I know I should have known better

Billiard Architect

Billiard Architect

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
At last weeks 9 ball tournament I was playing a guy that was better than me and I got ball in hand. When I went up to shoot I lined up on the 4 and saw the 6 was tied up with the 9. I shot in the 4 and got perfect position on the 6 for a safety. I planted the cueball firmly behind the 9 as I hit the 6 two rails down table locking him up solid. He walked to the table and started to point at something. I had to refocus to figure out that he was pointing at the 5 ball. Of course he gave me the obligatory... "I was going to say something yada yada yada". But that really took the wind out of my game. Everyone that was watching laughed at my expense. The only thing that I could do was to shrug it off.

This is not the first time I have done this. One of the observers was Jason who use to play on an old APA team I belonged to. The first thing he pointed out was "Remember when you went up during money cup and took ball in hand and ranout on a guy?" During the match no one said a word until I got back to the table and Jason said "Why did you take ball in hand?" I said "I dunno." We gave them the points and the break.

Ever have it happen to you?
 
Have you ever played with those set of balls where the 7 and the 4 are almost identical colors? Well I have and being color blind and stupid, I had BIH on the 4 ball and shot the 7 by mistake and my opponent called me on it... so he got BIH and apologized for not telling me because he didn't notice it until after I shot.

Well, I had my head hanging down while he took BIH and after he took his first shot, I looked up to see what shape he had on the 5. Lo and Behold.... he had taken BIH and shot the 7 instead of the 4. .... I chuckled quietly to myself and then announced the 4 was still on the table.... we both laughed. Two dummies at the same table... I felt redeemed.
 
I have not done that in a very long time. +15 years now..

When the other player said something to the effect of, 'was going to say something...' I told them it was not their responsibility, and that this was the penalty for me not paying attention like I should have.
 
Tom In Cincy said:
Have you ever played with those set of balls where the 7 and the 4 are almost identical colors? Well I have and being color blind and stupid, I had BIH on the 4 ball and shot the 7 by mistake and my opponent called me on it... so he got BIH and apologized for not telling me because he didn't notice it until after I shot.

Well, I had my head hanging down while he took BIH and after he took his first shot, I looked up to see what shape he had on the 5. Lo and Behold.... he had taken BIH and shot the 7 instead of the 4. .... I chuckled quietly to myself and then announced the 4 was still on the table.... we both laughed. Two dummies at the same table... I felt redeemed.
Click to expand...

So I'm guessing that since he attempted to shoot at the 7 as well, that you missed the 7 with BIH? I've did THAT BEFORE!!
 
Johnny
One time in a tournament I was hooked behind the 7 ball. On the other end of the table, there was a 4-9 combo sitting on the rail about 2 inches from the corner pocket. I couldn't kick at the combo, so I got out my jump cue. My opponent had this surprised look on his face - I figured that he didn't think I could get over the 7. I did, and made the combination.

I look over at my opponent, and instead of racking the balls, he spots the 9, and takes ball in hand on the 3 ball, which was sitting about 3 inches from where I started - right in front of the pocket.

It was funny to everybody except me. Ok.. its funny now.

:killingme:

You're not the only person that has had a brain fart like that. It happens more than you think. I remember when TK won the US Open, early in that match, TK had ball in hand and almost shot the wrong ball. It happens.
 
I've never shot a ball out of order in 9 ball, but I have shot the wrong ball in 8ball. Opponent broke made a solid, and shot at a solid and scratched....I took ball in hand a took the hardest solid off the table - only to hear, "you're stripes". I had been so used to playing in open after the break tourneys that I had forgotten this one was a take what you make one :p DOH! Yep, my opponent easily ran out after I took his hardest ball off the table....sheesh - whatta dummy.
 
Blackjack said:
Johnny
One time in a tournament I was hooked behind the 7 ball. On the other end of the table, there was a 4-9 combo sitting on the rail about 2 inches from the corner pocket. I couldn't kick at the combo, so I got out my jump cue. My opponent had this surprised look on his face - I figured that he didn't think I could get over the 7. I did, and made the combination.

I look over at my opponent, and instead of racking the balls, he spots the 9, and takes ball in hand on the 3 ball, which was sitting about 3 inches from where I started - right in front of the pocket.

It was funny to everybody except me. Ok.. its funny now.

:killingme:

You're not the only person that has had a brain fart like that. It happens more than you think. I remember when TK won the US Open, early in that match, TK had ball in hand and almost shot the wrong ball. It happens.
Click to expand...

It's amazing how we focus in on one thing that we deem important, and block out what is obvious to everyone else at times....

Funny story.
 
Hell- I once used the 9 Ball for the cue ball. How the hell do you do that. I thought only I could make that mistake but since I did it, i have heard of three others doing it. Crazy!
 
It happens to EVERYONE!

I remember a 1P match (accustats) between Jamie Goodwin & Jose Parica IIRC and Jamie got in such a rhythm of shooting balls away from Jose's pocket that he almost overlooked an open shot at his own pocket.

Cardone said something like: "he doesn't see the shot! if that 4 ball was a snake it would have bit him by now". When Jamie finally noticed the shot, Cardone said something like: "gee look what I found here. look how lucky I am". I guess you had to see it first hand.
 
I watched a match a couple weeks ago between i guy i know well and a guy id only heard of. Tournament 8 ball play. Hill/Hill and this guy i dont know is running out, he plays beautiful shape and gets down and fires the 8 in, then does the Tiger Woods fist pump.

The guy i know walks up and says great run, your 5 ball is still there on the rail.

The victom here was Ike Runnels.
 
If it makes you feel better I have done something a little bit more stupid :frown:.while playing 8 ball I had a very tough shot to get back on my next shot. I shot it perfect and had perfect shape. Went over and made the 8. The person looked at me and said the 6 is still on the table. Both were on the short rail. I stuck the cb right in between them and was so focused on the 8 I completely forgot about shooting the 6 :angry:
Oh yeah, I also heard I was gonna tell you :angry:
 
I've done that before and yes it does take the wind out of your sails.

A coupla months ago I was playing in the league. It was at the table, made the shot and proceeded to chalk my cue for the next shot. My opponent (an irritating little wretch with boob implants) came up next to me to grab the chalk and was looking at the table right next to me.

I was getting irritated as I know she does overt sharking techniques like walking around the table on every shot to get directly in my line of site etc etc etc, but this was ridiculous. Finally I turned to her and asked if she would get out of the way so I could make my next shot when it dawned on me that the ball I was absolutely positive I had made had actually rattled in the pocket. I was slightly embarrassed because I had hit the ball as pure as can be. So much so that I didn't bother looking to see it fall into the pocket.
 
Great stories!

Reading these reminded me of one.

I was playing a friend of mine at 8 ball and he had a tough cut on the 8 and bent down to find out where the contact point was on the 8. He lined his cue up behind the 8 pointing at the pocket. The look on his face was classic as he fired the 8 into the pocket. It was almost like he had no control of what he was doing. We both busted out laughing. I asked "what the hell were you thinking?" he replied "obviously I wasn't"
 
I've had two incidents that stand out. One was Really embarrassing, my opponent missed and left a fairly easy shot, I stepped up to the table and confidently fired it in and once the object ball fell into the pocket I watched where the cueball was going and to my surprise I realized that it wasn't the cueball, it was the 5 ball! I had actually used the 5 ball as a cueball!!! I was mortified.


Another time in a straight pool league match it came down to a tight match and I needed one ball and my opponent needed 5 or 6 balls, the table was wide open but the cueball was safe. So we each played a few safeties and finally I took an intentional foul (i now need two balls to win) a few more safeties and I leave a hard shot which he missed leaving a hanger, I jumped up and pocketed it and turned to shake his hand, he said you need one more. I had totally forgotten about the intentional scratch! I left the cueball all the way against the end rail, I went for a tough shot and missed and he ran out. Since then I'm very aware about the score at all times.
 
I was called to play my next league match and went to the table and proceeded to rake the balls to the end of the table. Everyone yelled, "Whoa, whoa!"

I looked back at them, confused. Then I looked at the table next to me and realized I was suppose to play on the table next to me and I had just raked the balls in someone else's match.

Whoops. :o
 
If it makes you feel better, Steve Davis shot the 3 ball whilst the 2 ball was still on table in the World Championships.

Even one of the greatest cueist of all time has made that same mistake.
 
same with ronnie against strickland. however i think he came back to win it, heh
 
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Same thing happened to me many years ago during a ladder competition in college for the yearly rankings to see where you stood on the intercollegiate billiard team. I had to shoot against one of my long time friends. I knew he was better than me, so I focused so hard on the game that I forgot about the 5-ball which was outside my current view of the table layout. I made perfect set on the 4-ball into the side pocket and drifted the CB a little down table for a perfect set on 6-ball. Mind you, I am not moving around the table, mostly still leaned over the same side of the table looking in the same direction... Right after I shot the 6-ball into corner for set on 7-ball, I heard my friend call "Foul." I stood up, gave him a weird look of surprise. He pointed at the table. I nearly smacked myself in the forehead. There lay the 5-ball on the other side of the table near the opposite corner pocket. We had a good laugh about that and I made sure not to let my guard down on him ever again.
 
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