Home Movies

Many will know I have posted the occasional video here and there throughout the forum, and we have this Photos and Videos sub-forum, but I just noticed there is no thread dedicated to Islanders posting video of their own exploits on the Baize. While there aren't many of us that have the good fortune of a table and video camera set up, I do know there are one or two others beside me. And others that play the game may have some footage on their phone of a great stroke they or their mates played here or there.

I invite everyone on Snooker Island who plays the game and has a camera or just a phone, try to post some video that you are proud of. I don't think any of us expect a century break; even just a great pot, or escape, or if you strung together three or four balls for the first time. Let us all see it say, "Good job!"

I have a pretty big video archive from years of my little club being open so I will probably post some really old stuff on occasion as I rediscover a video clip on my computer to bump the thread occasionally. I am not playing as much as I would like these days but I got in a short session over the weekend. Nothing spectacular, but a great shot here and there. So I will start with the first video post below. And I hope to see others post on this thread occasionally so if you have read this, keep this thread in mind if you come up with a good video snippet of your snooker self sometime in the future.

Video of what I think is probably the best escape I have ever made. I am not much of a cinematographer, so the video is more amateurish than the snooker. No sound for the first 30 seconds. A few points to make for context: 1) No, not the first escape! That one was easy. I filmed a couple strokes beforehand to set up the escape from the very tough "flooker" that was laid on me. 2) My opponent did NOT fluke his first Red. Double attempts of all kinds are played on our table in social friendlies. Consequently, we have gotten pretty good at them. 3) Yes, after that Red, my opponent could have just rolled up to Black for a really tough snooker. But again, in social friendlies, we usually avoid that and play instead for the big break of 35 on the table. So indeed, he did play to pot Red, leave on Black to lead to Yellow. And all that went pretty well for him, except the Black didn't pot to my own misfortune.

P.S. - If you want to skip the boring preliminaries, go to 1:15 to see the snooker, then a lot more dead time so go to 3:15 to see the first attempt and 4:15 to see success.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3pQ92sW6MU

I was very happy to only give away four points here. My opponent is not averse to taking multiple FAAMs. The escape was not really a straightforward two cushion escape as the Black was blocking that required angle. Instead, the escape relied on the precise speed and spin on the White ball to affect exactly how it came off the first cushion. In my first attempt, I struck a little too strong with a little too much spin and it came off Black cushion kicking to the left a bit too much. Purely a matter of feel and so happy to nail it on only the second attempt!

@Johnny Bravo

Great video Acesinc, that was a brilliant escape Do you guys always use the miss rule when you play? Whenever I play me and my opponents agree not to use the miss rule due to the fact that we're just "average club players". If we were half decent and could score 50+ breaks regularly then I think we would use the miss rule.

Juddernaut88 wrote:Great video Acesinc, that was a brilliant escape Do you guys always use the miss rule when you play? Whenever I play me and my opponents agree not to use the miss rule due to the fact that we're just "average club players". If we were half decent and could score 50+ breaks regularly then I think we would use the miss rule.

Good morning, Judders. Thanks. To your question, it's not on topic as there are many other threads about that, but I will answer as quickly as I can (and as you already know, that will take a while. ...)

First, understand that "we guys" is currently down to a club of just five people which is really just two regular partnerships and myself. (Remember, I lost my partner, my son, when he moved to another city and started "adulting".) So we are not of a collective mind and each individual/partnership plays by their own preferred rules.

Start with me...FAAM used to annoy me. But today I accept that I will not change the world so I will not make FAAM go away or change form. So I have learned from it, it has made me much, much, much better at escapes over the years. Like painting your kitchen, the trick is in the preparation. Obviously, I carefully note original positions of balls, and when I assess my angle off a cushion, I pick a mark on the distant wall or something so if/when I need to play again, I can make a clear adjustment to the previous missed attempt. And repeating that over and over, one eventually learns to play angles really well. So my personal view is I am happy to play whatever my opponent likes though my preference is our proprietary Club 74 FAAM rule (which is to follow). I would actually prefer to play by the BiskitBoy rule but everyone has a difficult time understanding the nuance of that. BiskitBoy is one of those things that when the light bulb turns on, it makes perfect sense. But if the light bulb doesn't turn on, you are just stuck in a dark room.

The first of my partnerships in the club is a couple Irishmen, been living in the USA over two decades now. They always play Club 74 rules and over the last 5 or 6 years, I have watched both their games improve considerably. Club 74 FAAM is easy enough to understand, but it makes most sense when you understand Club 74 in general. So Club 74 FAAM means: in the event of a Miss, any Miss other than "snookers required" Miss, the incoming player may put the balls back (just like "normal" FAAM), but (and this is a GIANT BUT) no foul points are given. The only time foul points are given is if the game continues. In other words, the fouling player can Miss 5, 10, 100 times, but no score until the opponent says, "Okay, I will play it." This means the opponent nearly always accepts just the one attempt and takes the foul points. But why would you put balls back if you get no points? Take the video above and consider this: I keep trying my escape and hitting Blue, zero points, try again, hit Blue, zero points. Try again, finally hit Yellow, and in doing so, knock Yellow right into the jaws of the pocket. Zero points but the opponent now has an easy opener to a clearance. The point is sometimes, strategically, it is better for the fouling player to make contact and leave the table in a better position than taking just four lousy points. This happens most often when there is just one Red left and it is clustered against a cushion with one or more balls. Strategically, you are better to FORCE the fouling player to break up that cluster with ten attempts, even if it only gets you zero or four points.

And our last partnership, that I lovingly call our "old guys" (one of which is in the video), they play by the more common "three attempt" rule as a gentlemen's agreement. This is probably the easiest compromise to understand and it does give you the benefit of learning from your mistakes as I described a couple paragraphs above. So had I Missed again in the video, he surely would have put me back in three, maybe a fourth time to take 12, 16, whatever points before just accepting the table as it then lay.

I will state again as I have several times....the Professional Foul and a Miss Rule is ridiculous and it is absolutely embarrassing that those who are in control of the Rules of Snooker did not fix it when they had the chance to do so. The shame of it is that literally 99% of the "snooker playing world" is UNABLE to play the game they love strictly following the Rules of the Game as they are written (witness Judders' query to me). A written rule set for any game should be smart enough to encompass both the Professional as well as the Amateur, casual, social aspect of the Game. If it is not, the Rule isn't worth the paper it is written on. Several viable alternative Rules have been proposed and the controlling authorities have replied by doubling down on their mistake. If BiskitBoy were to be adopted, and casual players could see how it works at the Professional level, then the "light would turn on" for so many more casual players and the whole snooker world could begin playing a more enjoyable game using this properly written Rule.

End rant.

Mediate the bet, Manty, and let’s get this show on the road!

Dan-cat wrote:'That is f*ckin phenomenal!'

Haha. A great thread. I film pretty all my pool games and post them all as instagram stories and the best ones I keep as an Instagram highlight. Can pool be included in this thread?

Thanks for getting the thread back on track, Dan. Of course, you can include pool in the thread. Anything wherein you poke little phenolic spheres into slightly larger holes on a flat, baize covered surface with a thin wooden stick would be fine. My point is, I already KNOW what Ronnie and Judd can do, already seen plenty of that; I would very much like to see snippets of the fine efforts of our local Islanders. And I know your snooker frames are few and far between these days, (Open invite whenever you pass through Chicago, of course.) so please grace this thread with your video cue sport adventures of any genus or species.

I will add another video here, quite possibly my favourite of all time. Eleven years ago by YouTube's reckoning, this quite possibly is the instant in time that my son fell in love with Snooker. Earlier in the session we had been discussing shot selection and the reasons why it is better to choose this stroke over that depending on the game situation. He potted a very difficult Red with the swan-neck and was left with a choice of three reasonable but difficult Baulk colours. And on his own, instead he chose with the wisdom of a veteran the seldom seen fourth option. Very few of the opponents I have ever played would have even seen this shot, let alone chosen it. And I think from there, Sam was hooked.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbBB1bRKGEo

Love that clip. I hope Sam is still playing snooker :)

Loved that. Epic!

Sadly, in the six months this thread has been up, I see no other video Home Movie responses have yet been posted here. Dan-Cat, I hear tell that you occasionally partake in a frame or two of Pool that you have shared with the world? As Instagram means nothing to me and Twitter is the delightful sounds of the birds when I wake in the morning, (and "X" had some undesirable connotation with that shady movie theatre on the bad side of town when I was a kid,) I have no other avenue to view your exploits and/or shenanigans but this thread...

I don't get on table so often since the boy moved to Philadelphia, so my (reasonably) high breaks output has gone into the dumper. I did pull this one out my bottom a few days ago though. I thought it makes a good follow up to Holden's "Luca the Genius" thread. Similarly, nearly nothing goes correctly throughout this break; the stroke of White off the Pink spot is the stuff of nightmares. But unlike Holden's thread, I title mine, "Don the Idiot". Enjoy.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8Pc37YpksI

Great break, Aces! I enjoyed that. Nice double on the blue. You were very close to freeing those two reds to keep the break going as well.

Prop wrote:@Johnny Bravo

Footage pending.

I’ve seen some great pool vids of Dan. He gets some crazy pots! I’m sure he can upload some here.