9ball rules question….

[Black-Balled]

If, with BIH, you can't hit the low-ball directly, you're not on a foul and the 9-ball is hanging, I'd say you have a firm grip on your opponent's nuts. Pocketing the 9-ball only loosens your grip. No matter what, an advanced player is still the strong favorite to win from here but your opponent should be more interested in removing the 9-ball from the jaws of the pocket than you. I would take BIH, deliberately foul by tying up the low-ball even more. If you couldn't hit the low-ball, he should be incapable of doing it too and with BIH, he'll be faced with the choice of deliberately fouling to open-up the 1 WITH a hanging 9 or leave the cluster, put himself on 2 fouls and spot the 9. I'd say that's checkmate.

I will certainly acknowledge that the scenario I laid out has the pusher in the more powerful position, but unless the 9 is removed from the hole, passing the shot back leaves the possibility of a magical shot, like jumping onto the top of the ball and somehow contacting the 9, resulting in a win for the first fouler.

Removing the 9 eliminates the miracle shot's possibility of an immediate win, strengthening the pusher's position further...and IMO, significantly. Like from 95 to 98% :wink:

 

[PETROBOY]

Then you take the intentional foul.

He fouled first, you will recall

But in his layout he setup a 1-9 combo why do that with a push to give up bih and lose? If the one is tied up and cant be hit, an intentional foul is the way to go, pushing out give no advantage that I can see. but really we are talking about this and its not a legal shot anyway so even if there was one table that it would work well it cant be used.