Still My Favorite

The April PoolSynergy is a wrap. I decided to get with the program for this month so I could share my take on my favorite pool game. Favorite game and the reason why, is the common topic for April. Many of the best and most committed owner/operators of pool websites are contributors to PoolSynergy. You can find a complete list of all of the April posts at this month's host, Johnny at: A Journey Into Billiards. You can check out PoolBum's April submission here: One-Pocket: Still My Favorite.

The first article I wrote for the launch of PoolBum, back in 2004 was entitled One Pocket: My Favorite Pool Game. Even though I haven't had a chance to play it much over the last few years, one-pocket is still my favorite game. Where I live you can always find a good match-up... of either Filipino rules 61 (15 ball rotation) or 9-ball.

In our business I had my first ever in my life pool table, a very nice Taiwan made Gold Crown knock-off. I paid the equivalent of around $1650 delivered (on a ferry) including set up. Which is another reason I like it here, the cost-of-living is very low. It sports a thick slate bed, tight pockets and responsive cushions. Just right for 1-hole. I only needed to overcome one small obstacle... finding an opponent.

Most players here hadn't even heard of it and the few who had, didn't know how to play. That the game was unfamiliar to most isn’t surprising as it’s an American invention and gets no TV exposure. It’s different in the bigger cities like Manila and Cebu as the players who have gone abroad to tournaments have brought it back. It seems that the strategy and the use of rails in the game of rotation is good training for one-pocket. Hence the world class one-pocket play of many of the Filipino players.

To work at our business, I hired a very nice young man and excellent player named Pablo. He was far more advanced than I was back in 1997 when I started paying my dues to a solid one-pocket player (and paying his utility bills in the process, lol). I was intent on getting Pablo up to speed to be competitive.

Pablo is on the left. The sign at the top left is in the Bisaya dialect and reads: Please Put Down the Money if Your Play is a Gambling Match

I have always considered one pocket to have a long learning curve. The object and rules of the game aren't hard to grasp: be the first to pot any 8 balls in your corner pocket and you win. Beyond that, there's just so much to learn, so many moves that are common to one pocket that are uncommon in other games, so much strategy and subtlety. Often there are many more possible shots to choose from. Playing the score is important, in order to know when to play aggressively or when to lay back and wait for a better less risky opportunity.

A fine player that I used to match up with on occasion was Louis Roybal. To assess a player's speed at one-pocket, he'd always ask me if they would take an intentional foul. He was sure that he could beat anyone who wouldn't. Louis was probably right, the creative use of the foul can be decisive and knowing its value shows experience and a good foundation in the game.

In 1976 there was a tournament in Albuquerque attended by many of the top players of the day. Louis had challenged Minnesota Fats to a money match in one pocket. Fats went to Cowboy Jimmy Moore to get a read on him by asking if Louis was from out of town or a local fellow. Jimmy told the truth, he was a local player. I guess that wasn't enough information. Louis beat Fats for $2600. There's a lesson in there somewhere, lol.

Anyway, I gave Pablo a crash course. We played at closing time pretty much every night. Pablo is a better shot maker, and a better 61 and 9-ball player than me. He could hardly believe that I could beat him over and over. I started out by telling him some of the shot options before his inning and later on I would wait until after his turn. After a couple months or so I was still winning the majority, but often having to claw my way back from a big deficit like 6 or 7 to 2. No doubt, it made the loss that much harder to swallow.

Winning became a matter of pride. More so for him I suppose as I was always gratified when he'd win with some creative shot. He got more patient, integrated the standard moves, invented some of his own and played the score more and our wins/losses eventually evened out. Finally, I had found a one-pocket match that was fun and challenging. What had taken me years to learn, Pablo had learned in a few months. Serious players here are serious about winning.

One factor regarding one-pocket that keeps it my favorite is that even an overall weaker player can still win with a combination of knowledge, better strategizing, better moves and a little patience. This is a plus for me because it's common to find myself in match ups with stronger players. And even when there is a skill disparity, it's still possible to fine tune a handicap to keep the game interesting and competitive. The icing on the cake is that as one-pocket begins to make sense, it opens your mind to possibilities that eventually show up in every other game.

This month's PoolSynergy common theme is, our favorite pool game & why. PoolSynergy is a cooperative undertaking by many of the best and most committed pool website operators. To access all the PoolSynergy articles for April, this month's host is Johnny at: A Journey Into Billiards.