Apologies Peter for the slight-hijack, but seeing Hollywood, Fla. posted just gave me a flashback...
The last time I was in Hollywood, Fla. (playing One Pocket of course) was 18 years ago......I stopped into Gold Crown Billiards to look for/talk to Toby Sweet <<< that's a name from the past - not everybody knows what a great player Toby was...
Then I went to the action room Hollywood Billiards and wound up playing "Hollywood Randy" some One Pocket (I didn't know him at all at the time but later found out that he was a strong playing shortstop, and somewhat of a tushhog).......he won the first three games, then I won the next three to get back to even - he didn't at all like me getting back to even after he was up 3 games, he muttered some obscenities and quit the session...:lol...
I spent the next 3 months traveling through Fla. from bottom to top/east coast & west coast/Miami to Talahassee, playing One Pocket - it was a fun time.
- Ghost
Apologies Peter for the slight-hijack, but seeing Hollywood, Fla. posted just gave me a flashback...
The last time I was in Hollywood, Fla. (playing One Pocket of course) was 18 years ago......I stopped into Gold Crown Billiards to look for/talk to Toby Sweet <<< that's a name from the past - not everybody knows what a great player Toby was...
Then I went to the action room Hollywood Billiards and wound up playing "Hollywood Randy" some One Pocket (I didn't know him at all at the time but later found out that he was a strong playing shortstop, and somewhat of a tushhog).......he won the first three games, then I won the next three to get back to even - he didn't at all like me getting back to even after he was up 3 games, he muttered some obscenities and quit the session...:lol...
I spent the next 3 months traveling through Fla. from bottom to top/east coast & west coast/Miami to Talahassee, playing One Pocket - it was a fun time.
- Ghost
Apologies Peter for the slight-hijack, but seeing Hollywood, Fla. posted just gave me a flashback...
The last time I was in Hollywood, Fla. (playing One Pocket of course) was 18 years ago......I stopped into Gold Crown Billiards to look for/talk to Toby Sweet <<< that's a name from the past - not everybody knows what a great player Toby was...
Then I went to the action room Hollywood Billiards and wound up playing "Hollywood Randy" some One Pocket (I didn't know him at all at the time but later found out that he was a strong playing shortstop, and somewhat of a tushhog).......he won the first three games, then I won the next three to get back to even - he didn't at all like me getting back to even after he was up 3 games, he muttered some obscenities and quit the session...:lol...
I spent the next 3 months traveling through Fla. from bottom to top/east coast & west coast/Miami to Talahassee, playing One Pocket - it was a fun time.
- Ghost
Apologies Peter for the slight-hijack, but seeing Hollywood, Fla. posted just gave me a flashback...
The last time I was in Hollywood, Fla. (playing One Pocket of course) was 18 years ago......I stopped into Gold Crown Billiards to look for/talk to Toby Sweet <<< that's a name from the past - not everybody knows what a great player Toby was...
Then I went to the action room Hollywood Billiards and wound up playing "Hollywood Randy" some One Pocket (I didn't know him at all at the time but later found out that he was a strong playing shortstop, and somewhat of a tushhog).......he won the first three games, then I won the next three to get back to even - he didn't at all like me getting back to even after he was up 3 games, he muttered some obscenities and quit the session...:lol..
I spent the next 3 months traveling through Fla. from bottom to top/east coast & west coast/Miami to Talahassee, playing One Pocket - it was a fun time.
- Ghost
Another hijack. In the early 90’s I was playing at Hard Times in Bellflower and running pretty good on the 6 x 12 playing golf and liability snooker. Cuban Joe came in with a little thin guy who wanted to play some nine ball. I knew the guy was a player because Joe steered him to play me, but my 9 ball game wasn’t bad and I played him a set for $500 and won. He offered to play another set if we played shoot out. I played and got robbed and pulled up. Turns out it was Toby Sweet who I was told was one of the best playing shoot out nine ball.
I assumed he meant push out 9 ball - where you have to push/roll out off the break. Justin Bergman was looking for a game in that format a couple years ago if my memory is right. Seems like a cool idea - really eliminates the "luck" factor from 9 ball. Hopefully someone else can correct me if I'm wrong, but I "think" you could push 1 time from hooks as well - made ball in hand much more rare & the game more about skill than just running road map racks.
John
it wasnt so much as taking the luck out it made the game more a thinking mans game rather than just pocketing balls over and over,.
players could also stall and keep games going and get played with. now after one or two games you have a complete line on him and the game is over if you arent a sucker.
bad players liked it as they didnt automatically lose when they were hooked. they could roll out and get to shoot again. 9 ball was fun for them.
you could use an opponents weaknesses against him,,, where as with ball in hand its just each player to himself at the table and who wins is who is the straightest shooter.
top players still ran out so no big difference but ruined the game for gambling with bad players.
johnny jansco started ball in hand and called it texas express for the johnson city tournaments to make it go faster. for the top pros it was fine. but it spread as people are lemmings and play whatever the top players play and do.
Seems to me that the pros used to play that you could roll out (push out) at any time. I think it was John McChesney who started using Texas Express rules in the National 9-ball Tour in the early 1980s. He, along with Randy Goettlicher and Robin Adair had formed the Texas Express Promotion Group. Soon, push out 9-ball became a thing of the past, which has ruined the game.I grew up playing push-out nine ball as a teenager outside of Chicago, and I could be wrong (it was so long ago), but as I remember it we could push out at ANY time. After the push out, the opponent had a choice of shooting or giving the shot back the guy that pushed out.
On that next shot after the push out, whoever takes it, any foul resulted in ball in hand.
That's how I remember it. Lot's of strategy and not much luck involved. Nine ball was a much better game then.
Seems to me that the pros used to play that you could roll out (push out) at any time. I think it was John McChesney who started using Texas Express rules in the National 9-ball Tour in the early 1980s. He, along with Randy Goettlicher and Robin Adair had formed the Texas Express Promotion Group. Soon, push out 9-ball became a thing of the past, which has ruined the game.
I don't recall how we played 9-ball in Pittsburgh when I was growing up (maybe Cardone remembers), but by the time I moved to L.A. in the late '60s, the common form of push out was that you could roll out anytime you could not see the full object ball. Looking back I prefer that rule because it takes away all those lucky hooks that your opponent accidentally leaves. It was much more of a shot maker's game.
~Doc
Funny how a One-Pocket tournament post turned into a thread about 9-Ball. You guys, of all people. LOL!!!
Sorry about my hijack, but that’s what you get from a bunch of old people. We are all over the place.