Thoughts On The US Bar Table Championship

mnorwood

mnorwood

Moon
Silver Member
First of all Ken, Jay and Oscar did an awesome job of commentating the 9 ball final. Their chemistry was good and their insight in to the match was very interesting. Good commentary can really send the quality of a stream to the next level.

Second I was very impressed with Brendan Crocket (spelling?) I think this young man has a bright future ahead of him if he stays interested in the game.

8 ball is my favorite game to play, but after watching these matches I have to say its my favorite to watch. I thought the Toasty/Shane 8 ball match was more interesting than their 9 ball match. They had to deliberate more and had to think more to get out of several racks. In 9 ball the out is obvious to the trained eye, in 8 ball they do things you might not expect which makes the whole thing more engaging. I for one would like to see more 8 ball tournaments.

I believe that if you put 8 ball on a larger table with smaller pockets and have balls that have more color contrast the viewing experience is better than 9 ball. I also think you could introduce a scoring system and a game clock to make 8 ball an even better game to watch.
 
I have to agree with you on the quality of the stream, commentary, and match selection. It is very entertaining and we get to see and hear about a lot of whats going on at the Sands. Top notch.

The problem with 8-ball is you have a much smaller shot per minute ratio. It might take a guy 10 minutes to break and run an 8 ball rack, but you only see 8 shots in that 10 minute period. You do the math, the rest of the time you are watching a guy walk around the table and think about pattern play. Still very entertaining but I can see non pool players becoming bored very quickly.
 
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Oscar

Its great stuff. I especially enjoyed Oscar's insights into the shot selection and play strategy of the 9 ball. He's a great guy, really good for pool, very thoughtful and clearly has considered his options around a table plenty. It was a treat to hear how a top player thinks.

Kevin
 
mnorwood said:
First of all Ken, Jay and Oscar did an

8 ball is my favorite game to play, but after watching these matches I have to say its my favorite to watch. I thought the Toasty/Shane 8 ball match was more interesting than their 9 ball match. They had to deliberate more and had to think more to get out of several racks. In 9 ball the out is obvious to the trained eye, in 8 ball they do things you might not expect which makes the whole thing more engaging. I for one would like to see more 8 ball tournaments.
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I couldn't agree with you more - I could watch them try to get out of tough 8-ball outs all day, especially on the smaller bar boxes (more traffic jams).
 
Bud Winger said:
I just LOVED it
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Ken and everyone in the booth including Oscar and guests did a great job. Ken describes what's happening at the table wonderfully. He might be my favorite commentator since Billy Incardona...Great job TAR!!!!
 
I have said it before but I think this weekend showed that 8-ball works very well at the pro level. People worry about the pros running put from everywhere but instead this weekend saw some very good safety battles and we also saw pros miss shots and get into trouble on racks that were not opened up and required some work.

Another thing worth mentioning is that the final bracket showed the cream rise to the top
despite the short races and strong break factor on the small tables.

I have always said that 8 ball on 9 foot tables with tight pockets would be a heck of a challenge for the pros and be better accepted by the general public. The ipt showed that the pros on those tables playing that game allowed the players known to be the best to rise to the top. I would say a 8 ball tour playing alternate break race to 9 with a win by two requirement (creating sudden death moments like tennis) would be ideal for pro pool.
 
The quality and the insightfulness of the commentators really sells it for me.A little interaction with the chat-room is good but when the broadcast is "he said,she said-blah-blah-blah"interaction with rail birds, it becomes tedious for me.Sundays version of TAR may have been the best combination of everything,players,commentators and chat,that I've seen to this point. Thank you,TAR
 
I liked what I was able to see of the 8 ball tournament as well. I have long suspected I play horrible 8-ball patterns and just seem to get out sometimes. Well after watching the matches I did this weekend I see that a lot of the pros think way differently than I do. They also get out a lot more from spots where I think they are going to be stuck with that one ball on the table.

Did they take away the rule where after break you can combo a solid into a stripe if you want to take stripes? I didn't see one person do that this year.
 
mikeyfrost said:
Did they take away the rule where after break you can combo a solid into a stripe if you want to take stripes? I didn't see one person do that this year.
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No, its just that they break so good no balls are that close :)

They did use ball in hand after the break (on a scratch) which i thought was actually pretty cool. They said you shouldnt get screwed cause your opponent broke and scratched.
 
s0lidz;2297215 The problem with 8-ball is you have a much smaller shot per minute ratio. It might take a guy 10 minutes to break and run an 8 ball rack said:
How much time is there in real action of a Football game? Most of the time the players are walking around, laying on the ground or standing doing nothing. I don't remember the exact amount that was calculated for the Superbowl but it was very little compared to the 3 hours or so that it takes to complete a game.
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