Another Classic photo: Fats and Willie

[jay helfert]

The last shot where he looks like he lucked it in. He played that shot 4 rails. He waited much longer then he did on any of the other shots.
Wing shots, all players can do them. Its an odd thing how good you can get at it with a little practice. Jimmy Caras used to put a ball on the spot and wait till the rollong ball past the spotted ball and cut it in behind the spotted ball..

I forget who, but one player would make two lines of balls leading to the pocket forming a runway and shoot the rolling ball through them into the pocket.

Don Willis was the best I ever saw shooting wing shots. He NEVER missed and usually put two balls up table that he had to shoot the object ball between. Maybe they would be two ball widths apart. He could shoot them one handed and with the wing, his cue up in the air. Best of all he could do it for money! His normal bet was that he would make nine out of ten either between the two balls or one handed, take your pick. Somehow he almost always made nine, rarely all ten. Willis was the consummate hustler!

Jimmy Caras was the second best. He'd be shooting them in and talking to the audience at the same time. That's not easy to do.