Taking the luck out of 9 Ball

how would you do it

  • Call all shots

    Votes: 2 11.1%

  • Call pocket

    Votes: 16 88.9%
  • Total voters
    18
T

tonyc

New member
The UPA tried to have a vote this week on taking the luck out of 9 ball.

Call all shots was one of the things.
This means that you have to call everything, So if you missed a ball and left the next guy hooked he could make you play again. It also would eliminate flukes, 9s on the break and other balls going in.
will this be better for 9 ball or kill it for viewers??
Call pocket was the other suggested one.
I am intersted to know your thoughts on this.
Tony Crosby
 
Last edited:
Call Pocket

Call Pocket with the Break Open. Two-fers have to both
be called. (ref: Corey Deuel TV match where he jumped
and made a hanger came up behind spot and knocked 9
in the side).
 
I think I would favor that the pros call all shots, especially the 9. Accidental caroms is no way for them to win. Okay for slugs like me though. LOL.
 
tonyc said:
The UPA tried to have a vote this week on taking the luck out of 9 ball.

Call all shots was one of the things.
This means that you have to call everything, So if you missed a ball and left the next guy hooked he could make you play again. It also would eliminate flukes, 9s on the break and other balls going in.
will this be better for 9 ball or kill it for viewers??
Call pocket was the other suggested one.
I am intersted to know your thoughts on this.
Tony Crosby
Click to expand...

I think this would make the game boring. Luck affects everyone in life; good or bad. If lady luck is on your side; good for you. If its not, well you better learn how to deal with it. That’s the variable in the game that you can not predict, that’s part of the gamble. That’s part of what make it such a good game. Sometimes you hear a better player say “he just got lucky”. Well yea, that’s why you play the game. How boring if the guy that is suppose to win always won. Life is not boring. :)
 
Last edited:
tonyc said:
This means that you have to call everything, So if you missed a ball and left the next guy hooked he could make you play again.
Click to expand...
What if you want to play a safety? Would you have to call out "safety" each time you play one? If you do, why don't you just call a safety for every shot?

I don't know about changing the rules for 9ball. It'll just cause chaos. Luck is just part of 9ball...you can't get away from it. If you change the rules to eliminate most of the luck, then you wouldn't have 9ball anymore. It's just the nature of the game. I say, leave 9ball the way it is...and use predominantly 8ball in tournaments to test more skill than luck.

If you want to use a rotation-type game in a tournament, then play rotation. Sure the amount of luck is still there, but you need 3x the amount of skill to play it respectably. So although the luck remains, the skill-to-luck ratio increases significantly compared to 9ball.
 
tonyc said:
...
will this be better for 9 ball or kill it for viewers??
...
Click to expand...
It will make it uninteresting. The shots most people remember are the strange ones. Adding call rules also screws up the flow of the game as we have seen with some atrocious situations under "ESPN Rules."
 
Jersey said:
Change the format to 10-Ball...
Click to expand...


That would be my choice too.

If any rule changes are made, I would suggest making 9 ball "call pocket" with no penalty if you miss and get safe. You don't want to eliminate 2 way shots.


Eric
 
Last edited:
tonyc said:
The UPA tried to have a vote this week on taking the luck out of 9 ball.

Call all shots was one of the things.
This means that you have to call everything, So if you missed a ball and left the next guy hooked he could make you play again. It also would eliminate flukes, 9s on the break and other balls going in.
will this be better for 9 ball or kill it for viewers??
Call pocket was the other suggested one.
I am intersted to know your thoughts on this.
Tony Crosby
Click to expand...
Call shot, call safeties was used on the PCA tour. I thought it sucked. Most of the "luck" in 9-ball has to do with position play and racking, not lucking balls in the pocket. Playing call shot takes away 2-way shots (except once per rack they would let you call two, weird). Bad, bad idea. Just play the races to 15 like they did instead. With a good rack, 9's, (or 10's in ten ball) don't go on the break in the bottom corners and leave very few 9-ball combos. Switch to 10 ball with a good rack, long race, and ban all IPT players, so the rest of us can make some money.

If y'all are still playing with bad racks, there's inexpensive ways to change that, pm me if interested. Nobody likes to watch people rack balls for 1/2 hour of each match. If you can rack ten ball in 3 seconds and get them all frozen that speeds up the matches a lot.

unknownpro
 
If you want to take the majority of the luck out, play call your "next" shot. Not the one you're shooting but the next one.

If playing the 1, tell me which pocket you'll play the 2 in....etc.

Then, add to that a modification to the ball in hand rules.....

IF you call a safety and get the safety, the incoming player must hit the ball legally or give up ball in hand.

BUT....

IF you luck into a safety, the player can push out . (incoming player then has the option to shoot or make the other guy shoot)

Finally, spot any 9 on the break and let the breaker continue.
 
play it as is.....lesser level consider making it call pocket or call safe.....i like the idea if it isn't a call safe that the shooter has the option as this would take luck out...but also two way safe/make shots....so leave the game as it is....just play and have fun :D
 
If you just changed making the 9-ball early it would clear up alot of luck. Either disallow all 9-ball combos, spot the 9 and keep shooting if it goes in, or call shot only when attempting to make the 9-ball, and if its missed (on a carom or combo) you would loose your turn even if another ball went in.
This has been a debate recently arising from two friends of mine; one is a very good run-out player and the other one trys to make the 9-ball on every shot. The run-out player gets really pissed when he looses to the "slop master"; and calls him lucky and everything else he can think of. The "slop master" says he was trying to make the 9-ball no matter what the shot looked like, it could hit a titty bounce off three balls and two rails and go in; and he would be proud of himself.
The run-out player argues the "slop master" has no respect for the way the game should be played; but the "slop master" argues the run-out player has no respect for the way HE plays the game, and says we need to respect all ways of playing even if they are different.

I dont know what to think; I agree going for the 9-ball every shot is annoying yet I still respect his choice, because he wants to constantly try something new, something no one has seen before.
When you get to a certain level in pool, its less about making a ball and more about painting a picture. Sometimes art is not pretty, but still respectable.
 
You can't legistlate luck, it just is......leave the game alone.......I want to beable to take my best shot and sometimes that is a flock shot...LOL
 
I dont see how luck is really that powerful of a force at the top level of 9-ball in regards to fluked balls. Calling the pocket would hardly change the game at the pro level because how often do they really miss such that the ball goes into another pocket or makes another ball? This would instead hurt those people kicking out of tough safties 3 rails that manage to pocket a ball, it is hard enough to hit the ball but now you want them to call the outcome and if they dont call a return safety or the potted ball after the contact they are penalized?

Regardless, the extreme domination that one pro can have over another in 9-ball has nothing to do with luck, it has to do with the game being too easy and the fact that a pro if he is breaking well can run out rack after rack and play dead perfect safeties to totally control a match from the lag. You can make them call their pots and safeties all you want, most of the time they are making exactly what they set out to do anyway and them vocalizing their intent is not going to change a thing. I have numerous 9-ball accustats where matches are completely controlled by a single player without the other ever having a hope and the problem is NOT luck, the winning player is intending to do everything they are doing.

9-ball is a game flawed at the core. The UPA would do well to realize this. Fiddling with the rules will not fix the problems over the long haul.

If they are so intent on playing rotation pool then I really think they need to look at a single point per a ball 15 ball rotation game where the first player to 75 points or so wins. Winner of the lag breaks, anything that goes they keep, then they play rotation pool, hitting the lowest ball on the table first and anything they make after that is a point, they shoot till they miss, person who sinks the last ball breaks the incomming rack. It is really simple and merges the best parts of straight pool and 9-ball all into one.

That or 10-ball which changes the game quite alot due to the far more difficult to master break.

Anything less then using a new game on the UPA tour is simply spinning your wheels. Eventually 9-ball will cease being the professional game, why keep whipping a dying horse attempting to get that last mile out of it when you know it is going to leave you stranded in the middle of nowhere?
 
tonyc said:
The UPA tried to have a vote this week on taking the luck out of 9 ball.

Call all shots was one of the things.
This means that you have to call everything, So if you missed a ball and left the next guy hooked he could make you play again. It also would eliminate flukes, 9s on the break and other balls going in.
will this be better for 9 ball or kill it for viewers??
Call pocket was the other suggested one.
I am intersted to know your thoughts on this.
Tony Crosby
Click to expand...

If you're going to get rid of luck, you need to get rid of the break. It's not fair for one player to have an open out and another to have balls tied up. That is the major form of luck in 9-ball, not slopping in a ball here and there or a slop safety.

I think if you want to get rid of luck, you'll just have to set up shots and see who has the most skill. Wait, we already have that it's called trick shots.

Seriously, people are so focused on somebody cheesing a 9-ball, just play the game, prove you're technically better by playing drills, not playing the games.
 
its 9-ball, a lucky game in general. that is why most people like it i believe. i prefer games were luck isnt such a factor, but i wouldnt mess with 9ball. well maybe get rid of making the 9 on the break. i cant stand that
 
Go back to 2 foul ball in hand, with an express rule so that nothing spots up and it is ball in hand after a foul on the break. Call the money ball.

Back in the day, with 2 foul ball in hand, IMO, the better player would win the majority of the time.

If people don't want that, then use GRADY's rules.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top