Craziest shot you ever performed

dr_dave

Instructional Author
Gold Member
Silver Member
Tom Ross and I filmed thousands of shots together over the years, and the one I think was the most difficult was a jump into an OB for a full-ball jump over another OB:

HSV B.4 – Object ball jump shot

This shot is not easy, even for the best of the trick shot and artistic pool pros.

Good thread,
Dave

The easier version of this shot (jumping ob over a thin portion of an obstructing ball) is a great shot to know!
Agreed.

I would never expect to pull off a full-ball OB jump in a game situation, but a mini OB jump over the edge of a ball is a useful weapon when needed.

Regards,
Dave

PS: It was nice to meet you in Vegas at the VNEA tournament.
 

alphadog

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Agreed.

I would never expect to pull off a full-ball OB jump in a game situation, but a mini OB jump over the edge of a ball is a useful weapon when needed.

Regards,
Dave

PS: It was nice to meet you in Vegas at the VNEA tournament.

First time I ever tried the whole ball jumpshot , cueball was about 2 diamonds from the 8ball. 8ball was about a diamond from the blocking ball. All were lined straight up to the corner pocket where I intended to make the 8. I called the pocket and got a whimsical look from my opponent. Whack cueball landed perfect on the 8 which jumped about 2 foot in the air. Cleared the impeeding ball with ease. Bounced once on the table then a few times on the hard tile floor.
Opponent was slapping me on the back and wanting me to hit that shot again! Being a realist, I said heres your money lets just play another set.
 

Bob Jewett

AZB Osmium Member
Staff member
Gold Member
Silver Member
While not as spectacular as my 17-ball break shot, this shot actually happened and it was in a tournament. I was playing eight ball -- I think it was a qualifier for the 1980 BCA national championships -- and due to bad planning I left myself like this on the eight. The exact position gave just enough speed to the eight to pocket my opponent's hanger and leave the eight ball in the jaws for the kick shot.

CropperCapture[323].png
 

Bob Jewett

AZB Osmium Member
Staff member
Gold Member
Silver Member
Speaking of jump shots.... Here is a position from 14.1 that I had for a break shot -- more bad planning. I may have been hoping to leave the cue ball in the rack for ball in hand behind the line.

I played the full-rack jump shot with my regular playing cue back when it had a ferrule. The reason that I could get over the whole rack was that the room had a kind of cloth that has disappeared from 9-foot tables: rubber-backed cloth. Yes, boys and girls, the cloth companies used to offer cloth with a layer of rubber glued to the back side so the cloth would last longer. It also make jumping much easier.

I made the 1 and kept the cue ball on the table but didn't manage to break the rack.

CropperCapture[324].png
 

Get_A_Grip

Truth Will Set You Free
Silver Member
My best two shots in a row, at hill-hill at the state tournament, which allowed me to advance are shown in the pic.

1) Made a long jump shot on the 1-ball right along the rail. Unfortunately, the cue ball stopped right there and left me snookered.
2) Made a low percentage kick shot on the 8-ball to win the match.

Some guy came up to me after that must have been watching the end of the match and complimented me on both shots. Making one of them was good, but making both of those shots in a row to win the match was pretty crazy for me. I should add, the look on my opponent's face when I sunk the 8-ball was priceless. I felt kind-of bad for him for a second. He looked devastated!
 

Attachments

  • ChalkySticks Pad - Mozilla Firefox 2019-06-11 13.47.21.jpg
    ChalkySticks Pad - Mozilla Firefox 2019-06-11 13.47.21.jpg
    167.4 KB · Views: 180
Last edited:

lfigueroa

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
thought this story was gonna end with...... "and we have been married for 25 years"...…..


No, didn't work out that way.

Shortly thereafter I started dating my wife to be. In fact, Gail knew I would occasionally go out dancing with Lisa. And one day, after she'd moved in, Gail says, "Why don't you invite Lisa over for dinner. (Keep you friends close but your enemies closer.)

So I do and Lisa comes over in 5" heels, white ankle socks, mini-dress, low cut sweater, bright red lipstick, long lashes, and big curly hair...

That was the end of my dancing days with Lisa.

Lou Figueroa
 

sfvpool

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
The most amazing shot I made, under pressure, was when I was playing in Vegas at the ACS 8-ball team event. I broke and ran out all of my balls but one, and overshot shape a little, hooking myself, as in the photo (my last ball was the 5, before the 8). I called the 5 ball in the corner and made a 2 rail kick, leaving myself shape on the 8. My opponent said something like, "You couldn't do that again in a million years." He was probably right, but I didn't have to, since I just did it.

_layout.jpg
 

Black-Balled

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
So I assume he had to be getting a 1 ball spot, as the Freezer only needed one, but the game was over when there was still one ball remaining on the table? Hard to believe a guy that came up with this shot was getting a spot!

Shit! It think the comments said the game was 10-4
 

HawaiianEye

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I've shot pool for many decades, so I've made quite a few spectacular "flukes" and "I got lucky" shots over that lengthy period.

The one that I remember most and got the most "reward" out of was playing in a 14.1 tournament back in December of 1990. I was playing for the last remaining slot for a paid week-long trip to Oxford, England and time off work.

We were playing to 100 points and I was down 99-97 and it was my shot on the break ball with the other 14 balls in the fresh rack.

The break ball was about halfway off the short rail behind the rack, between the two corner pockets, and the cue ball was about a foot from it and the shot was STRAIGHT IN.

I was tired of playing "cat and mouse" since it had been a LONG game with a lot of safe plays, so I decided on a "do or die" shot.

I jacked up the butt of the cue to do a "hop" and "above center" hit on the object ball and aimed the object ball to hit as far on the inside of the pocket as I could. I was attempting to "throw" the cue ball into the back of the rack and dislodge a corner ball in order to possibly have a shot somewhere on a loose ball.

I hit the ball "perfect" and made the object ball, but the cue ball "hopped" higher than I expected. It went about 8, or so, inches in the air and came down directly on top of the 14 balls in the rack and then just sat there for a couple of seconds with all the balls in the rack remaining intact.

I was sitting there for what seemed like a long time, but it was just a couple of seconds, and I was thinking "just what in the hell is the rule on this or what am I supposed to do now?".

Then, the "miracle" happened.

The weight of the cue ball eventually caused it to come down into the rack and it pushed two balls directly in the open. One for one corner pocket and one for the other corner and the cue ball was between them...wide open.

I had just made the 98th ball and these were the only two balls I needed.

My opponent was thinking the same thing as me..."WTF was THAT?"

I made the two balls and won 100-99 and he was eliminated and I won a trip to UK for a week.

Everybody who was watching came up to me and said "that was the GREATEST shot I ever saw in my life!" and I, like Efren, said, "I just got LUCKY."
 
Last edited:

ShootingArts

Smorg is giving St Peter the 7!
Gold Member
Silver Member
craziest z shot I have ever seen!

That was as big a "fluke" as Efren's Z-shot.


It would have been worth a pretty to see the decision had the cue ball just stopped on top of the rack. Had I not been the one that shot it I think I would call a scratch, the ball wasn't on the playing surface or jammed over a pocket. If I had shot it, I might have argued a bit differently!


Thinking back, I didn't really shoot many flashy shots. A few three or four rail kicks or banks but they were harder to see than to make once seen. About as good as any to stun an opponent, he had safed me against a cluster, seemed like about twelve of the fifteen balls were at that end of the table. I had to bridge over the cluster and hit the cue ball jumping it into the side rail, then airborne to the end rail and just catch the top of the cushion for a little ways to get past my opponent's ball then drop down onto the playing surface to hit my ball and drive it a diamond or a bit more into the corner pocket.

Shots like this are pretty common playing english eight ball I believe but this was long ago and I had never seen or tried such a thing. Worked like a charm and other than a shout of disbelief silenced my opponent and the railbirds.

I was playing a youngster on a barbox when I saw the greatest Z bank I had ever seen or heard of. I had ran a few racks and decided it was time to let the other fellow swing a stick. He had a magic break working though so I didn't want him to pocket anything. I placed the cue ball about one inch off the foot rail and frozen against my ball at a slight angle fencing in the cue ball. He had to hit the foot rail with a lot of side to hit one of his balls in front of the side or far corner pocket. I figured he would get a legal hit but both pockets were solidly blocked by my balls.

There were at least ten balls still on the table and he held his stick working on angles for a couple minutes. I figured much ado about nothing, so many balls to run into if he wasn't perfect he wasn't likely to thread his way through them and I counted on the english needed to even get off the foot rail to be enough to throw off his shot. He finally shot at the fifteen ball sitting about one diamond out from the corner pocket on the head rail. Eight rail "Z" kick shot counting coming off of the foot rail and head rail with shallow kisses. The fifteen ball was hit perfectly but the cue ball was out of steam and the fifteen stayed up, jawed in the pocket.

Even with the fifteen hanging it ranks as the greatest shot I have ever seen played in a game. The young fellow called himself Johnny Archer. He acted like I should know the name. I didn't, but he sure looked like a fellow that became a lot better known in the next decade!

Hu
 

Double-Dave

Developing cue-addict
Silver Member
I play 8-ball league with a couple of guys that shoot pretty straight. One of them, arguably the straightest shooter, gets lucky quite often because the league we play isn't call-shot and he generally hits the balls pretty firm.

One time however, takes the cake by a mile. He still has 3 yellows all around the rack area and he shoots one of them, again quite firm but not blasting. He misses the intended pocket and flukes ALL 3 of his yellows in that same single shot. None of them were within a foot of a pocket.

He felt a bit unlucky since he did not have great position on the black.....

Later on that evening he was feeling a bit guilty for all his fluking and shot the 8 (the 8 is call shot) into the side real quick and missed it. It hit both points of the middle, went across the table to the short and long rail and back into the side pocket.
 
Last edited:

KCRack'em

I'm not argumentative!!!!
Silver Member
I came up short trying to draw the cue ball for an 8-ball leave and was blocked from hitting it or kicking at it. So I kicked away from it and used English to reverse the cue ball off the rail. I hit the 8 and banked it cross side into the center of the pocket with just enough speed to drop it. My opponent jumped off his bar stool and yelled, "Oh my god! Let me buy you a beer." We were playing partners, and my partner didn't even flinch. His excuse: "You looked confident, so I wasn't surprised when you made it."
 

j2pac

Marital Slow Learner.
Staff member
Moderator
Gold Member
Silver Member
Had to kick the cue long rail into the object ball to make an approximately 45 degree cut into the side pocket. The object ball was approximately 13 or so inches from the side. :)
 

mr3cushion

Regestered User
Silver Member
A tough 3C two and out

In the 90's at a tournament in South Florida, I was playing a player from NYC, his name was, Sixto. Going to 50 points, we both needed 2 points. If I win the game, I win the event, if I lose I come in 2nd place to Carlos Hallon.

This is the position I faced to try and play position for 2 points!

The shot had to be hit very thin to control the 2nd ball, along with a extreme soft finesse draw to just score on the red for position. I hit it perfect as diagrammed for a easy natural off the white for the 50th point!

Tough2andout.jpg
 

TEAM SLO

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
My son Jin at Nationals last year did a jump shot I was really against. Well a couple through the event but he made them. No coaching so naturally I couldnt say no or just kick it.

This specific one is at 1m into the video he gets hook by the side pocket with 7 ball froze to the long rail. Jumps and makes his shot with a draw back for the combo win on this game.

2018 BEF Nationals
 

sjm

Older and Wiser
Silver Member
OK, we're going back to the 1970's here, when players often left their cigarettes on the rails. I was not a smoker and found it annoying, but I always tolerated it.

... but once upon a time, during a ring game, I hit a shot so hard that the object ball came out of the corner pocket, went along the short rail and knocked off both of the cigarettes that had been left there. Though I didn't mention it at the time, it was a shot of which I was quite proud.
 
Top