Many years ago, I was playing Tony Annigoni, and he had some kind of bizarre fetish about having exactly two balls in a pocket he was shooting towards firmly. I thought this was more than a little strange. His reason for doing this was exactly what you see in the video, I have since figured out. If you are playing on a Brunswick with drop pockets (no ball return) and there is one ball in the pocket, a perfect shot can hit the single ball and bounce out. An empty pocket can do the same thing. Two balls seems best. If there are three in the pocket, you are pressing your luck, at least with GC3, because the pocket is on the edge of too full. Four is certainly too many.
Bob, what's interesting in that video is that the 8-ball never enters the bucket of the pocket (this is especially noticeable on the shot-playbacks). It seems to hit the bevel of the pocket bucket (that bevel that's supposed to defect an incoming ball downwards), then the edge of the slate, then the bevel again, back out onto the bed of the table. Almost like a ricochet -- "bevel-slate-bevel-table surface." Probably because the pocket bucket itself sank or sagged a bit down into the table, and placed the "point" of the bevel in line with an incoming ball, such that the ball hits the point of the bevel, and not the downward-sloping surface of the bevel itself? (Pure conjecture on my part -- I may have it wrong.)
I'm thinking the ball never has the chance to hit or bounce off of any balls within the pocket bucket, and instead the ricochet happens above it.
Thoughts?
-Sean
P.S. yep, I've been bitten myself by not emptying a drop pocket first, before firing a ball into it, only to have that ball either ricochet back out onto the table, or onto the floor / next playing table, or even pop straight up into the air several feet, land back into the pocket, rebound off one of the balls in the pocket, and back out onto the table again (evoking surprised, "did you see that??" reactions from people standing around).
