International sports bar

[Montegriffo]

6-2 up in today's final (best of 19) and aiming for a record 7th UK championship.
''Rocket Ronnie'' is the greatest snooker player of all time.

I don't think his time for a maximum break will ever be beaten.

Wow, that is a smooth shooter...

He won 10-6 by the way.

When Mike and I were playing pool regularly last year we decided to have a game of snooker instead. We both used to play a lot in our youth.
We managed one frame before we decided it was much too hard and went back to the pool.
Have you ever seen a snooker table up close?
They are bloody huge and the pockets are tiny.
We both felt like Rocket Ronnie when we went back to the pool.

[SuburbanFarmer]

6-2 up in today's final (best of 19) and aiming for a record 7th UK championship.
''Rocket Ronnie'' is the greatest snooker player of all time.

I don't think his time for a maximum break will ever be beaten.

Wow, that is a smooth shooter...

He won 10-6 by the way.

When Mike and I were playing pool regularly last year we decided to have a game of snooker instead. We both used to play a lot in our youth.
We managed one frame before we decided it was much too hard and went back to the pool.
Have you ever seen a snooker table up close?
They are bloody huge and the pockets are tiny.
We both felt like Rocket Ronnie when we went back to the pool.

Yeah, it's amazing how the perspective changes. Just going from a regulation table to a little bar table makes you play like a champ.

[Montegriffo]

Wow, that is a smooth shooter...

He won 10-6 by the way.

When Mike and I were playing pool regularly last year we decided to have a game of snooker instead. We both used to play a lot in our youth.
We managed one frame before we decided it was much too hard and went back to the pool.
Have you ever seen a snooker table up close?
They are bloody huge and the pockets are tiny.
We both felt like Rocket Ronnie when we went back to the pool.

Yeah, it's amazing how the perspective changes. Just going from a regulation table to a little bar table makes you play like a champ.

What size is a regulation pool table? 9'x4.5'?

A snooker table is 12'x6'. That's 4 bar tables in area.

[SuburbanFarmer]

He won 10-6 by the way.

When Mike and I were playing pool regularly last year we decided to have a game of snooker instead. We both used to play a lot in our youth.
We managed one frame before we decided it was much too hard and went back to the pool.
Have you ever seen a snooker table up close?
They are bloody huge and the pockets are tiny.
We both felt like Rocket Ronnie when we went back to the pool.

Yeah, it's amazing how the perspective changes. Just going from a regulation table to a little bar table makes you play like a champ.

What size is a regulation pool table? 9'x4.5'?

A snooker table is 12'x6'. That's 4 bar tables in area.

Yeah, they get down to 7’ in bars.

The snooker table is way too big - that’s why they play in a small area at one end.

It’s a great game though.

[Montegriffo]

Yeah, it's amazing how the perspective changes. Just going from a regulation table to a little bar table makes you play like a champ.

What size is a regulation pool table? 9'x4.5'?

A snooker table is 12'x6'. That's 4 bar tables in area.

Yeah, they get down to 7’ in bars.

The snooker table is way too big - that’s why they play in a small area at one end.

It’s a great game though.

6x3 in our bars.
The reason the game is mostly played down one end is not to do with the size, it's because that's where the reds and the high point colours are.
The best players are thinking 4 or 5 shots ahead of the ball they are potting and can leave the cue ball within a few millimeters of where they want it. The cueball control is incredible, if you look at that 147 break again Ronnie barely had to take a difficult shot because he was always in control of the ball and he didn't even seem to take the time to think about it.
He holds all the records but one now. Most max breaks, most century breaks, most major titles, most career titles.
The last record he needs is most world titles. He has 5 and Steven Hendry ( a Scot ) has 7 but he's not done yet.

[Montegriffo]

It's not all about the potting either.
If you have the time watch this safety play between the two fastest, free potting players on the tour.

[Montegriffo]

[SuburbanFarmer]

You should really try 9-ball. We improved on snooker too.

[Montegriffo]

You should really try 9-ball. We improved on snooker too.

I've played a couple of versions of 9 ball. The one I liked most was where you scored points for each ball and could pot anything so long as you hit the lowest remaining ball first. Was a bit like a dumbed down snooker and led to some interesting safety play.
The one where you win just by potting the 9 ball (still having to hit the lowest ball first) I was not so keen on.

Another pool variant I like is ''elimination'' where 3 or 5 players play. Each player is assigned a set of balls. In the 3 player version, they would be 1-5, 6-10 and 11-15. The object being to eliminate opponents by potting all their balls. Foul shots result in the next player choosing one of your balls to remove by hand. It is a great game where alliances can be made to gang up on the strongest player to eliminate them first. Sometimes, if you were last to play you could be eliminated before you even got a turn.

Unfortunately, most pub tables here have the stupid un-numbered yellow and red balls from Austrailian pool so you can only really play 8 ball.

[SuburbanFarmer]

We call it “cutthroat”. I’m a fan of it too.