Snooker (and other cue sports)

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Megasoft Office

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I was wondering if anyone else plays cue sports, either as a hobby or competitively. I noticed there are quite a few British community members, so there's bound to be someone with an interest in snooker. Some of the most popular examples of cue sports would be:
8-ball
9-ball
snooker

Cheers!
 
In my youth I used to play a lot of 8-ball, some 9-ball and a very little bit of straight pool.
My wife bought me two nice cues for various birthdays while we were in college.
My premium cue is a 21 ounce Huebler with an 11mm shaft.
By "bar" and breaking cue is an old Canadian Maple beast of 21 Oz with a 13 mm shaft.
her name is "Matilda".

Both are beauteous, plain butted (no linen wrap) cues, that look very "bar" and I used to be able to get games when I play with them, where guys shooting McDermott's and such couldn't get a second look...
 
I enjoy playing both 8-ball and 9-ball and pursue them as hobbies, however I am not very good at playing. It's one of those games I kind of suck at (this includes ten pin bowling), but still enjoy an occasional game with my friends anyway. 👍
 
I'm a bit of a snooker-fan. I enjoy watching the tournaments that are broadcast by the BBC. Shame I can't watch all tournaments (no Eurosport on cable where I live). I also play myself, but only for recreation, I don't do competition. I'm not good enough for that :)
 
Has anyone ever played Billiards? (also known as English billiards).

I used to play it against my dad when i was a kid on our 6ft table when we got bored of Snooker and Pool. It's a good game, a bit more strategic than pool but a bit more immediate than snooker.
 
TheCracker
Has anyone ever played Billiards? (also known as English billiards).

I used to play it against my dad when i was a kid on our 6ft table when we got bored of Snooker and Pool. It's a good game, a bit more strategic than pool but a bit more immediate than snooker.
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I've seen it being played once before. I probably mistook it for carambole, but it's a shame that the classic billiard games have been mostly replaced by 8-ball, including snooker. Finding an opponent becomes a bit of a chore.
 
Ronnie O'Sullivan is a true legend - and as if to illustrate the point...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/snooker/7369420.stm

Truly one of the greatest sights in sport, a master of his own sport at his very best!!

The black at 7:18 is just... :bowdown: :eek: :drool:

£157,000 for 9 minutes work... Not bad at all :D

Ronnie O'Sullivan
I'll be getting me Bentley GT Convertible now, I've been dying to get one...
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I went to watch the World Championships for the first time yesterday. Watched Liang Wenbo vs. Joe Swail and Joe Perry vs. Stuart Bingham. Got pretty good seats by the eisle opposite the division wall, enabling me to see both games at the same time. I was also just 4 rows from the front and was visible on TV!!! - Never really fancied it before, even though i've lived in the city where they host it for the past 13 years. It's worth while going even if you are not a massive snooker fan, just to say you've been.
 
Back in the days when we were all unemployed, it wasn't unknown for me and a group of mates to spend the best part of a day in a snooker/pool hall. Some good times.

Though I have very little patience for full size snooker at the moment, though I'll gladly play a game of straight pool. My game varies greatly, from being truly useless to being accused of being a hustler by a semi-pro player in work. :D
 
Snooker is great but it's much harder than it looks on telly - it's almost embarrassing the first time you play after a while, you're doing really well if you get a two-ball break!

I'm dead jealous of you, Dan... my friend Amy has been to the Crucible (with the sole intention, I believe, of pulling Ronnie :sly: ), and I'd love to go - just never got my arse in gear to actually go... but then again, my concentration span is so bad these days (thanks Playstation, thanks Carling, and thanks Ernest & Julio Gallo :irked: ) that I doubt I could watch a whole game (let alone two simultaneously!) without getting twitchy...

Oddly, Snooker has a strange effect on me, as does Darts - unlike other sports, Snooker (and Darts) make you want to play the game right away. Why is that? You don't watch a Grand Prix and get the urge to jump into your car (or do you?!), but Snooker always makes me want to play. Ironically, watching Ronnie O'Sullivan also helps put the game into perspective - to be that good doesn't take practice, or hard work, or other weedy things like that - it takes real genius, and that is something we mortals just have to deal with :indiff: :D

I'm OK at Pool, esp. American pool, and 9-ball is becoming a speciality! Ever seen Steve Davis play 9-ball? :eek: The man is amazing... I could just imagine when Steve Davis started playing, and 'established' 9-ball players came up against him in a tourney, not knowing that it was the Steve Davis they were up against. The rules of 9-ball are that the winner of the last game breaks off, and it is relatively easy to pot legally from the break. I saw one match where Davis potted on his first visit to the table in Frame 1 and his opponent never got another shot in the match :lol: Pwned!
 
Touring Mars
Snooker is great but it's much harder than it looks on telly - it's almost embarrassing the first time you play after a while, you're doing really well if you get a two-ball break!
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That's a pretty good summing up of my opinion in one paragraph 👍

And that's what bugs me. I trying to so hard to just make the shot on what is a stupidly large table when compared to pool that I can hardly give thought to positioning for the next!
 
I like snooker a lot. I play it with my friend. ofcourse I am newbie. but after the snooker, pool game become childplay :)

Ronnie O'Sullivan is great except he is playing to much with his nose and biting nails.
my future favorite is Neil Robertson

075robertson_468x602.jpg

I wish I could have his hair :)
 
A schoolfriend of mine became a pro snooker player for about 2 years, but he couldn't make a living from it and he quit. Tragically, he soon got in with the wrong crowd and he soon fell into a life of I.T. :( Before I knew it, he was unrecognizable, a shadow of his former self... he started drinking Beaujolais ("coz all my workmates are doing it") and it wasn't long until they had him using the "tech" (fancy buzzwords that no-one else knows what they mean). I bumped into him a few years later, in PC World, and he barely recognised me... I asked him if he still played, and besides a slight twitch in his left eye, his expression didn't change at all. Sad. Really sad.
 
It looks like Ronnie O'Sullivan might have to trade down from the Bentley idea after Ali Carter knocked in his first 147 yesterday and will now share the £147,000 bonus (and £10,000 for highest break) with Ronnie... the first time two 147's have been made in the same tournament!

Ali Carter jokingly made a reference to Ronnie's statement about the Bentley by saying:

I'm going to buy a Ford Focus convertible, I've been dying to get one!
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:lol:
 


I cant keep myself watching them :)


carter and o'sullivan are now in the semi final. would nice to see a final between 147 makers
 
ExigeEvan
That's a pretty good summing up of my opinion in one paragraph 👍

And that's what bugs me. I trying to so hard to just make the shot on what is a stupidly large table when compared to pool that I can hardly give thought to positioning for the next!
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I used to own a pool table but now I frequent a local pool and snooker club and play pool and snooker there. Snooker is so much harder than it looks. I've been playing snooker for maybe 4 years now, if not 5 and my highest break ever is 39, and that's something I feel like I will never emulate. the biggest challenge is setting yourself up for the next shot, I can do table lenth pots, not all the time but I can do them frequently enough to go for them in a serious game. I can't position the white well enough to run off decent breaks all that often though, the vast majority of my breaks are under or around 10 points not counting the 1 point breaks for a single red. I'm pretty good at pool, I can win in 1 or two visits to the table (I can 7 ball my opponent and lose as well, yes that has happened :lol:) but snooker is something I get the feeling I'll never be good at, I just can't improve from where I am now.
 
I played snooker 2 hours ago and I did 40. (highest score in my life :) reds are easy for me but I cant taking a good position to color balls
 
Yes! Snooker, billiards - love it! Unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to play snooker, but it looks like I will soon.
I played billiards (8ball most of the time, sometimes 9ball) 2-3 times a week, but stoped because it was somehow expensive. I wish I had my own table or maybe if there was some kind of membership discount, or even if I could play it for free, I would play it all day. Really, I enjoy in it very much.
Although I never played snooker, I'm a fan, watching it regulary. I don't have cable TV, so I'm very thankful to David Lovell who was uploading (almost) whole tournaments that BBC broadcasted, on YouTube. His account was closed, but he got back, and put 1/4, 1/2 and final on YouTube. Eurosport has had live streaming on their yahoo-eurosport website, so I watched whole China Open there, but there were no other tournaments streamed. Hope there will be, at least the minor ones.
Enjoy.
 
I've never actually played Snooker. It is not that popular on this side of the Pond.
However I used to practice 8 and 9 ball on a Snooker table.
I'm here to tell you the pockets on a regular table are just HUGE after playing on a Snooker table for an hour or so.

I've played at straight pool some in my youth.
But I never got serious aobut it.
Thanks to my dad, I've been knocking balls around a table since I could see over one.
I'me well and truly out of practice at this point, as I don't want my sons getting any "ideas".
 
Heh. :D
Yeah, I know that pockets on snooker table are much smaller. But I still think I'll be suprised when I experience playing it. And then get back to a normal table.
 
I play 8 ball and 9 ball on my 8 footer.We play a lot of variables with 8 ball (bank , left/right , 8 high , rotation). Pool is a great,fun,relaxing,game. Sopmetimes it can be aggravating when you miss the easy shots for what ever reason,but it's still a great game.
 
I know its an old thread but like a good boy I searched and found it.

Lately I have been getting into playing "pool" and while I have yet to have a chance to play snooker I have been watching quite a bit on youtube!. Really amazes me the skill these guys have with manipulating the white ball, I focus hard enough on making the shot, let alone getting the white ball to move exactly into position for the next shot!

Sadly I only have a little 6x3 table under the house with 2" balls, but it does the trick to learn the basics + spinning the white ball etc. Would love to own a 8x4 slate top like what they use at the pubs but I don't have the room nor the spare cash to splash on it.

My local "tavern" (dunno what the term is over in other countries but its kinda like a pub that you can also go and eat dinner at, bit like a sporting leagues club only without the membership crap and team stuff) runs a Pool comp every week but I'm usually travelling when they do :(, though sadly my half decent skill under the house turns to crap once I'm officially in one of those comps :lol:. The bigger table really does make things a bit tougher :D.
 
I recommend you start watching Snooker events on TV when they come about ( I'm sure they'll show some of them, there's a pretty big Aussie player Neil Robertson, doing well.) I started getting really into Snooker (watching it anyway) these past few years and I agree with you on the white ball placement, still amazes me.

I've never really played it much though, mainly played Pool down the pub. I'm pretty bad, but it's still fun :)
 
Hello fellow cue sports fans.

I played mostly 9-ball in my active days.
I have my own cue set complete with a jump and break cue.

Today I only play on my computer.

I recommend everybody to download Grand Billiards.
It's a free 3d online Pool (8-ball and 9-ball) and Snooker (9ft and 12ft) game.
It has a very realistic physics model and is completely free.
http://www.grandbilliards.com/

PM me if you want someone to play against on GB.
Cheers.
 
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Here is a short clip of Efren Reyes playing in the 2012 Bergen open.
He got beaten 9-4 in the final by Norwegian pro Vegar Kristiansen.



This is the pool hall where I learned to play the game.

Check out this youtube channel for some full length pool matches from the world pool masters and US open:
http://www.youtube.com/user/bclub
 
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Pool is great fun with friends. I have a really nice full-sized table up in my bonus room. I play almost every weekend.
 
I'm a snooker nut, starting playing at 11, took a bit of a hiatus in my late teens, but started playing competitively again last September. Quite a competitive league (district), tend to find some very good players. Indeed one of the better ones made a 147 a couple of months back and someone else made 113 or so on the final day of the season. Which is pretty good considering it's a one off frame.

My best is 83, I'm a long way from there, had a few 60s this year, but I'm slowly getting back to my best. My old doubles partner from my playing days as a kid has had a quite a few centuries, we used to be evenly matched.

It's great fun, but exceptionally difficult, which is why I keep playing it. It's all the little kisses the pros do off of other balls (reds, generally) that's the really clever stuff.
 
I started of cueing a ball when I was about 12 or 13 playing billiards. Was really addicted to it and then went on to pool. There are tons of pool halls in the city I live in - almost one at every other intersection. Most bars or fancy restaurants with a seperate bar area have a table or two.
My wife and I sometimes go late night to one of the dives for a drink, and we'd take a table and play several games of snooker in succession. Various bets are placed between us. I make sure I lose the right ones. ;)
 

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