The Worst Rule in Pool

The jump shot should only be legal if you are riding a unicycle while juggling midgets.

I respect events a great deal that don't allow it.


JC
 
That first sentence makes me leery to ever read any of your posts again. If I ever play on your table (which I'm assuming you don't have) I will make sure to practice my 'scoop' shots a few hundred times. Hopefully you still have felt when I'm done but I doubt it.

Yes, I do own my own table: an 8-ft Valley with custom rails for tight pockets, modified shelf for a deeper throat, and Simonis 860 cloth.

No, your post assumes scoop shots are more risky to the cloth, when in fact I maintain they are not. A "jam" jump shot burns and dents the cloth - just about every time. I have executed lots of scoop jump shots (years ago in college, before I knew they were illegal), and never once did I touch the cloth.

And, there is a way to do a "scoop jump" without "scooping," by just using a sharp jab with extremely low draw. This move would be ruled a scoop foul.

It is an arbitrary rule based on an incorrect premise. I have no hopes that it will change anytime soon.
 
Yes, I do own my own table: an 8-ft Valley with custom rails for tight pockets, modified shelf for a deeper throat, and Simonis 860 cloth.

No, your post assumes scoop shots are more risky to the cloth, when in fact I maintain they are not. A "jam" jump shot burns and dents the cloth - just about every time. I have executed lots of scoop jump shots (years ago in college, before I knew they were illegal), and never once did I touch the cloth.

And, there is a way to do a "scoop jump" without "scooping," by just using a sharp jab with extremely low draw. This move would be ruled a scoop foul.

It is an arbitrary rule based on an incorrect premise. I have no hopes that it will change anytime soon.

You are correct, my friends and I got very good at the scoop jump back in high school when we were just horsing around with house cues. By the time I got serious I learned the actual legal jump shot was what damages the table.

I still do the scoop on error when I miscue an extremely low draw shot from time to time. The cue ball hops over object ball, all that's there is a chalk streak where I grazed the cloth. The other end of my table has a ton of small damage marks where I practice legal jump shots. So clearly the legal shot does more damage.
 
In bar play, where after calling every little nuance of every shot, and finally down to the 8-ball, you must shoot it in "clean." Makes no sense whatsoever
 
I played for a year in APA and the mark the pocket thing wasn't an issue for anyone on my team the entire time. I don't even remember one instance. At regular league night everyone was ok with just calling it, but at the tournaments we would mark it. No big deal.

The rules in pool that I like the least are the rules regarding push shots and double hits. And truthfully it's not because I don't think that they shouldn't be fouls, but 1. Most people think a push shot and a double hit are the same thing when they aren't 2. They can be hard to call even for experienced referees (which are never present at 99 percent of games) 3. Depending on the rule set the rules can be written awkwardly or incompletely (APA) leading to arguments and 4. It never made sense to me that being frozen to the object ball allows you to shoot through it (under BCA/WPA rules).

The reason you are allowed to hit a frozen ball is because it's impossible to NOT double hit a frozen ball no matter what angle you hit it at, unless you shoot away and kick at it. At the instant in time that you make contact with the cue ball, the cue ball is touching the object ball. The object ball will INSTANTANEOUSLY push back on the cue ball( newtons laws) meaning that in a veeeery small fraction of time you have hit the cue ball more than once and pushed the cue ball very slightly off the tangent line, in the example of a thin hit.
 
In bar play, where after calling every little nuance of every shot, and finally down to the 8-ball, you must shoot it in "clean." Makes no sense whatsoever

I hate this rule. I can do a bank carom off 4 balls and 6 rails, calling everything and it wouldn't count with the "goes clean" rule. Talk about dumbing the game down...
 
I hate this rule. I can do a bank carom off 4 balls and 6 rails, calling everything and it wouldn't count with the "goes clean" rule. Talk about dumbing the game down...

Not a rule in any format I've ever seen. Something somebody made up? So if the 8 ball touches a cushion facing, you lose? Not even possible if the 8 is on or near a cushion. Dumbing down is the guy that agrees to this rule. I just wouldn't play.
 
Yeah, it's a stupid rule.what makes the 8-ball so special that the sacred "call everything" rules don't apply to it? Of course, the champions of these rule sets insist that it's "real pool," and that calling every nuance of a shot makes you a better player.

Not a rule in any format I've ever seen. Something somebody made up? So if the 8 ball touches a cushion facing, you lose? Not even possible if the 8 is on or near a cushion. Dumbing down is the guy that agrees to this rule. I just wouldn't play.

It's a bar rule that's common in my area. Cushion facing is ok, but the 8-ball cannot contact another ball.so if you bank the eight into the side, but it feathers a ball at the edge of the pocket going in, you lose. Actually, I play in a 4 team house league that uses that rule. Among other reasons, the whole "bar rules" thing is why I won't be playing after the session ends next week. After all, a league where the rules of play aren't written down is no league.
 
Last edited:
Slop is by far the worst rule I've come across in 9 ball. Break, make the 4, have a shot on the 1, but elect to smash the crap out of the 1 in the direction of the 9 and hope to get lucky...
 
Slop is by far the worst rule I've come across in 9 ball. Break, make the 4, have a shot on the 1, but elect to smash the crap out of the 1 in the direction of the 9 and hope to get lucky...

I don't mind slop at all. If someone is smashing the crap out of the one ball then they're going to leave you a shot a lot more often than they are going to make it.
 
I think that there are quite a few that really want to get a chance to call you for not marking the pocket or doing something else silly. Then can then jump up and yell "you did not mark the pocket" and be all proud that they "won" that game and strut around the table hi-fiving people LOL.

There was another story on here where someone let a new captain setup their matches, start the last game and then told them they lost all the games for that night because he went over the handicap point total instead of saying " you may want to check who you are putting up ". The very definition of an asshole in my view.

Yea, I remember reading that thread. Our team went through that same type of "unsportsmanlike" whining last week when the other team kept crying for disqualifications and such due to the way that we had to set our matches because we were over our player point totals that night.
We were told by the LO what we likely could (and couldn't do) but he said that he would have to let us know after he talked to the League head in Phoenix. The other team knew that we were not getting clear answers from the LO and kept complaining every time they heard a ruling that didn't give them a win by disqualification or forfeiture on our part.
We were 4 matches through a 5 match tournament when the LO finally got all of his fact straight, we would take a -2 point lose for going over the 28 point rule (which was mostly what we were told in the beginning)... Then came even more whining because one of our players (actually me) was badly injured (that's why we were trying to sub). I had already limped my way around the table (in obvious pain) through one match and my name was on the sheet to play a double that night (and I would have if our team was going to forfeit otherwise). Then when we were allowed a sub... Here came the complaints of "NO THEY FORFEIT BECAUSE HIS NAMES ALREADY ON THE PLAYER SHEET". This coming from the same guy that I had just played 30 minutes earlier and who had watched me as I hobbled my way around the table in real pain.
I told this jerk... "If I'm forced to play my second match for the team I'll play... but as pissed off as I am right now and as bad as I hurt... I wouldn't want to be the one that gets beat down as bad as I'm going to do to anyone who forces me to shoot a 2nd, because someones gonna loose... REAL BAD."
The LO finally told them to quit crying... the sub stands in my place and we take an automatic -2 for going over the limit.

If I win... it's because I'm the better player that night. That's what class billiards is.

This win at any cost type of mentality is simply no class.
Last night we played a team that was pure class. Friendly, good sportsmanship and everyone on both teams dealt with their game at hand without a single problem. If anyone got upset... it was because of their own play... not what they could whine about on the other team.
 
I don't mind slop at all. If someone is smashing the crap out of the one ball then they're going to leave you a shot a lot more often than they are going to make it.
Its the constant change of the table layout I hate more than someone getting lucky. Pisses me right off! Ha.
 
I think that the worst rule in pool comes in 1-pocket.

Usually, if you knock a ball into opponent's pocket, they get credit for that ball. If, however, you knock a ball into your opponents pocket and also foul, opponent doesn't get credit for the ball. To me, that's a ridiculous rule that can, and does, add a lot of time to some matches.
 
I think that the worst rule in pool comes in 1-pocket.

Usually, if you knock a ball into opponent's pocket, they get credit for that ball. If, however, you knock a ball into your opponents pocket and also foul, opponent doesn't get credit for the ball. To me, that's a ridiculous rule that can, and does, add a lot of time to some matches.

Yeah-when i first started watching 1P i just couldnt get used to that
 
Pools worst rules?

1. All rules associated with calling shots (balls and safeties).

2. All break rules that encourage players to lean back and slam the rack as hard as they can.

Among many things, rules should be simple and provide clarity.
 
Last edited:
1. Get rid of all rules associated with calling shots (balls and safeties). It would make the game more skilled, less reason to argue, more entertaining, and more fun.

Can you clarify this? Are you saying that not calling your shots i.e., "slop" rules makes the game more skilled?
 
The only really bad rules is when they're ambiguous and subjective. As long as the rules are clear and apply to everyone, I don't see how it makes much difference. If your opponent is a bad support and a douchebag, the rules aren't going to help much over the long run.
 
Can you clarify this? Are you saying that not calling your shots i.e., "slop" rules makes the game more skilled?

Yes. Calling balls takes advantages away from the better player. Requiring the stronger player to call his every shot, takes many skilled options out of play, therefore deminishing his advantage. Knowing and understanding the percentages can be exploited by the better and more knowledgable player.

Also a player has to call the shot when he is his behind a ball when his opponent misses. Who do you think is more likely to have to do that.
 
Last edited:
Even weirder when a league player tells a poolplayer he didn't mark the pocket, right after the poolplayer makes the 8 that's sitting a foot from the corner pocket! Ha!



Been there done that. I think just calling it should be enough
 
Back
Top