What's the Plan? 2

Thanks for going into such detail, Dan! It's hard to see from that camera angle, but I wonder if that 4-ball shot can be held for the angle on the 14-ball. When you watch the video you'll see it might be slightly too steep to spin the ball in and keep the cue ball under the 1-ball. But I'm not sure.

The player decided to shoot the 3-ball in the side softly bouncing off of the side rail to here. Any change in Bob's pattern from here?

2G.jpg
 
Played the 10-15 combo with the 10-ball bouncing off of the right rail and the cue ball drawing back a bit to here. What's your end pattern from here?

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It's hard to tell from here on out without being at the table, but I'm looking at the 6 as a key ball in the left side pocket.
 
Dan White said:
It's hard to tell from here on out without being at the table, but I'm looking at the 6 as a key ball in the left side pocket.
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And I'd like to get there from the 10, but the remaining balls look awkward for that.
 
bluepepper said:
Played the 10-15 combo with the 10-ball bouncing off of the right rail and the cue ball drawing back a bit to here. What's your end pattern from here?

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I hate WWYds but... I is bored and so:

Tiny draw from the 10 to the six
Draw back to the 12 or 14
Finish off with the five or one

Lou Figueroa
what is so hard
about that?!
 
The player played the 10-ball drawing back to here. In what order would you play these last 6 balls?

2i.jpg
 
Looks like the 5 goes. So maybe the simplest order....12, 5, 1 all into left corner, 14 into right corner, 6 in the side. Then again, this may be why I'm not breaking a hundred! Lol
 
bluepepper said:
I thought we'd get started on puzzles 2 and 3 while we're waiting to wrap up puzzle 1.

Here is the puzzle 2 layout post break shot. What's the plan? How far ahead can you see? What balls are significant to you, and what roles do they play? What are your priorities at this stage?

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The easiest, surest starting shot appears to be the 7 in the side. Hit easily, it should leave either the 15 in the corner or the 11 in the opposite side. If I fall best on the 11 in the side, I play it and follow just past the 9 to leave me the shot on the 4, as the 4 needs to be pocketed asap to free up the path to that pocket for all the other nearby balls. If I fall best on the 15 in the corner but not straight in to worry about following and scratching, I follow all the way to end rail to play the 4 next. It would be nice to save the 10 for a break ball, but may not be possible with all the balls so close still in the racking area, so there should be plenty of opportunity to break out those balls to set up another break ball. After the 4, I like the 13, 14, and leaving an angle on the 12 if possible for a slight breakout shot on the 3/5. Hopefully this might leave the 1 in the corner, but it's starting to get a little too far ahead for me to figure, not knowing how those balls will exactly break out. The two best key balls I'm seeing to save if possible, would be either leaving a straight in shot on the 2 in the side which you could stop or draw back slightly for break shot on the 10, or if you end up being able to save the 11, leaving that virtually dead in the right side pocket would yield a perfect stop shot to set up that break shot on the 10 ball. That's kind of what I'm seeing so far, but as my weakness is executing breakout shots without hitting them too hard and knocking too many balls up table and not leaving an ideal break ball and setup ball.
 
bluepepper said:
Thanks for playing, Bob. The player chose to take the 4-ball first as you suggested, playing it off of the foot rail to squeeze through the opening between the 1-ball and 9-ball landing here. What's the plan from here?

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From here I'm seeing the 3 in the side, then the combo, then it should be relatively easy to pick off all the other balls to ideally leaving a virtual straight-in shot on the 6 in the left side, following just slightly if straight in to an ideal angle for the break shot on the 9.
 
Thanks for your input, ChrisinNC.

The player played the 1-ball bouncing off of the foot rail to here.

2K.jpg
 
bluepepper said:
Thanks for your input, ChrisinNC.

The player played the 1-ball bouncing off of the foot rail to here.

View attachment 478765
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Obviously I'm saving the 9 at this point for the break ball. Hard to see the angle on the 14 to know if there's enough angle to stun the CB out for 5 in the other corner, or play the CB with outside english off the side rail to spin out for as close as possible to a straight in shot on the 5. If so, it's a no brainer to hit a stop shot or draw back ever so slightly on the 5, leaving the 6 straight in the lefthand side pocket for perfect break shape on the 9.

If however the 14 is too straight in to execute either of the above options, I'd plan on drawing the CB back 6"-9", which should, depending on how much I've drawn it, leave either the 5 in the upper right nearly straight in the upper right corner for the straight in key ball on the 6, or if I've drawn it back a little too far, then playing the 6 in the upper left corner, and depending on the angle of that shot on the 6, either stopping it for the 5 in the right corner, or sliding it over with a little draw for the 5 in the left corner. If its shape for the 5 in the right corner (the corner to the right as I'm looking at the photo) then I'm spinning outside english 2 rails around the 9 for the break shot. If it's the 5 in the left corner, it just depends on the angle how to go about getting the CB back up near the middle of the table for the break shot on the 9.
 
Thanks, Chris. I think you covered every possibility, so here are the last couple of shots to the break ball. The player stuns up for the 5-ball stop shot and follows off of the 6-ball key ball for the 9-ball break.

2L.jpg

2M.jpg

2N.jpg
 
Video

The player was Darren Appleton at the 2015 World 14.1 Tournament originally streamed by AZBtv. I chose this rack for a reason. Knowing Darren to be a 14.1 player who plays very thoughtfully and carefully and plans ahead, after surveying the layout for 45 seconds he decides to take what looks like a reckless shot on that first ball into the cluster. I think it's worth considering that there was something he saw that the we and the commentators didn't see that may be worth discussing.

Here's the run:
https://youtu.be/eyiAeYd-Kg0
 
bluepepper said:
The player was Darren Appleton at the 2015 World 14.1 Tournament originally streamed by AZBtv. I chose this rack for a reason. Knowing Darren to be a 14.1 player who plays very thoughtfully and carefully and plans ahead, after surveying the layout for 45 seconds he decides to take what looks like a reckless shot on that first ball into the cluster. I think it's worth considering that there was something he saw that the we and the commentators didn't see that may be worth discussing.

Here's the run:
https://youtu.be/eyiAeYd-Kg0
Click to expand...

Nice layout to choose for analysis! I am going to go so far as to say his intention is clear. I think he was trying to go into either the 6 of the 6/3 cluster. His next shot would have been the 5 or the 10. If you go to 32 seconds you see Appleton line up the rebound angle with his cue, then he shifts it over so that it is now pointing at the 6 ball. I think that was his intended destination.

On a side note, it is interesting how Appleton WALKED AROUND the other side of the table and even used his cue as a positional aid. I know some amateur players who think this isn't all that important. :eek: Just kidding, I couldn't resist.

Edit: I just recalled John Schmidt saying that the commentators always annoy him because they assume things. They see a shot as an "almost miss" while in reality he was trying to hit the shot just like that.
 
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Dan White said:
On a side note, it is interesting how Appleton WALKED AROUND the other side of the table and even used his cue as a positional aid. I know some amateur players who think this isn't all that important. :eek: Just kidding, I couldn't resist.
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In my mind I'm walking around the table to smack you, Dan. :mad:
 
Just kidding, of course. Dan and I argued about this in another thread. And I am walking around the table more!

What I think Darren saw:

-The way to approach the 4 balls that were already open below the rack was from the lower left side of the table, but nothing led easily to get down there to play the 13 or 14.

-He could have played 7 to 11 to get on the 10-ball secondary break, but he would not only lose the 10-ball as a potential break shot, the balls below the rack would likely get even more clogged by the cueball striking the 5 and 3 sending them in that direction. The 5 doesn't look to be a good option to break up the balls if it goes at all.

-The 4-ball blocks all balls to the lower left pocket except maybe a half pocket for the 9-ball. Playing the 7 to the 15 to the bottom rail for the 4-ball would require pinpoint precision, and he could very easily get trapped having to play a difficult 13-4 combination if he chose that route.

-The only other option I see makes the cueball travel a lot. 7 in the right side, 11 in the left side, 4 bouncing off of the foot rail back up to the head of the table for the 15 or 2-15 to play the balls below the rack from the right side, or the 2 to drift down to the left side of the same balls.

-The 7-ball was the only reasonable first shot, and after weighing all of the options, he saw he could create a break ball with the 9-ball and hopefully stir up a few balls into a better arrangement. There was plenty of insurance by taking the shot he did.

So it looked crazy, but after analyzing the entire table, I think it was a well thought out decision.

2A.jpg
 
bluepepper said:
The player was Darren Appleton at the 2015 World 14.1 Tournament originally streamed by AZBtv. I chose this rack for a reason. Knowing Darren to be a 14.1 player who plays very thoughtfully and carefully and plans ahead, after surveying the layout for 45 seconds he decides to take what looks like a reckless shot on that first ball into the cluster. I think it's worth considering that there was something he saw that the we and the commentators didn't see that may be worth discussing.

Here's the run:
https://youtu.be/eyiAeYd-Kg0
Click to expand...
Even the announcers disagreed with his decision to go in to the top of the pack on that first shot, but obviously it worked out great. I guess he figured if the CB came in a little lower and went in to the 10, he's still have some kind of a shot, and if the CB happened to miss above the 6, he'd still likely have the 13 or the 4.
 
Yep

Dan White said:
Nice layout to choose for analysis! I am going to go so far as to say his intention is clear. I think he was trying to go into either the 6 of the 6/3 cluster. His next shot would have been the 5 or the 10. If you go to 32 seconds you see Appleton line up the rebound angle with his cue, then he shifts it over so that it is now pointing at the 6 ball. I think that was his intended destination.



On a side note, it is interesting how Appleton WALKED AROUND the other side of the table and even used his cue as a positional aid. I know some amateur players who think this isn't all that important. :eek: Just kidding, I couldn't resist.

Edit: I just recalled John Schmidt saying that the commentators always annoy him because they assume things. They see a shot as an "almost miss" while in reality he was trying to hit the shot just like that.
Click to expand...

I too grow weary of these announcers speaking out of turn, once I heard a guy who said I was begging after I hit a break shot and tried to go one rail back into the stack. I mostly watch 3-cushion and snooker now uh days. Snooker has the surround picture and awesome commentators who don't seem too biased. Plus the commentators don't seem to be disgruntled players who never made it to the top level.
 
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