Fun one pocket drill

Tin Man · Apr 14, 2019

I'm sure I'm not the first to have thought of this, but tonight I tried something new. I threw three balls on the table, took ball in hand, and then I had to run them all in the same pocket. I could pick any pocket and shoot them in any order.

Man, this should be a prop bet, I'm probably tearing up money by talking about this. It was much tougher than I expected!

So many times there was a ball near a pocket with the other two balls up table, meaning I'd have to shoot the near hanger first and then play short side on two balls on the opposite end of the table. Or balls would end up on opposite side rails. I've only tried it a handful of times, maybe I got bad spreads and I'm actually a favorite here. All I know is that it was a very interesting challenge.

Sharing this for two reasons. One, I'm just surprised something so simple was so new and interesting to me. Two, the types of run outs that I experienced were very similar to one pocket end games where you have one ball guaranteed but in which stealing another ball or two turns a 50/50 game into a lock. Great types of position plays and shots to practice.

Try it and let me know what you think!

jay helfert · Apr 14, 2019

Tin Man said:
I'm sure I'm not the first to have thought of this, but tonight I tried something new. I threw three balls on the table, took ball in hand, and then I had to run them all in the same pocket. I could pick any pocket and shoot them in any order.

Man, this should be a prop bet, I'm probably tearing up money by talking about this. It was much tougher than I expected!

So many times there was a ball near a pocket with the other two balls up table, meaning I'd have to shoot the near hanger first and then play short side on two balls on the opposite end of the table. Or balls would end up on opposite side rails. I've only tried it a handful of times, maybe I got bad spreads and I'm actually a favorite here. All I know is that it was a very interesting challenge.

Sharing this for two reasons. One, I'm just surprised something so simple was so new and interesting to me. Two, the types of run outs that I experienced were very similar to one pocket end games where you have one ball guaranteed but in which stealing another ball or two turns a 50/50 game into a lock. Great types of position plays and shots to practice.

Try it and let me know what you think!

Great drill! So many One Pocket games come down to the last three balls, both players needing two.

Tin Man · Apr 14, 2019

Thanks Jay!

OK, so I've tried it a bit more now. I definitely think a good player has the best of it over a reasonable sample size, but it isn't easy.

I think it's good for me because there are a lot of shots that come up that I really work around in my rotation game. In 9 ball or 10 ball I am rarely shooting balls near pockets short side to the opposite end of the table. In this game frequently your first shot with ball in hand is such a shot. Furthermore, you can't always cinch it, but instead need a little angle and punch follow to bring the cue ball up table or across table. Accuracy is needed. I have always been more of a position player than a sharp shooter so for me these can be challenging. I missed ball in hand twice in a race to five.

It's funny, I actually got the feel I was playing one pocket. You kind of go into a ball for ball mode, can't miss, just want to gobble up one more ball, then give yourself a chance to steal another after that. The shots that came up all felt like one pocket shots. Back cuts up table to slide over to land short side on another ball with an angle to drop down to the end rail for the third, etc.

OK, enough. Doable, but tough and interesting. I still think I can trap someone with this. Maybe four balls is the number at which it becomes a heist. I'll try that tomorrow.

noMoreSchon · Apr 14, 2019

When practising I play using one pocket, when I miss, choose a different one. Same thing just

more balls. Go back and forth, you will start to see patterns that normally don't come up

in any other game.

evergruven · Apr 15, 2019

Tin Man said:
I'm sure I'm not the first to have thought of this, but tonight I tried something new. I threw three balls on the table, took ball in hand, and then I had to run them all in the same pocket. I could pick any pocket and shoot them in any order.

Man, this should be a prop bet, I'm probably tearing up money by talking about this. It was much tougher than I expected!

So many times there was a ball near a pocket with the other two balls up table, meaning I'd have to shoot the near hanger first and then play short side on two balls on the opposite end of the table. Or balls would end up on opposite side rails. I've only tried it a handful of times, maybe I got bad spreads and I'm actually a favorite here. All I know is that it was a very interesting challenge.

Sharing this for two reasons. One, I'm just surprised something so simple was so new and interesting to me. Two, the types of run outs that I experienced were very similar to one pocket end games where you have one ball guaranteed but in which stealing another ball or two turns a 50/50 game into a lock. Great types of position plays and shots to practice.

Try it and let me know what you think!

tm, I'm a relative novice at most games, 1-p in particular, but I tried this drill and found it fun/challenging to try and get behind balls up table..thanks for adding to my masochism

Fun one pocket drill

Tin Man

AzB Gold Member

jay helfert

Shoot Pool, not people

Tin Man

AzB Gold Member

noMoreSchon

AzB Silver Member

evergruven

AzB Silver Member