Monday, April 18, 2011

No-Pocket!

Since it seems to be the latest fashion to talk about ones favorite games, we (Gabe and I) would like to join in. Those of you who happened to read my first post can probably guess where this is going.
Exactly. Pins. And to help you appreciate my favorite game more, I want to share this link with you: LINK. This is the website of the italian Rai-Sport-TV-channel.
Just scroll down a little and click on "bilardo". Its on the left. They have entire matches between the best players there, and you should definitly check it out.
But enough of that. The Poolsynergy authors did a good job explaining their favorite games, and I don't think I have to state the obvious here. I'm a pinhall-junkie :)
This said, Gabe and I came up with a novelty game we would like to share here. We have literally taken one pocket to the next level by inventing the awesome game of no pocket.

What you need is a 3-cushion table and two pins. Oh, and also fifteen red, yellow, or blue balls and a white cue ball. Put a ball in each of the two corners by the footrail. It must touch both rails. Now place a pin exactly in front of each ball. Take the balls away carefully and rack a full rack like you would for one pocket (as in the picture above - you can see the red and white pin in each "pocket").
Each player is assigned a pin to shoot at (their "no-pocket"). Points are scored by knocking over that pin with any red, yellow or blue ball. The ball that hit the pin is then removed from the game.
Knocking over any pin with the white ball will result in ball in hand in the kitchen.
'Inventing' this was obviously a sad attempt to play one pocket with no pool table available at the time, but it shows that there is more to this concept of game than one would think. That is because balls that knock over a pin have to roll to a complete stop before they are taken off of the table. If you shoot too hard, they will most likely hit the remaining stack and move more balls to your opponents side. Or they might attack your cue ball, ruining your position.
So you need to be even more careful with your speed-control, using only pin-speed unless you are sure to control the object ball after it returns.
Sometimes it is also possible to utilize this to break up positions that favor your opponent or to move other balls around.
The game has many similarities to one-pocket, but using big 'ol billiard balls and a heated 10-foot slate. I can assume with a reasonable certainty that you didnt know it before.
If you ever get to play some no-hole (haha), tell us in the comments!
We have also invented a particularly interesting 3-player variant using only one pin, but with assigned ball colors - maybe for a future post...
Wishing you all the best rolls,
Jan and Gabe

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