Does taking stripes in 8b offer an advantage?

Kickin' Chicken

Kickin' Chicken

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This is an interesting one for me.

I can usually sort out patterns pretty well and following a break if there is a choice, I'm always taking the easier group, basically, the one I feel provides the best chance to win. Obv, right? Where's the duh emoji?

But...

If it looks pretty even I find myself tending to go for the high balls more often because the stripes on them provides me with more aiming reference points compared with the much plainer solids.

I wonder, is this because my vision is so lousy that I tend to do this or is it a more common practice than I'm aware of?

best,
brian kc
 
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I take which ever looks like the easier out. If both have tied up balls, I take the ones I think I can work with easier, or play a better leave with.
 
all things being equal, or a reasonable facsimile thereof, i would take stripes
 
Kickin' Chicken said:
This is an interesting one for me.

I can usually sort out patterns pretty well and following a break if there is a choice, I'm always taking the easier group, basically, the one I feel provides the best chance to win. Obv, right? Where's the duh emoji?

But...

If it looks pretty even I find myself tending to go for the high balls more often because the stripes on them provides me with more aiming reference points compared with the much plainer solids.

I wonder, is this because my vision is so lousy that I tend to do this or is it a more common practice than I'm aware of?

best,
brian kc
Click to expand...


Please tell me you are not serious.

Lou Figueroa
puh-leeeeeeeese
 
lfigueroa said:
Please tell me you are not serious.

Lou Figueroa
puh-leeeeeeeese
Click to expand...


with the question or the practice?

I admit, Lou, it's a slow night but yes, I am serious.

an fyi, my R eye: 20/200

I have a 32" monitor on my desk and it's not because I have a little wiener. :grin-square:

best,
brian kc
 
Kickin' Chicken said:
with the question or the practice?

I admit, Lou, it's a slow night but yes, I am serious.

an fyi, my R eye: 20/200

I have a 32" monitor on my desk and it's not because I have a little wiener. :grin-square:

best,
brian kc
Click to expand...


There is always a clear choice. It might a matter of experience and "horse sense and a cool head and a keen eye" (with apologies to Meredith Wilson) but there is always an advantage to one or the udder.

Lou Figueroa
ya got trouble
 
Well, maybe. I think the advantage gained would be miniscule, though. I was at a tournament recently where a lot of old players complained that the lighting was insufficient. I was almost getting welders blindness! Not looking forward to getting old.
 
I've never really had a preference myself. I have noticed over the years though that a large percentage of people do have a preference. And, of those people, by far most of them like the stripes.
For that reason alone, a lot of times I'll take the stripes, especially if I know my opponent wants them.
Lots of people just really hate being solids.
 
I don't buy into that theory, If your shooting just one ball maybe?????? But after breaking they are never equal, if they are, keep looking cause one has a advantage that you just haven't seen yet
 
Alex prefers the high balls....
...'cause lions like to attack anything with stripes...

image.jpeg
 
I guess if your aiming system focuses on only the object ball, it might make some sense to prefer the stripes. If, however, your aiming system is among some that pictures lines from cue ball to object ball, and object ball to pocket, then it shouldn't matter. Good question though.

All the best,
WW
 
Surprised how many people "don't" know this. All things being equal on traditional green cloth the 6-ball is the hardest ball to sight.

Rarely will it override the layout advantages, but the stripes "are" easier to aim. This is one reason the English 8-ball sets (yellow and red) are actually better, they remove everything that can add additional aiming points on the ball.
 
Kickin' Chicken said:
This is an interesting one for me.

I can usually sort out patterns pretty well and following a break if there is a choice, I'm always taking the easier group, basically, the one I feel provides the best chance to win. Obv, right? Where's the duh emoji?

But...

If it looks pretty even I find myself tending to go for the high balls more often because the stripes on them provides me with more aiming reference points compared with the much plainer solids.

I wonder, is this because my vision is so lousy that I tend to do this or is it a more common practice than I'm aware of?

best,
brian kc
Click to expand...

I can give you some stats on that, KC, but not right now.
 
For ME, I'd rather shoot at a striped ball than a solid ball if they were to be placed in the same position for a shot..

To ME, it is easier to find a reference point on the stripe than there is the solid. I'm sure I don't think about it 99% of the time, but if you know you have to hit a reference point 1/4 inch from the stripe on the ball it is easier to visualize than trying to visualize 1/4 inch from nothing which is what would be on the solid ball.

A lot of one pocket players I used to play would always put stripes in the front of the rack so that they could see the edges better on the break.
 
8 ball is the only gams i try to ever play because thats all i enjoy. Never had a thought to choose highs over lows for aiming purpose. Maybe thats why i suck so much.
 
I dunno. It never occurred to me personally and I've never examined my own shot making percentage with solids vs stripes but I do remember when I was a kid that some of the old timers, very good players who I learned a lot from, said they preferred stripes for basically the same reason KC mentioned. I figured then, even as a teenager, that it was psychological. Nevertheless, psychology plays such a big part in this game as we all know, therefore I wouldn't dismiss it out of hand.
 
I looked at the streamed 8-Ball games I tracked in a bunch of events over the last 3 years. The total number of games was over 1,200.

48% of the games were won with stripes.
 
When I have a fresh fueled-up brain starting at the table, a ball is a ball, it could have zerbra stripes, when I'm at the table I'm not so much seeing the shot as feeling the table and the rolls, like I can feel the cue ball bouncing off the object ball and gently thudding off the rail to get onto my next position before I even hit it.

After about an hour of shooting without a break, that process isn't so automatic. On some shots I'll have to concentrate a little harder on the specific contact point on the object ball that I need the CB to hit, I have to consciously double-check cut angles and tangent lines sometimes, no big deal.

2-3 hours into shooting my eyes are now tired enough that it's messing with my spatial awareness. Because my eyes are tired my brain doesn't automatically trust them and I'm no longer automatically 'feeling' every shot in a 3D space, I'm instead worried about my eyes focusing.. Now, in this case, if it's a dirty beat up set of standard color balls, I have an easier time getting my eyes and brain to work together on the solid balls, because scratches and dirt tend to show up better on dark colors (except for the 8) and that helps my eyes perceive the spheres on the table so my brain trusts what I'm seeing. If it's a new shiny high-contrast set of tournament balls with the neon colors, I'll be a little quicker to size up shots on the stripes because, as you noted, the big stripe running across the ball is easy for tired eyes to see well enough to get a rough average of the ball's shape and distance.

5-6 hours in and it's all hopeless, I have complete tunnel vision and stripes on the balls actually makes it worse, I've lost all ability to adequately judge 3D space and the stripes on balls pointing in different directions don't help me see the angle to the pocket at all. If I'm playing snooker the fact all the balls are nice solid colors and the cloth is a little darker delays the worst of this effect but it's all irrelevant because my right arm and shoulder are numb like a phantom limb, my back's all tense, and I'm not anywhere close to being in stroke anyway even if I could see the balls. At this point it's time for someone to drag me away from the table so I can have a scotch and snacks and take a 20 minute break. But I still stubbornly persist firing at balls even though my body and brain are a kaput.
 
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