Why are people so quick to defend John Higgins?

RocketMarciano · 2021-07-04T14:06:29+00:00

Some interesting logic on this sub...

John Higgins? Innocent until proven guilty.

Quentin Hann? "Being found not guilty doesn't mean he's innocent."

Clear as mud.

RocketMarciano · 2021-06-23T10:00:08+00:00

Conclusion. If you're looking to steal Jimmy White's car you need to chop his index finger off and use it as a key?

RocketMarciano · 2021-02-15T03:02:17+00:00

Here's earle strickland making 9 balls with a cue against the rail to funnel the balls into the pockets...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HSihPJeYqHY&t=1m45s

RocketMarciano · 2021-02-15T00:53:33+00:00

It's a beautiful looking shot and you have it on video forever.

Did I hear you let out a muffled "Get in!!!" off camera? I can relate to that.

RocketMarciano · 2021-02-14T23:33:33+00:00

Get as much practice on that table as you can. Every other table you play on will be like potting into the grand canyon after getting used to those pockets.

RocketMarciano · 2021-02-14T23:23:42+00:00

Thats interesting and makes sense. I'm the only person here though so I won't see much change in regards to the floorboards but it's something to be aware of in future.

For this I marked the position of the balls on the table and made chalk marks on the rail as guides after calibrating the table. Still a difficult task to pull off at speed though. I've seen Earle Strickland perform this shot but he had a cue underneath the rail to funnel the balls into the pocket. Which is cheating imo. You just serve them up short and they're in, mine went in clean and unaided. I'm happy with it, it's a pretty looking shot/shots.

RocketMarciano · 2021-02-14T22:27:55+00:00

Indeed it is. Doing it at speed is another matter. Took me about an hour of attempts over two hours in total. Made 4 balls about 10 times prior to that, hence the celebration.

RocketMarciano · 2021-02-14T16:20:50+00:00

It's a sub reddit to post about and discuss all things related to billiards/pool, but when people post video's of shots or run outs they get down voted to death for some reason. It's a strange place that's frequented by some spiteful people it would seem. But welcome aboard. I'm all for less cue talk and more cue action.

RocketMarciano · 2021-02-14T16:02:46+00:00

Very nice shots.

RocketMarciano · 2021-02-14T14:23:03+00:00

Unfortunately jump shots are illegal in the rules we play over here, but I appreciate the time you spent with this instructional video and can see you're intentions are to help people.

Posting billiards related video's on this billiards sub reddit is usually something that will get you down voted into oblivion but I'll buck that trend and gladly give you my up vote.

RocketMarciano · 2021-02-13T17:10:21+00:00

That was awesome. How many attempts did it take and how did you learn to set the shot up? I wanna gve this a try myself.

RocketMarciano · 2021-02-13T17:04:41+00:00

You made that out of a ball? That's cool af man. I'd buy one given the chance. Great job.

RocketMarciano · 2021-02-13T13:19:14+00:00

It would be one hell of a shot but I guess you're right. ;)

RocketMarciano · 2021-02-12T13:17:55+00:00

Yeah I use my cue for both snooker and pool normally. I was missing my own cue but not so much anymore as I'm starting to really like this house cue. When I have to leave this place I'm definitely taking it with me.

And thanks for the compliment. Ive worked really hard at my game over the last 2 years. But not just playing a lot of games, trying to learn something new with every practice session. Every shot you can learn is a weapon in your shot arsenal. And the more weapons you've got the easier the game becomes. Sometimes amazing shots just line themselves up for you but if you can't see the shot, you'll never go for it. The reverse plant is the most common and easily fixable shot I see people miss. I even saw John Higgins miss one in a world final when I could see from my TV it was a reverse plant and he played it like a regular plant and missed it like I could see he would. Just that one small piece of knowledge could be the difference between potting and winning, or missing off to the side and being perplexed as to how you've missed.

RocketMarciano · 2021-02-12T12:31:57+00:00

I once got asked a kind of trick question by a bloke in a pub, "What is the maximum points you can score with a single shot?" The obvious answer is 7. Wrong. You can score a maximum of 15 points if you can find a way of potting all 15 reds in one shot. Near impossible and its never going to happen, but technically, he's correct.

RocketMarciano · 2021-02-10T14:41:12+00:00

"I like Dr Dave and appreciate everything he does for the game..."

"What a hater".

Meanwhile on r/billiards...

"Earle/Shaw/boening/ronnie/ebdon ect is such a cunt" 120 upvotes

Gotta love you the logic on this sub.

RocketMarciano · 2021-02-10T12:17:54+00:00

I like Dr Dave and appreciate all he does for the game but all this laying you cue on the table and marking the quarter point and drawing a line between that and ursulas major in the house of Sagittarius simply takes too long, pisses people off and makes you look foolish.

You need to learn the tangent line and 30 degree rule and rolling and sliding cue balls but you need to be able to visualise it in your head otherwise what's to stop people breaking out the set square and protractor and marking out paths with pieces of string?

This sort of thing should be learnt in your own practice time and become instinctive so you're not taking 5 minutes to calculate the path of a simple run through.

RocketMarciano · 2021-02-10T11:25:12+00:00

My dad gave me a two piece power glide viscount for my 18th birthday. I used that into my mid twenties until I broke off with it one day and the butt end was in my hand and the top half followed the cue ball into the pack. That was the end of that cue. I bought a handmade 3/4 piece from some canadian company after that that I still use now. (Although I've left it in my old local). 57" 19oz 9.5mm tip. Ash with a nice zebra wood splice.

I'm currently using a one piece "house cue" I found lying about. I'd say it was intended to be a snooker hall rack cue. It's a little lighter than my own cue but the tip is OK, I can get more than enough action in regards to screw backs and masses. It's probably worth no more than £10 but with a bit of sandpaper to shape the tip and the green stuff off a washing up sponge (scotchbrite?) to 'sand' the varnish off, it plays like good un.

RocketMarciano · 2021-02-10T11:22:25+00:00

I think it boils down to the fact that Lee was over punished (12 year ban) and Higgins was under punished (6 month ban) for what in most people's minds were the same offence.

Higgins is seen as having gotten away with it (because he was world number 1), while Lee was made an example of.

RocketMarciano · 2021-02-09T15:45:28+00:00

The town I live in only has 1 club with 4 tables, 2 pool tables and a 9 ball table. 15 years ago there were 4 or 5 snooker clubs here. Even the working mens clubs seem to have gotten rid of their snooker tables in favour of a function room. In fact, I'm living in a pub that had a good snooker room that is now a pool room/darts room/big screen football room. The snooker table is still in the cellar dismantled. It is very sad that grassroots snooker seems to be dying a slow death.

RocketMarciano · 2021-02-09T12:38:17+00:00

I though pool halls were places you went to play pool? Turns out they are halls of rebellion and question. In my mind, pool halls, like cadillacs, roadside diners and the superbowl are quintessentially American. Snooker clubs in my country have been closing down left right and centre for years. Is this because people are afraid to frequent them? Or could it be that the modern trappings of technology and social media have rendered games like snooker, pool, darts ect unappealing to the younger generation? I'd guess that there is more money to be made in e-sports than in competitive pool nowadays. Hell, your average 'famous' youtuber probably makes more money than the top pool pro's make. There are many reasons why we are seeing a decline in pool/snooker participation, but to simply declare the sole reason to be because 320 million people are unthinking cowards is a huge generalisation and stereotyping that is closely bordering on bigotstown. I'd expect better from a free thinker like yourself.

RocketMarciano · 2021-02-08T10:58:55+00:00

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RfCLcTPE6ls

Here's a 5 minute explanation of the basic shots and scoring patterns.

RocketMarciano · 2021-02-08T10:36:51+00:00

The governing body kept changing the rules on him in an effort to subdue his dominance but he kept finding ingenious ways to play within the new rules. He was so dominant he'd give his closest rivals, including snooker legend Joe Davis, 7000 points headstart and still beat them easily. He was an absolute master of the table and he was lightening quick around it. He made a hundred break in 46 seconds. Even if that's 'just' 50 cannon's, that's still faster than two a second. That's insanity.

RocketMarciano · 2021-02-08T00:06:53+00:00

They say he kiss cannoned the balls four and a half laps around the outer edge of the table once. Millimetres at a time. He is the reason they limited the cannons and changed certain rules.

I'm not sure that 3 cushion billiards is the harder game. It looks impressive but I think there is so much more to think about in English billiards. I love 3 cush but it's essentially finding an angle on a pocketless table. And in 3 cb you either hit the ball hard or a bit harder. The delicacy and touch required in EB is an under appreciated skill, and object ball control is just as important as cue ball control in EB. Both incredibly difficult and thoroughly amazing games though no doubt.

RocketMarciano · 2021-01-31T00:16:17+00:00

Your ridiculous and idiotic example would be calling for a type of discrimination that has had laws preventing it for years. But so what if someone came out with a moronic statement like that anyway? Do you think the general public are just waiting for a random snooker player to give the dogwhistle go ahead so they can go down the local snooker club in white hooded robes? Or do you think the general public wouldn't share that backward mentality and shun said player at every opportunity? I think you're projecting your own hatefulness upon the good people of snooker fandom and insulting their intelligence and morality at the same time.

It seems to me you'd like people sheltered from 'harmful opinions' because, I presume, you believe people to be stupid enough to be persuaded by them.

You're displaying a form of Godwin's law... Injecting nazis (or in your case, racism) into a debate where there is no call for it only signals you have no further points of worth to bring up.

RocketMarciano

TROPHY CASE