Using Virtual Pool to play better One-Pocket

Bob Callahan

Bob Callahan

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Look at the image below, and think about what you would do if that's your pocket in one-pocket:


vp1.jpg



Ignoring the rest of the table, you might be tempted to move balls toward your pocket, and play things a little safe...then along comes Virtual Pool.

This isn't an ad for them, although many folks on the various forums say it's the best pool simulator around. This is about using pool simulators to improve your game. Bought the program almost a year ago, fooled with it a little, then let it sit--until reading in Time Magazine about 19-year-old chess prodigy, Magnus Carlsen.

This quote might explain the sudden renewed interest in VP:


"Carlsen joins chess's élite at a time of unprecedented change. He is one of a generation of players who learned the game from computers. To this day, he's not certain if he has an actual board at home. "I might have one somewhere. I'm not sure," he says. Powerful chess programs, which now routinely beat the best human competitors, have allowed grand masters to study positions at a deeper level than was possible before."​
From: A Bold Opening for Chess Player Magnus Carlsen

Okay Bob...drag out the laptop, start up VP, and see what you can do.

This is what I learned:

Make the 7:


vp3.jpg



Or make the 3:




vp2.jpg



Alright, I'm not a total idiot...I might have seen the 7...but the 3!!!

All that changed between the two shots was a slight adjustment in where the cluster was hit. English, etc remained the same, although all of those could be adjusted, too, to control where the cue ball ended up.

Lesson learned.

Virtual Pool will become part of my training this year. One-pocket has been a game that is usually learned from the old masters, who wisely were slow in sharing their knowledge. But pool simutators are new tools to add to playing, watching videos, and reading.


How about you? Do you use a pool simulator?
 
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I've been playing virtual pool on and off since I joined this board seven years ago. Funny thing is, the very same flaws that plague my real game become apparent in the virtual games, regardless of the program.

Haven't seen this program before, but I may consider buying it. Yes, it's great for one pocket, but not exclusively.
 
I can see a possible shot on the 7 ball by clipping the 1 ball first.

How is the 3 ball made?
 
You're using Virtual Pool to play TERRIBLE one-pocket, if you consider playing either of these shots in a game situation.

-Andrew
 
Although prob scientifically possible, those shots are no-gos in real life, as others have said.

Call me a skeptic, but I question how a computer game can make a measurable difference in one's real-life pool game.
 
I have played virtual pool for sometime. The big thing missing (obvious) is the feel of the stroke. How to apply proper touch, speed, quality of the stroke and feel of the hit are all missing. Practice in the virtual world has never helped my real game.
 
Not quite on the topic of pool, but I've used this carom billiards simulator for years and credit it with a lot of my development.


http://laurent.buchard.pagesperso-orange.fr/


It goes without saying that if I can run 10 balls in a real game of three-cushion but 11 on the simulator, I don't go around telling people I can run 11 balls.

To that end I wonder about the degree to which chess players, for whom the game has become largely digital, lament the loss of the human interaction. Do they find it less nerve-racking? Do they engage in the hypotheticals that we cueists love so much (blah blah sure Carlsen is great playing chess on the computer but he would have cracked up playing the old greats in person, blah blah has he ever had to play in the snow blah blah)?
 
Unrelated to playing one-pocket but valuable to a programmer.

The pics reveal each of the balls with the same reflection from lighting. If you know what it means, then you know what I am thinking. Also the diagram revealing path lines also indicates, another factor that if you see it then you know what I am thinking.
 
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Bob,
Today isn't April Fool's Day.

Why are you messing with us?

The seven ball or the three ball are impractical shots. I haven't read the rest of the posts but you have to be messing with us. Don't do that dude.
 
I don't see how either of the balls can go in unless you time the hits off the balls with "computer" accuracy. Looks like you need to have either the balls fly apart, then click back into the object ball to make it, or go for a true 2 ball simultaneous hit on the object ball.
 
It's too bad that the AI doesnt know how to play one-pocket on VP. I am tired of all the other game modes on there.
 
To compare chess which involves brute force calculation to pool is ludicrous at best. Computer AI doesnt even play proper patterns in 9-ball let alone trying to suggest the right shot in One Pocket.

Nice try and good to see enthusiasm, but if you were to seriously use this as a tool I think people would queue up to play you because you'd learn shed loads of bad habits.
 
Well, for me I would have to set the shots up in real life to see if they go. There are actually all sorts of hidden caroms and combinations that work if you move the blocking ball a certain way.

To me Virtual Pool IS a good trainer BECAUSE it allows the shooter to try out different methods and see the results. I think it's good mental stimulation. For example, and this relates to chess as well, I am a big advocate of setting up and working out problems on the pool table. In chess they set up end game problems and work them out. In pool I like to set up tricky situations and figure out the best moves.

I used to use Virtual Pool this way, to set up various situations and see what happens.

I think in the "real world" it's pretty clear that working things out and learning on simulators is highly effective in other areas. That's why the government and big business spend billions devising simulators.

So I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the power of VP to help improve someone's game. Of course no one is going to become a champion by making shots in VP and then making them instantly in real life. They will have to take it to the table and work out the shots.

But I can see a situation where you take two novices and one gets a week on the table and one gets a week with virtual pool and then both get another week on the table and then the one who trained on VP ends up having more knowledge and similar execution.
 
I would bank the 14 and forget that mess.

I think virtual pool is pretty good for your game aiming wise and pattern play.
 
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