One Pocket Dramedy

Neil said:
Jay, I respect your opinion, but don't agree with it this time. Granted, I don't play much one hole. But, thinning off the 5, IMHO, is too risky. If you do it right, great! But, if you do it wrong, as happened in the picture, you sell out the whole game. 8 and out is very doable from there.

I don't see anyone posting this option, but I think it is very feasible. Just takes a stun shot, and even though you are on the rail, it's not that hard. Plus, you can move the 7 away from his hole.

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Neil, I respect your opinion to and I play a lot of One Pocket. The shot you diagrammed is a harder shot to execute properly, with a higher likelihood of selling out some balls. You have a bad angle on the two and the one being on the rail only makes it tougher. The shot off the five ball is not a hanger but it's a bit easier to execute than the one you diagrammed. More room for error on my shot. It can only go wrong if you hit the five too full. Double kiss this shot and kiss your money good bye. :grin:
 
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Neil said:
... I don't see anyone posting this option, but I think it is very feasible. Just takes a stun shot, and even though you are on the rail, it's not that hard. Plus, you can move the 7 away from his hole. ...
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As Artie B. would say, "Not with a gun to my head." Try it five times with the balls in slightly different positions and let us know how it works. Of course, the positions look different on the real table, and maybe the shot's trivial, but I think stun from there is very unlikely to work well.
 
Neil, in this layout I doubt stun is needed but the original layout is much different and this shot is not an option.

Another thing to consider is table conditions. If the balls are sticky as they are where I play the only good option is an intentional. Its best to stay alive here and fight this break on more even terms.

Rod
 
Six is wired in the corner. Bank the 2 into the 1, 6 goes in the corner, run out. The heck with all the mamby pamby bunting balls around. Slam into the balls and run out like a man.
 
cleary said:
I have a lot to learn about 1p, but I don't understand why you would give up a ball here.
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If the resulting position is strong, then giving up a ball might be worth it. That's a standard one-pocket mantra.


cleary said:
]
Sorry for the questions, I'm very interested in learning and these shots do not make sense to me.
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Warning: I'm not a one-pocket player by any stretch of the imagination. Hell, I'm not even a pool player.

The position after the break as Patrick is shown is common in that this is pretty much what you want in a break: Balls to your side, cueball frozen on the second or third diamond.

Most one-pocket players' return shot would try to get the cueball behind the 15/7 (and notice that the first thing to consider is where the cueball ends up, not what balls to go off). I think the standard progression of looks would be to consider off the 5 first, then off the 1, then 3-railer (or maybe 5 first, then 3-railer, then the 1, but whatever). If the break is super strong, just trying to lag the cueball to that spot behind the 15/7 without any consideration of hitting an object ball can very much be a good play because the cueball position might force your opponent to knock one of his balls away just to get safe.

If the 5 looks too risky (and this shot I know I've blown many many many times cuz I disregarded the risk), you move to the next standard shot. "Off the 1" is not even a consideration on this layout, but move the cueball and 1 ball a little and suddenly it becomes a viable choice.

I welcome the corrections from real one pocket players.

Fred
 
Neil said:
I don't see anyone posting this option, but I think it is very feasible. Just takes a stun shot, and even though you are on the rail, it's not that hard. Plus, you can move the 7 away from his hole.

CueTable Help

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I'm not a 1p expert by any stretch of the imagination, but to me the risk/reward ratio is not there on this shot. Granted, you may not sell out anything, and you may even nudge a ball a few inches away from his pocket, but it's not much more than a "get out of the inning" shot, as Danny D would say. Plus the odds are really good that you will allow him to hit either the 5 or the 12, which will result in you either being in the same spot again, or (if he can hit the 12) possibly against the side of the stack, with one or both of those balls moved to his side. I think whatever shot you shoot here has to include protecting the 12.

I much prefer coming off the right side of the 5 (assuming the hit is there) and trying to snuggle up to the backside of the 7-ball (b/w the 7 and long rail). If you get him tight, he will have to move either the 1 or 7 and even if you don't get him real tight he will have hard time putting you in a trap.

Aaron
 
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From this position it looks like my first option would be to thin the five like others suggested. I would favor to shoot extra thin, if I miss hitting the five then I foul but that's ok because the cue ball still gets to where I want it.

If I have the option to hit the eight straight ahead with follow that would be my second option. After that I would consider taking and intentional foul. I like the one railer to the area of the seven instead of the three railer because the two ball might be an issue.

The one thing that I would stay away from would be to draw or stun the cue ball especially with the cue ball so close to the rail.

Others have suggested to push the cue ball uptable and leave a shot straight on the one or maybe just roll the cue ball on top of the one and leave only the cut on the seven. This might work especially if you know your opponent. Many one pocket players may not even attempt a shot here because the one could be missed, thus giving up an offensive turn to you. Shooting the seven will not give position (because of the 15 ball) on another ball unless they fire it up and hope to get lucky. I believe a seasoned one pocket player will not want to give up their advantage, they would most likely look for options to keep you in trouble and wait for a better opportunity.
 
Patrick Johnson said:
Even though I (usually) wouldn't shoot that jacked up bank, I'm still known as a walking ATM for real 1 pocket players because I love the circus shots too much.

pj chgo
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You and me both.

Once I was playing Mark Haddad in a tournament, after a few shots he smiled and said "you like to shoot at your hole, huh?" He crushed me.

But, I did beat the great Dave Gross in that tournament! I got lucky as hell. lol.
 
The Wei table layout posted by somebody else in this thread is off in a few ways, making some shots possible when they aren't and maybe some impossible when they are. Here's a Wei table layout that matches the photo I took (in case anybody's still interested in this):

CueTable Help



pj
chgo
 
Patrick Johnson said:
The Wei table layout posted by somebody else in this thread is off in a few ways, making some shots possible when they aren't and maybe some impossible when they are. Here's a Wei table layout that matches the photo I took (in case anybody's still interested in this):

pj
chgo
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Well in that case, I pretend I'm Scott Frost and do this:

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:eek::eek::eek:
 
Aaron_S said:
Well in that case, I pretend I'm Scott Frost and do this:

CueTable Help



:eek::eek::eek:
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Aaron....Unfortunately for me, that shot of yours is not so crazy....about 7 years ago when playing in the DCC One Pocket tournament, I broke the first game and left the balls very similar to this layout - and I was very happy with it - for a minute..lol....my opponent was Rafael Martinez, and he shot your shot, hit it perfect, and reversed the break on me...:(

- Ghost
 
I must not be able to see, if you look at the original photo and not a Wei table , the thin off the 5 shot is the best shot for sure but it doesn't look like there is room to miss it thin because the 8 is in the way, that leaves hitting it thin or thinner from frozen on the rail to get behind the other balls. a little too fat and you can scratch , a lot too fat and you hit the ball and sell out. Am I the only one that sees the shot like this ? Please look at the original photos.
 
book collector said:
I must not be able to see, if you look at the original photo and not a Wei table , the thin off the 5 shot is the best shot for sure but it doesn't look like there is room to miss it thin because the 8 is in the way, that leaves hitting it thin or thinner from frozen on the rail to get behind the other balls. a little too fat and you can scratch , a lot too fat and you hit the ball and sell out. Am I the only one that sees the shot like this ? Please look at the original photos.
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Looking a the original photo, the problem with going off the five is that there is a very real chance that even if you hit it *real* good you can catch the far point of the pocket and leave the twelve-one-rail-splatter-into-the-stack-shot-that-puts-*everything*-on-your-opponent's-side-shot. It'd depend on a lot of things like how springy the rubber and how fast the cloth is, but I think I'm still shooting the three rail kick.

Lou Figueroa
 
lfigueroa said:
Looking a the original photo, the problem with going off the five is that there is a very real chance that even if you hit it *real* good you can catch the far point of the pocket and leave the twelve-one-rail-splatter-into-the-stack-shot-that-puts-*everything*-on-your-opponent's-side-shot. It'd depend on a lot of things like how springy the rubber and how fast the cloth is, but I think I'm still shooting the three rail kick.

Lou Figueroa
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You are correct sir. I didn't see that far into the shot because once I saw how small a margin for error there was, I looked to find a better shot for me. Some poeple can slow roll the ball with precision I can't imagine. Even on bad equipment. Shooting off the rail like that puts high english on the ball and if you don't hit it perfect its going to do something funny. I don't play 3 cushion but I have practiced kicking 1 2 and 3 rails for years {I learned from one of Gradys tapes .} and after about 10 shots or less on most tables I have my spot on the wall picked out and the speed pretty close. I do all 4 corners because I want to know if there is a bad rail or a slate hump or anything in my tracks. Being able to get on the rail near the corners without scratching is huge in my game.
 
1 Pocket Ghost said:
Aaron....Unfortunately for me, that shot of yours is not so crazy....about 7 years ago when playing in the DCC One Pocket tournament, I broke the first game and left the balls very similar to this layout - and I was very happy with it - for a minute..lol....my opponent was Rafael Martinez, and he shot your shot, hit it perfect, and reversed the break on me...:(

- Ghost
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Yeah, I have seen that shot used to devastating effect. Actually, it has been devastating every time I've tried it... just not to my opponent. :o

Edit: And, speaking of Rafael, did you see the wonderful shot he made against Efren last year? I'm going to bungle the positions of the balls awfully, but the cueball path was something like this.

CueTable Help



Aaron
 
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I'll take the usual qualifier that I am no 1P expert, but this is a case where you need to be passive...take the duck safe and get to the next inning. There is nothing to be created here & there is much to lose trying to make something happen. Roll off the edge of the 5 & see if he does something stupid...like see that 7.

EDIT: I also agree with dabarbr that you should err on the side of over-thinning/missing the 5 rather than chunk it like the OP showed.
 
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