The Big Ball

[jay helfert]

Where i learn to play in the midwest the 'big rock' ruled. Once you figured it out you could do some crazy shit with it. Players like Matlock, Shuput, Hyland, Rod Curry were absolute wizards with it. Matlock was/is a good 3c player and he could power the shit out of the big ball with that monster stroke. He did things no one else even dreamed of. He was giving a top Tulsa player the 8b on a Valley with the big ball and he played a 'SIX RAIL' safety and locked the dude up good. The whole joint was just like 'WTF did we just see?'?? Six rails and a perfect hook on a 7' table with that grapefruit cueball. Stupid.

I used to say that Matlock could overpower the table and he did. I didn't mind so much playing with the big ball in the bars where no one could play that good. I knew that even with a light touch I could make any shot easily enough. No power needed, the big ball did all the work. But I really didn't like it when playing against decent to good players. I could never draw that ball more than a foot or so. My stroke just wasn't strong enough.

I first played Bakersfield Bobby on a bar table with the big ball. He killed me, winning game after game. I had no chance. When he came to my poolroom and we played on the big box, I could hold my own with him and even come out ahead a time or two. Huge difference. Bobby was strong as an ox from all those years working the farms. No one to mess with either.

 

[jay helfert]

I used to be able to hurt the ears of people for a few tables around. Problem was it hurt my ears too! I had a half or three-quarter speed break that almost always pocketed balls so I rarely used a full power break. Even now if I use a full power break the first couple of balls tend to hit a pocket and pop out on seven footers. Shooting softer they stay down so no sense breaking out a gorilla break which is hard on my arm these days.

For a few years I had a four ball break on a bar table hitting a full rack. Two balls would go straight in the bottom pockets, two balls would crisscross into the bottom pockets. With four balls gone on a bar table finding a runout wasn't too hard if I needed one. I wasn't exactly a bar table specialist but that was all that was nearby when I had a feud going with the big city police department. Son of a bitch had tried to strongarm steal a cue I bought new. The cue was shattered in the fight. Turned out the guy was an undercover cop. I couldn't go into the city after dark for a few years after that.

A pain in the ass because the big roads to anywhere were in the city. It was over a hundred miles into unknown territory to go the opposite direction. A pain for a nightly trip when I owned businesses or was a working stiff getting up early every morning so I found myself on seven foot bar tables a lot. A few nines but they were all old and very ratty. A few eights and sixes too. Eights were neither fish nor fowl and for some reason I disliked sixes so much I wouldn't play on them. Never got the feel for six foot tables. I played a good bit on the super eights. Always wondered why they came into existence? To use up damaged slate that had accumulated over the years?

Been a long time since playing on super eights but my favorite practice pool hall had them and I didn't find that playing on them hurt my game since I played on other things too. Left town a few years and when I came back my favorite hall and owner were both gone.

The good ol' days when times were rotten! I miss the old days and the young Hu. He was dumber than a box of rocks sometimes but somehow managed to survive all of the dumb situations he got in! Amazing thing, I have a lot of scars from foolish activities but none put there by other people.

Hu

Oversized eight footers were pretty standard all over the MIdwest. Not a big step up to the nine footers and made the regular eight footers seem easy. I liked them.

 

[maha]

you killed all your action if you drew the heavy cue ball at all in bars. so why do it. and if he could do it why play him. unless the whole bar side bet then off to the races.

the big ball or heavy one or magnetic was the way they got the cueball to not go into the pay rack of balls.
that is also why in bars you don't spot any balls that go in or you have to pay to get them out.

also would play one rack of 9 ball then one of 6 ball to get two racks for one pay. you won faster that way as well.

 

[ShootingArts]

you killed all your action if you drew the heavy cue ball at all in bars. so why do it. and if he could do it why play him. unless the whole bar side bet then off to the races.

the big ball or heavy one or magnetic was the way they got the cueball to not go into the pay rack of balls.
that is also why in bars you don't spot any balls that go in or you have to pay to get them out.

also would play one rack of 9 ball then one of 6 ball to get two racks for one pay. you won faster that way as well.

Six ball was the reason I usually played ten ball even if it was just ten balls with nine ball rules. Almost impossible to get a consistent break and run at will playing six ball. It annoyed me to win at nine ball, have a bad break at six ball, and give the money right back. Of every cue sports game I ever played, my weakest break was my six ball break. I had to work hard for a seventy percent win rate playing the same person I had an easy seventy percent win rate playing nine ball.

I played a few people who played the six ball game first. It didn't annoy me nearly as much to lose the six ball game first then win the nine ball game so it was largely a mental thing. Still, I have it written in stone, barbox six ball sucks!

Hu

 

[ShootingArts]

There was the big ball and magnetic balls. One had a metal frame that the ball was cast around. It could roll funny as it was always a little off balance. Then the lead ball, it weighed way more than the rest as it was cast with metal in the mix.. Possibly as heavy as a big ball.

I saw a bar table cue ball break one time and it had a piece of pipe in it that came out almost to the surface. I never saw one of those weights again but then again I probably saw less than ten cue balls break so there wasn't a very big sample to work with.

When it comes to breaking balls I always think about a numbered ball I broke. No real good reason to break, it was just ready. Funny thing, it broke almost in half. Maybe 45%-55%. Since the bigger piece went in the pocket I stuck to my guns that I had made the shot! Small time gambling in a bar I got away with it.

Hu