A Power (ful) weekend of Snooker

O'Sullivan is the defending champion

It's on again. What do you mean what? Power Snooker. You know that game with balls and pretty girls, with people drinking until they hit "drunk level" and then start screaming inappropriate things to the players? Yeah, that's what I'm talking about (I’m mean, yeah, yeah)

However, on a more positive note, it is also great fun. Yeah, it's not snooker, but if we well recall, snooker is a cue sport that derived from billiards and at that moment probably that billiards lovers weren't very happy to see this strange and more complicated version of their game starting to grow. That's also the case here. Sure, at a different level, but … you get my point, or so I hope.

So, besides being fun, what else is there for Power Snooker? It is obviously a fast game. So it kind of breaks the boundaries of thinking about the shot you want to take more than 20 seconds, because that's how much time you have. Also, each game lasts no more than 30 minutes, so go figure, you need to pot as many balls as you can because at the end of that time what matters is points and not frames. Boo-yaaa!

There are only nine reds and a very special red Power Ball that is strategically placed in the middle of the reds. When the Power Ball is potted (carries two points instead of just one) it triggers a two-minutes Power Play in which, as you might remember, each potted ball carries double points.

The power is ON

So every decision that you want to make must be a pretty damn good one because the clock will be ticking and if you foul, then your opponent will make use of  your remaining time and if that time is the two-minutes Power Play, that's even worse.

The baulk area is called Power Zone. When the cue ball is within this zone, each ball that is potted carries double points and if Power Play is in order, then the points will be quadrupled. Huh? Thank God this game has referees because with so many points one is very likely to lose track.

So, I said it is fun, it is fast...what else? Oh, yeah. It will really demonstrate how skilful you are, for each time you break-off two or more reds must hit a cushion. If not, then your opponent will take over.
So whatever you do, you must keep your turn at the table from the very first beginning, for in this way you have more chances to win.

Needless to say that the players, although might be amused by the game, will have to keep their focus and work under pressure. The event might not carry ranking points, but at the end of it you can go home with a pretty nice amount of money (first prize is £25,000).

In conclusion, the event is surely not what we would call "proper snooker", it actually kind of ridicules the name of this sport and it has too much of a commercial taste if you ask me, but it's a great opportunity for the players to test their limits, to see how well they can do under the pressure of an obsessive shot-clock, how many good or bad decisions they can take in just a few seconds and how skilful they can be without having enough time to go around the table twice to see how well they can see the potting angle.

So, I'll give it a go to this Power Snooker thing and since it is on only one weekend a year it won't hurt that bad, would it? 
Hm ... I guess I'm not that mean after all. 

The event kicks off tomorrow on ITV 4 so if you want, but only if you really want, you can tune it. Oh, come on! I'm joking! Do tune in and cheer the lads, for they deserve it ;-)