8 ball jumps back on the table twice in a row!

that's because there is something VERY sinister about that freakin black ball. I play in an 8 ball league, and it does funny things! :wink:

I saw that video a couple of weeks ago and was talking about it to a friend of mine while we were shooting a game of 8 ball and didn't you know it, the 8 ball popped out of the pocket on him that game!

I was VERY careful when I tapped the 8 ball in to win the game and just turned to him and said "well, it's not like you didn't know that could happen..."

Bob Jewett said:

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.

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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).

SCCues said:

I found this video on youtube by accident and I thought i'd share it with everyone who hasn't seen it. In all of my years playing pool i've never seen anything like this happen before especially at this level of play. Check out the video in the link. It's just amazing...

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I was there in the stands watching that Reyes - Kaplan match at WPC. It was so freaking unusual that we with my friend immediately got suspicious about this situation. Luckily we spotted nobody else than Michaela Tabb going by underneath (we were on the last row so we easily bent over to face the pathwalk). We reported the situation to her, the play was suspended and they discovered a problem with a camera which was in that pocket. It moved out of its "nest" so that influenced those strong shots spitting the ball out.

reverse english

i've done this many times on a valley bar table, by shooting too hard with lots of back or side spin. a player i used to play alot of bar leagues with Merell Huffman great 8ball player(worked with Little danny harriman alot) he taught me a shot 8 ball 1/4 of the ball in the side pocket near the rail cue ball in line with both side pockets dead scratch use extreme draw cut the 8 in the corner slam the cue ball in the side pocket cue ball spits out of the side 8 ball is pocketed in the corner. i watched him perform this shot in city league end of league tourney which he went on to win. 300 for first plus 580 calcutta. it was a fun shot in practice. but the place exploded when the cue just back out. all that practice payed off.

thanks for the stories Bob. Always amazing (and from the hourse's mouth like they say?)