Snooker v 9 Ball - Who's King?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Number1
  • Start date Start date

Who are the greatests cueists

  • Snooker Players

    Votes: 4 50.0%

  • 9 Ball Players

    Votes: 4 50.0%
  • Total voters
    8
  • Poll closed .
N

Number1

Guest
Who are the best cueists, snooker players or 9 ball players? To me someone like Steve Davis or Steven Hendry are in a different class to players like strickland and reyes. How can they compare?! You only have to watch Steve davis compete with the pool players to see this, put a 9 ball player on a snooker table and he would get beaten by most club players.

I still can't believe some of the shots that pro 9 ball players miss, I think the pockets are still to big on a 9 ball table - should they be made smaller?
 
I used to think like you, that Snooker players are in a different league to 9ball players and in some areas they are, but it's not that simple

It is so true that a snooker player can get to a competitive level of 9ball much easier than a 9ball player could get to a competitive level in Snooker but there are skills that the top 9ball players have which snooker players do not when they take up 9ball

e.g.

the Break
Advanced Kickshots
jumpshot
advanced bankshots
9ball table angles
safeties

Steve Davis has learnt some of these skills over a decade hence he is a way better 9ball player than the top snooker players like Mark Williams and Paul Hunter

Efren and Earl and great cueists full stop. Efren i believe can easily make century breaks in snooker
 
Two different specialties - like asking if the mechanical engineer is better than the electrical engineer. Anyway in 1990 Steve Davis won over a million in tournaments and three times that in endorsements. That's probably more than all the 9-ball players earned together. And why didn't you add billiards players, they are the true cueists. IMO. Jake
 
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I know several Dutch (strictly) pool players who've made centuries as well, with their pool cues no less. So I don't share you're point of view.

Being a great cueist is only one part of the requirement, the other parts such as understanding of the game, strategy, insight, knowing when to strike and so forth; are all equally important aspects. There's a world of difference between pool and snooker which a simple comparison can't justify.

I've seen snooker players miss the easiest of balls on pool table as well; so let's not be too high and mighty about it.

I briefly talked to Steve Davis just a couple of weeks ago and he has great respect for the game. And that's the only way you can really be good at it.

fti
 
And what about carom or Russian billiards?
I still believe that carom is the real challenge for cueists.

Stalev (world champion in Russian billiards) 'the killer' plays pool on a professional level. Or he doesn't?
 
Being from Canada I have seen alot of high end snooker players. Most of our top players here in Canada are old snooker players (Horsefall, Potier, Gollan, Martel, ect....). They switched to 9-ball and in a short period of time had come up to a very high level in 9-ball. I know of century running snooker players who I will play straight up 9-ball against. For all their potting ability they dont run alot of racks due to differences in the game (break, shape, banks, trouble balls, ect...). Plus they dont exactly pot like demons on a 9-ball table. Once a player has a larger pocket to aim at they will use it, those snooker players dont split the heart of the pocket on each shot. They will shoot strong but leave them a tough pot with the cueball on the rail and table length distance and those snooker players have trouble. There is a very good reason for this, on a snooker table these players NEVER play that shot, they play safe all day on long tough shots but they suddenly cannot play those safes on a 9-ball table so they have to take on shots they dont normally shoot.

Watch top snooker players. Nothing they shoot is hugely impressive usually, they are masters of consistency and are never out of shape. The shots they shoot are usually fairly easy pots and the shape is usually natural with the correct angle. They have learned to play the game as simple as possible and not challange themselves. If they get out of shape and leave themselves a really tough shot then they will duck, and when they duck the safety does not have to be perfect, more times then not distance will do on a 6x12 table. On a 4 1/2x9 though those distance safeties do not work, they find this out fast as those non-snooker players will pot the long shot then run the rest of the rack.

They are very different games. While snooker will give you good fundamentals and really help your stroke out you must still play alot of 9-ball to master the game. If you spend most of your time playing snooker you will never be a top 9-ball player, if you spend most of your time playing 9-ball you will never be a top snooker player. Does not mean that a top snooker player wont get up and run a 4 pack on ya or that a 9-ball player might not run a century, if they are top players in either game they are going to have a chance to do either of these feats.

For the record, I think snooker is on its way out. Give it afew decades and snooker will be outpaced by 9-ball (or 9-balls replacement game) in both money and popularity. In as little as 20 years I think pool will take over as the main cue sport with the most cash and the most fans.
 
i voted for the snooker players, however i think 9ball is not a game that tests the skills of a pro. rotation played in the phillipines would be better.

the game of 9ball is too easy for the pros.
 
Interesting replies, although I disagree with the comment about snooker players don't play difficult shots, you only have to watch mark Williams or Ronnie play to see that. Also if you ever play on a Pro match snooker player you will really see how different a snooker table is. If you put the white ball on the cushion near one of the corner pockets and tried to pot it down the rail into the other corner pocket without any side I bet that most players would miss a significant number of pots! Consider this when I tell you that I used to watch Pro snooker players practice on this same table and actually potting balls down the rail all day long with little regard. These guys certainly take on tough shots and make them under immense pressure.

I agree that there are parts of 9 ball that are very different from snooker shuch as jump shots etc. As a Snooker/8 Ball player who is looking to take up 9 ball I would say it would take me 1-2 years playing full time with a top player to really master all the 9 ball skills. But I still think that I could win 9 ball events and beat some big scalps during this time? If you look at the womens game the top ladies there have a snooker background but are still learning the game.

I did consider billiards and I think it is a great game that requires a unique skill, to see some of the old boys play the in off in the middle all day long is a sight to be seen to be believed. But since they play on snooker tables but in my opinion aren't as good as snooker players I left them out.

I guess what I'm trying to compare is the types of tables as much as players. Yes 9 ball players can make hundred breaks (as mike massey told me in vegas) but they are also great cueists as they are pro's and play all day.

I think the best point is that a pro snooker player would never lose to a pro 9 ball player on a match snooker table. But a pro snooker player can and has beaten top pro 9 ball players on a match 9 ball table.

9 Ball is a great game and I don't disagree that pool is starting to make the big time. But I do think that it needs to be made a little bit more difficult to really differentiate the best players. There is still to much luck in the game and its still to easy to run racks.

Cheers Guys

Craig
 
Number1 said:
,,,,
But a pro snooker player can and has beaten top pro 9 ball players on a match 9 ball table.
,,,
Cheers Guys

Craig
Click to expand...

and an A+ player can beat a pro on occasion.

9ball is an "immature" game that doesn't test the skills of a pro, imo. and if you made 9ball difficult(like playing on a 5x10 tight pocket for instance,or howz about a 6x12!!!) the spectators would complain that there are fewer racks strung together. the irony.:):)
 
variety of the sport ..

Snooker is a good game. I played a master snooker player when I was young, and I did not beat him very often, but I bested him in 8 ball and 9 ball most of the time.

3 cushion is a good game too, but I would not hold it up a the purist form of the sport. Any good pro or amateur can play good 3 cushion. I'm talking about the ones that aren't intimidated if they have to go more than 3 rails.

9 ball is the good quick money game, yes when you get good, it is not that hard, but in difficult matches, you win just as much with your brain as you do with your skill. (unless, of course, the guy runs the set out on you)

I like to practice with a game I call
Dakota 8 ball. A combination of 8 ball
and 9 ball. You play regular 8 ball except after the first ball is made after the break and you choose solids or stripes, you have to shoot the rest of them in ascending order, like 9 ball, until you get to the 8 ball. Your opponent has to do likewise. It makes it much tougher, and if you run a rack of Dakota 8 ball, you have accomplished something. Maybe that's why I have won more 8 ball
tournaments and accolades than in 9 ball. I picked the name Dakota 8 ball because I liked the way it sounds, not because it originated there.

I am glad to see a reimurrenge of 1 pocket, although not everyone has the patience to play it. (myself included sometimes). It has especially popped onto the scene as a big money game.
(4 and 5 figure type money game).

One of my personal favorites when I was young, and still is is Straight Pool, or 14.1 for you oldtimers.

All of the games in Billiards are fun, and you learn something from each one if you take the time to learn them, learn the strategy, the shots, etc..

A good player knows how to play all of the games, or will play any game.

Every good player knows that you can beat a better player than yourself if you have a game you are good at, that the other guy doesn't play, and while he is adjusting to it, you can get into his pocket....<lol>

I like to play Golf on a snooker table.
It is a fun game, and you can win some pocket change at that if you are good.

Billiards is a great sport because there are so many variations of it, so much to learn. The more you know and learn, the more you will love it. It's fun, interesting, and challenging...
 
I posted my thoughts on 9-ball a long time ago as the game of pro pool. I still think it has got to go as the game of pros and be replaced by a 15 ball rotation style game where the number on the ball is the number of points you get for sinking it. One major difference is keep a ongoing tally of the score instead of resetting it after each game. Play matches to 1000 points or so to bring in a straight pool type of feel to it and make for big point runs. Make fouls cost a certain number of points and the incomming shooter has the option of shooting or passing after a foul. Scratches lead to placement anywhere on the headstring with shooting in either direction.

A game like this would be awesome and would really challange the pro level players. The game would make for amazing pool and really impress the fans with some of the great shots they would see. The game would even be quite enjoyable for the weaker players IMO as they would get points for each ball they sink and not run into the problem in 9-ball where they made some shots and lost a match 9-0.

If a game like this existed and was played as the main game by the pro level pool players I think you are right and we would see alot less snooker players able to compete in the pool world without extesive training and practice to adjust their game.
 
Mindless numbskulls have been predicting snooker's death for almost 20 years now and it's still here. It will be around long after 9-ball is gone because it is a game of skill and class. Most 9 ball players couldn't shine a snooker players shoes. You will never see snooker players take up 9 ball because there is 20 times more money in snooker. As far as Efren running ceturies, it was more like a century or two. If he was as good as you say why is he not playing snooker for 20 times more money? He may have to take a shower and put on a Tux so that is a big reason.
 
it always surprises me how the addition of one ball(10 ball, and i understand all the reasons) changes the top finishers. all of a sudden, hopkins and varner are top ten players again.

tells me how limited 9ball players really are.
 
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