What are Texas Exress Rules

LMB

LMB

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
What are Texas Express Rules

I recently started playing again after 15 years and have been placing if not winning some of the smaller $20 enrty fee local tournaments. Next month there is a larger tournament I would like to play in. It is a 9-ball tournament with Texas Express Rules. Can anyone tell me what this means or were I can find info. for these rules?
 
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LMB said:
I recently started playing again after 15 years and have been placing if not winning some of the smaller $20 enrty fee local tournaments. Next month there is a larger tournament I would like to play in. It is a 9-ball tournament with Texas Express Rules. Can anyone tell me what this means or were I can find info. for these rules?
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Texas Express Rules are a complete set of rules for 9-ball and they are used in many tournaments.
Contact Randy G. (Randy Gottlicher) at the Cue Tech pool school.
IIRC, Randy had something to do with writing those rules and may be able to steer you to a copy.

If Randy is not able to help you, I believe the Texas Express Rules are very similar to the Pro Express Rules shown at this site.
http://www.usppa.com/rules.htm
 
LMB said:
... . It is a 9-ball tournament with Texas Express Rules. ...
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It may well be the World Standardized Rules, but just called Texas Express. There used to be a group called Texas Express Promotions that ran a tour. They developed their own rules because at the time the official rules were really, really bad and no one played by them. The two sets of rules more or less converged. TE no longer runs tournaments and is effectively out of the rules business.

In any case, it is hard to find a tournament in the US where the TD has not added his own little favorite wrinkles. You need to ask.
 
Texas Express rules are very well written. The best I have ever seen. The wording is very clear and easy to understand.

They were at one time on the internet, but that link no longer works...
 
I highly suggest printing out a copy of the World Standardized Rules from the Worls Pool-Billiard Association.

WPA Standardized Rules
http://wpa-pool.com/index.asp?content=rules

The WPA Rules of Play were updated at the 2005 General Assembly, whereby it was approved to recognize a two year moratorium on rules changes to last through the end of year 2007.
 
Billy_Bob said:
Texas Express rules are very well written. The best I have ever seen. The wording is very clear and easy to understand.

They were at one time on the internet, but that link no longer works...
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Texas Express rules are well written because they were invented by a man that knows more about the sport than just about any living human being.

Robin Adair in Corpus Christi, Texas.

The man has lived, ate, and breathed pool for as long as I can remember.
He has a pro Shop in Corpus Christi, Texas at Theos pool hall and sells production cues as well as some very rare collector cues.

361-851-9799 9:30 to 2:00AM

Next time you are thinking about ordering a cue from someone why not give him a call and see if he can offer what you want.
Robin has contributed a lot to the advancement of the pool sport but you do not hear much from the guys that are the motivating force behind the sport.
 
LMB said:
... It is a 9-ball tournament with Texas Express Rules. Can anyone tell me what this means or were I can find info. for these rules?
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I'll teach you how to fish, in this case.

The website for Texas Express Promotions has expired, which makes getting the rules from the actual source difficult but not impossible. The hard part is figuring out what it used to be. Armed with the name "Texas Express" and guessing that you want to add "pool" -- there is a "Texas Express" basketball group -- and "links" to find pages with links to pool web sites including TE, you are led to several sites that say www.texasexpress.com Sadly, that name has been taken over by a site squatter that will try to sell you pool cues and tables, and no longer has anything to do with Texas Express Promotions. So....

Go to www.archive.org which is an amazing place that makes a copy of the whole web every few months and keeps the whole thing on-line. Stick www.texasexpress.com in the "Wayback Machine" and you will see that the site was created about December 5, 1998. If you click on the appropriate date, you will be transported back to the web site as it was at that time.

Well, I lied to you. archive.org only makes partial copies, and mostly only text. The 1998 site claims to have the rules but they don't seem to be available. Just go to a later version of the website, for example the final one. There you will also see a memorial to John McChesney who was a major promoter of the game and perhaps the main force behind TE.

Anyway, you can click on the rules menu button there -- it works -- and you can get the rules, but it requires looking at multiple pages. Here's a trick to avoid that. Find a snippet of text in the rules that seems unique. For example, "other than variations during the break" seems pretty unusual. Cut and paste that into the phrase-to-look-for box in Google's advanced search page, and you will be led to six sites that seem to have made copies of the TE rules at one time or another. A good one is the site of the Texas Open at http://www.texas9ball.com/rules/texas_express.html Another has it as a PDF so it might print better for you. See www.sevy.ca/Texas_Express_AN.pdf

But as I said before, it is very likely that the TD has never seen and will not be using the actual TE rules.
 
> Basically,the TE rules were used in favor of speeding up the game,and making it a greater penalty for scratching off the break. Under the rules used in the MPBA back in the late 80's,it was only ball in hand in the kitchen if your opponent scratched on the break,and all balls made on the break spotted back up. Let's say your opponent breaks,jumps the cue ball off the table,but makes 3 balls. They all come back up on the spot,and with ball in hand from the kitchen you can't run out and are forced to play safe,basically penalizing YOU for your opponent's mistake. Keeping all the balls down and rewarding you with BIH anywhere eliminates this. The safety battles early on in racks were causing some slow play,so the TE rules were adopted,but they had been playing with the TE rules for years in Texas,as basically a state-wide set of "house" rules. Tommy D.
 
WilleeCue said:
Texas Express rules are well written because they were invented by a man that knows more about the sport than just about any living human being.

Robin Adair in Corpus Christi, Texas.

The man has lived, ate, and breathed pool for as long as I can remember.
He has a pro Shop in Corpus Christi, Texas at Theos pool hall and sells production cues as well as some very rare collector cues.

361-851-9799 9:30 to 2:00AM

Next time you are thinking about ordering a cue from someone why not give him a call and see if he can offer what you want.
Robin has contributed a lot to the advancement of the pool sport but you do not hear much from the guys that are the motivating force behind the sport.
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Yes, Robin is all that and maybe more. It was Robin who "coined" the phrase Texas Express. Robin was a very active part of our group........SPF=randyg
 
Yes its me, Mr. Texas Express. i have been lurking these and other billiard related forums for years. Being semi-computer literate has been a saving grace, as it has prevented me from posting replies to all the hear-say, rumors, and down right bad info that seems to abound around our industry and sport and in all the chat rooms and forums.
One of the jobs I do in the Pro Shop is dispell all the old wives tales about equipment and players and things that people have heard from others and read on the internet. By appearing on this board, I think I might be overwhelmed with questions and flames, so I may just continue lurking and save the peace.
However, I am mighty proud about what me , randyg, and Mr. McChesney have accomplished over the last couple of decades and I am not shy about telling people about it. It's a Texas thing.
This being my first post EVER on a board, I wish to maintain some level of sanity and tounge in cheek comments, as it looks like this could be a full time job. A job I'm not getting paid to do, so I will only respond where I feel a misjustice has been done.
I have a series of speeches I gave around the country while on tour, and might be convinced to post them here. Time willing and brain cells cooperating. And if you ever heard anything negative about me, its probably true, as I am old with very high mileage, and have been there done that, thousands of times over the years. No topic is barred.
So hello to willee and randyg, thanks for the comments. If i figure out this post thingie, I may become a regular. Robin
 
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