Which game has the least luck factor?

[Eric.]

I know, I know, the age old question.... Just humor me.

So, a bunch of us bar stool pundits were bringing up the talk of which cue game has the least luck factor. For what it's worth, we were talking about the games that are still played these days i.e. 8/9/10 ball, 1 hole, Banks, 3 Cushion/Billiards and 14.1.

The consensus was that either Banks or 3 Cushion had the least amount of luck built in.

What do you think? Why?


Eric

 

[thepavlos]

Bank pool has always been the only no luck game with no margin of error. It has to go in the way you call it not touching any extra rails or balls. You can always get a little "luck" in the other games.

 

[pt109]

No contest....full rack banks.
You gotta bank 'em clean...you gotta move good...you gotta call 'em.

I'm putting 1-pocket second.

I've seen lots of flukes at 3-c and snooker.....
...sometimes when I was shooting...

 

[Hits 'em Hard]

i.e. 8/9/10 ball, 1 hole, Banks, 3 Cushion/Billiards.

Well the easiest way to answer that question is to ask, which games allow for some sloppiness? That would be all games except banks. Because in banks, it's a true called shot (bar rules style), if anything except what was called happens, it's a bad shot. ALL other games allow for room for some slop. But the games themselves, minus APA 8ball which is pure slop, will hardly ever be played with sloppy shots being made.

 

[PGHteacher]

IMHO there is no pool game that has a lower luck factor than 3CB if you wanted to equalize it you could MAKE bank pool its equal by stipulating 2 (not 3 because of the call factor) rails the minimum. If you look at averages, high runs and the like you would come to the unquestionable conclusion that it must be 3CB. The average of a WORLD CLASS champion is 2 yes 2 that’s all.

 

[AtLarge]

Bank pool has always been the only no luck game ...

Luck is involved in bank pool in (1) whether you make a ball on the break, (2) how the balls are arranged on the table after the break (with no shot, with one shot, with multiple shots), and (3) how the balls are rearranged by intended or unintended collisions.

 

[Banks]

I voted bank pool, but..

From what I've read, catching the side pocket corner on a straight-back is still allowed in many places..

 

[TheNewSharkster]

Snooker has the least amount of luck IMO

 

[PGHteacher]

Snooker has the least amount of luck IMO

I like many of your posts but;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6I-elP0A5pg

Just sayin

 

[TheNewSharkster]

I like many of your posts but;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6I-elP0A5pg

Just sayin

That never happens to me!

 

[sjm]

All games with an offense-oriented break of a large cluster of balls have more luck than those with defense oriented breaks. Of the choices, I'll select one-pocket as having the smallest luck factor.

 

[CreeDo]

Tossup between banks and 3C. Banks gotta go exactly as called, but as others have pointed out your shot options depend a lot on the break, whether balls come to rest near pockets or frozen vs. away from the rail, etc.

With three cushion, the only luck among good players is if a player is trying for e.g. 3 rails and catches it coming back out from the 5th. But that kind of "lucky miss" is something that the good players know and plan for.

It's almost impossible for the cue ball to take a completely different path than intended yet still hit a 2.5" target, so I kind of lean towards 3C. But there's still luck when the opponent misses and leaves you a mission-impossible shot, or if the balls come to rest directly on a known simple 3c track vs. some funky position that would baffle everyone. You can certainly call it lucky for the opponent when your perfectly struck shot didn't go because there's a small section of the rail that's deader than the rest, or everything's playing funny because it's raining and muggy.


One hole has luck all the time... banked balls double up preventing any plausible combo, a player gets boned because his opponent's ball hung instead of dropping, banking lanes get blocked because of some random ball that got scraped out of the pack and rolls to exactly the worst place, a dead one lines up after someone goes into the pack, a ball rattles out of one pocket and flies along the short rail into the opposite pocket, a bank misses short and z's its way straight in front of the other guy's hole even though you played to miss safe... Just allowing un-called shots puts it behind bank pool.

 

[RunoutJJ]

IMHO there is no pool game that has a lower luck factor than 3CB if you wanted to equalize it you could MAKE bank pool its equal by stipulating 2 (not 3 because of the call factor) rails the minimum. If you look at averages, high runs and the like you would come to the unquestionable conclusion that it must be 3CB. The average of a WORLD CLASS champion is 2 yes 2 that’s all.

3CB hands down you are right!! I think that most people don't play a lot (or never have) of 3 cushion so they choose banks which is lucky in some degree..

At Large that posted below this hit it on the head. No doubt about it :groucho:

 

[DogsPlayingPool]

3C sure seems the game that is most resistant to scoring, at least by a novice like me. Once in a while a friend and I will take the billiard table and say something like "Let's play to 20." After about an hour and a half one of us will say "Let's just go to 5."

I guess it's Banks for sure in pool. I don't know enough about 3C to really say how much luck is involved. I suppose with all the rails and collisions it is possible to give your opponent a sweet or sour leave. But to me nothing looks like a hanger in billiards so I wouldn't even know if I got left lucky or unlucky.

 

[thommy]

I'm damn lucky to see let alone make a 3 cushion shot so i think that is the luckiest:grin:

 

[DRW]

least amount of luck

Banks, beyond a shadow of doubt. Played as they do DCC

 

[Scott Lee]

Within the pocket games, I think it would be 1-pocket...but 3C has the least luck, imo.

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com

 

[7forlife]

I don't feel that most are paying attention to the question properly. All games have luck in it but the game to have the least overall should be 3CB. if this is not so then by what the others (banks players) are saying then 10 ball should also be considered since that is a call game also, now i knwo that you would rule it out cause of the "clean" factor but lets look at banks for a sec.

A: was it luck or skill when there is one ball left and the player at the table plays his shot and hangs it
or
B: misses and rolls dead on for a short rail shot
or
C: two balls left on the table, misses but leave the other guy kissing the other ball or something like that

LUCK can show it ugly face at any time in practically any game, but 3CB, now that's different. See the player played exactly for what the out come was going to be with far more precision that pocket games. Now I am by no means a 3CB player put "properly" looking for none bias fact I would have to say that this game has the least amount of luck to it, with the most luck being when the ball rolls so slow that the Ref has to stand over the ball to look for the contact.

P.S.
I would like to think that 14.1 may be second, but i'm just spit balling at this point.

 

[Jive]

Geez...you don't even have 9 ball as an option? Now that's just plain rude

 

[sjm]

Interesting thread. 3-cushion is difficult to assess for me. While at the highest levels, some defense is played, most people don't play any defense at all. For that reason, I feel that there is an enormous luck factor when it comes to what players leave when they miss an attempted carom .... and, of course, 3-cushion is a game of misses. Most attempts to score are unsuccessful for players that average less than 1.0, which means nearly all players. For typical good players, who average in the 0.5 to 0.75 range, I feel there is a huge luck factor in three cushion.