How would you play this shot?

C

Catalin

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
The WCP match between Singapore and Kuwait, minute 33:59. Straight in shot on the 9, cue ball close to the rail. I would 100% roll the cue ball softly, with just enough speed that it doesn't follow the 9 into the pocket. Yes it could deviate from some imperfection on the table, but I like my chances better than firing it in with an elevated cue. How about you?


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I would play it similar to the Singapore player. Soft roll only if the cueball is very close to the rail where I'd have to jack up too much.
 
I think most pros are going to shoot that 9 the way he shot it. Notice that Jeremy said he probably wouldn't roll it before he even got down to shoot.

Yes, having to elevate the cue a little bit does make it more missable (i.e., more missable than if you could hit it firmly without having to elevate your cue), but I think there are more things that can go wrong slow-rolling it.

If the cue ball was out just a couple more inches from the end cushion there's no way you'd see any good player slow roll it, and that would be for the same reasons that he doesn't slow roll it here.
 
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Double-Dave said:
I would play it similar to the Singapore player. Soft roll only if the cueball is very close to the rail where I'd have to jack up too much.
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He hit it right.

Only way to slow roll that ball is if you know the table 100%. Which isn’t the case here. Was a properly hit ball. He missed, it’s difficult no matter what.

Best
Fatboy😃
 
Catalin said:
The WCP match between Singapore and Kuwait, minute 33:59. Straight in shot on the 9, cue ball close to the rail. I would 100% roll the cue ball softly, with just enough speed that it doesn't follow the 9 into the pocket. Yes it could deviate from some imperfection on the table, but I like my chances better than firing it in with an elevated cue. How about you?


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Man, that game was UGLY! Nobody could make the nine ball. It looked like a bunch of bangers from the local bar league. :ROFLMAO:
Shooting the above shot on the nine ball that way only makes it harder to pocket. At that angle, when you hit it hard from a distance that pocket tightens up. Just touch the long rail and it will rattle out, which is exactly what happened. Bad juju there! Sorry to disagree with JJ here, but a good player like Filler or Dennis would hit center ball on the cue ball at moderate speed. Just try to roll it in, and hit the cue ball just firm enough so there is no roll off. One more thing, when you elevate your cue the shot becomes incrementally harder the higher you go. I thought everyone knew that.
 
He cued it right, missed the shot. No one in that spot slow rolls it.

Maybe, just maybe, if you're talking Filler, Gorst, possibly Shaw. They may opt to try and cheat that pocket and hit the shot worth more pace. Of course if they did that and missed we'd have a thread pointing out the bad choice and how jacking up with some stun would have been the better course of action.
 
No way I'm jacking up here unless I don't trust the table. At slowish speed, you won't have the pace to follow it in.

The extent to which accuracy is lost on jacked up shots is something that instructor extraordinaire Mark Wilson has spoken of often.
 
alstl said:
The cue ball left the surface of the table for a diamond or two. Just roll the ball in. He had enough of an angle to avoid the scratch.
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sjm said:
No way I'm jacking up here unless I don't trust the table. At slowish speed, you won't have the pace to follow it in.

The extent to which accuracy is lost on jacked up shots is something that instructor extraordinaire Mark Wilson has spoken of often.
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No reason what he shot shouldn't have worked. However I am in this camp too, just not a natural scratch. You would have to work on it a bit to make it scratch, like hitting the wrong side of the nine.

I would have lowered my stick and trusted the shot not to scratch. One personal consideration if I thought the shot was a natural scratch, I would have considered rail first. The nine is just a little far out from the rail and far from the pocket to make many people like this shot but I have shot rail first thousands of times when I didn't have to. Seems like the sweet spot on the object ball is bigger. I don't know that it is but as a confidence builder perception can be more important than reality!

I think the only mistake the shooter made was mental, worrying about a scratch.

Hu
 
alstl said:
He had enough of an angle to avoid the scratch.
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I don't think so. Jeremy and Karl both said he was too straight to roll the cue ball comfortably (at the moderate speed that Jay suggested, for example), and if you look at the camera angle from the corner pocket it looks like there is a strong possibility he will scratch if he follows with the cue ball. There would be no explanation for why he elevated on the shot if he could have just rolled the cue ball at a comfortable speed, IMO.
 
As I see the shot, if he hits the 9 perfectly straight, it goes in on the side of the pocket. If he rolls the cue ball he has to cut the 9 very slightly to his left to avoid the scratch. I'm more comfortable playing the stop shot. He hit the 9 on the wrong side.
 
Why is everyone worried about roll off on at medium soft speed on a table that has just been set up with new cloth and leveled for tournament play? If you are worried about a piece of chalk on the cloth then just wipe the cloth with your hand before shooting.
 
Catalin said:
The WCP match between Singapore and Kuwait, minute 33:59. Straight in shot on the 9, cue ball close to the rail. I would 100% roll the cue ball softly, with just enough speed that it doesn't follow the 9 into the pocket. Yes it could deviate from some imperfection on the table, but I like my chances better than firing it in with an elevated cue. How about you?


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Ya roll that one with a level cue. They're playing on new cloth with recently leveled tables. It's a no brainer.
 
Shots like this require extreme final focus on the OB point of contact and great timing of cue release just when your eyes lock in on that contact point- I would use level cue and medium speed- but the final focus and timing of cue release is just as important as CB speed choice here,

This shot is deceptive just bc it requires everything to be close to perfect to not jar the OB as he did.
 
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