A
Alistair
Guest
Hi folks,
I had a question that I posted on the old forum, but I never got to see the answer to it if there was any.
Why is 9 ball the standard for professional pool? It seems that at the pro level it is practically a "mistake" if a player doesn't run out the rack from break to finish, and people on the forum say that at the pro level players can often lose without even getting a shot at the table, so wouldn't a more difficult game be better? I was thinking about this lately, because I am just a novice player myself and I don't get to play much, but I enjoy the game and play and read about it and watch it (on TV) when I can. 9 ball seems like a pretty boring game to watch, though, especially for non-pool people, because the players don't really seem to be challenged to their limit. On the old forum, people wrote a lot about making pool into a major spectator sport, but every major spectator sport that I know of challenges players to the maximum of their abilities, and 9 ball doesn't seem to. What I mean is, in a football game, for instance, players do plays over and over again that they fail on -- that is the extent to which they are pushing the limit. In a game of 9 ball it seems like players are almost never forced to make those kind of exciting risky shots, because they can basically run out the table most of the time with low risk high percentage shots.
Anyway, I don't mean to be blase about running out the table, I can't run more than five balls myself, but that seems to be the case from what I have seen and read for pro level 9 ball.
So why is 9 ball the professional game of choice? Is there some harder game that would make a better professional standard? Is 8 ball harder to run racks on, for instance? Or am I just way off base here?
Appreciate illumination on this subject,
--Alistair
I had a question that I posted on the old forum, but I never got to see the answer to it if there was any.
Why is 9 ball the standard for professional pool? It seems that at the pro level it is practically a "mistake" if a player doesn't run out the rack from break to finish, and people on the forum say that at the pro level players can often lose without even getting a shot at the table, so wouldn't a more difficult game be better? I was thinking about this lately, because I am just a novice player myself and I don't get to play much, but I enjoy the game and play and read about it and watch it (on TV) when I can. 9 ball seems like a pretty boring game to watch, though, especially for non-pool people, because the players don't really seem to be challenged to their limit. On the old forum, people wrote a lot about making pool into a major spectator sport, but every major spectator sport that I know of challenges players to the maximum of their abilities, and 9 ball doesn't seem to. What I mean is, in a football game, for instance, players do plays over and over again that they fail on -- that is the extent to which they are pushing the limit. In a game of 9 ball it seems like players are almost never forced to make those kind of exciting risky shots, because they can basically run out the table most of the time with low risk high percentage shots.
Anyway, I don't mean to be blase about running out the table, I can't run more than five balls myself, but that seems to be the case from what I have seen and read for pro level 9 ball.
So why is 9 ball the professional game of choice? Is there some harder game that would make a better professional standard? Is 8 ball harder to run racks on, for instance? Or am I just way off base here?
Appreciate illumination on this subject,
--Alistair