Shot clock

[Dennis "Whitey" Young]

My 2 cents; I have not followed this thread in depth, but there are a lot of suggestions, and it is getting mauled over pretty good. I'll use Cal. B as a venue format.
At Cal. B we have 16 tables so when doing RR 4 groups of 8 then each player plays 7 games for 1 RR. Each group of 8 will be able to play on 4 tables.

At 45 min./ game average that is about 5 hrs. that could go into 6 hrs, possible 7 hrs. So if we start at noon Friday that getting done 6-7pm. with 4 on winner side and 4 on losers side /group. At this point we still have all 32 players still in. note; if Cal. B. would open Friday @ 10 then our players can get in a couple of hrs. before play.

Now, it is important for Cal. B. to have some tables open for their busy Friday night business, this has to be considered, and I think Steve has brought this up. And also their busy Saturday night business.

So what is the suggestion going forth from here @ 6- 7pm Friday? And what would play be scheduled like for Saturday?

We could play down the loser side to 8 players out, and rap that up by Friday 1am. That would consume 8 tables. The next day SAT.@ noon have a 1 game RR losers tournament 8 players consuming 4 tables lasting 6 hrs. or so. Those tables would start freeing up approx. 6 pm. This will give the rest of Friday for good match up time for the players that are out, which would be 16 players by this time.

Saturday, winner side working it down to what 8 or 4 players left, I would guess 8 players left. Staying with RR Saturday then Sunday going to 3? Your thoughts! 8 players for Sunday, starting at noon, just when would it approx. end going to 3, with the player with hammer getting the break and not doing a double dip ? Standard in final is sometimes going to a longer race and eliminating the double dip, which maybe preferred vs. given the winner side the break to a shorter race.

Note; Cal. B. is use to hosting tournament so their regular customers are very aware of this, and the fact that tables will probably be consumed! Please correct me if I am off on how long a RR of 8 players will take. Whitey

 

[El Chapo]

Whenever we are thinking about any change to a great game like One Pocket, that has such a long history of tried and true competitiveness, then you raise the possibility of "unintended consequences". To me that is the biggest question mark when it comes to any new ideas, not matter how appealing they may sound. They really really need to be field tested to find out if they actually work and/or if they unfortunately also inadvertently create some new little angle for exploitation by wily players, that ends up subverting the intent, or worse, the game itself.

A shot clock has been used for all the Accustats One Pocket matches for a long time, and it has a track record of making a difference without much in the way of unintended consequences. But the shot clock works mainly because at their matches, they have both a time keeper official, and a shot clock that is easily visible to both players and spectators. We don't have that. A phone app might work fine, but it still needs an operator and it lacks easy visibility. Maybe a larger tablet would work, but how many of those would be needed and who is going to keep time? When it gets down to the last few matches, that would be less of an issue, but for multiple matches earlier on in a tournament... On the plus side, usually there are only one or two matches at any one time that are suffering time problems. If those could be identified in time to make a difference, then maybe we would only need one or two shot clock set-ups and operators.

The Grady rule has also been tested and does not seem to have that much for unintended consequences -- at least that is my understanding.

Of course shorter races on the one-loss side also would help, but it seems to me that our group wants to play more games, not less lol.

i dont think the suggestion youngstownkid needs to be tested. if i was president that rule would be implemented at every one pocket tournament starting now. that solves a huge, underdiscussed problem very eloquently. i feel i am speaking very objectively too, if that is even possible.

 

[Island Drive]

After reading alllllllll the posts. This game is just like Chess. Some play fast others not so, and others are ''ice men''. This aspect of play and life will never Change. So if your a slow player and are known for that, you get a shot clock at your table ''for sure''.

One pocket is physical chess, and must be treated like chess.
Therefore it's time needs to be kept in place.
Even pro golf has time limits. Bowling doesn't

Clocks will help everyone and everything in the long run.
Since were non profit, we should get em cheap. And whoever wins our next event. 10% from all the Calcutta money goes towards new shot clocks. .

If Mitch wins then we up it to 15%.

 

[baby huey]

The game we all learned to play is being changed to something different. Ok I get people wanting to speed up play. Concerning the "Grady Rule", I have seen players "sleep" the ball spotted shot after shot and then all of a sudden someone remembers to spot a ball and bad feelings come up. Many of our ilk have stated that the Grady Rule is fine for one day events and I agree. Are we purists or not? Tweak the start times, try some other fixes before we make wholesale changes which I suspect not too many of us will very much appreciate.

 

[Island Drive]

The game we all learned to play is being changed to something different. Ok I get people wanting to speed up play. Concerning the "Grady Rule", I have seen players "sleep" the ball spotted shot after shot and then all of a sudden someone remembers to spot a ball and bad feelings come up. Many of our ilk have stated that the Grady Rule is fine for one day events and I agree. Are we purists or not? Tweak the start times, try some other fixes before we make wholesale changes which I suspect not too many of us will very much appreciate.

Knock out rounds Fri. pm losers side. And if ya wanna leave early, so be it. But Jer, I'm with ya on this simple move, it may work. We just can't fall back on the pat statement. No one should get knocked out the first day. It's a pool rooms reason to make sure you come back the next day and spend. That rule doesn't have to apply here in our situation. No one wants Monday morning finals.