When did 10-ball replace 9-ball as the tournament game of choice?

JBB2388

JBB2388

Banger Extraordinaire
Silver Member
Hi all. New to the forum. I have recently started playing pool again after a 15+ year hiatus from the game. When I started playing and was playing a lot in the late-80's - early 90's, pool was televised a lot more than it is today(obviously). I was also watching countless accu-stats videos of matches. Efren and Earl were my favorite players then and still are today. Anyway, what I am wondering is when was it that 10-ball actually took the place of 9-ball? Now I understand the "why" of it. Its clearly a better game, but back then there were no 10-ball matches. It was all 9-ball with the occasional 8-ball match. 9-ball was considered a good "TV" game because racks were "quicker." In fact, I couldn't even remember if I'd have even ever heard of 10-ball back then. Is it a new game? How long ago was the game created? Thanks.
 
Someone with a better grasp of tournament history than I (sjm perhaps) may have a better answer, but they were playing 10 ball back in the mid to late 90s on the Camel Tour. However, I'm pretty sure that was 10 ball with 9 ball rules. Sometime in the 00s is when the 10 ball rules officially became call shot and 10 ball tournaments have been all the rage since about 07 I'd guess.
 
StraightPoolIU said:
Someone with a better grasp of tournament history than I (sjm perhaps) may have a better answer, but they were playing 10 ball back in the mid to late 90s on the Camel Tour. However, I'm pretty sure that was 10 ball with 9 ball rules. Sometime in the 00s is when the 10 ball rules officially became call shot and 10 ball tournaments have been all the rage since about 07 I'd guess.
Click to expand...

I remember people playing 10-ball back in the late 60s/early 70s in the pool hall where I worked and in the other pool hall that was more of a "family oriented" atmosphere.

The reason it was played in the "family" pool hall was because 9-ball was considered a "gambling" game. They didn't allow 9-ball to be played, but all the guys playing 10-ball were still gambling at it.

In the pool hall I worked at they usually played 9-ball in ring games and 10-ball every once in a while. I think the crowd who tended to do this, were players who frequented both places.
 
On the west coast it started to get popular about 5 years ago if I recall, mainly because of the squawking about the 9 ball break.

The positive is it eliminates some of the luck associated with nine ball. The negative is it takes longer to play.

Most of the tournaments are still 9 ball.
 
I, like many others, was not aware of 10 ball for many years, simply because it wasn't played locally. The game has been around since the mid or late 60s, at least. It became popular because of the break in 9 ball becoming "broken" and, for some, using call shot rules not used in 9 ball removing some of the luck from a rotation game.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
JBB2388 said:
Hi all. New to the forum. I have recently started playing pool again after a 15+ year hiatus from the game. When I started playing and was playing a lot in the late-80's - early 90's, pool was televised a lot more than it is today(obviously). I was also watching countless accu-stats videos of matches. Efren and Earl were my favorite players then and still are today. Anyway, what I am wondering is when was it that 10-ball actually took the place of 9-ball? Now I understand the "why" of it. Its clearly a better game, but back then there were no 10-ball matches. It was all 9-ball with the occasional 8-ball match. 9-ball was considered a good "TV" game because racks were "quicker." In fact, I couldn't even remember if I'd have even ever heard of 10-ball back then. Is it a new game? How long ago was the game created? Thanks.
Click to expand...

Along with all the other information you'll get, here's some of mine:

10-ball has been in the books for many decades, mostly as a gamblers game (games like 11-ball, short rack 11 ball banks, etc.). As someone else had mentioned, there were a couple of 10-ball tourneys with the Camel Tour in the early 90's or late 80's

Ten ball in the DCC Classic really didn't start in the action rooms until Shane vs everyone made it popular during the last two years of the Executive. However, by then the 10-ball tourney from Charlie Williams (I think it was Charlie / Seminole) was getting popular.

I personally have been playing 10-ball as my main practice game since the early 90's.

The champion for pushing 10-ball as the game of choice for professionals has been Joe Tucker above anyone else. No matter what anyone else wants to claim, Joe Tucker was the most vocal and most repetitive about 10-ball. So he's been pushing 10-ball as the future game of choice since at least the late 90's on the internet and probably longer than that through his Racking Secrets. Joe Tucker showed the best spot to break from on the full-pyramid game in Racking Secrets. Not surprisingly, everyone else has figured it out today. Joe should get credit.

The change in the rules from "playing it like 9-ball" vs "call shots, pass back option" is relatively recent to the rules (say, last 5 years or so) and still has an issue with players playing with those rules when gambling. I don't know if even the 10-ball tours are following 100% WPA rules or not. That tends to be an issue as well.

http://www.billiardsdigest.com/new_current_issue/may_13/jewett_index.php

I was dead against these rules changing 10-ball to a call shot game, but I've softened up a bit due to Fran Crimi's post on why the change (basically, to make sure 10-ball is defined as its own game with its own challenges, rather than just 'play it like 9-ball')

That enough?

Freddie <~~~ answer: about 7 years ago.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top