/hobby/ - Hobby

now play in irl :D

>>22259
I'd rather marvel at the skill of these players and daydream about it thank you very much.
(last time I went to a pool hall I got absolutely rolled, 2/10 not that bad but still pretty bad)

OP got snook'd. I looked up some trick shots in billiards games which were impressive; even cooler watching how to put spin on shots, "English" as some call it. I always just thought the point was to hit the cue dead-center but if you have a good enough cue you can put angular momentum (I think?) on it to influence how the other balls spin and move when struck. tl;dr Newtonian physics is fascinating.

>>22275
Absolutely. The way a ball transfers spin to another ball, reverses spin on a cushion, all very fascinating.
The amount of skill and dedication it takes to master these shots will never not be impressive to me

>>22275
You can't really compare snooker and pool, snooker is much more difficult to pool with huge distances on the table, so there is barely any room for trick shots. Snooker is much more about strategy, risk assessment and break-building. Unlike in pool, you can also play defensive in snooker, laying traps. So maybe you won't see crazy trick shots in snooker but it's much more of an psychological cat-and-mouse game.

I always preferred the tactically schooled, more slow and defensive players like Steve Davis and Mark Selby over the crazy break builders like O'Sullivan or John Higgins. And in the recent years defensive, tactical players have increasingly knocked out the more offensive players.

>>22278
Came for the exhibition shots, stayed for the safety shots

>>22290
One of the best matches between O'Sullivan and Selby I've ever seen was the final of The Masters 2010. At some point Selby trails O'Sulivan with 6-9 with only one more frame needed for the latter to win, and modifies his game to basically grind him down with a non-stop defense/destruction strategy until there is an opening.

I enjoy those games a lot, I don't understand why people always prefer when two players are just break-building turn by turn, when the reds and the high colors are still where they are supposed to be. A messy table just requires far more improvisation, cue control and nerves. People always forget how diversified players at that level have to be to stand a chance in modern snooker. Davis' domination was over once the long pot was part of the standard skillset. Hendry was done for once everyone else adopted the long pot into a broader range of tactical skillsets. For all his mannerism, O'Sullivan has actually kept out quite well with developments, he is just as good for safety play as he is with fluid break-building, and Selby can easily also go full steam ahead and go for a rapid century.

I hope Ding Junhui finally wins his first world championship eventually. I like watching him a lot and he had to endure a lot of sinophobic attacks by the British audience ("lol Asian bugman", "robot", etc.).