Everything you need to know about the One Pocket Series 2018
For those who haven’t heard about the One Pocket Series yet, it’s a One Pocket tour in the Netherlands that’s about to start its second season. One Pocket Series’s mission is to offer the opportunity to compete in One Pocket tournaments on a regular basis, to make the game itself more popular in the Netherlands, and to inspire players to start playing the game. Last year’s tryout was a great success. Two out of three Open ranking tournaments had a full field. The third had 29 participants out of the maximum of 32. In total the One Pocket Series had 53 individuals participating in 2017. As I’ve stated last year one pocket is gaining foothold in the Netherlands. There already was a growing group of players enthusiastic about the game and that number seems to keep on growing. With four more weeks to go before the 2018 OPS season is kicking off, and only two weeks after opening the registration, the first event is already sold out.
Setup
The setup is inspired by the World Pool Series, which is, obviously, also where the name ‘One Pocket Series’ comes from. This year’s tour consists of 4 open ranking events instead of last year’s total of 3. The tournaments are on April 15th in Hague 5 (The Hague), May 13th in ‘de Distel’ (Roosendaal), June 17th in ‘Poollokaal de Gracht’ (Amsterdam), and August 12th in ‘SPC Woensel’ (Eindhoven). The top 16 of the ranking after the 4 open events plays the Grand Finale on September 23rd in Hague 5 with a minimum of €1400 ($1720) guaranteed prize money. Overall a minimum of €2100 ($2580) will be added to the season’s prize money. The season’s pay out will be around €6000 ($7370) .
The entree fee is kept low at €30, for a reason. The One Pocket Series is not meant to be a pro tour, but a tour that promotes the game and is accessible to players of all levels. The open tournaments are 1-day events limited to 32 players with a 32-8 bracket and races to 3 with a shoot out on hill-hill in the form of one-ball one pocket.
The shoot out
Just like last year there will be a shoot out, in the form of one-ball one pocket, on hill-hill in a race to 3 to add some extra excitement and to finish the tournament within a proper time frame. Only the final is a race to 3 without a shoot out.
Rules
Who starts?
The players need to lag to determine who begins the shoot out. The winner of the lag decides who starts. The starting player chooses pocket C, or F (see image below) like in a normal game of one pocket.
The first shot
The object ball is placed in the middle of the bottom rail and the beginning player gets a ball in hand in the kitchen. So, the cue ball does not necessarily has to be placed on the spot like is shown on the image below.
The first to shoot is not allowed to pocket the ball in his pocket. When the player does make the object ball on his first shot in his own, or opponent’s pocket, the shoot out is lost instantly. When the object ball is made in one of the other four pockets, it will be spotted.
Game play & fouls
The player to first reach 1 point wins the shoot out. During the shoot out regular one pocket rules are in play. There’s one exception. A player can only owe a maximum of 2 balls. When a player owes 3 balls the shoot out is lost. It doesn’t matter if these fouls were made consecutively, or not. After a foul a ball is spotted.
One Pocket Series shoot out – Opening shot
Live stream
The One Pocket Series has the intention to setup one live stream table during all events. Keep an eye on their Facebook page @onepocketseries for more information about the stream during the events.
Software
The software being used during the tour is CueScore. The reason for mentioning this software is that I believe this is the future for all tournament organizers. It’s very easy to work with. Every player can manage his own profile, register for events that use CueScore, and check their performance statistics.
Organizers can setup a tournament within a few clicks, choose the bracket they need, and that’s the end of all messy drawn paper brackets and non-readable photo updates. Besides that, it’s possible to create a ranking and link all your tournaments to that ranking. You can also upgrade to CueScore Pro to have an integrated payment method linked to the registration button. Eventually CueScore will become a big database of players, tournaments, statistics, pool halls, and rankings worldwide.
By using this software people at home can follow the tournament through live scoring, and, if you’ve setup one, a live stream which you can link to the CueScore software for a good looking score overlay that’s easy to update. You can even let the players do that for you through a tablet at their table, for example. Visit their website, check all the possibilities, and become part of the future.
I’m looking forward to this season and hope all One Pocketeers are going to have a fun and proper day of one pocket during the OPS events.