Final day strategy Frost/Orcullo

1pwannabe

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In billiards, the Filipinos are simply stone cold killers. STONE. COLD. KILLERS.
 

baby huey

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I see this match a little differently than most. I think the difference is how well Dennis is banking the ball to his hole. I watched most of the three days and Dennis is just pounding the banks into his pocket. And I mean all of them. I haven't seen him miss any cross corners nor has he missed too many straight backs. Scott is floating the banks to his hole and Dennis is shooting them in with incredible confidence and accuracy. We all know Dennis can run balls better than Scott but come on Dennis is just winning too many games when he's behind and then gets that bank shot and wazoom he somehow is winning the game. I think it's over as I don't see Dennis slowing down or dogging it for the final day.
 

keoneyo

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The bottom line is Scott is a great player but he just happens to be up against a better player. There is no shame in that...I don't think will be seeing many other players trying to step up and playing Dennis even anymore.... and for the one that might Dennis doesn't have to take a plane to the match he could probably get to that match by bus..... unfortunately in most sports especially pool you are as good as your last match...when you are beating everyone your the best, nobody can beat you, you are playing great etc... when you lose your a dogging, choking, fumbling player that can't take the heat...

Spoken like a man who has been there, done that. Wheres the like button.
 

poolboy79

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Scott's attitude at the table has been his downfall. Starting at the beginning of the match he hemmed and hawed over every little bad roll almost like he was already looking for an excuse to lose or will have an excuse if he does lose. I know Scott wears his emotions on his sleeve but he needs to learn not to show that because it just fuels the other player. I believe that is true for all levels of players.


Dennis is like a shark in water that smells blood. He pounced all over that and executed brilliantly almost with an aura of knowing that Scott can not get the job done. Dennis does not make very many mistakes and having the feeling that your opponent is not going to capitalize when you mess up is a death sentence for the other man.

I'm curious as to what Scott's game plan was. I wonder if he had a fall back plan as to if he was in certain situations regarding the score, if he starting shooting bad, where to try and be after day 1, day 2, and day 3. Go thru all the variables and what are my options and how am I going to respond if this or that happens.

I think today Scott will play good but only because the match is out of reach. There is no more pressure at this point. If does get close at some point or even to the point where it starts to get close to being close I want to see how Scott responds.
 

darmoose

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I think Scott has dug a hole that there probably ain't no climbing out of, too bad.:(

There's quite a few folks talking about what Scott needs to do today to try to climb back in it. Most suggest he play more aggressively, take some chances and push the limits of his capabilities. Let me say I completely understand the standard logic in one pocket to "play the score", which means be conservative when ahead and be aggressive when behind.

But, what I saw yesterday and some even Thursday and Friday was Scott beating Dennis to the shot routinely. I saw Scott gaining a 4, 5, 6, or even 7 ball advantage at least maybe a dozen games, in which he later made a poor decision going for a risky shot when he should have continued to gather all the balls into a wedge up table and just wait for Dennis to take a risk to get ONE ball.:frus

There's no taking anything away from Dennis, His shotmaking is probably the best, and his defensive play was very, very good. But, there's also no denying that Scott had a big lead in more than enough games to be sitting on the lead right now had he not made some very bad decisions late in many games. Even had he only saved half of those "giveaway" games, this would be very close right now, there's really no excuse for Scott to have made so many mistakes with big leads as he did.

So, contrary to the majority, and respectfully so, I would like to see Scott play the early game around the stack exactly as he did yesterday (I think he outplayed Dennis in early game situations), and then when he get a lead, especially 6 or 7 balls, NEVER do anything but take all remaining ball out of play so Dennis has to make one ball at a time.

By the way, if Scott does this, they haven't allowed enough time to finish this today.:sorry
 

rich htx

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Scott's attitude at the table has been his dOwnfall I know Scott wears his emotions on his sleeve but he needs to learn not to show that because it just fuels the other player. I believe that is true for all levels of players.


.


I agree, I was on the top end of this on Friday, won 10 of 11, the other persons mentality and calm went right out the window, making me feel great, because it was most part my own doing,
And it did fuel me, I felt great and played great also
I agree that this goes for all levels of play
 

vapros

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IMO, this is a silly way to handle a race to 40, and as a result we may have a ho-hum day today, barring a real challenge from Frost. I doubt we will see such a proposition again. Any chance of a negotiation this evening by the backers?

On the other hand, all of us viewing have seen a great performance by two of the best, and great credit is due to Lenny and the rest who took part. I will never understand stake horses, but I appreciate their participation in events like this. They make it possible. Thank$ -
 

El Chapo

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The one thing left out perhaps after watching the display by Dennis how much more impressive was that win by frost on the first day? I happened to miss the first day and I'd be very curious to see how scott had him hemmed up for so many games.

I think hacker and billy really nailed their posts in this thread though, right on the money. Alex orcollo is really where it's at and for me it's pickem. I think Alex moves better but watching this there's no doubt orcollo has a little ball running edge. I think Alex would temper orcollos ball running much better though. It'll be great to see the Alex, orcollo and perhaps Thorpe and a few others battles for top one pocket player in the years to come.
 

LSJohn

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IMO, this is a silly way to handle a race to 40, and as a result we may have a ho-hum day today, barring a real challenge from Frost. I doubt we will see such a proposition again. Any chance of a negotiation this evening by the backers?

On the other hand, all of us viewing have seen a great performance by two of the best, and great credit is due to Lenny and the rest who took part. I will never understand stake horses, but I appreciate their participation in events like this. They make it possible. Thank$ -

Yep. Gentile suggested that a series of races to 6 or 7 would be better, first guy to win X sets gets the cheese. That would make it harder for one to get an apparently insurmountable lead and take the thrill out of it. Day four was, as expected, less interesting than the other days.
 

Tom Wirth

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I preface this post by first pointing out that I didn't see any of the four days this match ran, but I have read and heard quite a bit and that which I have heard has brought to mind a thread I started on the 3rd of Oct. last year. "tight vs. loose pockets" You may recall it was then and still is my contention that between two top flight players one being more of a shooter and the other more of a mover, tight pockets will favor the shooter.

It has been brought to my attention that Scott and Dennis were playing on a table with 4 1/4 inch pockets and Scott seemed to get the first shot more often than did Dennis but Dennis was able to run more balls when he managed to pocket a first ball. Scott was unable to prevent Dennis from finding something to shoot and score with and this inability to stop Dennis' firepower is a major contributor to Scott's loss. Whatever the size pockets Dennis was obviously more comfortable with their size then was Scott.

There are various posts recently pointing out how Scott rattled balls in his pocket where Dennis did not. There were other posts stating how Scott had large leads in several games yet still lost some of them for various reasons. One principle reason being Scott didn't run enough balls to win outright when he had the open shots. Would those games been won by Scott had they been playing on 4 1/2 inch pockets? I don't know but one thing is for certain, he didn't win enough of them on this tighter table.

These are comments from the thread "tight vs loose dated 10.3.16

Tom
I think the shooter will fare better on tight tables because it will be tougher for the weaker shooter to run a lot of balls. This keeps the stronger shooter in the hunt. If the game lasts long enough it is almost impossible to prevent a strong shooter from finding something to shoot at. Should any one of these shots drop the shooter could very well be off to the races. As long as the balls are in play he will remain a threat to score big.

On the other hand, if the game is played on tables with loose pockets the mover who is good at pocketing balls when they are still near the business end of the table is now in a position to win the game with a single successful trap. It's the long shots that are the weaker player's greatest problem and that problem is somewhat mitigated on looser tables.

Tom

__________________
From Dr. Bill
If i'm playing a top player I want to play on looser pockets 4/1/2" to 4-6/8" I feel that that pocket size is not intimidating to me and I will get my share of opportunities which I figure to do well with because of the larger pockets. I often play better players that i'm the better mover but despite that I want to play on larger pockets because of how comfortable I feel playing on that size pocket.

Dr. Bill
Playing a top player I want to play on looser equipment simply because my moving ability will earn me enough shots to win providing I can take advantage of the opportunities that I have earned or been given, make sense? Keep in mind, the moving part of today's one pocket is no longer a mystery to the majority of today's players, in comparison to 20 years or more ago where the moving part of the game was a huge advantage, not so any more

I think my point back then has been verified through this match. Scott may have still lost this match playing on a table with 4 1/2 inch pockets but because of the way it played out it seems evident that these pockets played havoc on his confidence to pocket some shots that would not have been an issue with the larger pockets. The match may have been quite different.

Tom
 

LSJohn

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Scott may have still lost this match playing on a table with 4 1/2 inch pockets but because of the way it played out it seems evident that these pockets played havoc on his confidence to pocket some shots that would not have been an issue with the larger pockets. The match may have been quite different.

Tom

I think:

Cloth was new and pockets were very accepting at pocket speed;

Scott rattled very few balls that I recall, but he missed the whole pocket on a dozen shots.

Scott lost at least as many games by losing his cue ball on "moves" as by missing shots at his pocket.

He lost a couple of games by simply going brain-dead and doing or trying something no other one pocket player would think reasonable.

I can only remember 3 or four shots that Dennis didn't do what he was trying to do in 69 games. When he shot two-ways, he ALWAYS got 1/2 right, which was good enough.

Dennis must be a very smart guy. He thought his way through dozens of situations which he seemed not to know until he worked it out.
 
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