How would you play this?

I'd take an intentional foul. People can say "Oh, if you do that he can brush the 6 and put you right behind the 8 again." Your opponent is going to have to play pretty damn good to accomplish that one.

Hell, you could even bank that 8 out to the middle of the table or up to the end rail. Let him try to hook ya again, if he does you still have one more intentional foul you can take and let him try to recreate what he just did. If he does then he deserves the win. You have more chances of losing kicking at the 6 here than if you just take the foul.
MULLY
 
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Slow roll to touch 6 w/out disturbing cluster...assuming balls on rail are not frizz-frozen.

Shooter is in a bad spot for sure, only marginally worse than next shooter.
 
what I do here is bank kick and feather the 6 at moderate speed with the CB ending at the rail near the 7. hope that the 9 ball doesn't open up too much for an available bank option for your opponent. you need perfect speed here.

I'm assuming that you are playing a pro here. I wouldn't consider fouling intentionally as it is pointless.
 
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what to do

Hmm. I had a similar set this weekend in a tournament. I'm not a great 9-baller (really better at 8) so this may be an amateur move, but I slow rolled the 8 into the 9, giving him ball in hand. He made what would be the 6 in your example, but failed to break out the 7 to where he could shoot straight. He missed the bank and I managed to run out.

I chose this strategem since I'm not great at going two rails back to a side pocket; my play just seemed like the easiest thing to do.
 
Try not to make fun of this--- this is checkmate from here, assuming you have some semblance of "touch."

Using the four fingers on each hand, count how many "fingers" it takes to go from one diamond to the other. Let's say, hypothetically, it's a twelve-finger distance between the diamonds (it might be 16, I'm not at a table-- bear with me).

You're about 9 fingers to the diamond where the 8 is, 12 to the side, and about 5 to the center of the 6.

I would want to clip the left 1/4 of the 6 ball, so I would figure 4 fingers to the 6 ball.

25 fingers total.

Aim at 12.5 fingers (to the right of the CB on the bottom rail) at a slow roll, kiss-speed. That's 3 fingers inside the diamond left of the bottom side pocket.

You don't want to hit the 6 too thin (3 fingers to the six ball above)... you risk a scratch in the side. I see the 6 clipping the 9, with the CB floating left, locking him behind the 9.

When in doubt, finger the table ;) When you're good at fingering the table, you'll learn to kick not only at a particular side of an OB, but a particular PIECE of the OB.

The first time you do this, it'll take too much time. But if you practice this a little, you can do it in your head in seconds.

Finger-up the table... that's my answer.:thumbup:
 
Neil said:
O.K. Spiderwebb, time for you to start a new thread. What in the world are you talking about???? (And try to make it understandable so others can actually try it)

If you use your fingers (not thumbs) i.e. 4 on each hand, to measure the distance from one diamond to the other, you can "precision-kick" within a 1/2" tolerance to your OB. You can then divide the number of "fingers" from the CB to the OB and divide by 2 and shoot at that finger distance on the kicking rail. It's a little "move" when both balls are along the rail - or very close.

SUPER, mega-accurate if you want to clip a certain piece of the OB to kick-safe or whatever. If I do a thread on this, I'd pair it with a video so you can get the gist of it. Pretty strong shit.
 
Neil said:
What would I do in this situation? That totally depends on who I'm playing, the score, and what I'm playing for.

Assuming I need the win here- I'm giving up ball in hand. Assuming the 9 isn't frozen, I could soft lag a bank into the 6. But, If I'm off a little, I stand a good chance of the 9 now being right in front of the pocket afterwards. NOT where I want to put it for my opponent.

Giving up BIH propably won't net me anything. But there is a chance my opponent just might screw up or go braindead and do something really stupid. I'll give him one chance to do that. There's also a good chance that on my nest shot I won't be hooked, and might be able to pull a safe myself.

If playing for fun, or way ahead on someone that isn't going to string racks- I just might make a hardkick at the 6. Trying to hit it on the left side. If done just right, the 6 hits the 9, banking the 9 off the rail. Then the cb hits the 9 in the side. Long shot for sure, but doable.

If you're playing a player, they'll tick the 6 to the right and lock behind the 9 and you're close-quarters kicking--risking you might be on 2 shortly--- or forcing you to kick hard at it, spreading the balls for an easy run out. If you're playing a medium speed player, they might give you BIH back at ya.

This is a good scenario. It's a chess game from here.
 
If your opponent is a good player, you are screwed. What I would do here is to take the intentional foul. Lightly hit the 8-ball into the 6 and nudge slightly the 7 to ensure it is not straight on with the 9. Make sure the 8 ball is still within the cluster. You'll bait your opponent to go for the 6 ball which should be freed up for the top right corner shot only. If he goes for it, he'll try to break apart the cluster which he'll have to draw into it. It's a 3-ball cluster, so at best, he'll have a 50/50 shot at success. If you are lucky, he'll mess up and try to draw you into another safety battle....but at least the next safety should be easier.
 
Neil said:
So all you are doing is dividing the distance in half. Why do you need to use your fingers for that?

It breaks the distance into units. You use the units for the final destination. If you're good at kicking with dividing the distance, you're 5x more accurate using the finger move (Good luck dividing the distance when you need to hit a certain piece of the OB consistently).

Try it and report back. :)
 
8-Baller said:
If your opponent is a good player, you are screwed. What I would do here is to take the intentional foul. Lightly hit the 8-ball into the 6 and nudge slightly the 7 to ensure it is not straight on with the 9. Make sure the 8 ball is still within the cluster. You'll bait your opponent to go for the 6 ball which should be freed up for the top right corner shot only. If he goes for it, he'll try to break apart the cluster which he'll have to draw into it. It's a 3-ball cluster, so at best, he'll have a 50/50 shot at success. If you are lucky, he'll mess up and try to draw you into another safety battle....but at least the next safety should be easier.


that is if your opponent is below average. otherwise, he would just lightly feather the 6 again kicking the CB off the left side rail and back to where the CB was in the diagram. this time, the 8 which is now near the 6 would clearly block the 6 and put you in danger of a 2nd foul. much difficult situation as was before.

better play a safety or lose by doing so, rather than lose in a 3 foul.
this diagram shows a situation where an intentional foul advantage is somewhat eliminated. only a counter safety is considered as the best option.
 
If you are playing a better player that would probably win a safety battle against you, you might as well have some fun and give yourself a chance to win. Why not try to make the 9-ball?

If you try to kick the 6 at medium to semi hard speed (not too hard) to hit about 1/2 of the 6 on the side pocket side. It looks like there's a good possibility that the six kicks the 9 towards the front of the side pocket and because the cue ball will carom towards the side pocket (because that's the side your hitting), you just might make the 9-ball when/if the cue ball hits the 9 and win from there.

In addition, because all the balls are so close together, the 6 may still tie up with the other ball to end up safe. So you've given youself a chance to win and a potential safety - but I wouldn't count on the safe ;). But you were going to lose the safety battle anyway so what do you have to lose?

And Spidey, using fingers or fractions to measure kicking is fine but that's what the diamonds are for. It's a 2 diamond spread so from the cue ball's starting point, move one diamond on the kicking rail to split the difference. You are right in what you said, but the game's complicated enough. Of course this is just my opinion.

Hope this helps look at the problem a little different way. Creativity is the most fun thing about pool!

Dave
 
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Hail Mary Shot said:
what I do here is bank kick and feather the 6 at moderate speed with the CB ending at the rail near the 7. hope that the 9 ball doesn't open up too much for an available bank option for your opponent. you need perfect speed here.

I'm assuming that you are playing a pro here. I wouldn't consider fouling intentionally as it is pointless.


You're going to bank kick and be accurate enough to "feather" the 6? You're stronger than I am.
MULLY
 
Patrick Johnson said:
I'd intentionally foul back at you.

pj
chgo


Which is your choice. Then I'd foul back at you and you'd do it again and THEN I would go for something else. I don't mind going down shooting but I lose nothing by taking 2 fouls. You're not running out from here no matter how many times I give you the ball. I'd rather play it out before I go swinging at it.
MULLY
 
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8-Baller said:
If your opponent is a good player, you are screwed. What I would do here is to take the intentional foul. Lightly hit the 8-ball into the 6 and nudge slightly the 7 to ensure it is not straight on with the 9. Make sure the 8 ball is still within the cluster. You'll bait your opponent to go for the 6 ball which should be freed up for the top right corner shot only. If he goes for it, he'll try to break apart the cluster which he'll have to draw into it. It's a 3-ball cluster, so at best, he'll have a 50/50 shot at success. If you are lucky, he'll mess up and try to draw you into another safety battle....but at least the next safety should be easier.


I like the intentional foul but I don't know if I'd mess with moving that 8 anywhere near those balls. First, you're straight behind the 8 and are going to need to cut it to the 6, which you don't have enough room behind it to do that so you'll have to bounce it off the rail. Then, assuming you do hit the 6 lightly with the 8, you leave him ball in hand AND a wall of balls to get behind.
MULLY
 
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