THANKS Thor, thanks everyone!
As to filling that trophy with CSH (Rainer suggested 1990, and his assistance in draining it), the lid won't come off... Needless to say, I own way too little of the Hors Choix (seriously!), no idea what Thor is talking about, I'm absolutely positive Pierre must have been thinking of some other David from Switzerland! (chuckle...)
As to 8-Ball versus 9-Ball, 10-Ball and Straight Pool (= 14.1 Continuous):
Straight Pool is the traditional connoisseur's game, and from that perspective, my favourite along with One Pocket and Rotation (all knowledge coupled to execution, virtually no luck factor whatsoever).
8-Ball is probably my best game - it's the first pool game I learnt as a teenager, one I have a unique love-hate relationship with, being the perfectionist weirdo I happen to be (basically, I believe one can only f**k up in 8-Ball, which is why I never play any other than in competition). But I really love all pool games, and have no doubt won more 9-Ball tournaments than any other discipline, for the simple reason that at least nine out of ten tournaments anywhere on the planet in the last twenty years were 9-Ball. Statistically, 8-Ball remains the most popular game (it's what people shoot on a Friday night at the pub and wherever there is a coin-operated bar table, remember, and as far as I know, it's what the Budweiser-, Coors- and whatnot-sponsored amateur leagues in the U.S. and Canada play - e.g. 250'000 APA, that is American Poolplayers Association players, among other) - having said that, there are very few professional 8-Ball tournaments (other than the World Championship, not sure there are any left?).
The rotational pool games (in which balls must be played in rotation, that is, by the numbers), with the exception of Rotation itself (which I love - all 15 numbered balls count as point value), have the serious disadvantage of coming across as "games" rather than sport - no wonder given 89% of the balls pocketed in 9-Ball are without value as far as the outcome of a game or match is concerned. 10-Ball is becoming the game of choice via the Philippines (the new Mecca of pocket billiards) now because there, it's call-shot, thus eliminating the luck factor in 9-Ball (plus the break shot in 10-Ball is much tougher, so there are fewer run-outs from the break, and stringing together of racks is comparatively rare - I have yet to hear of a perfect match in 10-Ball, that is, run out in one inning from the lag without the opponent getting to play a single shot).
In short, there are pool games in which one has to beat one's opponent ball for ball (= literally outperform him/her, as in virtually any other sport, as one needs to pocket more balls than one's opponent in order to win in e.g. Straight Pool, One Pocket and 8-Ball), and thus these games seem more "serious", and are perhaps more gratifying from an expert's perspective - and some will say, they're the ones that deserve to be referred to as a "sport" (a narrow-minded view with which I disagree: all, in particular professional, billiards is by definition about knowledge, experience, performance, physical fitness, stamina, concentration and psychological strength etc.).
Having said all this, it's the approachability/simplicity (the patterns speak for themselves, no need for a telly commentator to figure out what to do next, definitely no intellectual's game) coupled to that volatile quality of 9-Ball (possible albeit unlikely to win by scoring a mere 11% of the points - what other "sport" can top that? LOL!) that makes it so much fun (and attractive to watch). Like it or not, it's what we pool players play most often (the above expert's games being deemed "boring" by all except, well, the experts...), even if it may now gradually be superseded by 10-Ball (huge difference: a whopping 10% of balls pocketed will suffice to score a win!).
Greetings from Switzerland, David.
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J'ai gch vingt ans de mes plus belles annes au billard. Si c'tait refaire, je recommencerais. Roger Conti
The current: to Seth Hill for successfully creating another Hill. Were I Coad-baiting, this would be another great opportunity for a Kate Bush (14) reference, but I'll leave it be for this thread.