Allegories...

After really working out in the sun all day and it was hot, I had to stop the video after 15 seconds when he said "the hardest 9 to 5 you'll ever have." - also today was 7am to 7pm you lazy rap bastard!

To be fair he didnt say the hardest 7-7 youll ever have.

9ball, as it is played today (ball-in-hand vs the pushout of the olden days), is one of the more boring games. Especially with how solved the racking/breaking aspects of the game have become. 8ball is a better game, IMO. The only problem with 8ball is all the different versions of rules they have.
The truly great games are rotation and 1pocket. shout out to 14.1, also.

9ball is my least favorite of the popular games.

What's pushout? Like rail relief?

What's your fav game? Straight/cutthroat or w/e it's called?

In 9-ball, after the break, if the incoming shooter (breaker or other) decides he does not like the option of shooting at the lowest ball on the table he can opt to "push out" and take a legal stroke at the cue ball placing it where he likes without having to contact any balls on the table - the now incoming player has the option of taking the shot from here or passing it back to the player who made the push-out. That rule still stands to this day.

Years back, the more common version of 9ball there was a push-out option available any time you were not able to directly contact the lowest ball on the table (so if someone played safe and you were hooked behind another ball, or the tit of the pocket). You could push to wherever you like and the incoming player could accept the shot or pass it back to you.
In todays game if you are hooked you have to try and make contact with the ball, by kicking at it or jumping, if you don't contact the ball (and contact a rail with any ball after contact is made) then you give up ball-in-hand to your opponent. Do this 3 times in a row and you lose the game.

It put emphasis on being able to play saftey well, and learning how to kick/jump much better - which are good things. But I prefer the chess games that existed with the pushout option, and it also put more emphasis on being able to just run out.. if you mess up shape in todays game you can just play a safe, if you messed up the old way you really hurt yourself because he can now tie up some balls or push out to a spot where he is a favorite to complete the shot but you aren't


My favorite game is 1pocket. It's like chess on a pool table. Being able to see all the pieces and think steps ahead of your opponent. You'll often see a smarter shooter beat a much much much better "runout" player in one pocket.

What you're calling "straight" is actually just 8-ball. Real straight pool (aka 14-and-1) is what was the most popular pocket billiards game up until a few decades ago.
Cutthroat is a version of 8ball with 3 players that is mostly just a for-fun game. It's not a popular high-level game or anything.

Nah straight, afaik, is open table and you call every shot and get points for called balls made. Play to x points.

Straight pool is 15 balls racked, every ball needs to be called - including on the break, which is why the traditional straight pool break is a highly defensive shot (thin the back corner ball just enough to get two balls to hit a rail and have the cue ball float back up table and, preferably, freeze on the head rail).
Stipes, solids, and 8ball are irrelevant. You shoot at whichever ball you please and are awarded one "point" for each ball made. When there is one ball left on the table you leave it where it is and the other 14 balls are racked up and you keep shooting.

That's what I said yeah?

So in terms of skill vs luck rankings; straight, 8b, 9b? 9b has some sick variance in terms of combos on the 9 being available. But 9b matches are more total games than 8b I assume?

What about snooker? Guess it's not officially a pool game but I've started to watch it a bit on TV out where I'm at and it seems like quite a strategic game, not to mention much more difficult for me as an amateur the few times that I've actually attempted to play it.

Some of these matches also seem to take a lot longer than your typical nine ball or eight ball matches so you most likely need a lot of mental stamina in your game as well.

Snooker is definitely more difficult than pool. You have to be more accurate in potting, that coupled with a bigger table also make the positioning more important.

Snooker (said with a yorkshire accent)

snooo-kuhhhh

(a la The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret)

This exactly. This season had some nice moments, but **** has been down hill since S5 ended. S6-8 all had their moments, but were just lackluster to say the least and the finale was just fkn bad =[

Also, am I the only person on the planet who enjoyed S5 (the one with Lumen)? I loved it and I don't even like Julia Stiles

it's probably 1p ~ rotation > straight > 10ball > 8ball > 9ball.
snooker isn't a "pool" game (it's pocket billiards, which makes it related, ofc) but if I had to guess I'd say it ranks ahead of straight pool and either slightly behind or on par with rotation/1p, but I'm not an expert on snooker and haven't done any gambling at it - but I really do enjoy watching it it's an awesome game.
You guys should check out billiards (3 cushion, carom ball, etc). It's a sickly skillful game played on a table with no pockets. Way back in the day it was THE game to play. There are also some amazing trick-shot videos for billiards.



Re: Dexter...
S1/S2 > S4 > S3 >>>>>>>>>>>>>> S7 >>>> S5/S6.
I have only seen the first two eps of the new season and am really only watching it so I can put the show behind me. The first 2 seasons were soooo good and could have ended up being one of the best shows on TV. Season 3 was weak but 4 made a nice rebound.
Tomo you just have bad taste if you think S5 didn't suck

It's really annoying how bad the show got. He went from being this really cool interesting character to some kind of reject super hero who had to fight the evildoers and there were just way too many things to mention but so many like roll-your-eyes bad moments in every single episode.

I just read a great book called Pool Hustler by McGoorty that's about a hobo who would put overalls on and ride the rails with a suit on underneath in the 1920s. He would jump off in Kansas and go hustle pool and then take the money to the brothels. He became basically world class at 3 cushion billiards later in life. It's an autobiography, so a true story. I was telling a friend that it is like he played his life like a video game like GTA 5. He tried to see how much crazy **** he could do.

Link: http://www.amazon.com/McGoorty-Pool-.../dp/076791631X

firmd bad taste! I liked a lot of S7 fosho, S6 had the potential to be good but instead they blew it =[ It's like everyone had a collective hey we're a very successful show lets just stop trying and write a bunch of incredibly stupid/predictable things

1000% buying that book sound epic

http://i.imgur.com/GiLfGyH.jpg

Just spent €100 for a single gameboy game, kind of happy, kind of sad, really thought I was going to get it cheaper. If you never heard of the game trip world. Here is a video. It's wild.



I would comment on the pool talk but I never put in practice in it so I just suck. My uncle plays pool and played for decades now. I remember going over to his house and on weekends he would shoot pool, teach me to fix things and play video games all weekend. The pool talk does bring good memories back though.

I agree with Siq about 9 ball being not so challenging (other than the mental part of safeties). For team play, though, the weight given/taken via rankings make for some interesting league and tournament play.

Started playing 1 pocket 6 months ago with some really good players. Not for money, just learning the game from my pals. Great game, much more strategy than shooting skills and hella fun (for now).

I guess that since I'm better at 9b than 8b, I prefer that for now. Me and a buddy play a game that is basically "make the most difficult shot" just to stay creative.

I'm feeling pretty good today (despite the fact that I have a cold): It's spring in Melbourne, people are coming out of hibernation and I've read quite a few good-news stories so far; this one probably wins for the moment.

There's always been a bit of a battle between the technology to increase efficiency and the technology to drive down price for the standard technology (small improvements on a basic design that goes back to 1954). Up until now, the driving down price technology has put almost everyone out of business.

At some point, and I don't think it's more than a few years, or maybe 10, away, the solar part of a standard solar module won't be a significant part of the cost. The cost will mainly be the glass and aluminum parts, built well enough to last decades. I think the efficiency will start to increase faster (on the market, not the lab) when the technology is cheap enough that manufacturers are doing it to save on glass and aluminum.

In the mean time, one company just produced a 1% more efficient cell, while another company just built a giant factory that will produce regular solar modules for 25% less. (or some such)

Looks great Pushy! Will be staring down Winter here real soon I am jealous!

Wow that is hard core Mike! That Jag has ballz of steal stalking that croc. Impressive stalking technique to be sure!

holy ****