentage chance to get out. Robles played at the speed that guaranteed him the win. If your entertainment value wasn't fulfilled, go watch a 9-ball match race to 5. That'll go really fast for you. But 8-ball race to 15! Expect to be there a while!

Fun players play to win the crowd, smart players play to win the game!
That is probably true, though many players play to win the crowd AND the game. At any rate, in terms of pool making it as a spectator sport, the crowd HAS to be won.
Also it isn't the time the match takes, it is the pace it moves at. People can watch fast paced pool for a very long time. (Not speed pool, that isn't pool IMO)
Instead of people complaining about the length of time a player takes, maybe you should take note of what they accomplished with that length of time, ask why they took that long, and try and learn something from it.
Boring is boring no matter how you slice it. When I see players study the table for minutes on end then take the obvious shot the whole room saw immediately, I say something is wrong here. It is hard to learn something watching a player just stand and think, we can't hear what is in his head.
Bottom line is it is questionable if pool will make it as a spectator sport even if it is artificially sped up and it absolutely will not make it if the current playing pace is allowed to stand.
 
Steve Ellis said:
Boring is boring no matter how you slice it. When I see players study the table for minutes on end then take the obvious shot the whole room saw immediately, I say something is wrong here. It is hard to learn something watching a player just stand and think, we can't hear what is in his head.
Bottom line is it is questionable if pool will make it as a spectator sport even if it is artificially sped up and it absolutely will not make it if the current playing pace is allowed to stand.

Alot of your post I can totally understand.

As far as hearing what's in his head, that's a great point to bring up. I think that is the commentators job! Unfortunately the only good commentating done during the 8-ball IPT match was done by Joe Rogan and John Schmidt as they both talked about the match at hand, asked questions and tried explaining what the trouble spots were and the patterns possibility and even why one route was better than the other. It could really be an enlightening experience. If the commentators were entertaining and informative enough, then the time between shots would be filled with valuable information and not silence or self indulgence.

It's not as entertaining to the average joe to watch someone stand around and figure something out. In golf, I think that's why they cut from one hole to the next so that the viewers don't have to watch the golfers line up the shots, check the wind, analyze the slope, etc. So maybe if pool were to ever get to a point where it was on the same level, they'd have to broadcast it in the same fashion. Have a number of tables being filmed and jump from one to the other as difficult run outs and unique shots were presented. Don't know if that is possible, but it's another idea to rectify the slow viewing problem.

Unfortunately that's not a possibility for pool right now so we gotta take what we can get!
 
GG11 said:
It's funny b/c in this reference in particular, I was more defending people like myself as I have been accused of playing slow! But you're attack has been noted.

Your right, about what you said in the PM.to me. What I said was uncalled for and I'm sorry. I was trying to make it a joke, but can see now how it didn't look that way. I have a dry sense of humor anyway...but that was too dry...Sorry. Johnnyt
 
Johnnyt said:
Your right, about what you said in the PM.to me. What I said was uncalled for and I'm sorry. I was trying to make it a joke, but can see now how it didn't look that way. I have a dry sense of humor anyway...but that was too dry...Sorry. Johnnyt

Thank you Johnny, I really appreciate that.
 
GG11 said:
... It could really be an enlightening experience. If the commentators were entertaining and informative enough, then the time between shots would be filled with valuable information and not silence or self indulgence...

One name: BILL INCARDONA. Unquestionably the most enlightening commentator I have ever heard.
 
GG11 said:
It's post like this that show that the intent of this thread was to knock the players that are believed to play slow!

Golf has to be one of the SLOWEST sports on the planet and it is a HUGE success on TV. Tiger Woods takes his sweet time and thus he wins. He's not interested in the crowd thinking he too slow. Why would he care? And yet, he's a huge success both on and off the green.

Pool barely has the luxury of air time. This was a race to 15 8-ball game. Anyone who knows the game knows it doesn't go as fast as 9-ball and you really gotta play the right pattern to have the highest percentage chance to get out. Robles played at the speed that guaranteed him the win. If your entertainment value wasn't fulfilled, go watch a 9-ball match race to 5. That'll go really fast for you. But 8-ball race to 15! Expect to be there a while!

Fun players play to win the crowd, smart players play to win the game!

Instead of people complaining about the length of time a player takes, maybe you should take note of what they accomplished with that length of time, ask why they took that long, and try and learn something from it.

The difference between pool and golf is that there are 20 other golfers to show on the course if one player is playing slowly. I don't mind a long match as long as there is something happening. Sigel is helping promote the ipt and he was commenting on the slow play from Robles. He guaranteed himself a win but he may have also guaranteed that he won't be invited back. I quit watching but that's just me, you obviously enjoy slow play. To each his own I guess.
 
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