Dealing with the slump

As a pool player, eventually you will hit a slump or a plateau.  It happens as you are learning the game and developing your skills.  It will happen when you have reached professional status.  What do you do to pull yourself out of a slump?

When you are first starting out learning the game of pool, inevitably you will reach a point where your game will plateau.  You have seen vast improvement from when you first picked up a cue, but you can't seem to get past a certain point.  Maybe that point is running 5 balls in a row in a game of 8-ball or maybe it's being able to run 5 racks in a row of 9-ball.  Eventually you will reach this point where it seems like your game just is not improving further.  If you are a semi-pro or professional player, maybe you just can't seem to win tournaments where, considering the level of play, you should win.  Or maybe you have won tournaments in the past and find yourself not winning them now.  For whatever reason and level of play you find yourself, here are a few thoughts on getting yourself out of a slump or getting over that plateau.

First you have to assess your situation, since it will be different depending on your skill level.  If you are a beginner, intermediate, or advanced player and find your skills have reached a point where they are not improving despite your hours of practice and steady play, consider these questions:

1.  Am I practicing/playing with extreme focus?  Watch the pros.  They approach a shot with extreme focus, studying the shot as long as time will allow (or is acceptable if no shot clock).  Not only are they aiming, but they are studying the table to see how to hit the cue ball, where it should travel, what balls might interfere, and where to best have the cue ball end up for not the next shot, but in a position so that the next shot will put them in a position to get good shape on the shot after that.  In other words, they are playing 2 shots ahead in their minds.  Once they have decided all this and are ready to shoot, they approach the cue ball with confidence and only focusing on hitting the cue ball precisely.  I guarantee most all pros practice with extreme focus.  Why practice to get better and just bang balls around without paying attention to what you are doing?

2.  Am I distracted?  There is a reason most professional pool tournaments are held in hotels and large convention centers with paid admission for spectators.  A bar with drunk, skimpily dressed girls dancing around, people yelling or singing with the ear-splitting music, and smoke so thick you can barely see the other side of the room, isn't the greatest place to play your best.  Playing professional level pool requires enormous amounts of concentration and even a small distraction can cause you to miss a shot or get out of position on the next shot.  But not only distractions in the environment around you, but what in your life outside of the pool room might be causing a distraction?

3.  Am I putting too much pressure or expectations on myself?  Sometimes if you are just starting out playing pool or are at a place where you feel you should be playing a little better, you put too much pressure on yourself.  You might be playing in tournaments where a handicap system is in place and you know you should be shooting a level higher, but can't quite seem to get there.  Putting too much pressure on yourself or having too great of expectations will usually result in disappointment.  While it is good to try and improve your game, you need to set reachable goals.  By setting smaller goals, such as placing in the top 10 of a tournament instead of pressuring yourself to win or by beating all the lesser or equally handicapped players instead of getting upset when you don't beat the higher ranked players, will result in less frustration and improve your confidence.

4.  Am I practicing/playing enough?  If you don't practice or play pool often, how are you going to get better?  You don't.  Very few players can pick up a stick and play like the pros without spending hours upon hours at the pool table.  Playing pool, in my opinion, is 90% mental, 10% skill.  Think about it...a stick and a ball.  It takes relatively little effort to swing the cue stick to strike the cue ball and after that point, it's up to the cue ball.  So being able to make that cue ball go where you want is mostly mental.  The mental ability comes with lots of practice, play, and competition.

So after you have asked yourself these questions, what can you do to get out of the slump and improve your game?  I believe there are only 2 general ways to get past a slump or plateau.

The first is to take a break.  Maybe you are playing and practicing nearly every day and competing in a lot of tournaments.  You might be playing so much it's not fun anymore and you can't enjoy the game.  Try taking a break for a few days or even a couple of weeks.  I wouldn't take too much time off, just enough to give yourself a break so that when you decide to start playing again, you can enjoy it and not feel like it's a struggle or put that pressure on yourself to improve.

The second way is to practice or play more with high levels of concentration.  Set up some shots that have been giving you trouble, practice them with lots of concentration and become confident at making them.  Compete in tournaments or play against someone who is a higher level than you.  Learning by competing is a good way to see if you are improving and it also teaches you to play under pressure of competition.   Don't get frustrated by losing or not reaching a higher level, but try to take something positive away from every time at the table.  Learn by watching the higher level players, remember certain shots or mistakes and add those to memory.  Playing a high level of pool is about confidence and ability which will come with focused practice and competition.

The Action Report #37. Rematch of Corey Deuel and Shane Van Boening

For those of you that don't know, online streaming of pool tournaments and matches are blowing up right now (and really over the past few years).  There are several options now for viewing tournaments and specialty matches online.  The Action Report has been putting together challenge matches between some of the top professionals in billiards.  TAR #1 was a matchup of a relatively unknown Shane Van Boening and Corey Deuel.  The match was race to 100, 10-ball, $10,000 per man.

TAR #37 is a rematch of Shane Van Boening and Corey Deuel.  It is an all-around format with the games being Friday, November 1, One Pocket, race to 8, Saturday, November 2, 8-ball, race to 30, and Sunday, November 3, 9-ball, race to 30.

One Pocket:  Friday, November 1, TAR #37 started with a One Pocket race to 8 games match.  From what the commentators said before the 8-ball match started, nether player really shot spectacular in the One Pocket challenge.  With Corey a heavy favorite to win the One Pocket round, it ended up going hill-hill and Corey won 8-7.  I did not watch this event to see how worthy the match was, but in my opinion, when two top players go hill-hill in a match, that's a battle.

8-ball:  Saturday, November 2, Corey and Shane squared off on the second challenge match, 8-ball race to 30.  The commentators predicted Shane to be the heavy favorite in this challenge and I agreed with them.  Shane crushed the balls on the break every rack while Corey opted to soft-break trying to make the head ball in the side pocket, which he did several times.  Corey even broke left-handed a few times (apparently he's been having some arm/elbow issues in his right arm).

After a delay waiting on Corey to finish his Bonus Ball match, they got right to it.  Shane won the lag and broke the balls wide open, but came up dry.  Corey ran out the first game to take the early lead.  Neither player really ran away from the other, except a few strings of break and runs by Shane.  I believe he put together a 3-pack on at least one occasion and a 4-pack once or twice.  Shane was really flustered by Corey's soft-break.  Multiple times Corey left a cluster of balls for Shane to deal with which looked more like a One Pocket table after the break, compared to Shane's thunderous break style.

It was also interesting to see how the players racked the balls.  Toward the end of the challenge, the commentators noted that after the break by Corey especially, there would be a cluster of solids together and the stripes would be together.  In this challenge, the players racked their own using a triangle rack and the only stipulation was that the 8 had to be in the center of the rack, with a stripe and solid on the bottom corners.  The commentators suspected Corey knew exactly what he was doing by racking the balls in a manner that would leave him the solids after making the 1-ball in the side pocket.

I expected Shane to really run away with this one, but due to several dry breaks where Corey would then run out, some easy misses, and the soft-break bothering him, Shane never really took control.  As expected, though, Shane did come out on top by a score of 30-24.

9-ball:  Sunday, November 3.  The final night of this challenge was 9-ball race to 30.  It looked like Shane was going to run away with it.  At one point during the match, Shane was up 22-7 and also put together a 5-pack and a 6-pack early in the match.  Corey started catching back up after the intermission getting the score to 23-18 before Shane took advantage of some misses and safety battles.

Corey had a more consistent soft-break, making the corner ball in the corner pocket, but kept getting the 3-ball froze to the 9-ball.  Shane broke fairly soft, but didn't always leave himself a good shot on the 1-ball.

The commentators and myself were amazed at the consistency that both players were making a ball on the break and leaving themselves (especially Corey, who is good at racking and breaking with the soft-break style) the same pattern almost every time.

Shane wins by a score of 30-18.

Final thoughts:

Overall, I don't think either player on any of the three nights were at the top of their game.  Corey should have and did win the One Pocket night.  Shane should have and did win the 8-ball night and it was a complete toss up, maybe with Shane a slight edge, on who would win the 9-ball match.  Both players are capable of running multiple racks of 9-ball, but it was Shane who did that the most.  Corey only put together a 3-pack.  Corey's soft-break wasn't really working for him tonight.

It was a good matchup.  Shane will face Darren Appleton in TAR #38. (*Edit:  TAR38 will feature Dennis Orcollo vs. Darren Appleton)

I will be live tweeting the match between Corey Deuel and Shane Van Boening tonight and tomorrow night.  The Action Report has set up a rematch of these 2 players from TAR #1.  This is race to 8 One Pocket (Corey won 8-7 last night, Nov. 1).  8-ball race to 30 (Nov. 2) and 9-ball race to 30 (Nov. 3).

www.theactionreport.com for live stream

Live tweets:  twitter.com/onthe9billiards

Magic Rack Review

I bought a set of the latest innovation in a long line of products to rack pool balls, the Magic Rack.  Many companies over the years have tried to produce products that will change the way pool balls are racked.

One of these products that comes to mind is the Sardo Tight Rack.  This machine allows you to place the balls under it and upon pressing down on the handles, it aligns the balls tightly.  Releasing the pressing down force, the balls stay racked allowing you to slide the machine away from the rack, supposedly producing a tight rack of pool balls consistently.  I have never used this device, but would see it used at professional tournaments.  The downside to this device is that it is quite bulky...not to mention expensive.

And along comes the ultra lightweight Magic Rack...

The set I bought are made by Cue Sports International and came with both a 9/10 ball rack and a 8 ball rack.  This product is made of very thin plastic with precision-cut diamond shapes where the balls are to be placed.  These cutouts allow a perfect rack of balls with minimal effort.  The thin plastic will not affect the path of the balls, unless the ball is rolling very slowly and catches an edge just right.  Even a fairly slowly rolling ball will not change course in most cases.  A medium to fast rolling ball will not be affected at all, no matter where it comes in contact with the magic rack.

I have been using my Magic Rack on my newly recovered table.  So far I like the consistency of the racks and the ease of placing the balls.  Sometimes the balls don't all touch, but usually a tap with my fingers on either side of the balls not touching will make them fall into place for a very tight rack.

When playing 9-ball, breaking the balls from the side with a medium-firm hit will consistently pocket a ball.  I usually get a wing ball to fall, with the 9-ball sitting within the Magic Rack.  One complaint I have heard is this fact.  Because the balls are racked virtually perfect every time, it's an unfair advantage, especially in 9-ball since a ball will fall pretty consistently.  This, of course, allowing the pros to run out racks.  A simple solution to this is to rack the 9-ball rack with the 1-ball off the spot or the 9-ball on the spot.

Another great feature of this Magic Rack is because the plastic surrounds the point of contact with the cloth, table wear is next to nothing.

Here is a picture before I recovered my table and before I started using the Magic Rack.

As you can see, without using the Magic Rack, having the balls placed directly on the playing surface will result in spots being worn on the cloth.  Had I kept playing, racking the balls directly on the cloth, I would have at some point actually worn holes through the cloth.

This is a picture I took after recovering my table and exclusively using the Magic Rack for games of 9-ball and 10-ball.  I have probably played somewhere between 100-125 games of 9 & 10-ball up to this point.

There are some burn marks on the cloth, probably where I either jumped a ball or dropped a ball on the table.  Other than that, there is no visible wear from breaking the balls like you would normally see about this time on a newly recovered table.  Note:  Keeping your cloth and balls clean will help reduce table wear.

Pros:  

• Inexpensive
• Lightweight
• Easy, consistent tight racks
• No table wear (yet)
• Portable

Cons:

• Slowly rolling balls will sometimes be affected when rolling over the Magic Rack
• The Magic Rack cannot be removed after racking the balls, so occasionally after the break, a ball will fall on or within the Magic Rack.

Final thoughts

Overall, I like using the Magic Rack since it does give me tightly racked balls consistently and easily.  I also like the fact that so far there is no table wear.  I hope this continues to be the case.  I will also look forward to seeing how this thin piece of plastic holds up over time.  

2013 Mosconi Cup Teams

The 20th Mosconi Cup Tournament kicks off December 2, 2013, in Las Vegas, Nevada.  This year will be an epic showdown.  Some of the top names in Men's professional billiards will be doing battle.  Team Europe has won five of the last six Mosconi Cup titles and the last three in a row, so the USA will be looking to bring the title back home.

Team USA

Johnny Archer (Captain)
Buddy Hall (Vice-Captain)
Shane Van Boening
Dennis Hatch
Rodney Morris
Earl Strickland


Team Europe

Johan Ruysink (Non-playing captain)
Darren Appleton
Karl Boyes
Niels Feijen
Mika Immonen
Ralph Souquet

The Mosconi Cup game is 9-Ball with various singles and doubles matches.  Assuming they follow the same rules as 2012, the rules and format can be seen here.

The tournament will be streamed live over the internet and tickets for the event can be purchased through Ticketmaster.  For more information, visit http://www.matchroompool.com/mosconi-cup

My thoughts on this year's tournament.  I believe this is the year team USA will bring the title back to the United States.  Team Europe has a really strong team, but when it comes to 9-ball, there isn't many better than Johnny Archer, Shane Van Boening, and Earl Strickland.  Not to mention the co-captain is the legendary Buddy Hall.  There's no doubt team USA is strong with Earl Strickland having recently won at Turning Stone, Johnny Archer's record-breaking 17th appearance in the Mosconi Cup Tournament and professional veteran, Rodney Morris who won the 2013 US Open 10-Ball Tournament back in July, Dennis Hatch who was on the last USA winning team in 2009 (MVP that year), and Shane Van Boening who seems to win just about everything he enters and arguably one of the best players in the world right now.

So I look for Team USA to win the Mosconi Cup in 2013.

Appreciating good equipment

I recently attended an event where a game night was organized.  The event organizers, unskilled in knowing quality equipment (or maybe they didn't realized what they were getting), had a pool table brought in and set up for the night.  I, of course, was all excited that I would get to play pool and show off my skills.  I was very disappointed when I got down to the room where the event was to be held.  Upon entering the room and seeing the pool table I got really excited because it wasn't a bar box, which I was expecting.  But looks can be deceiving.

Knowing that I played pool pretty well, I was immediately handed a "pool cue".  I have pool cue in quotes because it resembled a pool cue...that is about where the distinction ends.  I don't believe I have ever seen a cue stick with a brand new, FLAT cue tip.  Luckily, I keep a Cuetech cue in my vehicle for billiard emergencies such as this and was able to use it instead.

The table was some brand I had never heard of and although from a distance it looked like a nice table, sometimes a freshly washed car looks new until you get up close.  The first thing about the table I noticed was that the cloth looked funny.  I inspected it and sure enough, it was crap.  The next thing I noticed was that no matter where you hit a ball, it would end up on one side of the table (we fixed that with a couple stacks of napkins).  Something else wasn't right and after tapping a ball down on the playing surface, yeah, it had a wood bed instead of slate.  The last thing that made this table terrible was the rails.  It was about like hitting balls against cardboard wedges.

Upon arriving back at my house, one of the first things I did after unpacking was to hit a few balls on my table and the world was right again.

So if you have a nice, well constructed, and properly set up table at home or where you play pool, know that there are some really terrible tables out there and be grateful that you have nice equipment to play on.  It makes a huge difference playing on nice, well maintained equipment.

The Baltimore Bullet Movie Review

The Baltimore Bullet starring James Coburn, Omar Sharif, and Bruce Boxleitner with cameos by pro players Lou Butera, Irving Crane, Willie Mosconi, Allen Hopkins, James Rempe, Steve Mizerak, Mike Sigel and Jimmy Mataya.  Released in the 80's (1980), this movie definitely fits the era.  It screams of cheesy one-liners, campy humor, and a terrible soundtrack.

The Plot...6/10:

The Baltimore Bullet is about two pool hustlers, Nick Casey "The Baltimore Bullet" (James Coburn) and Billy Joe Robbins (Bruce Boxleitner) hustling on the road and trying to set up a big game.  There are a few poorly choreographed fights, women, and complete nonsense along the way (all key ingredients for an 80's movie).  For me, about mid-way through the movie, I almost turned it off.  The middle portion of the movie strays pretty far from pool playing as Nick and Billy Joe are on the road to hustle up some cash so they can play "The Deacon" (Omar Sharif).  Watching movies like this really makes me appreciate more modern films.

The Pool Scenes...5/10:

The early scenes are just Nick and Billy Joe hustling and there are not any considerably long scenes.  Later in the movie, Nick and Billy Joe enter a pool tournament playing straight pool, although they spend more time showing what is happening off the table than on.

The Actors 7/10:

Overlooking the fact that this is a cheesy 1980 movie, the actors aren't too bad.  I had heard the name James Coburn before, but wasn't familiar with any of his movies.  The other actors I had never heard of.  The acting wasn't too terrible and the script was probably in line with the 80's.

My Movie Rating...6/10:

I certainly wouldn't call this a "must watch" pool movie.  In fact, I wouldn't recommend it at all, unless you were in the mood for a cheesy ridiculous 80's movie that happens to have a pool theme.  However, if you care to spend nearly 2 hours watching this movie, it can be seen in full on YouTube at this link.

Pool on YouTube: An invaluable training tool

Sometime in the last couple of years or so, YouTube started allowing users to upload videos longer than 15 minutes.  This has created a treasure trove of billiard videos you can use as a training tool.

Not everyone is fortunate enough to attend professional tournaments and watch the pros in action or live in an area where the pros hang out.  So the next best thing (that's free) is to watch billiard videos on YouTube.  Just for fun, I searched for "Billiards" on YouTube.  The search says there are about 350,000 videos related to that search term!  I narrowed it down some by applying filters of "Upload in the last year", "HD quality", and "Long 20 ~ minutes".  That returns a little over 2,000 videos.

So how can you use billiard videos on YouTube as a training tool?  I'll give you my list of what I watch for, then break each down a little.

1.  Pattern play
2.  When to play safe
3.  How the pros escape trouble
4.  Commentary
5.  How the pros approach/think a shot

1.  Pattern play.  This, for me, is one of the most important things I like to watch.  After the break, look at the layout of the table.  Where are the trouble balls?  Are some balls tied up?  How will the pros break those up?  Try to play the rack out in your mind.  Watch how the pros play the rack out.  Did they play out the rack how you thought it out?  Also watch how they set themselves up for the next shot.  Invaluable stuff.

2.  When to play safe.  A lot of times when I'm watching the pros play, it's interesting to see when they play safe and when they go for a shot.  Watch what factors play into when they play safe.  Is the next ball tied up?  Is it early in the match or a hill-hill, do or die situation?  Also, watch how they play safe.

3.  How the pros escape trouble.  This is also interesting to watch.  Most of the top pros have such precise cue ball control they can really lock their opponent up.  Does the pro jump over the ball, kick at the next ball, or play an intentional foul, further tying up balls?  If they kick to escape trouble, is it a 1 rail kick? 2 rail kick, or more?  Try to figure out why they played that particular shot.

4.  Commentary.  All of the tournament matches will have commentators calling the match.  Most of the commentators are former or current pros, or have been around pool a long time in some fashion.  For the most part, the commentators will give you a good idea of what the shooter is thinking and how he or she will play the shot.  Not only will you get insight into the match, but maybe some good stories too!

5.  How the pros approach/think a shot.  Every player approaches the shot a little differently.  Some walk around the table really studying the layout, some use their cue to point where the cue or object ball will go or where they are attempting to have the cue ball stop.  And some players like Earl Strickland just bang the balls in.

Watching the pros play, how they play the rack, when they play safe, and listening to the commentary is an important training tool.  Check out some of these videos on YouTube, take notes, practice some of the layouts to see how you do, and improve your game!

The Decider Results. Shane Van Boening vs. Earl Strickland

Well, it's all over except Earl's rants.  Shane Van Boening swept Earl Strickland in all 3 days of pool in Helena, Montana.

Day 1 was a race to 30 in 9-ball.  Shane Van Boening won by a score of 30-20.

Day 2 was a race to 30 in 8-ball.  Shane strung together 8 racks to finish off Earl 30-22.

Day 3 was a race to 30 in 10-ball.  Shane beat Earl by a score of 30-27.

Here are some stats compiled by Pool-Trax.net

Day 1 - 9-ball

Day 2 - 8-ball

Day 3 - 10-ball

I personally did not watch this event, seriously considered purchasing the PPV live stream, but decided against it.  I would have liked to have watched Shane Van Boening run those last 8 racks on Day 2!!  Maybe it will be up on YouTube sometime.

I really like these one-on-one matchups against top professional players.  I hope many more of these types of events can be held.  Earl Strickland thinks the pros should play on 10 foot tables.  Apparently 8-ball is easier for the pros.

What do you think?

The Decider. Shane Van Boening vs. Earl Strickland

Two of the top professional pool players in the world, Shane Van Boening and Earl Strickland, are facing off this weekend in Helena, Montana in a 3-day match-up of 9-ball, 8-ball, and 10-ball.  The competition is taking place on a 7 foot Diamond bar box table and is being live streamed by POVpool.com.

Yesterday, Shane and Earl played a race to 30 in 9-ball.  Shane Van Boening won the match by a score of 30-20.  Today, the action took place at 1 p.m. Pacific/4 p.m. Eastern and once again, Shane Van Boening came out on top by a score of 30-22.  Shane found his break towards the end of the match and strung together 8 racks to finish off Earl.

Tomorrow, (August 4, 2013) the action starts again at 1 p.m. Pacific/4 p.m. Eastern with another race to 30, this time in 10-ball.

If you would like to tune in and watch live, go to http://povpool.com/decider-tickets/

Bar tables vs. non-Bar tables

Bar tables are probably some of the most common pool tables you will find.  Obviously, because of the smaller size, establishments like to use them for several reasons.  They can fit more in the area, they can be cheaper than a larger table, replacement cloth is cheaper, most use coins to operate, and the list goes on.

I personally don't like playing on bar tables for a few reasons.  First, I learned to play on an 8 foot table and don't like the smaller bar tables.  Bar tables come in many sizes, but are most commonly 7 foot tables, which means less room on the playing surface.  Secondly, you have to be very precise with your cue ball control and placement to give yourself a good shot on the next ball.  In my experience, most establishments don't put good cloth on the bar tables.  Unless the establishment hosts regular league or other tournaments, there is no reason to put tournament grade cloth on bar tables for the ABC factor...Amateurs, Beer, and Cigarettes!  This low grade cloth doesn't play consistent and makes cue ball control much harder.  A third reason I don't like playing on bar tables is the play is different than the larger 8 and 9 foot tables.  Usually the larger tables have Simonis cloth or something similar.  This tournament grade cloth is made to play very consistent.  The rails also play different.  Due to the construction of the smaller bar tables, to me the rails play very stiff.  A bank or kick shot will act a little differently than on a nice larger table.

Another thing to watch out for on the bar tables is the cue ball.  Some bar tables will use a magnetic cue ball to direct it to the proper ball return for the cue ball.  Other bar tables will use a slightly larger cue ball.  Those are the ones you really need to be aware of.  Even though the cue ball is just fractions of an inch larger than the normal 2 1/4" regulation balls, it always seems to me that the over-sized cue ball is like hitting a big ole rock.

This video will give you an idea of the construction of a coin operated bar table.

On this particular video example of a bar table, the slate is a one piece.  It's hard to tell how the rails are constructed and I've never seen the rails off a coin-op table to know, but it appears that the side rails are one piece, but probably individual pieces on either side of the side pockets and attached somehow.

Here is another video showing how the ball return works.  You can also see the side rails are one piece.  The rubber cushions must attach separately somehow.  (I recommend muting the sound on this video.  Don't say I didn't warn you!)

Allen Hopkins Q-Skill Rating

Allen Hopkins, a professional pool player and BCA Hall of Famer, came up with a rating system to determine your level of playing ability.

Allen has a website, Allen Hopkins Productions, which I'm guessing has the official rules, however, I just clicked on the Q Skill link on the front page and the link appears to be down (8/5/2013).

The official rules can be seen here:  http://infohost.nmt.edu/~billiard/qskills_scorecard.html  **Edit.  This link lists the number of racks to be played at 100.  This information is not correct.  The correct number of racks to be played is 50.

Basically, the rules are these:

1.  Rack the balls as you would for 8-ball (order of balls doesn't matter) and place the cue ball on the head spot.

2.  Break the balls, if you scratch that's -1, if you knock the cue ball off the table, that's -2.

3.  Shoot the balls in any order.  Each pocketed ball is 1 point until you get to the last 5.

4.  The last 5 balls must be shot in order, starting with the lowest numbered ball.  Those are worth 2 points each for a total possible score of 20 points a rack.

Play 50 racks and add up your totals.  A perfect score is 1,000 (good luck with that).

Here are the break downs:

0-150 - Recreational Player
151-300 - Intermediate Player
301-450 - Advanced Player
451-600 - Developing Pro
601-800 - Semi-Pro
801-900 - Pro
901-1000 - Touring Pro

**Note**  I did this challenge on the false information that 100 racks were to be played.

I hadn't done this challenge in a while, a couple of years at least, so I decided to shoot all 100 racks and see what I could do.  I did this challenge over 2 days and I'm pretty pleased with my score given the pockets on my home table are pretty tight.  Here is my score sheet.

Click to expand

I should have had a higher score.  There were a few racks where I missed the first shot.  After a couple of those I decided instead of a risky first shot, it was better to take a 1 point foul and shoot a better shot.  I also had a few racks where I missed some easy shots.  The rack also is a factor.  If you don't get a good break and really spread the balls, you will have to find ways to break open the clusters, which adds to the complexity of the rack.

I hope to do this challenge once a month and see if I get better.

9-Ball the movie review

9-Ball the movie starring Jennifer Barretta.

I had forgotten that Professional pool player, Jennifer Barretta, was involved in making a movie about pool.  I was checking out her webpage yesterday and saw the movie was available for purchase on DVD or BluRay and also available to rent on several different media outlets online.  So I rented the movie and just finished watching it.  Read on for my review of the movie.

**Spoiler Alert**  Stop reading now if you don't want me to ruin the movie for you!

So the premise of the movie is that Gail, Jennifer Baretta, is a pool hustler and wants to leave that life to become a professional pool player like her idols Allison Fisher and Jeanette Lee, who both have roles in the movie.  Gail's father, Luke, plays pool and teaches her how to play.  He also likes to run around with married women.  He is murdered, apparently leaving Gail's Uncle, Joey, to raise her.  Gail meets Jeanette Lee, who knows the owner of the pool hall, Vicky.  Jeanette tells Gail she needs to start playing on the APA League.  Joey, of course, doesn't like this because he wants to continue hustling.

The Story...7/10

The overall story of the movie was pretty good.  A young female pool player looks to become a professional.  Broken family issues drive most of the plot, but some parts not really addressed.  Not too bad, overall.

The Pool Scenes...4/10

There really weren't that many pool scenes given this was a movie about pool.  The scenes that were in there were pretty short and usually only 1 or 2 shots before the game was over.  I would have liked to have seen longer pool shooting scenes...maybe even whole games.

The Actors...6/10

The actors in the movie weren't too bad, actually.  I thought the movie was cast pretty well.  I liked Red as the bookie, Vicky as the pool hall owner, and Jeanette Lee and Allison Fisher as themselves.  It was cool they could be a part of the movie.  The acting, however, is another story.

The Acting/Dialog...3/10

The acting and dialog in this movie is pretty bad.  I thought the best acting job in the whole movie was Red.  I liked Red's role and thought he did a good job and Jennifer did pretty good considering acting isn't her day job.  The dialog at times was cheesy, predictable, and seemed forced or unnatural.  The script wasn't written very well.  Overall pretty bad.

My Movie Rating...5/10

I sort of felt like this was a big commercial for the APA League.  The story had potential, the actors were ok, just had bad scripts and bad directing, which led to poor dialog, and the movie directing and some scene selections left a lot to be desired.

2013 US Open 10-Ball and One Pocket Championships

     The 2013 US Open One Pocket Championship is just about in the books.  64 players started the tournament and it all came down to Corey Deuel from the loser's side playing undefeated Dennis Orcollo.  Orcollo had blanked Corey earlier in the tournament by a score of 4-0 sending him to the loser's side to face Carlo Biado.  Corey squeaked by Biado 3-2, setting up a rematch in the final with Orcollo.  Winner side matches are a race to 4 and a race to 3 over on the loser side.
     Orcollo is up 3-2 over Deuel at the time of this writing.

     Meanwhile, the 10-Ball Championship continues into day 3.  A few of the matches were delayed due to some pretty severe storms blowing through Las Vegas which knocked out the power, suspending play on some of the matches until the next day.  A few notable matches were both Corey Deuel and Shane Van Boening losing in nail biters to Jin-Hu Dang of China, both by the score of 9-8 in a race to 9.  
     Charlie Williams also lost deep in the winner side in a close one to Denis Grabe 9-8.  Earl Strickland got knocked out of the tournament over on the loser side by Shane Van Boening by a score of 9-5.

     Someone I've had my eye on lately is Jonathan "Hennessee" Pinegar.  I saw this guy play in a tournament in my hometown several years back and he's been showing up at lot lately at the bigger tournaments.  This year at the US Open 10-Ball Championship, he lost 9-6 to Denis Grabe, but has torn through the loser side with wins of 9-1, 9-7, 9-6, 9-6, and at the time of this writing is up 7-5 over Karl Boyes of Great Britain in Round 6.

Welcome!

Hi! Welcome to the Onthe9 Billiards blog!

I will give you tips on how to improve your pool game, pro and amateur tournament updates, billiard news, some product reviews occasionally, and lots of other billiard related stuff!

Today starts the US Open 10 Ball Championship at the Rio All Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.  10 ball is quickly becoming more popular with the professional players as it presents a more challenging game than 9 ball.  Sure, 10 ball is just one more ball and is similar to 9 ball in that the balls must be pocketed in rotation, but there are a few key differences that make it more challenging.

With the balls racked similar to 8 ball with the 10 ball in the middle of the rack, it makes it more difficult to pocket the 10 ball on the break.  If, however, the 10 ball is made on the break, it is spotted and the player continues his turn at the table.  Also, all balls must be called before pocketing them.

See the BCA rules for 10 ball here:  http://home.bca-pool.com/associations/7744/files/10ball.pdf

Be sure to visit all the Onthe9 Billiards sites for more great billiard happenings!

Google Calendar

Facebook

Twitter

Google+

YouTube