Tag Archives: Billiards

Straight Pool & Equal Offense Scoresheet/Spreadsheet Update

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I’ve made some updates to the score sheets.

I’ve uploaded all of them now to GoogleDocs for one. That’s the big change.

Other small changes, currently exclusive to the GoogleDocs versions, are minor formatting changes, formulaic changes to rid the sheets of #DIV/0 errors, and the removal of some extraneous columns to help with formula drag filling.

Furthermore, I’ve shared all the GoogleDocs versions so they’re public for the finding, though I’ve retained exclusive editing rights.

As always, suggestions and tweaks, especially those that stem from trial-by-fire experience, are always welcome.

Straight Pool & Equal Offense Scores and Stats Sheets

The Shape of Things to Come

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See what I did there?

There’s a bit of logistics involved yet, but I finally have myself a pool table.

Pocket Detail External Pocket Detail

It’s an 8′ table that’s been well taken care of over it’s ~3 year lifetime. It comes with a bar, a high top table, two bar stools, two pool chairs, a poker table with four rolling chairs, a wall mounted cue rack and a light to hang over the table when it’s all installed. Jami is as excited about it as I am, I think. To her, it’s a sign that we’re moving forward and the promise of many fun evenings at home with our friends, or just ourselves. To me, it’s a pool table!

Light

I still need to arrange to have the table disassembled and transported to it’s intermediate location where it will sit until such a time as we have a permanent residence in which to install it. That is an event for which I can barely wait. Unfortunately, owning two homes, and with the housing market being what it is, that might take a little longer than we would like. As I keep saying, however, we’ll get there.

The point is, though we can’t use it yet, I finally own a pool table!

Misty Morning, and Pool League Session Closes…

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Last night was the last night for our Wednesday night pool league. Tuesday night was the last for the Tuesday night league. I still love the game, and am 100% certain I’ll get back into it, but it was taking too much time, and there are so many other things I want/need to take care of. It’ll be nice to have free nights for a few months to get caught up.

We’d only been playing the Tuesday night league for a single session, but already made our mark pretty well. The wait staff, as well as others working there made it a point to tell us, in no uncertain terms, that we would be back, so just accept it and move on. It was very nice, and made us feel very good. The whole night was fantastic. The four of us had a blast, and made sure that the last night would be one to remember.

We’d been playing the Wednesday night league for some time, and felt it was just time to let it go. Last night was, also, a lot of fun. I’ve enjoyed playing there for the last few years, but I’m thinking it’s time to expand my horizons a bit and move on.

I’m really not sure what’s in store for me and pool when I return in a few months. My game feels pretty good right now, like I’m nearly back to where I was 5 or 6 years ago. I’ll keep playing on my own, over lunch, on the weekends, and the like, but not in league. I may try out some tournaments here and there, just to see what’s up. Who knows? Right now, I’m just looking forward to a little bit of a break.

This morning, Mother Nature seemed to mourn the close of a chapter with clouds, misting and a little light rain. It was pretty chilly for a while too, until I warmed up into the ride.

There weren’t any mini-vans blasting gangsta rap this morning, or groups of suburbanites flashing gang signs. There weren’t any small children playing with their dogs. There weren’t even any other cyclists/bikers/bicyclists out.

Just me.

In the mist.

Slowly making my way into work.

Score Sheets

Here Be Screenshots

Overall statistics across matches.

The Stats Sheet… no input required, simply play and watch the numbers gather.

Match score sheet

The Match Sheet… plug in the match points and table size, and then for each inning, the balls pocketed in the “Balls” column, and why the inning ended in the “Finish” column. It’s that easy!

They’re provided as is, though I do tweak them a bit every now and again. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to comment below. I’m always open for suggestions and ideas.

All are in both Excel 2003 and GoogleDocs format.

  • Straight Pool (14:1 Continuous) Scoresheet (~220KB Excel 2003 .zip / GoogleDocs)

    A handy (at least for me) spreadsheet I built that takes most of the work out of playing Straight Pool. All the players need do, aside from actually bringing a laptop with them to make the recording of the match easier and the statistics real-time, is in the shaded columns place the number of balls potted, and then place a letter in the adjacent column indicating why the inning ended, be it a miss (m), a safety (s) or, Heaven forbid, a foul (f).

    What you get…

    • 1 worksheet for stats across 10 games
    • 10 worksheets, one for each game, on which match points, table size and scores are entered.

    What it does…

    • displays the total balls potted
    • tracks the current rack
    • tallies the balls potted in the current rack
    • figures the balls remaining in the current rack
    • determines the foul the player is on (with appropriate penalties for consecutive fouls)
    • knows the number of successful safeties
    • tells of the number of unsuccessful safeties
    • calculates the player’s current score
    • reveals the player’s high run
    • computes the number of runs 5 and over
    • enumerates the number of runs 10 and over
    • reckons the number of runs 20 and over

    As you can see, it’s chock full of geekish goodness. Enjoy!

  • Straight Pool (14:1 Continuous) Three Player Scoresheet (~313KB Excel 2003 .zip / GoogleDocs)

    This spreadsheet is pretty much the same as the other, keeping track of all the same things, except it does so for three players, rather than two. Sometimes it’s fun to play a game of Round Robin Straight. It keeps everyone involved and feeling good.

  • Equal Offense Scoresheet (~18KB Excel 2003 .zip / GoogleDocs)

    This one is pretty simple.

    1. For each frame in a game, put your run in the first column, and the reason the run ended in the second, be it a miss (m), a safety (s) or, Heaven forbid, a foul (f).
    2. Watch the pretty graphs draw themselves!


Straight Pool Scoresheet/Spreadsheet Update

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After playing with the spreadsheets last Sunday, some weaknesses became apparent. I’ve updated the spreadsheets to address those weaknesses.

To wit:

I now track the total number of balls potted, the current rack number, the balls potted in the current rack and the balls remaining in the current rack. This will help with score keeping if you’re anything like us and sometimes forget how many balls a player potted in their last inning. Without a dedicated score keeping lackey, it’s sometimes tough to keep track.

An interesting, if not entirely useful statistic would be the percentage of racks finished by each player. The formulas for keeping track of the current rack and ball count was tough enough, I’m really not sure how I’d go about that.

I also fixed some miscalculations in the 3 person score sheet. The stats for the third player were not being calculated correctly. They are now.

So, without further ado…

Straight Pool & Equal Offense Scores and Stats Sheets

Equal Offense Geekery

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While not nearly as complex as my Straight Pool Scoresheet, my Equal Offense scoresheet might still come in handy. I’ve used it (in one of it’s many incarnations) for years as a way to gauge my progress (always in the positive, btw – I’m doing something right).

You can download it on this page if you’re of the mind.

On the Scoresheet worksheet, each inning is split into two columns, the 1st for your score, and the 2nd for the “Frame Conclusion.” I’ve used drop down menus for the 2nd column… you have the options of “f” for Foul and “m” for Miss. The rest of the columns are self explanatory.

The Trends tab is there to show progress over time.

EO, in case you didn’t know, is basically one person Straight Pool. It’s structured so you can get a real sense of improvement and progress.

From the Pool & Billiards FAQ:

Same rules as straight pool (14.1) except as noted. (You must be familiar with those rules, or EO won’t make much sense, especially the break shot with the 15th ball.) Each player gets ten turns alone at the table; a turn begins with an open break of a full rack, and ends on a miss, foul, or run of twenty. Respot any balls that go in on the open break, and start with ball in hand in the kitchen. There is no penalty for scratching on the break. A foul does not subtract points, it just ends the turn, but balls made on a foul do not count. There is no head-to-head play, so there are no safeties.

There are variations you can apply, such as allowing three misses before you close the frame, or limiting yourself to 15 ball runs (preventing having to think about the break shot for the next rack). If you start one way, though, do yourself a favor and be consistent.

14:1 Continuous Spreadsheet Geekery Oh My!

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I’ve been toiling away for the last few days on a way to keep score during 14:1 Continuous (Straight Pool) matches in the most geekish way possible – with a spreadsheet. I hate trying to do the math while I’m playing a game of 14:1 on those little score pads built into the table, or worse yet, on an abacus style score string hung above the table. It’s distracting from my world beating runs of 6, or even 14 balls at a time! Using a handwritten scoresheet just means more math, and not much in the way of decent analysis.

Hence, the spreadsheet solution.

The rules are pretty involved, especially around fouls and the penalties therein, so it took a while to get it right. Frankly, I’m not convinced I have gotten it entirely right. So, while I’m making this spreadsheet available, use at your own risk, and if there’s money on the game, don’t come running to me if the score keeping isn’t entirely accurate. This is pre-alpha type stuff here, people.

That said, try out my Straight Pool Scores and Stats Sheet [~220KB .zip file] if you’re of the mind. There’s also a three person version [~320KB .zip file] available if you like to play three person Straight Pool.

All the cells are locked and the workbook and all included sheets are protected, but there is no password. I did that simply to ease the transition between cells, and to prevent any errant fiddling in the middle of a heated match.

The first sheet, “Stats” is where the matches are summarized. You shouldn’t have to do anything here but gaze in wonder at your prowess.

The rest of the sheets, named “1″ through “10″ are the matches. You can edit the colored cells, and they are:

  • Match Point is the number of points to win the match.
  • Table Size is there in case you want to know the table size you played the match on. I know… it’s only ever legitimate on a 9′ table, but sometimes it’s fun to mess around on 7′s and 8′s.
  • The column under the heading “Balls” is where you record the number of balls you made that inning. The next column under “Finish” is where you record why you quit shooting, be it a foul (f), a safety (s), or a miss (m). It’s important that you use the letters f, s and m in order for the stats and scores to be accurate.

I would like to work in a way to highlight when a rack is done. It might be nice to know how many racks it took to get to a certain score over time as a way of gauging progress.

Let me know what you think of it. I look forward to hearing what all three of you think!

First Night of League

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Last night was the first night of our second session at Sharks. It’s an ACS sanctioned 8-ball league, though there doesn’t seem to be any participation in the league as a whole, beyond the house we play in. There are 9 teams total, and 7 players on my team, including myself.

Last night showed the best and the worst that league play has to offer. Let’s start with the worst, so as to leave on a good note.

The team we were playing came in first by a large margin last session. Halfway through the session it would have been tough to catch up. As the final night approached it quickly became mathematically impossible to do so. They are all, obviously, good players, at least for what is basically an in-house league. However, that’s not really why they’re in first. There are in first because they cheat. They are in first because they actively “manage” their handicaps. Call it what you will… managing, sandbagging, holding back, planning ahead, playing it close to the vest, whatever… it’s cheating. It’s dishonest, dishonorable and pathetic. It is. Simply. Cheating.

I have some experience with this myself. Through that experience I developed a certain intolerance for those that continue to sandbag. Last night I was pretty vocal about it. I made no secret of the fact that I thought what they were doing was disrespectful and dishonorable. Unfortunately, those words mean little to cheaters. The next time we play them, however, I have resolved to give them the games they so desperately want to lose at the first sign of “managing their handicaps.” I won’t shoot off, or delay the game through unnecessary innings, I’ll just put away my cue and say “Good game.” I will not contribute to their dishonesty.

On the other hand, last night was a great night where my own team is concerned. Sure, we lost horribly to those good-for-naught cheaters, but we had a great time with each other in spite of it. I really do enjoy my team this time around. We all get along, have easy relationships with each other, and could very easily hang outside of pool. That sort of camaraderie makes even a poor performance night of pool feel good.

I Always Try to Tip Well…

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Ok. I replaced the tips on my two cue shafts today. Now I’m really ready to quit sucking. Which, by the way, I have been… very successfully, the last few times I’ve been at the table. Sucking that is. Badly.

The worrisome part is that it really didn’t take that long to fall into my first slump… I’m thinking it’s just lack of sleep. I’ve not been sleeping well lately, and this week I’ve not given myself that much of a chance to overcome that. Late to bed, early to rise just ain’t working for me. I’m old enough to know that I’m too old for that kinda lifestyle.

Balls of Phenolic Resin

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Wow. I really liked pool. A lot. I got it in my head to recreate the Equal Offense spreadsheet I used to use to (briefly) track my skill progression. I did so, and thought to upload it to my server at home for use there. In doing so I found a treasure trove of videos, rule sheets, charts, graphs, designs, tips, and spreadsheets I’d completely forgotten about! I like the spreadsheet I put together today better than the one I used to use, so it wasn’t time wasted, especially since I found all this cool stuff!

Maybe once I’ve used it a while and beat the bugs out I’ll post it up here.