People constantly talk about call shot as if it makes the game more difficult or more professional. There are some very good reasons I prefer slop rules when playing 9 ball or 10 ball. Here are a couple:
1. It disrupts the balance between kicking and safety play. When someone plays safe the kicker is already at a major disadvantage much of the time. When playing 'call shot' the balance tips much, much further. This leads to a more defensive game. With the kicker having less chance of winning it leads to more safeties, and safeties that leave the kicker drawing nearly dead in many cases. It's like baseball- what makes it great is the balance between good pitching and good hitting. If the strike zone was made to be 6x6" the pitchers would be at such an advantage it wouldn't be fun. That's what call shot does to kickers, it makes it so there is so much less risk in letting your opponent back to the table. With slop rules people have to think twice before playing safe, plus they know if they shoot an aggressive shot and miss they might slop something in or getting lucky and get a hook, this leads to more aggression and a more suspenseful and challenging contest.
2. It doesn't eliminate luck. This is absurd. So much luck is involved in the game already. The spread of the balls after the break, whether you get a shot at the lowest ball, where you leave the balls if you miss, where the balls end up after a kick shot, and so much more. If you wanted to make a pie chart of how much luck was in the game, slopped balls would make up less than 5%. And at the top level where players don't miss often it is even less. Yet players insist that this is somehow drastically reducing the luck from the game. It's ridiculous. If you really wanted to eliminate luck you'd have template layouts like bowling or golf and have people demonstrate their ability to navigate through the obstacle courses. But that's pointless anyway because of my next point.
3. Luck isn't a bad thing. The poker player Howard Letterer said "In poker there is skill and there is luck, and one of the skills is handling the luck". Truer words were never spoken. Look, I love Grady Matthews, and I have learned a LOT from him. To this day I watch many matches he commentates because after hearing his voice for so long I feel he is an old friend. But he was terrible at handling the luck. I just watched a player review of him vs. Buddy Hall, and he was grumbling on and on about the luck. How he never gets a shot at the 1 ball when it's down to the wire, how there's not even a good place to push, etc. Then he proceeds to one stroke a stupid shot disgustedly and act like a victim. Never mind that Buddy made a great kick shot and scratched to let him win the rack before. Never mind that the reason he was hooked was because the cue ball followed forward to the end rail. I'm afraid to say he didn't handle the luck well and turned into a negative victim meltdown artist. My point is that a little luck in the game is a good thing, because it rewards those with a positive attitude. It creates adversity in the game and rewards those that have belief and confidence and expect good things to happen. Billy Incardona also said this in a match he commentated once and I agree wholeheartedly.
In general I am put off with the attitude "If it weren't for luck I'd win them all", or "I don't mind losing, I just don't like losing by slop". Look, if you lose 9-8 in a race to 9 due to a slop shot, you didn't lose because of slop, you lost because you let your opponent get 8 games to where one roll would cost you the match. And if you're so good you can win without luck, you can win with luck. If you can't win with luck, you're not as good as you think you are.
We all know the feeling of sitting in your chair sweating your opponents kick, hoping they don't slop in the 9 or something. But your job as a competitor is to deal with those uncomfortable feelings and perform optimally anyway, not to eliminate situations that make you uncomfortable.
Almost all of it is ego trips and inability to manage adversity. Deal with it and don't mess up a good game!
1. It disrupts the balance between kicking and safety play. When someone plays safe the kicker is already at a major disadvantage much of the time. When playing 'call shot' the balance tips much, much further. This leads to a more defensive game. With the kicker having less chance of winning it leads to more safeties, and safeties that leave the kicker drawing nearly dead in many cases. It's like baseball- what makes it great is the balance between good pitching and good hitting. If the strike zone was made to be 6x6" the pitchers would be at such an advantage it wouldn't be fun. That's what call shot does to kickers, it makes it so there is so much less risk in letting your opponent back to the table. With slop rules people have to think twice before playing safe, plus they know if they shoot an aggressive shot and miss they might slop something in or getting lucky and get a hook, this leads to more aggression and a more suspenseful and challenging contest.
2. It doesn't eliminate luck. This is absurd. So much luck is involved in the game already. The spread of the balls after the break, whether you get a shot at the lowest ball, where you leave the balls if you miss, where the balls end up after a kick shot, and so much more. If you wanted to make a pie chart of how much luck was in the game, slopped balls would make up less than 5%. And at the top level where players don't miss often it is even less. Yet players insist that this is somehow drastically reducing the luck from the game. It's ridiculous. If you really wanted to eliminate luck you'd have template layouts like bowling or golf and have people demonstrate their ability to navigate through the obstacle courses. But that's pointless anyway because of my next point.
3. Luck isn't a bad thing. The poker player Howard Letterer said "In poker there is skill and there is luck, and one of the skills is handling the luck". Truer words were never spoken. Look, I love Grady Matthews, and I have learned a LOT from him. To this day I watch many matches he commentates because after hearing his voice for so long I feel he is an old friend. But he was terrible at handling the luck. I just watched a player review of him vs. Buddy Hall, and he was grumbling on and on about the luck. How he never gets a shot at the 1 ball when it's down to the wire, how there's not even a good place to push, etc. Then he proceeds to one stroke a stupid shot disgustedly and act like a victim. Never mind that Buddy made a great kick shot and scratched to let him win the rack before. Never mind that the reason he was hooked was because the cue ball followed forward to the end rail. I'm afraid to say he didn't handle the luck well and turned into a negative victim meltdown artist. My point is that a little luck in the game is a good thing, because it rewards those with a positive attitude. It creates adversity in the game and rewards those that have belief and confidence and expect good things to happen. Billy Incardona also said this in a match he commentated once and I agree wholeheartedly.
In general I am put off with the attitude "If it weren't for luck I'd win them all", or "I don't mind losing, I just don't like losing by slop". Look, if you lose 9-8 in a race to 9 due to a slop shot, you didn't lose because of slop, you lost because you let your opponent get 8 games to where one roll would cost you the match. And if you're so good you can win without luck, you can win with luck. If you can't win with luck, you're not as good as you think you are.
We all know the feeling of sitting in your chair sweating your opponents kick, hoping they don't slop in the 9 or something. But your job as a competitor is to deal with those uncomfortable feelings and perform optimally anyway, not to eliminate situations that make you uncomfortable.
Almost all of it is ego trips and inability to manage adversity. Deal with it and don't mess up a good game!
