8-ball Patch

Tonight, I played in a weekly bar tournament. In this tournament, the shooter must put the 8-ball patch next to the pocket that he/she intends on shooting the 8-ball. This is supposed make it clear for both players. Personally, I think it creates more problems than preventing them, but that's the way it is done at this tournament.

Every once in a while, new shooters as well as regular shooters will forget to put the patch down. If the person pockets the 8-ball without marking the pocket, that person loses the game because that's the rule. Some of us let it go even if they forget to mark the pocket because it's obvious, others don't. It's really OK either way...

Tonight, this happened 5 times (2 by same shooter)!!!! They had all played in the tournament before but they just happened to all forget tonight. One shooter ("R") got upset and complained for a very long time. Toward the end of the tournament, they opened up the 2nd table for challenge games (there are only two tables). I was already out of the tournament by this time, but I decided to go home. As I was leaving, my friend J made a joke and said, "Hey, let's change the rules. Let's put TWO patches on the table!" So now there were two patches on the first table. They all laughed, including R who had calmed down at this point.

By the end of the game, it wasn't so funny anymore for R because he forgot to mark the pocket again. I mean, there were now two patches on the table. Unless they put the patches in between pockets, 2 of the 6 pockets were already marked. R managed to pick one of the four unmarked pockets and shot the 8-ball in. I think my friend also told me not only did R forget to mark the pocket, he scratched on the 8-ball. He was very upset about this, too, because he forgot that scratching on the 8-ball is a loss in this tournament.