Dogging The Match Ball

[cuetechasaurus]

Has anyone ever seen a pro miss a very easy shot on the game ball when it was hill-hill in a tournament or gambling? Like a short straight in shot, and somehow they just dogged it? I've done it before because I got really nervous. I've seen tons of pro matches and I've never seen them really dog it. I'm just curious how human these guys are. Does anyone know of a really famous incident where this happened, and how did the pro react?

 

[nibrobus]

Keith McCready vs. Alex Pagulayan
2003 U.S. Open

Keith misses a straight in shot with the object ball about 3 feet from the pocket and the cue ball about 2 feet from the object ball. He goes on to win the match after it goes hill-hill though. You can see the shot on the Efren Reyes vs. Francisco Bustamante tape available through http://www.accu-stats.com

 

[gregory]

Not on match ball, but these seem appropriate.

Hohmann vs. Gabe in US Open finals. 9-ball on spot, cue ball lined up straight (perhaps on rail) for corner pocket. In practice, he makes that shot the next 1000 times he tries it. I think it was 1st (or maybe 2nd) rack, but it gave Gabe huge momentum, and i believe Hohmann is 4 or 5 racks down next time he gets to the table. I really think Hohmann lost the match right there.

Also, in Corey's match with mika, Corey he hits the most incredible stroke shot I've ever seen outside of trick shot magic. A few balls later he is straight in on 9 from a couple of feet and dogs it. makes the shot of the tourny and then misses the easy 9. I can't recall who ended up winning.

Tonight I saw end of Busta/Earl 2001 WPmasters. Wow Earl looks so young without his 'stache. Busta on the hill has this shot. He's out from there 99% of the time:
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He wasn't even close. THe 6 ball went into the rail around the 1st diamond. Earl was seated right in the line of the camera, and when the shot misses, he has this look of utter astonishment. No smile or anything to indicate he's happy Busta missed--it's just this look of incredulity--he looks totally dumbfounded, like he never could have imagined Busta missing.

6 ball winds up about where it started with cueball at A. Earl has that shot to get on the hill--a little harder, but still very makable. He misses and leaves this.
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which Busta leaves short and in the jaws and Earl gets out to go hill-hill.

How did Busta react. At the time, he holds his cue in the air behind his head and perhaps wanted to snap it in half, but instead .....

Final rack, Earl's break comes up dry. Busta plays safety, Earl escapes, and Busta makes this shot. Cue ball is frozen to 6ball. He (clearly intentionally--no fluke) plays the cue ball off the 1, off the rail, into the 3, off the 3 into the 5 and sinks the 5. He gets easy shape on the 1 and gets out to win.

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How do you make that shot and miss the 6 in the last rack?

Even less related to your topic, remember the 2 or 3 times Wu miscued applying draw in WPC finals. But by the end he seemed to overcome the jitters when he ran the final 5(?) racks.

I'm not trying to dis' the pros. I do all of these mistakes all the time so it's not noteworthy when I screw up, but it's always a shock to see them do it.

 

[gregory]

Keith McCready vs. Alex Pagulayan
2003 U.S. Open

Keith misses a straight in shot with the object ball about 3 feet from the pocket and the cue ball about 2 feet from the object ball. He goes on to win the match after it goes hill-hill though. You can see the shot on the Efren Reyes vs. Francisco Bustamante tape available through http://www.accu-stats.com

JAM recently posted about that shot.

Of course, I will NEVER forget the 2003 U.S. Open, the match between Keith and Alex Pagulayan. Due to Tropical Storm Isabel, the Chesapeake Conference Center lost power for a couple days, and so on Saturday, they had back-to-back matches all day long until the wee hours of the morning. Keith and Alex were trading quips, and the crowd was electrified and glued to their table. Marcus Chamat and Mika Immonen were sitting across the room high in the bleacher seats, and Marcus was laughing so hard, he fell out of his seat. I'm not sure what happened that day, but it seemed like the whole room was zeroed in on their game. The TV table had Bustamante and Efren, of all people, battling it out, and they actually stopped shooting until the Alex-Keith match concluded because of the cheering and laughing from the stands.

Now, Keith climbs his way to the hill and is getting ready to fire a nice easy straight-in 9-ball for a very important win. He looks up at the crowd and says, "You can put this on the Internet," one-strokes the ball and misses. An InsidePOOL writer was sitting tableside and yelled back, "We will." I was sitting next to Buddy Hall and said, "Buddy, what can I do?," and Buddy said, "Jennie, there's not much you can do except hope that Keith gets another shot at the table." I was mad as the dickens.

I think the last game, Alex needed two and Keith was on the hill, if memory serves me right. Alex had the break, spread 'em out like a flower, pocketing a couple balls. Thinking he had it made in the shade, Alex then chuckled and uttered a few words, "A nice easy run-out, Keith," and he proceeded to run a few, but, out of the blue, came up with an uncharacteristic miss. Keith couldn't wait to get back to the table, and fortunately -- and I mean very fortunately -- he ran 'em out for that HUGE almighty win.

 

[wahcheck]

pros dogging

I've seen a pretty famous match where Nick Varner dogged a side pocket shot on the 9-ball for the match against Mike Sigel....luckily tho' for Varner the cue ball came back around and froze to the 9....Sigel was so disgusted that he kinda blasted the 9 and fouled, giving Varner ball in hand and the match.....

The other one I remember (both of these are on Accu-stats tapes), was when Rudolpho Luat dogged a straight in 9-ball against Earl Strickland for the match, and Strickland made some fantastic shots to win the next 2 games and the match.......can't remember what tournaments these were in tho'...

 

[jsp]

If it weren't for Hohmann's dogged shot, Wu would never have become the WPC 8ball champion this year. Hohmann uncharacteristically one-stroked his final straight-in 8ball on a hill-hill match with Wu, and Hohmann supposedly missed by a wide margin. Wu eventually won that rack, the match, and the whole tournament. If Hohmann didn't dog that shot, then Wu most likely wouldn't be a main contender for player of the year honors. I'd call that a very famous (or infamous) dogged shot.

 

[mjantti]

I've seen a pretty famous match where Nick Varner dogged a side pocket shot on the 9-ball for the match against Mike Sigel....luckily tho' for Varner the cue ball came back around and froze to the 9....Sigel was so disgusted that he kinda blasted the 9 and fouled, giving Varner ball in hand and the match.....
.

Seen the climax of that match. What makes this even more amazing is that during that period of time, Sigel was almost unbeatable, and Varner mounted a huge comeback from 9-2 down I think to level it all up at 10-10. Varner made some amazing kick shots during the comeback, only to miss a relatively simple cut in the middle bag and get one of the luckiest rolls I've ever seen in hill-hill ! He just didn't leave Sigel anything, no shot, no safety. And Sigel blasted through the 9-ball so hard to make the cueball jumped off the table.

 

[axejunkie]

That Strickland-Luat match was caught on tape during the Archer-Reyes match at the 95 Sands. Strickland ties it up at 10-10 and then makes some crazy jump combination after Luat played safe at hill-hill. Some great tension in both those matches; I'd recommend that tape.