Problem Balls vs Annoying Balls

"Annoying" balls is a term Steve Lipsky used awhile back to describe balls that are just that -- ones you need to get rid of, but only after the REAL problem balls are taken care of. I think it is a great concept to keep in mind.

I often have a ball or two uptable, which I consider annoying, but not a problem. As a result, I often end up with this ball still sitting around near the end of the rack. While I might still have a good ending pattern, having this ball still on the table causes me to have much longer cue ball travel at the end of the run. Here's an example I had recently (I'm left handed):

http://CueTable.com/P/?@4DRRa3EMDX2...kbGo3kAIk4lAQm4lQcJ4lbXT4lJaX4mJJX3mHTl3mOmF@

The first shot is the 11 (the "annoying" ball that has been there since early on). Cue ball goes A, B for the break on the 5. Pretty much stop-stop, but lots of cue ball travel.

I don't know if it is just my table, but I end up with a ball near the 11 very often after the break. It really forces me to remove it under 1 of 3 scenarios. 1 - get it early, which usually requires a longer, riskier shot; 2 - get it in the middle of the rack, which often messes up a nice clean up pattern at the foot end of the table, or 3 - wait until the end and deal with lots of cue ball movement at the end of the rack.

I don't like balls at the head of the table. For now, because of the "annoying" ball concept, I leave them for later. What's your take?

dwhite

3andstop said:

Dan, I understand what you mean. For me I think I'd be more likely to let those balls linger if there were a few of them up there. I consider one lone ball to be a big problem that needs to be addressed once enough balls are removed at the other end so that the cue ball movement (after making the lone ball) back down table, doesn't run as high a risk of getting locked up on something. Maybe 7 or so balls down table and I'm going to really devote attention to getting that upstream ball off the table.

Click to expand...

I'd say this is mostly how I'm playing them now. However, if I see an opportunity to work that ball into an ending pattern as in this example, I'm starting to do that more. I'm not sure which option is better, which is why I started this topic. I do know that it just doesn't feel right to have such long shots at the end of the rack, be they stop shots or not.

just looking for opinions,
dwhite

mjantti said:

I feel that many times it's not a bad idea to leave 1-3 balls in the head area of the table as insurance balls as long as they are not near the head short rail. But I'm not really comfortable leaving just one ball there. Usually it helps if there is a ball near the middle pocket to play a stun shot position for from those balls. If you are not afraid to leave a long break shot, you can also leave you keyball and the keyball-to-keyball in the head of the table. It's usually quite easy to leave a good angle for the break ball from there but also you will have a tendency to leave longer break balls from there.

Click to expand...

So would you consider the Cuetable layout in this thread a good ending sequence? Would you play to have these last 3 intentionally?

dwhite