The book is breathtakingly gorgeous.
Opening the shipping box, “The Art of One Pocket,” with its dramatic black dust jacket, made me feel as though I should put on white cotton gloves, almost as if I were about to handle a prized tome from the Vatican Library. It’s that lovely and certainly several notches above the usual pool-oriented book.
The writing is precise and crisp and an excellent distillation of the disparate thoughts on the game various players have offered on one pocket over the years. It’s all here in a nice, neat package that walks you through learning the game, from delivering and responding to the opening break, to the more esoteric strategies a player will undoubtedly face over the course of multiple games and from different opponents. I especially like the use of clear diagrams — employing a properly proportioned table, pockets, and balls — that are easy to understand and do fine service in support of the accompanying text.
Strategy, such as intentional scratches and the importance of playing the score are covered, as well as banks, kicks, and shot selection. Readers are even provided a chart covering most of the handicaps a player is likely to offer or be offered, complete with a break out of the percentage advantage a particular spot offers.
Without doubt, ”The Art of One Pocket” is destined to be a crown jewel in any pocket billiard book collection and will take its proper place alongside other masterworks in the sport. But more importantly, it supplies a long-needed roadmap to learning a beautifully subtle and intricate game for any player who has been daunted by the complexities of one pocket and even provides graduate level guidelines for the more seasoned player. As the late Freddy “The Beard” Bentivegna might have said, “It’s almost 400 pages of one pocket goodness."
Buy it (good luck borrowing a copy) and enjoy this finely crafted work on the game of one pocket which I and thousands of other aficionados love.
Lou Figueroa
Opening the shipping box, “The Art of One Pocket,” with its dramatic black dust jacket, made me feel as though I should put on white cotton gloves, almost as if I were about to handle a prized tome from the Vatican Library. It’s that lovely and certainly several notches above the usual pool-oriented book.
The writing is precise and crisp and an excellent distillation of the disparate thoughts on the game various players have offered on one pocket over the years. It’s all here in a nice, neat package that walks you through learning the game, from delivering and responding to the opening break, to the more esoteric strategies a player will undoubtedly face over the course of multiple games and from different opponents. I especially like the use of clear diagrams — employing a properly proportioned table, pockets, and balls — that are easy to understand and do fine service in support of the accompanying text.
Strategy, such as intentional scratches and the importance of playing the score are covered, as well as banks, kicks, and shot selection. Readers are even provided a chart covering most of the handicaps a player is likely to offer or be offered, complete with a break out of the percentage advantage a particular spot offers.
Without doubt, ”The Art of One Pocket” is destined to be a crown jewel in any pocket billiard book collection and will take its proper place alongside other masterworks in the sport. But more importantly, it supplies a long-needed roadmap to learning a beautifully subtle and intricate game for any player who has been daunted by the complexities of one pocket and even provides graduate level guidelines for the more seasoned player. As the late Freddy “The Beard” Bentivegna might have said, “It’s almost 400 pages of one pocket goodness."
Buy it (good luck borrowing a copy) and enjoy this finely crafted work on the game of one pocket which I and thousands of other aficionados love.
Lou Figueroa
