How to offer weight to friends and family.

Bishop

Bishop

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I play with family and friends two days a week. I pretty much handle them with ease. Too easy.

With 8-ball they typically have a good 4 to 6 balls left when I finish them out. Since if you win you continue to play I'm finding myself on the table for 30+ games in a row or 2-3 hours. 9 ball is a bit tighter but they aren't too interested in anything other than 8-ball. I take breaks every now and then but I don't want to offend anyone by offering them some weight to keep it closer and give me some tighter competition.

I guess they don't think their speed is too much behind mine, considering they just say I'm hot or in stroke everytime. I don't want to come off as too pompous or arrogant but I'm losing interest in these weekly meetings. Its somewhat of a standing deal.....the women chit chat and the boys play, its not something I can call off.

Anyone go through this or have any suggestions?
 
Bishop said:
I play with family and friends two days a week. I pretty much handle them with ease. Too easy.

With 8-ball they typically have a good 4 to 6 balls left when I finish them out. Since if you win you continue to play I'm finding myself on the table for 30+ games in a row or 2-3 hours. 9 ball is a bit tighter but they aren't too interested in anything other than 8-ball. I take breaks every now and then but I don't want to offend anyone by offering them some weight to keep it closer and give me some tighter competition.

I guess they don't think their speed is too much behind mine, considering they just say I'm hot or in stroke everytime. I don't want to come off as too pompous or arrogant but I'm losing interest in these weekly meetings. Its somewhat of a standing deal.....the women chit chat and the boys play, its not something I can call off.

Anyone go through this or have any suggestions?
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If I play 8-ball with my dad or my brothers, who do not play much, I will usually shoot my balls in rotation and give them free fouls (no bih after bad hit or no rail, etc.). You don't have to tell them what you're doing, and if they're not watching closely, they may not even notice it. If they do mention it, you can simply say that you prefer the rotation games, and you're practicing for that. Dunno, could possibly be a good way to make the game more interesting for you without hurting anyone's pride too badly, like you probably would do by beating them one-handed. :D
 
Find new friends who are better at pool.

Buy them books and tapes.

Offer them lessons.

Get real liquored up, then see if you can compete.

Shoot one handed.

Shoot opposite handed.

Instead of holding the table, play an equal amount as they do, win or lose.
 
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Some suggestions on things I have tried:

1) Let them start every inning with ball in hand.

2) Play nineball with them, only they are allowed to shoot any ball in any order as long as they play the nine last. Sort of like they play eightball and you play nineball.

3) Make your game harder. Play two and stop. Or you shoot every other shot opposite handed. Or you have to bank every ball. or bank the 9.

After trying them all out, number 2) works best for me. It makes it so that the opposition always seems to be making balls. They might still lose most of the games but they are actively shooting at least.
 
Aaron_S said:
If I play 8-ball with my dad or my brothers, who do not play much, I will usually shoot my balls in rotation and give them free fouls (no bih after bad hit or no rail, etc.). You don't have to tell them what you're doing, and if they're not watching closely, they may not even notice it. If they do mention it, you can simply say that you prefer the rotation games, and you're practicing for that. Dunno, could possibly be a good way to make the game more interesting for you without hurting anyone's pride too badly, like you probably would do by beating them one-handed. :D
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Thats a pretty good idea. Shooting in order would pose a bigger challenge for me and I doubt they'd catch on too quickly. Thanks. Anyone else got any personal type challenges I try. Banking every shot would just be too obvious.
 
Playing your balls in rotation is a good way.

Also, I will play a game called (Call your next pocket). Rather than calling the ball you are shooting now, you can call your next shot, or you next 2 shots, or 3 etc, depending how good you really are. If I play like this and don't have to break any balls out, I will call my whole runout, every pocket, every ball, what order, and stick to it. This is a good way to practice as well.

You can also give them 2 or 3 misses to your 1.
 
If you've got friends and family who like to play pool regularly, it could be a lot worse!
 
Bishop said:
... Anyone go through this or have any suggestions?
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I started playing with three friends. I spent a lot more time at it, so it wasn't long before we couldn't really play together. Their only hope was when I scratched on purpose.

I think doubles is probably the best way to keep it social. Alternate shot if possible, and with rotating partners after each game -- the person who sold out is the partner of the person who won.
 
Bishop said:
I play with family and friends two days a week. I pretty much handle them with ease. Too easy.

With 8-ball they typically have a good 4 to 6 balls left when I finish them out. Since if you win you continue to play I'm finding myself on the table for 30+ games in a row or 2-3 hours. 9 ball is a bit tighter but they aren't too interested in anything other than 8-ball. I take breaks every now and then but I don't want to offend anyone by offering them some weight to keep it closer and give me some tighter competition.

I guess they don't think their speed is too much behind mine, considering they just say I'm hot or in stroke everytime. I don't want to come off as too pompous or arrogant but I'm losing interest in these weekly meetings. Its somewhat of a standing deal.....the women chit chat and the boys play, its not something I can call off.

Anyone go through this or have any suggestions?
Click to expand...

yea play opposite handed
 
8 ball

When I play 8 ball at home with family or friends I like to play to 100 points. Each ball pocketed is 1 point and the 8 ball is worth 3 points. The winner always gets 10 points and the loser will get 1 point for each ball pocketed. If you're playing a weak player try spotting him or her 50 points. If they win theres always a smile on their face. This way both can try hard and the weaker player can use this as a guide to see how they play. After a while 50 points might be too much of a spot.
 
Shooting opposite handed is not only a equalizer but a great way to improve your game. It brings you back to the very basics of your stance setup alignment etc. not to mention how valuable it is to be able to switch over to opposite hand when the situation arises. Depending of the levels of play involved you may lose for awhile but I believe that it will be worth it in the long run.

Steve
 
Social ill

I agree with opposite hand. Depending on your familys level of play and understanding of the game, a spot may be seen as insulting. I suppose it is all how you prepose it. I know I would rather play someone heads up and lose, than get a spot and win.... (Unless Wagering);)

I like the rotation idea, you could also play last pocket on the 8 ball without drawing a lot of attention to yourself.

Offering them help and books is nice, but only if they want to learn. Otherwise I see it as falling on deaf ears. "When the student is ready, the master will appear".

FWIW
 
Give them x number of "free" ball-in-hands for each game. Better players get one free ball-in-hand they can use anytime during the game. Bad players get 5 free ball-in-hands. Young kids get ball-in-hand for every shot (they can't reach balls in center of table).

And/or give them x number of free shots they can use at any time during the game. So say they miss a shot, they can go again and use up one of their free shots.

I try to encourage them to shoot softly and leave their balls near a pocket. Then their next shots will be easy. So instead of taking 9 shots to try to make 3 balls, hitting hard and always leaving the balls in a bad spot, and STILL missing.... Take 3 soft shots to move the balls closer to a pocket, then use the next 3 shots to pocket the balls. So they should be able to make 3 balls with 6 shots this way.

Also if you can runout easily, don't pocket any balls intentionally until your opponent has made all his/her balls and has had one shot on the 8. Then try to runout and win. They will get lucky and win every once and awhile keeping them happy. And the pressure is on for you to runout all your balls before they can make the 8.

While you are waiting for them to make all their balls, shoot at your balls to leave the cue ball so your opponent has easy shots. This is good position practice. Also use your balls to break out your opponents clusters so they have easy shots. Or use your balls to move your opponent's balls closer to the pockets. It also helps to move your balls to one end of the table away from your opponent's balls so nothing is blocking their shots.

Basically with each shot you have, set things up so your opponent has easy shots. If you can do this, then when playing a good player, you can easily move your balls to a spot which will cause problems! Good practice for 8-ball while you are waiting for them to pocket their balls.
 
Also I might add that it does a beginner NO good to have one shot and then watch a better player runout time and time again.

You have the better player pocketing eight balls per game and getting lots of practice. Then you have the beginner attempting to pocket one or two balls and missing. Beginner gets little or no practice - does not improve, better player gets lots of practice and improves even more!

The beginners need time under their belt pocketing balls.

So I insist that they shoot in all their remaining balls on the table after I win. Then they get practice pocketing balls and they improve.
 
I agree that many of the spots may seem condescending to the family, that has been my experience as well. The answer in my basement is to play 'golf-on-a-pool-table'. In this game the best players spend the least time at the table, and the worst player spends the most time at the table. A maximum stroke-per-hole rule is built into my game so that the real hacks cannot hog the table ;) .

Here is a reference to an earlier thread discussing this game.

http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=45123

Dave
 
Shooting your shots in rotation is good and stealthy most of the time. Also, shoot banks at times when you don't really have to, only good players detect this generally. Another one is to try and jaw your last ball or the eight with draw into a corner pocket. Givem one more chance with most of your traffic out of the way. Hard to detect.
 
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