What would you do here??

If the 4 is on the rail. How about shooting the 7 to pocket the three and make him play a safe. This will get you another chance at the table and force him to make a good shot If you make the three and the 9 doesn't go in there is a good chance you can push the 9 to the pocket and not have a shot at the 4.
 
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Neil said:
This came up for me the other night. Opponent is a runout player, diamond barbox very deep shelf, race to 4. Things have been going his way so far. He misses the 3 and leaves me this.

I didn't like my chances of getting on the 4 to play safe because I had to hit the point of the pocket. Doing that, makes position play tougher. I really didn't like the shot, so I went for the hail-mary shot and got lucky and made it. That is, the cb off the 3, off the point of the pocket, coming back and making the 9. I figured coming off the point to come back for the 4 towards the 9 was the best way to try and get on the 4 to play safe if I could see it.

I know my shot was a little out there, and I got away with it and looked like a magician at the time, but, what would you have done in this situation?? I didn't see a lot of options that were very feasible.

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Well, this is how I see it. No matter how you play this, you need to get the cueball to the right portion of the table so you can play safe on the 4. There are plenty of safeties available, so long as you can see it. YOUR idea is brilliant because it accomplishes this AND it gives you a free shot at winning outright. I wouldn't have thought of this.
 
Nice shot

Neil said:
This came up for me the other night. Opponent is a runout player, diamond barbox very deep shelf, race to 4. Things have been going his way so far. He misses the 3 and leaves me this.

I didn't like my chances of getting on the 4 to play safe because I had to hit the point of the pocket. Doing that, makes position play tougher. I really didn't like the shot, so I went for the hail-mary shot and got lucky and made it. That is, the cb off the 3, off the point of the pocket, coming back and making the 9. I figured coming off the point to come back for the 4 towards the 9 was the best way to try and get on the 4 to play safe if I could see it.

I know my shot was a little out there, and I got away with it and looked like a magician at the time, but, what would you have done in this situation?? I didn't see a lot of options that were very feasible.

CueTable Help

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Varner says always play a winning shot no matter how
much trouble you're in.
Worst case scenario you hook yourself.You can hand him the cue-ball,
you're still in a fight.Sending the 8 up-town saves a 3-foul.
 
Not saying I'm right but I would shoot the 3 hard with low left and then slow roll one rail into the 4 on my next shot.
 
I would have to see the layout myself. Playing the point is a pretty good trick!

I practice this shot with low left, rail first hitting fairily thin on the 3 then using the spin to change the angle off the 2nd rail. Ususally it comes back at the first diamond past the side pocket if you hit it good, but it can be manipulated by using less speed and more spin and by taking a thicker or thinner hit on the 3..

If I could see the actual layout, if I thought I could get around the 6 ball (I know I can get around the 7) and bring the cue ball back to this position, I would shoot it this way.

If I couldn't get around the 6, then I would try a power draw shot. I would scruff the tip for about 5 minutes, shoot a draw at near break speed, and try to bring it straight back - and hope like hell I keep the cue ball on the table!.

In any case, I would try to play position to shoot the safe on the 4 like this.

Chris


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Neil said:
Tate: Very true that the wei table doesn't really do it justice. The pockets are not that big, and the shelf is so deep that you can't see all of the 3, so, the straight drawback was out of the question. Could not make the 3 without hitting the point of the pocket to the left, so I figured I'd try and use it. Not very high percentage, but it was the only "reliable" shot I could see.

Every time I looked at going around the 7, all I could see was hitting the 6, or maybe even the 7 coming off the point wrong.

For those that don't know, I shot it with low right english, and pretty good speed, hitting the left edge of the 3.
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It was actually a brilliant shot. My pockets aren't that deep but I know what you mean.

I practice a lot of "hanger" shots because they come up so often, but I never really thought about using the corner point for shape. Occasionally I'll play the side pocket points for shape when it's easy to do (straight in down the rail and draw into the point to get angle) but I have never tried to do it like that in the corner. I'm going to try it out later to see if I can control the cue ball direction at all.

Chris
 
I don't know what rules you were playing by, but I probably would have called a "safety" and slow-rolled the 3-ball in the pocket (rail first as in TATE's diagram) trying to leave the cue ball behind the seven. Even if you had failed to put the cue ball behind the seven, it would have left a cluster-opening kick shot for your opponent. If he instead would have intentionally fouled, you still would have had another good safety to shoot (three-foul rule in effect???).

You obviously took the aggresive approach and it certainly paid off for you. I lack confidence in the type of shot you took and almost always look for a good safety in that situation.

Congrats on making the 9-ball !!!

Maniac
 
Maniac said:
I don't know what rules you were playing by, but I probably would have called a "safety" and slow-rolled the 3-ball in the pocket (rail first as in TATE's diagram) trying to leave the cue ball behind the seven. Even if you had failed to put the cue ball behind the seven, it would have left a cluster-opening kick shot for your opponent. If he instead would have intentionally fouled, you still would have had another good safety to shoot (three-foul rule in effect???).

You obviously took the aggresive approach and it certainly paid off for you. I lack confidence in the type of shot you took and almost always look for a good safety in that situation.

Congrats on making the 9-ball !!!

Maniac
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Oooops, wrong game (no passing a "made" safety in 9-ball :o). Sorry, it's been a tough week. As Emily Latella (Gilda Radner) used to say on Saturday Night Live: "Nevermind".

Maniac
 
Maniac said:
I don't know what rules you were playing by, but I probably would have called a "safety" and slow-rolled the 3-ball in the pocket (rail first as in TATE's diagram) trying to leave the cue ball behind the seven. Even if you had failed to put the cue ball behind the seven, it would have left a cluster-opening kick shot for your opponent. If he instead would have intentionally fouled, you still would have had another good safety to shoot (three-foul rule in effect???).

You obviously took the aggresive approach and it certainly paid off for you. I lack confidence in the type of shot you took and almost always look for a good safety in that situation.

Congrats on making the 9-ball !!!

Maniac
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Most tournaments or match games in nine ball do not allow you to call safe and pocket a ball. This is a rule that is generally used in eight ball.

What Neil did was creative and lucky that it worked out for him. Weather he made the nine or not he needed to get to that area of the table for a safety off the four ball. Tables that have the shelf so deep make it very difficult to try to play precise position because you're more likely to have to come off the point of the pocket.

Pocketing the 3 ball off a foul to give up ball in hand almost assures that you'll be kicking on your next turn.
 
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dabarbr said:
Most tournaments or match games in nine ball do not allow you to call safe and pocket a ball. This is a rule that is generally used in eight ball.
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Yes, I realized that after I had rested up a bit from a tough week. I made mention of this in my very next post immediately after my first one.

I had a momentary lapse of sanity :sorry:!!!

Maniac
 
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