Reposted from RSB...
This past Friday I finally got a chance to try out some three cushion.
A friend and I visited a local Vietnamese billiard room. All-in-all it was pretty clean and there were not many players in the room. The players that were there were playing some sort of game with little "pins" setup around the table. The object looked like kind of a straight rail type game, but knocking these "pins" over was not allowed. Unlike straight rail, however, it looked like they were allowed to bank the object ball into the other cue ball.
We picked up the three balls from the counter. They gave us two white cue balls (one with a red dot) and a red object ball (is that what you call it). We started playing, but I got confused quickly between the two cue balls (mentally), so we traded in one of the white cueballs for a yellow cue ball, which made keeping track of each others' cue ball much easier.
There were about 8 or 9 billiard tables in the room along with a single pool table. The tables were all 9' tables and definitely not heated. The tables seemed very slow... in fact, it almost seemed they were slower than the 9' tables at my local poolhall. Either these tables were extremely slow or 3C players must hit super hard.
So, we got down to business. We decided to jump right into 3C. Boy do I have some respect for 3C players. Hitting a ball, going 3 rails, and then hitting the other ball is no easy task. It's no wonder that scoring once every other turn is considered good. I think we scored an average of about once every 15-20 turns. Most of our shots were scored by hitting a ball, going three rails, and then hitting another ball. I don't think we ever scored by hitting any rails first, hitting another ball, and then hitting more rails, and hitting the last ball. Only once did we hit 3 rails and then hit the other two balls (my score!). The high run was 2 (not by me).
We later tried some straight rail. It was a little easier, but it was obvious that we were not great at this game either. We played to 50 points. The high run was 5 I believe (I did 4).
Some things of interest...
Going more than 4 rails was incredibly tough. Maybe it was the table.
Drawing the balls seemed pretty tough. Perhaps the balls being heavier had something to do with it.
Hitting a ball thin played quite differently than hitting a pool ball thin. When I hit the ball thin, it definitely seemd to go at a shallower angle. When playing with pool balls, feathering a ball requires an ultra-thin cut. With these balls, I didn't have to hit them as thin to get that feathering action. Several times I tried to thinly cut the ball, only to have it come out at a very shallow angle and very differently than I expected.
Anyhow, it was very interesting to say the least. Another guy I know told me about a place that has some real 10' heated tables. Maybe I'll give that a try and see if I fare any better.
With anything, I'm sure just playing more will improve my gave a bit... especially when it comes to learning how the balls react with each other.
I recommend other pool players give it a try... and I think you'll have a little more respect for those that play 3C well.
This past Friday I finally got a chance to try out some three cushion.
A friend and I visited a local Vietnamese billiard room. All-in-all it was pretty clean and there were not many players in the room. The players that were there were playing some sort of game with little "pins" setup around the table. The object looked like kind of a straight rail type game, but knocking these "pins" over was not allowed. Unlike straight rail, however, it looked like they were allowed to bank the object ball into the other cue ball.
We picked up the three balls from the counter. They gave us two white cue balls (one with a red dot) and a red object ball (is that what you call it). We started playing, but I got confused quickly between the two cue balls (mentally), so we traded in one of the white cueballs for a yellow cue ball, which made keeping track of each others' cue ball much easier.
There were about 8 or 9 billiard tables in the room along with a single pool table. The tables were all 9' tables and definitely not heated. The tables seemed very slow... in fact, it almost seemed they were slower than the 9' tables at my local poolhall. Either these tables were extremely slow or 3C players must hit super hard.
So, we got down to business. We decided to jump right into 3C. Boy do I have some respect for 3C players. Hitting a ball, going 3 rails, and then hitting the other ball is no easy task. It's no wonder that scoring once every other turn is considered good. I think we scored an average of about once every 15-20 turns. Most of our shots were scored by hitting a ball, going three rails, and then hitting another ball. I don't think we ever scored by hitting any rails first, hitting another ball, and then hitting more rails, and hitting the last ball. Only once did we hit 3 rails and then hit the other two balls (my score!). The high run was 2 (not by me).
We later tried some straight rail. It was a little easier, but it was obvious that we were not great at this game either. We played to 50 points. The high run was 5 I believe (I did 4).
Some things of interest...
Going more than 4 rails was incredibly tough. Maybe it was the table.
Drawing the balls seemed pretty tough. Perhaps the balls being heavier had something to do with it.
Hitting a ball thin played quite differently than hitting a pool ball thin. When I hit the ball thin, it definitely seemd to go at a shallower angle. When playing with pool balls, feathering a ball requires an ultra-thin cut. With these balls, I didn't have to hit them as thin to get that feathering action. Several times I tried to thinly cut the ball, only to have it come out at a very shallow angle and very differently than I expected.
Anyhow, it was very interesting to say the least. Another guy I know told me about a place that has some real 10' heated tables. Maybe I'll give that a try and see if I fare any better.
With anything, I'm sure just playing more will improve my gave a bit... especially when it comes to learning how the balls react with each other.
I recommend other pool players give it a try... and I think you'll have a little more respect for those that play 3C well.
