9 BALL THE DUMBEST GAME IN POOL?

9 BALL THE DUMBEST GAME IN POOL?

9 BALL THE DUMBEST GAME IN POOL?

5 pages Fast Larry Guninger CR, all rights reserved, rev 7-26-05, Published in DC, Bpn, czm, upp, rsb, ppt, btt, ept, flp, btt.

If there is a more stupid game in pool then tell me what it is.
Why do you play this stupid game? Why are you playing 9 ball?
Answer, because it’s the only game in town.

Out west during the cowboy gold rush days a famous gambler called Soupy was interviewed in a newspaper article. They said we saw you playing Faro last night and wondered why? You know the game is crooked and you can’t win at it, why would somebody like you who knows this continue to play such a game. Soupy’s answer was, because it’s the only game in town.

You are playing 9 ball for the same reason and until now probably never questioned that the game you are playing is stupid. Don’t get mad at me, I am not calling you stupid. Don’t shoot the messenger here as well. I did not invent the stupid game nor was I one of the people in the BCA and ESPN who pushed this game on you. Hey, I play the stupid game also and I guess that makes me as stupid as you. Don’t turn this history lesson around to become a get FL bash. Try and learn something new here today without getting your dress fluffed up over your belly button.

When pool was invented and began play in the 1880’s the main championship game was rotation. You have to pot the 1 first and get one point, then the 2 and now have 3 points. All 15 balls must be run in numerical order. The first 5 balls are the hardest to make and score the least producing 15 points. To win beginning on the one you would have to make the first 11 balls leaving the last 4 on the table scoring 66 points. It takes 61 points to win.

The last 5 are the easiest and score the most. A number of world championships were lost by the player who was the best and who potted 2/3 rd’s of the balls to the less skilled but smarter opponent who only potted l/3rd of them. There is 120 points on the board and if you pot the l5-14-13-12-11 you win with these 5 balls scoring 65 points. Just toss out those 5 balls on the open table and any one in the room can run those most of the time, no problem. Now rack up 15 balls and break and see how many times you can run the first 5 in rotation, this is extremely difficult, few can. There are too many balls blocking the pockets, you can’t get a shot.

This game is so tough to run out on, the high run on it is only 75 balls 5 racks which I set the world record on in 94, Efren Reyes high run is 60, 4 racks. To break and run the table of all 15 balls is a supreme accomplishment. My first 4 racks were all call shot, including calling the one ball on the break in the side pocket 4 times in a row. That is a record that will never be beaten. I then broke and made two on the break but the one did not go in the side but by the rules you don’t have to call a break ball, same in 8 or 9 ball. I ran out the 5th rack and sat down and began to drink scotch savoring the moment and just kept drinking and never got back up so the run was unfinished. It was a social occasion and I had been drinking for hours before the high run so I was already pretty loose and feeling no pain. Never at any time during that run did I use more than a half tip of English. So I hold two world records there.

The game of rotation is a very stupid and unfair game. The game hung on in popularity as the most played pool game well into the early 60’s because the practice then was to charge by the game. Many just wanted to pass the time and hang out or practice. When I began play during WWII in 1945 the Centennial balls had just been introduced for Brunswick’s 100th anniversary and a game of rotation was a nickel. Later in the 50’s it became a dime. They rack up 15 balls; you break and then practice your hard cuts or banks, which gave you more time on the table. You could play with a pal, miss a lot of shots on purpose and play most of the afternoon. For people with very little money it was the poor mans game.

When the table was clear you would say in a loud voice, rack please. The rack boy would come over and pull the balls out of the bottom tray of the gully table and give you a nice rack and you game him a dime. The people with money were playing straight, balk line or 3-cushion. You could milk more pool out of a dollar playing that way than going on time and paying the 50 cents an hour they charged. Some places only charged by the rack. Even early bar boxes only charged the coin op a dime. In 1961 a dollar is six bucks today. Bar boxes did not become in place and popular until the early 60’s.

It would not be wise to play a short rack of just 9 balls and get fewer bangs for your buck. 9 ball was invented in the 20’s but did not get popular until most of the rooms began to charge by the hour in the late 50’s and not by the game.

When that change occurred, it did not make any more sense to play the more difficult game of rotation 15 balls. It was more fun to play the easier rotation game of 9 balls. 9 ball is rotation, a short rack version of. Straight pool was the main game and that is what they played to become the world champion. In 57 a number of tragic things occurred all around this same time frame. All the top legends of the game went away and with them, went the championship game. Hoppe and Greenleaf died, Mosconi had a stroke and retired. Pool simply died as a game and the BCA went out of business and took all of its years of records and files and threw them into the dumpster and walked off. The game I came up into was then nothing but back room hustling for money.

9 ball became the most popular game in the early 60’s because it was faster to play and win at. You could also disguise your skill better making your wins look lucky. The Jansco brothers began the world hustlers jamboree, an un official world championship in 1961 and to be king of the hustlers you have to win 2 of the 3 games played, one pocket, 9 ball and straight pool. That is was doomed straight.
The BCA did not come back until 66 when they did their first US Open where Crane won in straight running 150 and out on the Meat man. Serious world championships would not be played until the early 70’s when the Jansco hustlers events stopped.

The all night sessions we were playing back then on straight pool were devasting the players. They were becoming drunks or strung out on Speed and drugs to stay up all night to play. I did a few of those and even as a teenager they damn near killed me. Playing 24 and then 30 hours straight as I did twice I found to be really dumb so I stopped it. Why do that when you can knock some guy out in an hour playing 9 ball and then go dance with girls and drink in a bar. I always had a life out of pool. The real hustlers never did.

9 ball is even a more stupid game than full rack rotation where you can make 75% of the balls and lose. With 9 ball, you can make 90% of the balls and lose because only one ball scores, the other 8 have no meaning or score and just have to be made to get to the 9 ball. How do you feel when you break and run 8 balls perfectly and dog the 9 and lose, tell me that is fair? The other guy knocks in a duck hanger and walks out the door of the joint with all your money. Who has not had that happen to him let him cast the first stone here at me.

Realizing rotation was not a proper game to choose the world champion from because it did not properly test true skill they invented a new game in 1911 called 14.1 continuous pocket billiards and it went into world championship play in 1912. Now every ball you potted scored a point, who ever made the most balls won, problem solved. This became the main game for the next 70 years. This was the championship game. When two players wanted to match up and see who was best, that was the game they played and sometimes they played all night long, i.e., Hustler movie, 1961. , history lesson of the game in the 50’s, Minnesota Fats and Fast Eddy Felson.

This was a true history of what the game was really like in the 50’s and into the 60’s. It was very accurate because I was there doing that very thing with the Fast Eddy who I came up with in the same pool hall, Kling and Allens in KCMO, on of the top 5 legendary big time rooms from the golden age of the game. My other teacher was none other than the Minnesota Fats and Omaha Fats. I was there every year in Johnston City with both of them.

When they wanted to hustle sausages and marks, they played 9 ball because you could win money faster and make it look lucky by banging in the 9 ball early and never running a rack or just cleaning up he last 3 balls. You could beat most people in most rooms and never run more than 3 balls at a time and not reveal your true speed. You could not do that in 14.1. You had to run to win. See again the Hustler movie when Fast Eddy needed money fast he went out to play 9 ball.

It was ESPN who wanted 9 ball on TV and not 14.1 which they though was too slow and it took to long to play a game, 150 points. The matches they were showing they only showed half of them which was awful. Varner would be on a run of 12, they leave for 5 minutes for commercials and you come back and he’s now on a run of 75, you never saw the entire game. Mizerak got into the most boring straight pool game of all time with endless safeties that went on for a half hour and then nobody ran any balls. Everybody went to sleep and the network went ape and said no more straight pool They thought the big break and faster paced game was the way to go. When that move took place in the mid 80’s.
The game has slowly declined ever since. Now you have championships on TV for a race to 5 in a game of 9 ball luck. They may as well now flip a coin to see who wins.

I used to play good 9 ball, ran 9 straight racks once on a 9’ table. I won enough gambling on it to buy a block of downtown Vegas, no matter; I pissed all of that away on old booze, crooked roulette wheels, bad luck on crap tables and young fast loose women. I like the game, still play it with my modified rules of Fast 9 ball.

There is a bigger world out there other than just 9 ball. I run into so many young players who only play this one game and that is wrong. Learn to be an all around player and spend time getting good at 8 ball, straight pool, banks, and one pocket. In my day we also played the difficult games well, Alabama 8 ball, rotation and cribbage.

Every main room had a snooker and 3-cushion table and we played these games as well. All of that all around play built a better player than a one dimension 9 ball banger.

The color of money, Fast Eddy said, “9 ball is for bangers, straight pool that was the game, there you have to be like a surgeon, oh what the hell, checkers out sells chess.”

Come chat with me live at www.poolchat.net which used to be called www.billiards-pool.net THE POWER SOURCE POOL SCHOOL “Fast Larry” Guninger offers clinics and video taped lessons. Web site www.fastlarrypool.com POOL LESSONS FROM A GRAND MASTER LEVEL INSTRUCTOR, BILLIARDS EXPERT AND FORMER ARTISTIC WORLD CHAMPION. 770-381-6609. Larry plays on five pro pool tours. His tour 9 ball cards are: the UPA, the men’s main tour; the Florida 9 ball tour, SE pro 9 ball tour, the Senior Tour and the APTSA (Artistic Pool and Trick Shot Association.
Fax 770-381-1916 POOL QUESTIONS ANSWERED AND FREE INSTRUCTION IS ON www.poolchat.net In the ask the pros forum.“Fast Larry” Guninger and Wonder Dog, trick shot shows and entertainment.
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May God bless and peace be with you. May there now be peace between us. If you are a real pool player, then fast truly loves you. May the wind be always on your back and all 9 balls fall.
VENI VIDI VICI, OMNIA VINCIT AMOR. “ Latin for “I came, I saw, I conquered, love conquerors all. Yes I really did do it all and you can believe it, or not. If you don’t believe it, C’est La Vie. " Shoot straight, innovate, never give up, just run out on the other guy then there is no way for you to lose.
Either lead me, follow me or get the hell out of my way. Do one of the three please. Come celebrate the wonder of this beautiful game with me and become a student of it.
Be my friend, walk my way, flow with what I teach you and you will soar like the Eagle into levels of excellence you never dreamed possible. Play be feel, not by systems, do not make a simple game complicated. Go with what you know, go with what is natural.
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Rack em sausage, Go play fast and loose. Ride em hard, put em up wet, leave the ladies smiling. Live free, die well with your boots on owing no man nothing. May you be in heaven an hour before the devil knows you’re dead. In time, it’s all dust in the wind anyway. Don’t take your self, or anything too serious, just be happy and healthy. Laughter good whiskey and song is the best medicine. If you have a library, a garden, a good woman and a barrel of Scotch, you have all you need. Be sure to take the time, to smell the flowers along the way. Aristole said “ Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.” Die happy and you lived a good life. God bless American, the land of the free and of the brave.

What do you think of a total offence tournament?

Break take cue ball in hand and run out.

Something like this, each player gets 30 racks breaks takes cue ball in hand and runs out. Let's say 200 players joined the tournament. Top 64 players with the most runouts move onto the next round. Then they each do another 30 racks top 32 players move onto the next round do another 30 top 16 move onto the next round, keep going until you get down to the final 2 players then they each go head to head. Alternating racks each doing 30 racks. person with the most runouts wins.

I already know what your going to say your eliminating alot of the other skills. Like playing safe and kicking, and the strategy. But you are elimating alot of the luck because if you screw up you can not duck, this would put alot more pressure on the players, because a screw up would be alot more costly, One thing about 9 ball there is less pressure in 9 ball then there is in any of the other games, in straight pool you miss a shot or screw up shape there is no ducking but in 9 ball I miss shape I only have to hook him from one ball so there is always an out. I feel this would be alot more exciting for the crowds. I remember when I did'nt know that much about pool and I went to see a professional pool tournament, I thought I would see tons of runouts, but instead I saw players dumping balls to the opposite ends of the tables and the oither player kicking at it. I was very disappointed but now that I know alot more about the game I now understand why. But I believe a total offensive tournament like this you would definately see the best players wins. I believe offence takes alot more skill then playing safe. But efrens kicking ability is an unbelievable skill which would have no bearing in this type of tournament.

Also with this you can make the tournaments as long or as short as you want you can have everyone break and run 50 racks & the 2 with the most runouts face off head to head with 50 racks each. I believe this would make the tourneys more exciting and might start attracting some of the big sponsors, the problem with pool it's just to slow, even though 9 ball is suppose to be fast and exciting it can be very slow with all the safeties. Plus you would see alot more exciting runouts, because in alot of racks even though they might be runable, players opt to play safe because the runout is below there capabilities, or low percentage, but here you have no choice but to go for it.

or you could play head to head each player plays 15 racks, break take cue ball in hand and runout, alternate breaks, most runouts wins, winner stays on winners side loser goes to the losers side. this would also create equal oppurtunity, each player would get the exact same amount of times at the table, eliminating the problem of the guy running numerous racks and never giving you a chance.

[ Edited by Sodapop on 2005/7/28 0:39 ]

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