Been trying to remember some bar tables I played on in the late sixties and early seventies. The side pockets were to be avoided except for the easiest shots. Made my bones on one of those tables when I was fifteen. Always some strange traffic in the topless joint with four or six challenge tables but there was a little group of regulars and a couple three dancers that played every night. Never forget a girl built like a brick shithouse and a very good pool player. Add that she was playing "in uniform" and she was very tough competition, especially for a fifteen year old!
I was playing a fairly recently retired pro boxer out of Houston when I hooked myself on one of his balls shooting the eight ball. Didn't want any misunderstanding so I ambled over where he was talking in a group of regulars and told him the plan was to kick off of the end rail, hit my ball, then carom off of his ball about a foot from the side pocket to make the eight in the side. No question it was a legal shot but William wasn't a guy I wanted a misunderstanding with! After I had explained the shot everyone was watching when I knocked it in like it was on rails. That one shot announced I could run with the big dogs, at least in that little bar.
Those old tables were a lot like an old snooker table I played on later. What would be the much tougher shot on most tables was the easier shot on them. I started banking on the snooker table just to get better angles on the side pockets. Despite the old axiom sometimes banks were easier shots than cuts on the snooker tables or those old bar tables. No doubt in my mind.
When I "see" the bank and the cut seems iffy, I am banking. Nothing worse than taking the shot playing the odds when there is another shot I like better at the moment and missing. Sometimes smart pool just ain't.
Hu
