Crazy Snooker

[Skybird]

2015, World Grand Prix. By now a famous frame.

I like Snooker. When I stumble about it on TV, usually I get hooked for an hour or so.

I also like tactical raffinesse, tactical playing.

But this...?




Do not stop after the pink finally got potted. The good stuff keeps coming!



And when a few pottings later you think that at least now thankfully its finally over, don't stop, for the good stuff still keeps coming! They keep on fighting until the very end, even with minimalistic options.


For those not knowing the rules: the basic idea is that red and coloured balls have to be played in turns: red-coloured-red-coloured. Coloured balls get replaced on the table when they got potted and count 2-7 points, reds stay off the table and count all 1. Thats the basic idea. You do not want to make shots where you have to turn over the right to play on, opponent scoring that way, when you cannot continue with a legal shot yourself: you thus play the white ball in a way that makes it difficult for the opponent to continue when you cannot pot yourself and therefor emjst end. When the turn is up to you, you have to start with a red. - Thats why they do not pot the pink ball.


Snooker it is called when the opponent cannot make a legal shot: he cannot even touch a red. Scores 4 penalty points for his opponent then wo can also chose to play on, or force the palyer to try new, from old position. They say player A snookers player B, it is not unfair, but a game element totally okay. A player can catch up this way with an opponent with a leading score even if there are not enough potting points left on the table anymore.

[Jimbuna]

Love the game, played snooker and pool since my mid teens but not so much these days.

I also remember watching that game back in the day.

Fantastic stuff, thanks for sharing

[Skybird]

I like Snooker as well, to me its the queen of all billiard games, I like it even better than Carambolage. But I absolutely suck at it. The first time I stood beside such a table, I was intimidated. Heck, those things are huge!
I was an okay player with usual 8 ball pool in my university years. But that does not compare to Snooker. For those not knowing, the tables can be more than twice as big, the pockets are tighter and the balls are slightly smaller. Its not twice as difficult - it several times more difficult than any pool. What pro snooker player can do, borders magic in my eyes. These days I just play Virtual Pool 4, including Snooker. Saves me the pain in my back...

[Jimbuna]

Master the art of positional play and you are well down the road to being a competent player.

[Skybird]

Your forgot to mention the need for mastering the art of potting first.


I suck at all aspects of snooker. But I still can admire it.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Your forgot to mention the need for mastering the art of potting first.

In truth you shouldn't be playing if your potting skills are crap and I've met many great potters who couldn't position the cue ball into the most favourable potting position and met very few who excelled in positional play but were poor at potting.

Just my personal experience.

[Skybird]

Could it be you need both? Potting skill and positional, tactical skill?

Potting on a norma bar table in 8 ball pool, is one thing. Potting on a snooker table is something very different.

It gets even worse if you have bad eyesight and your eyes differ by 3 diopters, like mine at that time. Already a handicap on small tables - on a snooker table: much worse, the brain messes it up, since both images in both eyes differ significantly in size, and when aiming along a queu and at distant balls, you notice it. - Today both eyes are equally bad. Also, I lacked the needed hand preicison. Small errors you get away with in pool and on small and medium tables, will not be forgiven on a snooker table.

Anyhow, I do not miss the pain in my back so often, so I'm quite happy with how it is. No pool in my life anmyore. And where for exmaple table tennis in VR can work superbly, recreating pool/snooker/billiards in VR does not work. You get some kind of gameplay and nice looks, yes: but it has nothing to do with billiards. Pinball, on the other hand, also works excellent in VR.


However, if you have never tried Virtual Pool 4 (not VR it is, 2D), try it. Its very good, and if the mouse gets correctly set up, you will dose power pretty much like you do in real life with a queu, you need space on your table then. The physics are outstanding. Its one of my all time favourites.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Could it be you need both? Potting skill and positional, tactical skill?

Those are the people who are most proficient at the game, some even becoming professionals.

[Skybird]

Yes, but any player needs them both. Positional understanding and seeing where and how the white ball should be placed, does not help you if you cannot realise it in your practical play, which means you must be able to continue, which means you must pot. Potting alone leads you nowhere if the white balls strays all across the table and you cannot continue.

You need both: potting skill and knowing where and how to place the white ball.

Its one of my regrets that I cannot play Snooker better, and never could (if I could play it at all..). Only my loss of earlier chess competence in my young years I mourn more. I paused in chess for too many years, over a decade, and when going back to it I found that I had forgotten so much, lost so much routine and memory skill and ability to visualise, it translated into a serious loss of playing strength. I never recovered that. It really itches me. I was very good at it, won correspondence chess tournaments and qualified in the shortest possible time to master class in the German federation in it. Also played club chess, and some tournaments there as well (without enthusiasm, however, tournaments never interested me that much), in Berlin our team was one of the two or three strongest in town in those years, mid-80s. With the school team, two times winner of the Berlin yearly school competitions.

Sorry for the boasting, but that were good times! Better feel of life. Things could still fascinate, there was magic in stuff. But I stray off, sorry.

[Jimbuna]

No need to apologise, your obviously feeling 'snookered'

[Jimbuna]

Here is a young 14 year old Ronnie O'sullivan - first tv appearance

[Jimbuna]

[Aktungbby]

which means you must be able to continue, which means you must pot. Potting alone leads you nowhere if the white balls strays

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

No need to apologise, your obviously feeling 'snookered'

...WHEN HE SHOULD BE FEELING WELL 'POTTED'JEEZE! I HATE IT WHEN MY WHITE BALLS STRAY

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

If somebody struggles with the concept of snooker (the game element I mean), then let him watch this video. It should teach him!

[Aktungbby]

Only my loss of earlier chess competence in my young years I mourn more. I paused in chess for too many years, over a decade, and when going back to it I found that I had forgotten so much, lost so much routine and memory skill and ability to visualise, it translated into a serious loss of playing strength.

DON'T FEEL SO BAD; I, WHO ONCE DEFEATED GRANDMASTERS (ON OCCASION) CAN BARELY HOLD OUT AGAINST MY NEPHEWS AND EVEN THE GREATS HAVE A BAD DAY: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/nov/21/world-chess-championship-game-9-carlsen-caruana

“I felt like I had a comfortable advantage and then I just blew it,” a clearly disappointed Carlsen said in the immediate aftermath. “I was poor.”
The nine straight draws is the longest streak of games to open a match without a decisive result in the recognized 132-year history of the world chess championship.

MY GENERAL STYLE SINCE THE AGE OF FOUR WHEN MY DAD TAUGHT ME THE GAME, IS TO PLAY ROCK-SOLID DEFENSE 'TILL THE OPPOSITION MAKES AN ERROR; THEN CAPITALIZE! A TECHNIQUE ADAPTED FROM MY DAD'S SUPERB TENNIS STYLE AND WRESTLING IN HIGH SCHOOL & COLLEGE AS WELL. MY COLLEGIATE OPPONENTS-OF-CHOICE: AN ESTONIAN AND A CUBAN REFUGEE TAUGHT ME A LOT OF RUSSIAN-STYLE PLAY OVER FOUR YEARS-I SELDOM WON. PERSONALLY AND CAREFULLY PLAYING OUT ALL THE FISHER/SPASSKY GAMES DURING MY OWN 70'S COLLEGE DAYS REALLY PROVED MOST ILLUMINATING; IE: THESE GUYS MAKE MISTAKES TOO IN THE HEAT OF COMPETITION SO NO NEED TO BE IN AWE OF AN OPPONENT-JUST WAIT FOR IT (THE MISTAKE)! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Chess_Championship_1972#Game_1:_Spassky–Fisc her,_1–0_(Nimzo-Indian) PS: ONE DEFEATED GRANDMASTER SHOOK MY HAND AND SAID HE'D HAVE TO WARN HIS FELLOW GRANDMASTERS THAT "I'M OUT THERE" I LOVED IT! MY DAD QUIT PLAYING ME BY AGE EIGHT!