8 Ball, What Do You Do?
- Thread starter dfweyer
- Start date
I think I could make that 2 or 3 times out of ten, almost as good as cutting it into one of the corners, which I would guess I would make 4 or 5 out of ten.
It's interesting that one of my mentors of the game, who is still better than me claims that that follow shot will almost never go and he would never try it. He questioned me once after going for that type of shot when the opponents object ball was right in front of the pocket. I missed in that case, but normally could make that one more than half the time, plus even on the miss, now my ball is blocking the pocket instead of his.
He didn't even have the concept of hitting it fairly softly with draw on the cue to impart follow on my object ball.
This shot is on one of the cards in the Monks deck of pool shot cards. With a little bit of practice I was making this 50% of the time. You've exaggerated the lines a bit in this drawing though. It never gets that far away from the side pockets. Also, as someone else pointed out, I wouldn't want to try this on an unfamiliar table without being able to practice it 5 or 10 times first.
For me, this is a low percentage shot. I tend to hit it a bit too hard, so the 8 would not be blocking the pocket. If I try too hard to NOT hit it too hard I end up decelerating through the cue ball and may even give up ball in hand because nothing reaches a rail.
I'm still working on getting my stroke to be able to hit softly with good follow through and speed control.
In cases like this, I'm not going to go for an all-out safety when there is no true safety (meaning a hook that could result in BIH) to be had. A safety battle that begins with you leaving your opponent a full ball to hit is very likely to end in his favor, so I would instead look for a two way shot. These three shots offer a chance to win the game, and the first two also offer a chance to cover the easiest pocket for his 8-ball in the case of a miss. While the third one (low outside) doesn't offer a chance to cover his pocket, it does offer a slim chance of hooking or jacking him up with the 8-ball. I am probably taking shot number 2 - cutting at the ball with inside.
Aaron
Aaron
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Here's a dangerous attempt. Shoot the 8 into the 3 cheating the side pocket. Drop the 3 and leave the 8 ball against the rail near the pocket. If you play a stop shot and leave the 8 correctly, your opponent should have a tough shot on the 8. Just a thought.
That was my first thought but I wanted someone else to post it first. Instead of stopping the cue ball I would roll forward a little to make the cross side reverse bank tougher.
Ditto
What he said.Though the speed of the shot might not work for controlling the cue ball,I would bear down on making the 8 in the upper right corner.
What he said.Though the speed of the shot might not work for controlling the cue ball,I would bear down on making the 8 in the upper right corner.
Every time I made this shot, the 8 ball hit more than a diamond from the sidepocket and came back...look at the video for reference
http://youtu.be/vKBS3g5PO_g
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How about this situation...your opponent rattled the 13 ball and left you this on the 8 ball!
TheThaiger
Banned
Looks like a low percentage shot to me. How about kicking it in, with the 8 flicking the 9 if you don't get enough English off the rail?
Or, how about the safety? If the angles there, soft draw with right english off the very edge of the 8, taking the CB into the 13 and potting the 12 as well, with the 9 running down to the bottom rail.
bank the eight off rail then into the back side of the 9, make sure 8 lays on the 12 and you'll have em hooked. You might even kick bank the nine in the side, and then opponent has only one ball to kick at.
These are always hard to judge looking at a screen. But it looks to me like you could just use right-english and some follow to crossover bank the 8 at pocket speed and get the cue to nudge the 9 out of the way. Bonus is that it could leave the 9 and 12 both along the rail on opposite sides of the pocket.
How about this situation...your opponent rattled the 13 ball and left you this on the 8 ball!