To me 8 ball is a little easier on the 9 foot table with equal normal size pockets and 9 ball is easier on 7 footers by far.
Who says barbox 8-ball is harder than 9-foot?
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Flakeandrun
Well-known member
But you can play these to a certain degree on Chinese 8-ball tables. There is a knack to doing so. In terms of the action on the ball, the aiming point and the speed at which you hit. All vary slightly depending on the exact position. The probability of some shots is higher than others. Hence Chinese-8 ball generating more safety play, or clever maneuvering of balls.
Snooker is a different beast altogether.
Flakeandrun
Well-known member
You can really bully the outside knuckle on the jaws of a Chinese-8 table down the rail. Outside only helps on square jaws down the rail, using it to hold an angle on the OB where you might be cheating that rail slightly. The opposite applies on a Chinese-8 table for shots down that long rail. Where you are often required to force this into the outside jaw of the pocket, bending the rubber, and a touch of inside center on the CB applies action on the OB directing it more acutely into the pocket.
I watched a couple of top class pros playing for stakes in a 'shootout' style bit of gambling down the long rail. You watch how these guys play and it blows your mind wide open. The consistency some of these Chinese 8-ball pros have is ridiculous.
The Eagles Club that I belong to has four 9' Olhausens. The "proper" pool room across town has ten 9' Diamonds. At a quick glance, the pocket sizes seems similar, tho most folks feel the Diamond are "tighter", and in all fairness they are pretty close. The depth of the shelf on the Olhausens make them play a lot differently, and it's quite comical to see players who only come to our club once or twice a year shake their heads when balls rattle on our tables.
Let alone the folks who play at the family entertainment center nearby, on 9' Brunswicks that are much more forgiving.
This is APA-league level stuff, so bear that in mind, of course. It still is funny, to me.
Yes it is but nevermind snooker. If you can't whiz a ball down the rail, the pocket's no good. Any of those supertight games - even Pyramid, would benefit from pockets cut closer to those wooden carom tables.
My friend has an olhausen with deep shelves. Even though I’ve played on it for years, it still astounds me from time to time what hangs up- unlike any table I’ve ever played on. Shelves are so deep that there are many occasions where you can’t do rail first shots
What use are ball trap pockets? Wouldn't you rather play on pockets that go when you hit 'em besides the opposition not being able to get out?
Those Olhausen pockets sound like the pocket shelves are so deep it is basically a gaff table. How the pockets play on it isn't relevant to compare to anywhere else you are playing.
I practiced two or three hours daily on the old snooker table. I got very good playing on it compared to other players but after awhile I noticed it had subtly changed my shot selection and pattern play. An example, playing a safety instead of completing a run playing pool because I expected the pool table to play like the snooker table. This was in the unconscious where I didn't see the issue. Took a few months of slightly worse play than I should have been playing gambling to recognize the problem. Once aware I could shift gears but between the time spent finding the issue and a few months correcting it, I either reduced my income or made the games harder than they needed to be. My shot selection based on the snooker table I was putting almost all of my practice hours in on, had changed enough to affect my play.
There is some advantage to practicing on what you compete on. Some advantage to practicing on tougher equipment too but not all of the time.
Hu
I practiced two or three hours daily on the old snooker table. I got very good playing on it compared to other players but after awhile I noticed it had subtly changed my shot selection and pattern play. An example, playing a safety instead of completing a run playing pool because I expected the pool table to play like the snooker table. This was in the unconscious where I didn't see the issue. Took a few months of slightly worse play than I should have been playing gambling to recognize the problem. Once aware I could shift gears but between the time spent finding the issue and a few months correcting it, I either reduced my income or made the games harder than they needed to be. My shot selection based on the snooker table I was putting almost all of my practice hours in on, had changed enough to affect my play.
There is some advantage to practicing on what you compete on. Some advantage to practicing on tougher equipment too but not all of the time.
Hu
The way I see it, the idea is to transcend the requirements of the tougher tables and just learn to shoot straight. The ball never changes size and goes pretty much where it's shot. There's nothing fatiguing about making all your shots.
Anyone got a link to his videos
Try making all of your shots without touching an inside rail and tell us there is nothing fatiguing about it. That is essentially the same thing as playing the same as you play on very tough tables on all tables. Using the entire pocket available that will allow a ball to be pocketed is actually better play than hitting center pocket all of the time.
One of the first things the high school basketball coach tried to teach was to not shoot for nothing but net. Using the backboard wasn't nearly as cool but was the higher percentage shot. Pool is the same. For ages I scraped the inside corner on shots close to the rail. I finally learned that the sweet spot was roughly halfway out the far inside rail instead of where I had been aiming. One of the factors bringing my game to the next level back then.
The less energy we burn per shot the better our play will be over an entire session. Six to ten hours of play used to be a routine gambling session. Making things as easy as possible was important.
Hu
You just need to free your technique from the "try" part. Remember too that I'm talking about jawless pockets that won't hang if you hit the aperture.
Never any need to work harder than you have to. I was shooting a pistol match and an onlooker compared my targets to another shooters. He was shooting palm sized groups, mine were all over the ten point area. I pointed out that both of us were getting ten points per shot. Next stage just to demonstrate I could, I shot palm sized groups. Then I went back to using the available target.
Pool is much the same. The available target is everywhere you can hit and the ball fall. When somebody starts giving a higher score for center pocket hits then I will go for center pocket. Until then, I consider it more efficient to use the entire area that causes a ball to fall.
Hu
Same thing. When the pocket is all aperture, that's the only concern.
My friend has an olhausen with deep shelves. Even though I’ve played on it for years, it still astounds me from time to time what hangs up- unlike any table I’ve ever played on. Shelves are so deep that there are many occasions where you can’t do rail first shots
I agree- I don't like playing on the table, but my friend isn't going to get rid of it- we don't play for big money on it. Just small tournaments here and there in which each player puts in $20
Please post a picture of the table you are playing on or a picture of a similar one. I get the impression that you and I are like two people talking about skiing. They couldn't quite converse, one was talking about snow skiing, the other about water skiing.
Hu
Call me dreamer. I just look at the state of pool and I see folly. Same thing I dislike about sports. It's a comedy of errors - an object lesson for Joe Shmoe. Whatever happened to excellence?
Nothing wrong with excellence but you have to know it when you see it. Someone wins the lag then breaks and runs the entire set, nine or eleven games. That doesn't mean they were perfect but they were perfect enough every shot to keep their opponent in his chair for the entire set. A funny, I think it was Rodney Morris that this happened to. He never got out of his chair. Somebody asked him later how the match went. "I dogged the lag."
The man that breaks and runs an entire set and finishes without missing a ball is perfect within the parameters of the match. A 147 in snooker is finished open too. That is the sad thing about high run attempts. A person might run hundreds of balls but normally they end with a miss, a failure.
I remember watching Nadia Comaneci live. She was the new standard of excellence, and all other female gymnasts were no longer quite excellent.
Hu
I have run out some sets to 7 and 6 from start but I also have got same treat many times.Nothing wrong with excellence but you have to know it when you see it. Someone wins the lag then breaks and runs the entire set, nine or eleven games. That doesn't mean they were perfect but they were perfect enough every shot to keep their opponent in his chair for the entire set.
Hu
One particular was just 3 years ago when me and my buddy who have status of GOAT in Finnish Kaisa Billiards. We had good open money Kaisa tournament coming up next weekend and we agreed to play some money matches to sharpen us for that. We played most of games race to 1, 20€. Some race to 2, 50€ and we played about 5-6 hours and got even. Loser always started new game.
Then i said " Ok i got enough but let´s play one more for 20 and lag for break and no more after that"
I lagged 1-2mm from rail and he lagged perfect and got cueball frozen to rail. Then he ran out game from start. '
How hard that is? we have 500€ bonus from that in official tourneys, and it wont be always gone every year.. He won the tournament too.
Also lost 8-ball ranking final on very tight table years ago where opponent ran 8-and-out. Only shot i did was lag and it was good one but not good enough.
Most memorable was long time ago in Nordic Champs where i played very good and race to 9 (9-ball) was leading 8-0. Then had thin hit close to ball one 1-ball after break and cueball hit my tip when coming back from rail. Norweigian guy ran out the set from there...
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Flakeandrun
Well-known member
Kaisa looks fun. I'd love to give it a try one day.