WildECoyote, when the roadrunners beating ya down and your standing there with the ACME anvil about to drop on your head don't despare.. If you take my advice and it works I expect a small commission check in the mail at some point in the future.
Now I've been critisized on here for my viewpoints on here in the past for two things in particular with regards to gambling. So I've been a little hesitant to put anything on here that might be "controversial" but being that (If I'm reading this right) some people implied that you should flat shit rack the guy if things are going down hill, I figure the critizers will probably go after them before me..
In the situation that you just described above, I read it as your playing "the best player around" with the 8 ball and at some point you "didn't need the spot" becuase you were killing him and all of a sudden the tides changed.
So there's alot of different angles we can approach this with.. When you were beating the guy there's a chance you were playing "Over your head." By that I mean better then your average game. Or there's a chance that he was playing Below his average game, where you would've beat him with or without the spot. We could go on with all the mumbo jumbo all day long on the psychology of the set itself, and whether or not it was you that lost the edge, or him that caught a gear (which I hope this thread does get into later becuase I find that kinda stuff purely fascinating) but lets focus on some simple things to just kinda turn the tide in the middle of a set.
As someone said it before change the rack.. Now I'm not a big believer in shit racking, point in fact if I'm playing sets and I accidentally shit rack a guy and they break funny I'm always the 1st to offer to rerack and let them break again. As a machinist though I am a believer in "margin of error" or "tolerances" LOL.. So lets focus on some basic racking tricks.
Your playing cheap and your plaing all day. Realize that the "spot" on the table is about an inch long.. You control where the rack sits on that spot. Typically if it's sitting with the 1 ball dead center thats where it "should" be. But if you push it forward to where the apex of the one is meeting the front of that spot it's within "tolerance." Players will usually say something if you go towards the back of the spot, but amazingly will almost never say something if you go forward with it.
Pay attention to where you rack.. Typically (It's amazing) if you actually just sat there and racked and measured where YOU put them, you'd be amazed at how close the repeatabillity of where YOU put it is.. Your opponent has now developed a break based upon that baseline. When your racking, your all of a sudden having trouble getting the balls to settle (if ya know what I'm saying) and adjust the rack forward a hair (A hair can = up to a half an inch, but usually a 1/4 inch is fine).. or Back a hair, doesn't matter just don't keep putting it in the same spot. Unless you find one that's working for you (not him)
Now onto some more things.. Most players when they are racking will take the two balls below the wing balls and rotate them into the rack to get the rack tight. Reverse the rotation of those two balls. You want to push them into the rack same as you always do, but rotate them out and away from the rack, this will cause them to settle in just a slightly different spot. Goto a pool hall and rack both ways and break the same way, and you'll see what I'm saying. They break considerably different. People might argue that this isn't going to do shit for you. Even if it's on some mental level that you feel your gaining an edge and that's it, that helps..
Alot of players will grab the one stick it in the front of the rack, and random balls everywhere with the 9 in the middle. What they don't realize is in alot of cases on a more subconscious level they are actually sticking a few balls in the same place in the rack everytime. Again rack a rack the same way a few times, and watch where the balls go. When you get a feel for where their going, adjust the balls in the rack to make it more suited to you. Going to be playing defense? Then rack the 2 in the front the 3 in the back corner, the 5 on the tail, the 6 in the front etc.. Offense? (run out game) etc.. etc..
The most obvious, but also one of the most effective is to change the tempo of the game. Speeding up rarely works as the slower player is generally controlling the "tempo" of the game. Slow it down a click, and once you get back in the groove, but throw them off kilter so to speak then return back to the normal tempo of the game.
There's age old sharking tricks (see sharking thread) but if you save it for emergencies only (as in the keyball in the rack in every 2nd or 3rd game) if you do the ole stare in the whites of there eyes when their shooting you'd be amazed at how often it works. Again not in their line of sight, but periferral vision. I firmly believe that this works on a subconscious level. Think about it, you can almost "feel" somebody staring at you even if you can't see them.
When all hell is breaking loose though and your falling apart at the seems.. The all time smartest move you can do is go to the bathroom, throw a little water on your face and calm down. Realize it's just a game and not the end of the world at the end of the day, and come up with some mantra that works for you. Repeat it into the mirror once or twice and now that your cool, calm and collected (and dry.. don't want to walk out looking like your sweating bullets) return. Sometimes even a 1 minute break can mean the difference between choking it up, or running em out. As far as Mantra's don't use anything "negative." I've read that your subconscious DOES NOT understand negatives.. I.E. If you say "Don't screw this up" your subconscious says "Screw this up." So becareful with your wording, especially if your one of those "having a conversation in your head while your shooting" type of players. Use phrases like "this is easy" in your head while shooting on 9 balls. The mantra in the bathroom, well you know yourself better then anyone else soooo, use your best judgement. Some suggestions though "I'm better then this guy, and I'm going to take every damn penny he's got on him, and then buy his girl drinks with his money." LOL.. I'm joking but seriously, just say whatever it's gonna take for you to realize that YOU ARE IN CONTROL OF YOUR OWN DESTINY on a pool table. Unless the guy is ridiculously better then you (which it doesn't sound like he is) then your losing on your mistakes, not on his unbelievable skill. Limit the mistakes, and make him have a few of his own.
Hope that helps, if nothing else atleast you know your not alone.. LOL
DJ
