Watching mr. 400 trying to break the record

Nice break at 392 -- five left in the rack area but lots of shots

:( misses on what appears to have been a skid -- 395 total

Some of the comments indicate that the audience has no idea what a skid is and when it can happen. John had about a 10-degree cut near the long rail and had to run the cue ball down to the foot rail for two stragglers. He used inside half left on the cue ball to take it down the rail, the object ball missed by a lot and the cue ball was dead.

And he starts from zero again. About four more hours scheduled.
 
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Bob Jewett said:
Nice break at 392 -- five left in the rack area but lots of shots

:( misses on what appears to have been a skid -- 395 total

Some of the comments indicate that the audience has no idea what a skid is and when it can happen. John had about a 10-degree cut near the long rail and had to run the cue ball down to the foot rail for two stragglers. He used inside half left on the cue ball to take it down the rail, the object ball missed by a lot and the cue ball was dead.

And he starts from zero again. About four more hours scheduled.
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Awwwww.....I was starting to hold my breath a bit....thanx, Bob
 
Just passed 100 again and several break balls available ... a nice thin to the side of the rack at 112...
Nice end pattern to get on 126 ... balls are well open, just get them off the table -- the end pattern was marginal and John ended up nearly too much on the wrong side of the key ball
Breaking at 140 -- they open OK but balls roll up on the cue ball with a partial pocket for the 14 -- makes it. A little work to do in this rack -- ended up with a pretty good back-of-the-rack break shot -- used the standard inside follow to come around three cushions to the middle of the table. A little work to do on the central cluster
 
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At 154 with a fuller break shot -- draw to the end rail? No, just a punch. By the second shot the balls are pretty open and there is a break shot. Nice three ball end pattern and a perfect side of the rack break shot but on the left-handed side.
At 182(?) and the balls open nicely.
At 196 and breaking from the head rail... draws back to the end rail and back out to the side pockets
 
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At 200 and still shooting in rack 15. Works nicely through a cluster without moving anything. Nice end pattern.
Breaking at 210 from the end rail, tries follow and scratches. Back to zero.
 
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pt109 said:
They used to do that in the old challenge matches to 1,000.
....i don’t see any difference, one minute, one day....
...as long as the balls are positioned properly.

‘Course, if he used the spare time to reread Mastering Pool by George Fels....
...it might not be considered kosher.....
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I think it's a HUGE difference when you don't continue. Rest and thought can really help a player. Continuous playing wears on you physically and mentally... Any run not made on the same day and table with the balls untouched is not the same imho.

That said, this is gotta be mentally draining on him having so many runs up to and past 150 and just keeps getting shut down. I know once you get past that point, even earlier, your body can start to feel it so each rack after becomes exponentially more difficult. I'm sure his focus is sharp but there has to be times, especially the further he goes on with this without completing the goal, that he gets so drained mentally that his body follows suit and the focus slips. As I said it just wears on you....Now take ALL that and figure in a bad roll happening at any time and it just goes to show how absolutely difficult it is to run 400 balls let alone 500 or more....
 
Bob Jewett said:
At 200 and still shooting in rack 15. Works nicely through a cluster without moving anything. Nice end pattern.
Breaking at 210 from the end rail, tries follow and scratches. Back to zero.
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Did he just go 395, 210 back to back?
 
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trob said:
I can’t help but think watching him try to break this record on that equipment doesn’t make sense. We all know Mosconi did it on an 8 foot home table with big pockets and slow cloth. He’s trying to break it on a 9 foot with tighter pockets and slippery fast cloth. To me it’s the equivalent of a guy trying to break the 100m dash record but running 200m instead in his bare feet. I honestly think if he makes the attempt again he should do it on the same equivalent table to be fare .

I’m sure this will fire up the old guys on the site...god forbid you say something that goes against Willie.. I really mean no disrespect with this observation. God knows I couldn’t run 526 on a bar box let alone an 8 foot table. Lol
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How many freaking balls do you think Mosconi would have run if he had done what Schmitty is doing? Or if he had done this on what you assume to believe was the easiest table ever at somebody's home? It was done at a pool hall, you know.

Personally, I think he could have hit 1000
 
JohnnyOzone said:
How many freaking balls do you think Mosconi would have run if he had done what Schmitty is doing? Or if he had done this on what you assume to believe was the easiest table ever at somebody's home? It was done at a pool hall, you know.

Personally, I think he could have hit 1000
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Believe it or not, this has little to do with Mosconi.
 
I agree, this is not about Mosconi. It's about breaking a record that has stood seemingly forever. I, for one, would like to see it broken on a 9 foot table. Especially considering that Thomas Engert has run over 490 on such a table. Breaking 500 on a 9 footer would really be something special (not that doing it on an 8 footer is not extremely impressive).

If this record is broken, it won't take anything away from Mosconi. If anything, the difficulties faced by probably one of the top 5 pure shotmakers of all time, shows how special that run Mosconi made actually was. It would be quite something to see, which sadly I never will. I will have to settle for whomever breaks the record. Personally I hope it will be someone other than Schmidt who does it. I have nothing against JS, he seems like a cool dude, and is very talented. It's just that I don't really enjoy watching him play. I'm grinding my teeth as I watch him make spectacular shots every other rack. I'm more in the Niels Feijen camp, myself. I'd love to watch him make a run at it.

Realistically, JS is one of the top candidates to do it. He does have the talent, but he'll need a lot of luck (as all long runs like this do need) and all his mental stamina to pull this one out.
 
skins said:
I think it's a HUGE difference when you don't continue. Rest and thought can really help a player. Continuous playing wears on you physically and mentally... Any run not made on the same day and table with the balls untouched is not the same imho.

That said, this is gotta be mentally draining on him having so many runs up to and past 150 and just keeps getting shut down. I know once you get past that point, even earlier, your body can start to feel it so each rack after becomes exponentially more difficult. I'm sure his focus is sharp but there has to be times, especially the further he goes on with this without completing the goal, that he gets so drained mentally that his body follows suit and the focus slips. As I said it just wears on you....Now take ALL that and figure in a bad roll happening at any time and it just goes to show how absolutely difficult it is to run 400 balls let alone 500 or more....
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I agree with you. Many years ago I set a world record (not in pool). It took over two hours to do. Many failed attempts beforehand. I never set out to try and break the record over the course of month or whatever time frame John is doing. I just knew eventually I would do it. The day I finally did it was on my second attempt. Very nerve racking because unlike pool, I could not take any break whatsoever. It was Pac-Man the video game. While there are indeed hiding places where you can "rest", I did not think that was a good strategy for me. I went straight through until I was finally conquered by Blinky.
 
Straightpool_99 said:
I agree, this is not about Mosconi. It's about breaking a record that has stood seemingly forever. I, for one, would like to see it broken on a 9 foot table. Especially considering that Thomas Engert has run over 490 on such a table. Breaking 500 on a 9 footer would really be something special (not that doing it on an 8 footer is not extremely impressive).

If this record is broken, it won't take anything away from Mosconi. If anything, the difficulties faced by probably one of the top 5 pure shotmakers of all time, shows how special that run Mosconi made actually was. It would be quite something to see, which sadly I never will. I will have to settle for whomever breaks the record. Personally I hope it will be someone other than Schmidt who does it. I have nothing against JS, he seems like a cool dude, and is very talented. It's just that I don't really enjoy watching him play. I'm grinding my teeth as I watch him make spectacular shots every other rack. I'm more in the Niels Feijen camp, myself. I'd love to watch him make a run at it.

Realistically, JS is one of the top candidates to do it. He does have the talent, but he'll need a lot of luck (as all long runs like this do need) and all his mental stamina to pull this one out.
Click to expand...
Thomas Engert played with a D-series McDermott, D-26 for 25 years according to his Samm Diep interview in 2011. ~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLqJx8v2EH8
 
pt109 said:
Better than 300 Balls Per Inning for two games....:eek:
...THIS might be a record
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Second time over 300/inning...? (I don't know if the 4/7 runs were back to back.)

Sunday 04/07/19 283 350 = 317/inning
Monday 04/15/19 395 210 = 303/inning

pj
chgo
 
There are many great Straight Pool players who NEVER ran over 300 balls in their life! I don't know how many times John has done it so far but I strongly suspect he has more 300+ runs than anyone else in the history of Pool.

When he reaches the high 300's you can begin to sniff the record is in sight. How he is able to get back in the box and try again after all those near misses is beyond me. A lesser man would have given up long ago.
 
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