What's the BS with alternate & soft break?

Dr. Dissent

Dr. Dissent

Best Doctor in Town
Silver Member
People, what is it with you? What is all this BS talk about the alternate break or the soft breaks? People always have to have a saying about the rules of any tournament.

The format was changed this year to alternate break in order to avoid the "massacre" of players. Nobody likes to stay "seated" with the winner's break. Alternate break has been discussed at length, so I won't go into this bull$hit again.

Soft breaks. Pleeeasee stop the whining! A break is a break. The soft break happened to work for Alcano. It has also work for many other players. There is no "freaking" rules about breaking hard or breaking soft. So live with this. As long as you break, and the corresponding number of ball hit the rails, the hell with what you think.! No need to "bust the balls hard" and then have no freaking chance to run the table.

It was not Ralf Souquet's day. It was Ronnie's all the way. Ronnie won fair and square. Ralf admitted he did not like the soft break, but also admitted that Ronnie deserved to win.

Congratulations to Ronnie "Calamba" Alcano, and to all the people of the Phillipines!
 
There is no "freaking" rules about breaking hard or breaking soft. So live with this. As long as you break, and the corresponding number of ball hit the rails, the hell with what you think.! No need to "bust the balls hard" and then have no freaking chance to run the table.
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while not agreeing or disagreeing with you, it does annoy me slightly when people use the argument "there is no rule that says you have to hit the balls hard" to defend the soft break. the whole point IN the debate is whether there should be one! so saying there is no rule is an irrelevance!

and for my opnion on the soft break, I don't like it. It goes against the very nature of nine ball, which is a fast, fluid, entertaining game with big stroke shots.
 
Q

Dr. Dissent said:
People, what is it with you? What is all this BS talk about the alternate break or the soft breaks? People always have to have a saying about the rules of any tournament.

The format was changed this year to alternate break in order to avoid the "massacre" of players. Nobody likes to stay "seated" with the winner's break. Alternate break has been discussed at length, so I won't go into this bull$hit again.

Soft breaks. Pleeeasee stop the whining! A break is a break. The soft break happened to work for Alcano. It has also work for many other players. There is no "freaking" rules about breaking hard or breaking soft. So live with this. As long as you break, and the corresponding number of ball hit the rails, the hell with what you think.! No need to "bust the balls hard" and then have no freaking chance to run the table.

Quote:
<Whats with the BS and the soft break>

"Whats with the negative waves & attacking post"????????????


Forums are to talk and share thoughts and ideas. By not questioning whats transpired and always playing it safe is risky, because if we don't nothing will ever change. My only 'dissent' was the wing ball went so often they had a camera parked at the lower left corner. It went for RA at least 90% of the time. Whats wrong is the structure of the 9 ball rack/wing ball location, and thats why they play 10-ball on the FL tour.
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Alternate break in 9-ball kills the spirit of the game, imo. The WPC did everything right last year: kep the long races, tightened up the pockets, got rid of the sardo, etc etc...

But I was shocked to see them switch to alternate breaks in this year's tournament. It's a game of momentum, and nothing is sweeter than watching a guy catch his stroke (and monster break) and come back from behind with a 6 pack.

All props to Ronnie Alcano, he deserves the win as he played flawlessly.

-Roger (I like to see them switch to 10-ball, winner break, on tight pockets...)
 
All my friends in my country share a view.....

The Champion win on break:rolleyes: but Wu and Ralf perform deadly in this WPC.:cool:
 
Why do people break hard in the first place?

They want to get a ball in the pocket, spread out the balls on the table and have good position on the object ball.

In a choice of break, does it matter whether its a soft break or not? I don't think so as long as you get the result you want. Wu even tried the soft break himself. Would you be surprised if many of the players converted to a soft break because of what happened to Ronnie? Of course not.

Champions win championships because they are breaking good whether soft or hard. If you don't break well you can not win. Breaking will win you championships so long as you have the pocketing and positional skills. That's my opionion on the matter.
 
I think the soft break is more intersting to watch since the balls are not all scattered on the table but bunched up. it really takes a lot of skill to navigate through that maze and only a good player can make the soft break work. corey deuel is known for his soft break; he just didn't get the breaks (pardon the weak pun) this time around.

The players really should be able to adjust to their environment. They all saw the soft break working for Ronnie the whole week, and the hard break not doing everyone much good. A good player should adjust his game to suit the conditions of the table. A lot of other players were using the soft break as well. Ronnie didn't begin the tournament with a soft break. He just saw that his hard break wasn't working and shifted to soft break.
 
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Regarding alternate breaks: There wasn't much more exciting than last year when Wu put a five pack on Kuo to close out the match when trailing 16:12.

In this year's format that would have been nearly impossible. That is one thing that makes pool different from any other sport - the chance that an athlete may get up there and close his opponent out without them getting to shoot. Of course no one "likes" for that to happen to them but they also have the opportunity to do it to others so it's fair.

Alternate breaks takes the game into a different category. It messes with the momentum and breaks the rhythm established with winner breaks.

I played in a tournament that had this format; the trailing player breaks. That was interesting and had it's high and low points.

Having watched all of this year's WPC and and last year's I have to say that I prefer winner breaks. I like to see the players putting packs together and I especially liked the pressure of the finals when Wu was givien up for dead and boom here he comes.

Probably the biggest difference with alternate breaks is that having a three or more game lead when you are on the hill gives the leader a huge comfort zone whereas in winner breaks there is no comfort until the last nine ball drops.

I vote - soft break yes - alternate breaks no. The players should decided though - not the promoters. The fact that the rules and the format changes every year is a travesty. It's ridiculous. When was the last time you heard announcers on talking about how they (the tournament promoter) was going to change the format in a Golf or Tennis event. The promoter doesn't get to choose the rules in those sports, the players do through their respective organizations.
 
I don't like the alternate break format. It gives too much opportunity to a lesser player... the elimination and knockout stages could attest to that... it also eliminates the strength of a stronger player... can't get the rhythm and groove going...

Losing a rack, still have a chance 'coz you'll get a chance to break again... now another fault of this format is that luck plays a much bigger part IMO on the break... Souquet knows that... and falling behind by 3 racks is almost unsurmountable...

I think the WPC should have a revamp of the format... specially the elims...
I remember a decade ago Efren and Earl played a race to 120... one time Efren was down by 20 or so racks... at the end Efren won 120-116 I believe... I know it's impossible to haVE THIS number of games played, but a much better format 'coz this is the worlld championship we're talkin about.

As for the soft break, it doesn't matter to me... there's still a lot of skill, control involved in executing the soft break... there wasn't much talk about breakng the balls too hard... =) Why the big fuss about breaking soft?

Just my two cents...

Congratulations to Ronnie ALCANO!
 
monski said:
Why do people break hard in the first place?

They want to get a ball in the pocket, spread out the balls on the table and have good position on the object ball.

In a choice of break, does it matter whether its a soft break or not? I don't think so as long as you get the result you want. Wu even tried the soft break himself. Would you be surprised if many of the players converted to a soft break because of what happened to Ronnie? Of course not.

Champions win championships because they are breaking good whether soft or hard. If you don't break well you can not win. Breaking will win you championships so long as you have the pocketing and positional skills. That's my opionion on the matter.
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right, its a matter of choice. as long as its well within the rules of the game. i mean if it works, whats the big deal?? a few players who normally break hard also change thier stance cause it seems to work. in addition, it takes more skill and guile to navigate the table with the soft break as the balls all bunch up together. surely that has to have some credit.

a huge break might be more exciting and more into the spirit of the game, but it might not win you championships. what wins you championships is finding what works.

champs become champs cause they can adapt to new tactics and ideas when the chips are down as. Wu tried, so did ronnie. one of them won..
 
If alternate breaks did not work well, then why where there still too many massacres? eg. Alcano 10-1 Gomez. Ralp should be glad about alternate breaks or else he is done much sooner, he got chances but no BRs. Besides it is not Alcano's soft break that won him WPC but his tactical play. How many players in America do soft breaks but never won anything? Watch the video. You will see good putting skill and safety play.
 
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