What's the "purest" form of billiards?

[JamisonNeu]

I don't know about that??? I'm not one to sit through an "artistic" pool match...it's boring... decent player, practice a handful of "trick" shot's from the EXACT position ad infinitum... Props all over the place. It's a circus.

Alot like golf... no two shot's are exactly the same, then factor in position for your next stroke. U don't worry position in "trick shot" pool do ya? You can "learn" some stuff from it, but I'd 100% rather watch or play "real" billiards.

The most important ball on the table--(pick a game), is colored white...preferably with measles.

I do not disagree with you either, however if you would have watched me go at a table in my early 20's with a show of nothing, but masse... Ask anyone that ever saw me on a good day (one I wasn't losing my temper). It was pure...No wax, no pool sticks on the table, no racks, no second ball in the corner to make it a combo. Nothing but a 19 oz. playing cue, and the white ball. I love your post, but please do not knock all types of tricks. There are some that really are crazy hard even after you have mastered them. Putting the cue ball where you want is done in golf too.

The tee off, and any shot that is out of bounds, or too hard? Yes, there are even some tricks that take shapes...Not many, but it is possible to shoot 30 different shots on a table without touching any other balls, and without moving the white ball...I had the honor of seeing Bill Marshall do this years ago...He made 30 different 3 ball set up shots (They are all set up on the table when he starts, and he only lost the cue ball one time, quite the show of skill I think...This is one of the only times I saw tricks going in, and was amazed.

It is however a pure sport and one of the oldest parts of our game...It is one of the purest parts for another reason too. A very common motive behind shooting trick shots is to make pool seem like fun for people that do not play...This is a pure motive imo. A little more pure than trying to take all the money out of their wallets.

 

[quadrary]

the dead game

15 ball straight rotation

 

[C.Milian]

Love both Straight Pool and One Pocket for what they are - different, and with respect to the thread title, there certainly is as strong a sense of purity to either as to any pool game (Rotation springs to mind, too).

Would love to see those tables you've mentioned, reading this made me think of something I'd long forgotten. I once managed to have the high run in the National Straight Pool Championships (more than 20 years ago) with a mere 50. Whoever put up the tables did so with the slate reaching way, way too far into the pockets, so it was impossible to open the rack with even a medium-speed break shot - the object ball inevitably hit the rubber facing, then the rounded rim of slate/cloth, and the pocket spit the ball right back onto the table (reminiscent of that YouTube video in which Reyes and his opponent shoot the same 8 at the same corner pocket several times to no avail). In my "high" run there, I had to cheat the pocked on purpose on every break shot, so the object ball would slow down to where the pocket would accept it, yet with a speed that would allow me to knock a few balls loose from the stack…

Greetings from Switzerland, David.
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„J'ai gâché vingt ans de mes plus belles années au billard. Si c'était à refaire, je recommencerais.“ – Roger Conti

It wasn't that tuff now that i think about it. I just didn't know much about making balls compared to the 14.1 guys. Your discription of the table sounds about right, really hard for someone like myself to run many balls. If you get a strong short stop nine ball player they might be able to run 100 on it.