If you use it as a "backup" then a fluke is precisely what it is - imo. Nominate the primary pocket you want to hit - and hit it ;) If you miss, you miss.

I disagree. If the backup was totally planned and built into the shot with the sole intention of potting the ball...how can it be a fluke?

Try to view this from the opposite angle... If you hit your pocket, you don't NEED any contingency or backup. So the need to allow that kind of backup (even if it's planned) doesn't exist.

Again, my opinion, I know you don't agree and that's perfectly fine :D

Think I'm done here, pretty much said all there is to be said on this for my part.

I do understand what you're saying, and I don't entirely disagree with nominating pockets to be honest, as it'd make necessary an extra element of skill to win a game. It's what constitutes a fluke and the system's ability to recognise it that I have trouble with.

The point is, real rules allow you to try to pot as many legal balls as you like off one shot, or try for as many rebounds as you like between (say) middle pockets, if you can see a way to do it. The fact that the Game can't tell which shots were intended and which were flukes means that any form of flair shots or ambitious play wouldn't be worth trying - making everyone's style standardised and a bit on the boring (definitely non-funky) side.

PS - I should point out here that I'm not describing myself as a skilled or 'flair' player. Most of the shots I described trying fail miserably

yes, if we did nominate pockets, we would take the 'tricky shot factor' away.

sometimes and even in a tournamanet, I just want to have a bit of fun and see if I cant pot a ball off the rail. I put it to maximimum force most of the time and if it was to miss the intened pocket, it would still go into another 10 percent of the time.

but is that a fluke? or is that just life? pro pool players never get the exact pocket they want, they get flukes and are never penelised....so why should we be here?

yeah i can just imagine it now, watching the snooker/pool on t.v. and the referee calling a foul due to the fact that stephen hendry(i dont know any pool players)potted the red in the pocket he was not intended to do!!

please people get a grip flukes are part and parcel of pool whether its in the pub on t.v.(professional)or on here,nominating is a good idea but i dont think it belongs on 9 ball may be 8 ball uk but to be honest i like just the way it is

Davey you don't have to imagine, just watch one of the many 9 ball matches on tv where they fluke the 9 or pot it on the break and the referee respots the ball and play continues.

I've caught up on some reading and would like to clarify some things. I believe ONLY THE 9 should be called. The option to call the 9 would be on every shot, and by some people will be used on every shot. However, the only thing that it would do is make fluking the game winning ball 1/6 less likely. Flukes WILL still happen no one has said they wouldn't, yes they are a part of the game, but the game would be improved if this particular feature was implemented. Also someone said "one player is as likely to fluke the 9 as the other", not true. If a 850 plays a 600 the 850 is MUCH less likely to fluke the 9, because fluking, by nature, is caused by a lack of precision and skill in a given shot.

As for slowing down the game, this makes no sense. We have time limits to ensure a constant pace of every game. That 1/2 second you need to click shouldn't change much even on 10 sec games.
Someone googled 9ball rules and said the 9 is never called according to what they found. Please see the T.A.P (the association of pool) rules, its an amateur league similar to the BCA, APA, VNEA, CPA, JPA and others that is handicapped so that players of all skill can play, but there rules stipulate the 9 be called, I can say from first-hand experience that it is not a long learning curve for beginners and it doesn't negatively affect the flow of the game. This is a league with 1,000's of members where this rule is already in effect with great success. I don't know how else I can make my point.

Anyone who has specific questions (short please) please use the message system to send me them. If I get enough interests (and questions) I'll then post a full Q&A on this forum. Sound good?

1st Paragraph, BULL CRAP!

I have watched these 'Pool World Championships', Australian Junior Championships and so on TV....I remember as I was thinking about this the other day that a couple of players did fluke the 9.....but it want re-spotted.

Please, dont make up nonsence which is not true (that I have seen anyway.....I was watching the 'world championships'

2nd...what is the point for having to give up sone of your 20 second time limit to decide what hole your going to put the ball in?

20 seconds in a semi final is hard enough.....after doing this.....(read on)

.....so ok, lets cut their 20 second time limit to 15 seconds!

9 ball is such an unpridictable game and should NEVER be tampered with!

nomination works with 8 ball because there is no combo's to win the game....its pot 7 balls, then the black.

9 ball is pot the 9 ball as soon as you can (more or less)

IT JUST WONT WORK!

I have never blubbered on forums for this long....I cant believe im still responding to this...but I have to as I dont want 9 ball to be ruined.

please monstrmac, you have posted this thread with hardly any previous threads at all...if any. Many people have more experience not only on the forum, but online. While I do respect your opinion on this, sometimes you have to let go to the majority. You have not posted on ANY other idea since starting this one.....maybe you should become a little more active and make a name for yourself on the forum before trying to turn the game on its head!

Edited at 11:44 Wed 23/04/08 (BST)

aflumpire- the man is from snooker- i know who he is!

I feel i have to pull up the pint about a 9 being respotted in professional 9-ball.

I watch 9 ball regularly, have done for years, and it has always been my game of choice both in real life and when it came to funkypool.

I have never, in real life or watching on TV, seen a 9-ball respotted. The whole aim of the game is to pot the 9, in whatever way you can.

Regarding players of different skill levels being more liable to flukes, thats frankly twaddle.

It implies that only players of a high rank can play skillful multi-plant shots, but if a low ranked player goes for it and gets it, they are "flailing" and "fluked" it.

Lets not forget this thread was started because someone said they had lost 7 games in a row to flukes.

As i said before - until you can go away, play every shot as random, and win 7 straight games, you have no qualification to say thats how they did it.

In light of that, I think I'll just end my part of this debate by acknowledging that this is what the game of 9 ball is supposed to be, and leave it at that.

On a completely different note, I just realized I have spent more time debating this topic than I have spent playing the last few days lol - which most definitely is NOT the objective of any of the pool variants lol

But, it keeps the site lively!

Anything that makes you think is good.

Suggestions like these, which would satisfy a minority of players but are not related to standardized real life rules, could only realistically be considered as a custom game option, if that were to be introduced in future.

The tables didn't end up the way they are by accident. The old "pro" tables were more like a simulation, both in dimension and play, but simply died out when the quicker, more fun games came along. A similar thing can be seen in game popularity on the snooker site.

Lets not forget the first 5 letters of the site name

(and no, i dont mean "www.f" before anyone gets smart )

lol spinner

also been fun reading

Aflumpire you have just went from ridiculous to dumb. I just read your post 5 secs ago and already I can tell you that the "International Champion of Champions" tournament is a called match (on ESPN). All pool played on the Seminole Pro Tour (see propoolvideo.com) is a call the money ball game whether it be 9 or 10 ball, (for those unfamiliar 10 ball, same game as 9, just ten balls lol). 9 ball masters championship was a called 9 tourney. You are right in assuming that the majority of tourneys are not call the 9, but more and more every year have switched so please don't say its bullcrap. I've watched HUNDREDS of hours of professional pool and attended live pro tourneys so I have a fairly extensive knowledge on the subject. I also have a few posts under my belt contrary to aflumpires' belief. I have been previously a top 5 player on funkysnooker. So please don't consider me a newbie to the funky sites.

Spinner, lower ranked players ARE more likely to fluke. It shouldn't even be a debateable statement. If a player (any player) is able to make a multi-plant combo then yaay for him. But if he's able to make it shouldn't he also be able to call it? and if he's not, should he win the game???? NO!!! And the idea of a backup plan strikes me as a little bit ridiculous. If you are planning to make two balls at once then fine you can, no problem. If one of those is the 9, or even MIGHT be the nine, then fine, just nominate it, no penalty needed. But if your plan is to make it in the upper right pocket and if it doesn't go pray like a saint it goes in some other pocket, that's a fluke, not a plan (backup or otherwise). I was warned by admin to keep this forum not personal, I hope that others are warned the same way I was. Also, if a players has to take too much time to call a pocket on 1 shot, he probably isn't mentally qualified to operate a computer. Love to all from the defender of 9

the . isnt a letter so it would be w w w f u

What about lag?
Players struggle to take shots but adding the extra thing to do would make it much harder

If it takes you 2 seconds to take a shot then your probably rushing them. Everyone goes over the shot time limit sometimes but that doesn't, in anyway shape or form, make them mentally unqualified to operate a computer as you so elegantly put it

lag is a separate issue. A good point however, I'm sure that lag would be a magnified problem with this new feature. However the problem would be lag, not the feature. The feature itself shouldn't slow the game down at all. One simple click before a shot don't take that long.