What's the Best Shot an Opponent has Made on You When it's HILL/HILL?

[CJ Wiley]

I've had a lot of amazing shots made on me in competition. Efren, Buddy Hall, Strickland, Archer and many others have made some stellar shots - however, the one that stands out the most was made by Mike Sigel at 12/12 (HILL/HILL) against me in the semi-finals of the Bicycle Club Invitational.

Here's an article from BILLIARD DIGEST that describes the shot in vivid detail.

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Player: Mike Sigel
Event: Bicycle Club Invitational
Date: June, 1992 <-------Click to see video of Sigel's amazing shot

WHEN IT comes to professional athletes - and yes, pool players are athletes - they just seem to be a bit different from us regular folk. The way they approach their craft, the way they can do physically exactly what they see mentally, even the way they walk, there's a seamlessness to their actions that makes even the most difficult tasks look effortless. Think of Michael Jordan draining a fade-away jumper, or Ted Williams sending a ball screaming through the gap.

In our sport, Mike Sigel has that kind of talent.

Take the 1992 Bicycle Club Invitation in Bell Gardens, Calif., as an example. In the hot-seat match, "Captain Hook" had the break in the case game of a 12-12 set against CJ Wiley. Making a ball on the break, Sigel ran into a bit of trouble getting position on the 5, which was partially hidden by the surround 8 and 9 balls.

With the 3 ball deep in the lower right corner pocket, Sigel drew the cue ball off the left long rail in hopes of then sending the 5 into the top left corner. But he fell a bit short, ending up at the position shown in Diagram 1. He didn't have a clean look at the 5, so he was forced to improvise.

Taking a minute to get a few good looks his predicament, Sigel loaded up on left English and spun the cue ball off the rail for a nearly full hit on the 5 ball. The 5, just a smidge to the left of the 9, then threw the match-winning ball toward the bottom right corner. As the 5 ricocheted between long rails, the 9 ball barely snuck inside the left side of the corner pocket.

Wiley, the tough-luck loser in this 25th rack, then went on to lose to Kim Davenport in the third-place match. In the final, Sigel then trounced Davenport in the shortened championship set, 9-5, for the $12,000 payday.

(Video clip provided by Accu-Stats Video Productions.) <---------Click to see more of the Sigel match

 

[Neil]

Was playing in a 5 man team 8 ball tournament. The winner of this match was in the money. We were hill-hill. Opponent is drunker than a skunk, but still playing very, very well. Safties are played by him and our man. Then the opponent starts running out. Runs all of his balls off the table, and only then realizes that the 8 has no pocket at all. Being surrounded by our balls.

We start chuckling and thinking we are now going to be the winners! His team members are all groaning, and looking like they want to kill him. But, never count out a stupid drunk guy that can play.... He realizes that he screwed up, but is too drunk to really asess the situation properly. In other words, he has no fear anymore. He looks at the eight ball in the midst of our balls, and calls the eight cross corner.

He then jumps the cb over our ball, lands on the eight, the eight then jumps over another one of our balls. Lands on the edge of the rail, jumps up over all the balls, and goes airborne all the way to the pocket and lands right in it!

His team went nuts, and our team was all sick to our stomachs. One of the greatest shots I ever saw!

 

[hang-the-9]

I would not call this the best shot, but just about the luckiest shot.

Race to 2, it's 1-1.

Called pocket on the 9, guy calls a combo on the 9 in the corner. He totally misses the 9 with the first ball, which then bounces off the end rail, kicks the 9 up table a bit, right into the path of the cueball which went off the 8 with follow, and makes the 9 in the corner that he called.

Thank you very much, and good night to me.

 

[philly]

I would not call this the best shot, but just about the luckiest shot.

Race to 2, it's 1-1.

Called pocket on the 9, guy calls a combo on the 9 in the corner. He totally misses the 9 with the first ball, which then bounces off the end rail, kicks the 9 up table a bit, right into the path of the cueball which went off the 8 with follow, and makes the 9 in the corner that he called.

Thank you very much, and good night to me.

Great recreation. Ain't that some s**t. LMAO

 

[lorider]

i never dwell on stuff like that cause i realize every dog has his day.

 

[CJ Wiley]

"consistent luck is always a skill"

These are great stories, anyone else have a memorable "HILL/HILL" shot?

Remember - "consistent luck is always a skill"

I've had so many happen they had to be downloaded in a separate "mind file".

 

[HawaiianEye]

I can't remember the best shot an opponent shot on me when it was hill/hill, but here is the BEST shot I ever made on my opponent when it came down to the nitty gritty and I got "lucky", like Efren. Sometimes the pool God is in your corner.

I was playing in a 14.1 tournament in Turkey, in 1990, and the winner of this match would win a trip to England to play in a tournament there. It was a game to 100 and neither was of were making any long runs and it was finally down to us needing a ball or so from this rack to win. He had 99 and I had 97 and he left me with this shot.

 

[HawaiianEye]

I was tired of playing "safe" and decided to "go for it" and get the game over with, one way or another. I did a sort of half-masse with right English and hit the ball kind of hard trying to throw the object ball into the corner and bounce the cue ball into the rack to maybe "jar" a shot loose.

The object ball went into the hole like planned, but the cue ball jumped up into the air and landed ON TOP of the rack and just sat there for a few seconds and I was wondering WTF do we do now? I was thinking maybe the cue ball would be placed on the head spot and I would have to shoot from there.

 

[HawaiianEye]

Then the pool God "opened" the rack a bit (from the weight, I guess...and round objects sitting on round objects) after a few seconds, the cue ball came down onto the table, and there were ONLY two open shots...exactly what I needed for balls 99 and 100.

Nobody could believe what happened. I went to England and he went home to Greece.

 

[one stroke]

I've had a lot of amazing shots made on me in competition. Efren, Buddy Hall, Strickland, Archer and many others have made some stellar shots - however, the one that stands out the most was made by Mike Sigel at 12/12 (HILL/HILL) against me in the semi-finals of the Bicycle Club Invitational.

Here's an article from BILLIARD DIGEST that describes the shot in vivid detail.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Player: Mike Sigel
Event: Bicycle Club Invitational
Date: June, 1992 <-------Click to see video of Sigel's amazing shot

WHEN IT comes to professional athletes - and yes, pool players are athletes - they just seem to be a bit different from us regular folk. The way they approach their craft, the way they can do physically exactly what they see mentally, even the way they walk, there's a seamlessness to their actions that makes even the most difficult tasks look effortless. Think of Michael Jordan draining a fade-away jumper, or Ted Williams sending a ball screaming through the gap.

In our sport, Mike Sigel has that kind of talent.

Take the 1992 Bicycle Club Invitation in Bell Gardens, Calif., as an example. In the hot-seat match, "Captain Hook" had the break in the case game of a 12-12 set against CJ Wiley. Making a ball on the break, Sigel ran into a bit of trouble getting position on the 5, which was partially hidden by the surround 8 and 9 balls.

With the 3 ball deep in the lower right corner pocket, Sigel drew the cue ball off the left long rail in hopes of then sending the 5 into the top left corner. But he fell a bit short, ending up at the position shown in Diagram 1. He didn't have a clean look at the 5, so he was forced to improvise. M

Taking a minute to get a few good looks his predicament, Sigel loaded up on left English and spun the cue ball off the rail for a nearly full hit on the 5 ball. The 5, just a smidge to the left of the 9, then threw the match-winning ball toward the bottom right corner. As the 5 ricocheted between long rails, the 9 ball barely snuck inside the left side of the corner pocket.

Wiley, the tough-luck loser in this 25th rack, then went on to lose to Kim Davenport in the third-place match. In the final, Sigel then trounced Davenport in the shortened championship set, 9-5, for the $12,000 payday.

(Video clip provided by Accu-Stats Video Productions.) <---------Click to see more of the Sigel match

Sorry to tell you pool players are not athletes ,, no way no how

1

 

[watchez]

Best shot I saw Hill - Hill

Joe Woolford vs Ray Schuler (sp? -- think he was from Tennesse).

Hill - Hill, on a bar table so yes maybe not as impressive, and Joe is running out. 9 ball on the bottom rail, dead center. Joe makes the 8 in the upper right hand corner pocket and comes two rails around for the 9. He goes two far and the cue ball winds up in the corner pocket, titty hooked so he can't see the 9. Joe studies it for 5 minutes, then shoots the cue ball off the outside tit and caroms back perfectly into the 9 making it in the opposite corner. This shot was for a large amount of bags of sand, with many of us part of the corporation that day.

 

[CJ Wiley]

Most of us play many sports, including very strenuous ones.

You want to bet on that? Dennis Hatch? Rodney Morris? Johnny Archer? Earl Strickland? Danny D.? John Schmidt (John is a scratch golfer and many of us are close when we're playing all the time)

Most of us play many sports, including very strenuous ones. I would be willing to compete with any other athlete if I can pick three sports and they can only pick one.

Sorry to tell you pool players are not athletes ,, no way no how

1

 

[DallasHopps]

I don't recall anyone making any spectacular shots hill/hill on me, as they all usually get left 2-3 ball outs with the object ball rattled in a pocket somewhere. I'm pretty terrible, but I have a lot of fun!

I, on the other hand, routinely have to escape safeties from an opponent or poor position play by myself. Getting too much of a spot to disclose here, for the sake of my dwindling dignity, I hooked myself behind a ball on the hill/hill game of a $500 set. Being as bad as I am, I've gotten pretty good at spotting caroms and other creative shots when there's not much available. I jumped the cue ball over the interfering ball, caromed off the low ball, and made a combination shot to sink the money ball. There wasn't a lot of distance between everything, so the biggest challenge was hitting the jump right and the rest was almost automatic.

That may be the most I've ever pissed someone off, too.

 

[one stroke]

You want to bet on that? Dennis Hatch? Rodney Morris? Johnny Archer? Earl Strickland? Danny D.? John Schmidt (John is a scratch golfer and many of us are close when we're playing all the time)

Most of us play many sports, including very strenuous ones. I would be willing to compete with any other athlete if I can pick three sports and they can only pick one.

You can be one and play pool but u don't have to be one to play pool ..



1

 

[Hungarian]

Nice try kid, but Yoga, Bo Staff and Archery are not sports...just kidding

You want to bet on that? Dennis Hatch? Rodney Morris? Johnny Archer? Earl Strickland? Danny D.? John Schmidt (John is a scratch golfer and many of us are close when we're playing all the time)

Most of us play many sports, including very strenuous ones. I would be willing to compete with any other athlete if I can pick three sports and they can only pick one.

 

[jimmyg]

I don't recall anyone making any spectacular shots hill/hill on me, as they all usually get left 2-3 ball outs with the object ball rattled in a pocket somewhere. I'm pretty terrible, but I have a lot of fun!

I, on the other hand, routinely have to escape safeties from an opponent or poor position play by myself. Getting too much of a spot to disclose here, for the sake of my dwindling dignity, I hooked myself behind a ball on the hill/hill game of a $500 set. Being as bad as I am, I've gotten pretty good at spotting caroms and other creative shots when there's not much available. I jumped the cue ball over the interfering ball, caromed off the low ball, and made a combination shot to sink the money ball. There wasn't a lot of distance between everything, so the biggest challenge was hitting the jump right and the rest was almost automatic.

That may be the most I've ever pissed someone off, too.

Ahhh, the "everything shot". :smile:

J

 

[CJ Wiley]

You should see my girlfriend's archery skills

Last time I checked Archery was an Olympic sport. You should see my girlfriend's archery skills, she makes sure it's considered a sport.

Nice try kid, but Yoga, Bo Staff and Archery are not sports...just kidding

 

[DallasHopps]

Ahhh, the "everything shot". :smile:

J

I realize it all sounded like one of 'those' stories, but it was a little more straightforward than it sounds from my post. Spotting the possibility and jumping the blocker were the hardest parts.

 

[Pidge]

In pool a guy pulled out a quite ridiculous jump swerve shot safety. Kind of lucky but none the less it lost me the match. He jumped full ball, swerved around the obstructing ball by a hair, nicked the 3 pushing it behind the 9 for a dead set plant down the rail and the cue ball spun of two rails and nestled touching ball behind the 7. I had no route back to the 3, couldn't jump the 7 and had to go for a 6 rail kick if I remember which I ended up missing by a mile. BIH, makes the combo and it was time to shake hands. I don't mind losing like that, even when it was a tad lucky to leave the combo dead on. Sometimes you just have to say nice shot and pack up your stuff.

In snooker it was just an immense pot and positional shot. I was in a tricky situation and it was down to the brown ball. All I could do was leave a long pot and get the cue ball tight to the baulk cushion. I managed it and thought I was in for a safety battle. The lad steps to the table and just hits this shot as sweet as I've seen. He must have hit it with max topspin and max reverse side from the balls reaction. The cue ball was touching the baulk cushion which is really impressive and the CB-OB distance was about 10.5ft ish. He judged the side spin perfectly the brown went in centre pocket and he had the pace perfect. He landed the cue ball in literally the size of an American pool ball after going down table and back up to land perfect on the blue that was stuck to the long rail up towards baulk. Left himself the blue all the way down the cushion into the black corner which is also a stupidly hard shot and made the remaining colours. I don't know why he didn't play safe, maybe because the blue was tied up and saw it as a shot to nothing whilst trying to land on the blue. But I've tried this shot loads of times since and just managing to pocket the brown with that amount of side spin and the speed of the shot is difficult. I remember trying it about 30 times after the match and managed to pocket the brown twice and not get position on the blue once, not even out of 30 odd attempts because it was such a small window. Again, someone pulls that kinda crap on you and you've got to admit they deserve the win.

 

[9andout]

Sorry to tell you pool players are not athletes ,, no way no how
1

Really? We have to start that again? Way to try and derail the OP.
BUT.... I'm glad u tried! Because that's what led to CJ POSTING THAT HOT ASS PIC!!
Well u and Hungarian. Thanks guys!