Snooker. . .

A

AceHigh

Banned
what a freakin' hard ass game! It makes one pocket and 14.1 look like 3ball. I just started playing for the first time on a 12' foot table, and I can hardly make a ball. I have no idea if I'm doing good or bad seeing as how I've never actually played before. So I will post some stats, and you guys can tell me how I'm doing for a complete beginner.

Highest points in a game: 73 (what's the max?)
Highest break: 16
Average break: 4
Average points a game: 45

I did notice a major difference from going from a snooker table to a regulation pool table. After a few hours of snooker I played some 9ball with a buddy of mine, and I was getting out from almost everywhere.
 
AceHigh said:
I will post some stats, and you guys can tell me how I'm doing for a complete beginner.

Highest points in a game: 73 (what's the max?).
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Theoretically infinite if you keep on getting fouls off your opponent and he doesn't have the sense to concede once there are insufficient points left on the table. 73 will win you a lot more games than you lose. A ‘maximum’ break is 147, but if a free ball is obtained at the beginning the maximum theoretical is 155, and 150+ breaks have been made on numerous occasions.

Highest break: 16
Average break: 4
Average points a game: 45.
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All perfectly commendable. 16 may not sound a lot, but it means you have run at least 4 balls in succession. No mean feat I assure you. I know blokes who have been playing 50 years who have hardly managed that. 20 breaks are very very hard to make on a snooker table. By contrast century breaks are ridiculously easy.

Boro Nut
 
AceHigh said:
what a freakin' hard ass game! It makes one pocket and 14.1 look like 3ball. I just started playing for the first time on a 12' foot table, and I can hardly make a ball. I have no idea if I'm doing good or bad seeing as how I've never actually played before. So I will post some stats, and you guys can tell me how I'm doing for a complete beginner.

Highest points in a game: 73 (what's the max?)
Highest break: 16
Average break: 4
Average points a game: 45

I did notice a major difference from going from a snooker table to a regulation pool table. After a few hours of snooker I played some 9ball with a buddy of mine, and I was getting out from almost everywhere.
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Are these your match statistics or practice stats ? If you can shoot straight, I think you'll get used to the 12' table dimensions quite fast. Of course shooting long shots in is quite difficult, when you think about the error margin. But snooker isn't that difficult when you get used to it, I've run 88 on a 12' table with my shaky stance and loose stroke and I've never really practised snooker. If you continue playing, you should get your highest break up to 40 quite easily.
 
You'll find that the table seems real hard for awhile, then you start to adjust a little and you can start making runs without the balls spitting out of the pockets because you just scraped a rail going in.

Jack Karnhem had a book with some drills in it that helped me. One of them was to set up the colors normally but put the reds in a line from the blue to the end rail (two reds between the black and the rail). Start with ball in hand and try to run red,color,red,etc... I liked it because it allows you to start with easy shots so you can get into some kind of stroke. It gets hard fast when you have to play position on the last reds. I've never completed the whole drill but I got to the colors once and that's about 30 shots and around 90 points, much higher than my regular high run at snooker. It's good for your confidence to run points like that even if its an artificial set-up and made to be easy. If you miss, just put the offending ball back in line and start again. The two reds below the black are tough little bastards and

Some other suggestions:

1. Practice running just the colors out. A lot of games are won at the end by people who make less balls but make the last ones which are worth more. When your getting good, try and do it without hitting a rail.

2. If you ever want to break 50 or 75, you're going to have to practice potting the black 100s of times until you can make it and still play position or break out balls.

3. The blue ball is a great ball for moving from one area of the table to another and getting back in line for a high run. A friend calls it the transport ball. A lot of times you'll get out of line or go to far away from the pack of reds and you can use the blue to get back to the reds and continue your run.

4. Steve Davis (world champ) would practice for hours hitting the cue ball straight up the table and back, trying to hit his tip on the way back to check how straight he is stroking. Its worth your time to make sure your hitting in the center because many more shots are center ball hits in snooker than pool.
Deflection from a lot of english will kill you in snooker if your not a top level player, especially if your cue is elevated.

5. DON'T GET FRUSTRATED!! People at my pool hall got all excited when they put the table in. After they realized they have terrible fundamentals and miss most shots, they quit and stopped playing because pool was easier. Hang in there- snooker needs more players anyway in the US. When the nits stopped playing because they couldn't run 100 in the first two weeks, the owner eventually sold the table for only 1500 bucks and now 10 people in the area have snooker cues and the nearest table is 60 miles away.
 
All good advice Bud. I'd suggest long diagonal blues off the spot are a better guide for cueing, as it's quite difficult to see the far spots playing up and down unless you place a marker on the cushion, and subtle imperfections which add side to the cue ball can correct themselves off the cushion so you may not notice you are slightly off.

The long straight blues may be a bit beyond a beginner, who would be better off practicing straight pinks, but they tell you instantly what you need to correct. Pot 10 out of 10 and you feel you could take on the world. None out of 10 and I would want two blacks start off our lass.

If you can force the white to follow the blue in at the same time you know you are cueing perfectly, so there isn't a shot on the table that should worry you. The best I've ever managed is 4 out of 10. You only need to be a fraction off and it’s a rattler.

If you are really feeling good, place all 21 balls across the centre of the table and play straight pots to the top pockets from the baulk line. If you pot all 21 don’t forget to rub it in with Steve Davis as he’s only ever managed 19. I tried this once myself, and quite frankly I feel no obligation to embarrass myself on a public forum by telling you how I got on.

Boro Nut
 
thanks for all the help guys! my snooker game has definetely stepped up a notch after doing some of those drills. I think Im going to take a break from 9ball, and just play snooker and straight for a month or two.

Here's an update on my snooker game:

I totally demolished this guy by the score of 70-1 with a high break of 20.
 
Get as many snooker games to watch, it always helps to watch how the pros move the cue ball and check their stance. One of the best to watch for a perfect stroke is Stephen Lee. Alternativelly come to the uk go to a snooker club and play the first 13year old you meet, propably the best snooker lesson you'll get. :) :) :)
It really shows you how importand it is to have a solid knowledge of the basics.

Finally always play against the best, snooker is like 9 ball because you play the same balls as your opponent, you don't want to leave any chances for your opponent.

Good luck!
 
There is also a site, snookermag.com, that sells snooker matches formatted to play on US dvd players. They have a ton of stuff, including vintage Alex Higgins dvds.

They also sell instructional books. You can't go wrong picking up Joe Davis's book.
 
Bud Green has a good point, if you want to make high runs, you need to get comfortable shooting the black off its spot. So, quite an easy practice: Try how many times you can make black from it's spot. So, make the black and play position for the black. It sounds easy but I can tell you that if you get out of line, you're screwed because you need to go around the friggin' 12' table ;) Let's say you can make 10 blacks in a row, you're average. If you can make 20-30 in a row, you're starting to show some serious improvement. Be glad to make 3-5 in a row with your first few tries ;)
 
bud green said:
There is also a site, snookermag.com, that sells snooker matches formatted to play on US dvd players. They have a ton of stuff, including vintage Alex Higgins dvds.

They also sell instructional books. You can't go wrong picking up Joe Davis's book.
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This site aired the 2005 World Championships from The Crucible Theater over the internet. I believe they still have the finals available to view, although the commentary is not in English:

http://www.eurosport.de/home/pages/v4/l1/s52/e7150/sport_lng1_spo52_evt7150_sto709439.shtml
 
mjantti said:
Bud Green has a good point, if you want to make high runs, you need to get comfortable shooting the black off its spot. So, quite an easy practice: Try how many times you can make black from it's spot. So, make the black and play position for the black. It sounds easy but I can tell you that if you get out of line, you're screwed because you need to go around the friggin' 12' table ;) Let's say you can make 10 blacks in a row, you're average. If you can make 20-30 in a row, you're starting to show some serious improvement. Be glad to make 3-5 in a row with your first few tries ;)
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most blacks off the spot in a row, i made 107.
was spotting the guy 2000 points and i play only on the colors,he plays the regular game
 
sly said:
most blacks off the spot in a row, i made 107.
was spotting the guy 2000 points and i play only on the colors,he plays the regular game
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That's quite a weight you gave. Making 107 blacks in a row and you're not even half way to victory :) I guess you shoot 'em pretty on straight in snooker, 107 is quite good. I have tried the black excercise maybe a dozen times and I've gotten somewhere between 20 and 30 blacks in a row. But, I'm not a snooker player, just plain ol' pool fellow. :p
 
mjantti said:
107 is quite good.
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I'd say impressive. Although I must have practiced potting blacks countless times I've never actually counted. I would be very surprised if I ever did more than 15-20 before getting bored and changing. I'm pretty certain I couldn't do 100 consecutive without losing concentration or cocking up though. I might have a go next time I'm in.

Before the spot stroke was barred in billiards I think breaks consisting of 1000's of consecutive pot reds were recorded. The limit now is twice off the spot before it's respotted on the centre, and 15 consecutive pots in total.

Boro Nut
 
Boro Nut said:
I'd say impressive. Although I must have practiced potting blacks countless times I've never actually counted. I would be very surprised if I ever did more than 15-20 before getting bored and changing. I'm pretty certain I couldn't do 100 consecutive without losing concentration or cocking up though. I might have a go next time I'm in.

Before the spot stroke was barred in billiards I think breaks consisting of 1000's of consecutive pot reds were recorded. The limit now is twice off the spot before it's respotted on the centre, and 15 consecutive pots in total.

Boro Nut
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Nobody in America will have a clue what we're talking about here, but the actual highest break record for English billiards is in the neighborhood of 433,000, and no, I'm not making that up. It was done in the 1920's, I think, and took about 4 weeks.
 
2005 United States National Snooker Championship

Hi everyone,

Just thought you'd appreciate a posting in this thread to inform you that the 2005 United States National Snooker Championship will take place at the Embassy Billiards Club in San Gabriel, California, from September 2 - 4.

More details can be found on the SnookerUSA.com website.

The United States Snooker Association is going to be making a big announcement in the coming weeks concerning a big international snooker event to be staged in the United States next year. As soon as I can I will give you all more details about it with an official announcment.

Regards.

Alan Morris.
The United States Snooker Association.
 
gromulan said:
Nobody in America will have a clue what we're talking about here, but the actual highest break record for English billiards is in the neighborhood of 433,000, and no, I'm not making that up. It was done in the 1920's, I think, and took about 4 weeks.
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The break was 499,135 by Tom Reece in 1907 but was almost entirely from anchor cannons with the two balls wedged in the pocket. It was staged to force a change in the rules, and it did. The current limit is 75 consecutive cannons.

The reference was to consecutive pots from the spot. I think it might be Peall in the 1890's who holds the record with 3174 points out of 3304 made from potting the red, which equates to 1038 pots, but I think only around 400 at the most were consecutive. The equipment was very different too. I still say Sly's total of 107 blacks is impressive, not least for the concentration it takes.

In fact, with a few notable exceptions, many very proficient billiards players were surprisingly inept at potting by modern standards. The way you imagine, sight, and stroke the shots in billiards is entirely different to snooker, and many never learned 'the knack'. Pots require clinical accuracy, whereas in-offs are surprisingly easy when you have the eye for them. I would challenge any player to a contest of potting the blue or pink off their spots from the D while I played in-offs. I can't remember the last time I missed one. Snooker is played on a billiards table, marked for billiards, with pocket profiles developed for billiards. They will spit a wayward potted ball out but suck a spinning cue ball in.

Boro Nut
 
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