Stop Shot Puzzle

C

CueAndMe

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
This layout can be run all the way to a break shot with nothing but stop shots. Can you find the sequence that will get you to a break ball without ANY post-contact cueball motion. I constructed it very carefully, so that there would be absolutely no movement. Cueball in hand anywhere to start.
Don't spoil it for others if you do get it. PM me for the answer. Just numbers needed on this one. No cuetable sequence required.

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Who got it so far:
tsw_521 came up with a pattern so close that it only needs maybe 3 inches of movement total. It surprised me that another pattern could come so close to the stop-shot pattern I set up.
Steve Lipsky got a different solution than I constructed, but it certainly works. There's still another solution out there.
 
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Well, I'll admit there may be a CB drift here and there, but here's something anyway. Not to mention I still don't quite have the hang of the cuball table yet, but you will get the idea.


CueTable Help

 
3andstop, even though your pattern is quite close to perfect stop shots, there's zero drift on the one I created for y'all. Nice job finding the one you did though.

Again everyone, don't spoil it for others. I can post who gets it exactly right if you want. Just PM me with your solution. If you can do it with absolutely ZERO movement of the cueball(you may have to cheat the exact center of the pocket, the cuetable didn't save exactly as I recall setting it up), you know you've done it. I made sure that where the cueball stops on each shot is exactly where it needs to be for the next shot.
Another thing, open the table up to the full-sized one to get a more accurate placement of all balls. I think the smaller table comes up a bit skewed.

I'll give it a couple of days before I post the solution on the thread. I'll continue editing the initial post to update who got it right.
 
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Not sure its better than Steves but its the first one I could see.

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Truthfully I don't like the 13 to the 9.
 
Sorry, blue, I didn't read carefully and I see that you were asking us not to post our solutions. In truth, if someone doesn't want to see possible answers, they're big boys and girls and don't have to scroll down, lol :).

But still, I wasn't good at following directions so I deserve a demerit.

- Steve
 
Well, Steve you're obviously not the only one. You're right though. If they don't want to see the solutions they don't have to scroll. I guess I'll just post the solution at the bottom of this post. Don't follow the link if you don't want to see.
frankncali, the only thing in yours that requires cueball movement would be the last shot, the 9 to the 2, then again it is still a good break shot.

http://CueTable.com/P/?@2ASOU4BKMS4CWtU3FEqY4GLNn4HXmd4IByg3JKoQ3MUqQ3OOMs3PCXE3kCXE4kALU3kDsn3kJaC4kUxe4kXVM3kLrx2kRhF3kUaA4kHrV@
 
Jeff, it was about 1:05 AM when I opened this thread and started the puzzle. I came up with a couple of solutions but none of them were perfect, I was always off by one shot or missing a ball. I gave up about 40 minutes into it and looked at your solution only because I have to wake up at 6 AM for class . I almost decided to print out your diagram so that I could take it to school tomorrow and try to figure it out in class but I couldn't go to sleep without knowing the solution. Thanks for the puzzle, It really helped me open up my mind and think outside the box. I hope you can post more of these puzzles in the future.
 
Safety said:
Jeff, it was about 1:05 AM when I opened this thread and started the puzzle. I came up with a couple of solutions but none of them were perfect, I was always off by one shot or missing a ball. I gave up about 40 minutes into it and looked at your solution only because I have to wake up at 6 AM for class . I almost decided to print out your diagram so that I could take it to school tomorrow and try to figure it out in class but I couldn't go to sleep without knowing the solution. Thanks for the puzzle, It really helped me open up my mind and think outside the box. I hope you can post more of these puzzles in the future.
Click to expand...

Sorry to torture you like that. But I'd be glad to post more, since you seemed to enjoy it. If anyone else wants to construct them I can suggest how to go about it. There's a simple way. Basically, you're doing what I suggested in the "finding end patterns" thread. How about we make it another series like "Run This." If anyone wants to take the reins on this one, be my guest.

Another good series would be one that shows different clusters and the real-life results of going into them from different angles. Someone with their own table should be the host of that one. The cloth on mine is super slow and my balls are in horrible shape, so I shouldn't be the one to do it. Maybe show a cluster, different contact points on the same cluster, decide on a cueball speed, and challenge others to draw lines showing how the balls would break up. Using label reinforcements, that person could replace the balls and go in at different speeds and angles. It would be quite educational.
 
Safety said:
Jeff, it was about 1:05 AM when I opened this thread and started the puzzle. I came up with a couple of solutions but none of them were perfect, I was always off by one shot or missing a ball. I gave up about 40 minutes into it and looked at your solution only because I have to wake up at 6 AM for class . I almost decided to print out your diagram so that I could take it to school tomorrow and try to figure it out in class but I couldn't go to sleep without knowing the solution. Thanks for the puzzle, It really helped me open up my mind and think outside the box. I hope you can post more of these puzzles in the future.
Click to expand...

Sorry to torture you like that. But I'd be glad to post more, since you seemed to enjoy it. If anyone else wants to construct them I can suggest how to go about it. There's a simple way. Basically, you're doing what I suggested in the "finding end patterns" thread. How about we make it another series like "Run This." If anyone wants to take the reins on this one, be my guest.

Another good series would be one that shows different clusters and the real-life results of going into them from different angles. Someone with their own table should be the host of that one. The cloth on mine is super slow and my balls are in horrible shape, so I shouldn't be the one to do it. Maybe show a cluster, different contact points on the same cluster, decide on a cueball speed, and challenge others to draw lines showing how the balls would break up. Using label reinforcements, that person could replace the balls and go in at different speeds and angles. It would be quite educational.
 
Does anyone want to share how they go about finding a stop shot pattern in a mess of balls?
I don't know if my way is the best, but I would do the "y,p,q,4" technique that I described in the thread on "finding end patterns" and work backwards from a possible break ball. Draw the line through the break ball to a nicely positioned key ball, then to a legitimate pocket for the key ball, then directly back through the key ball to a ball that lies near this line. From that ball I'd draw a line to a legitimate pocket for it, then back through the ball for the next ball which should lie near that line. And so on....
 
bluepepper said:
Does anyone want to share how they go about finding a stop shot pattern in a mess of balls?
I don't know if my way is the best, but I would do the "y,p,q,4" technique that I described in the thread on "finding end patterns" and work backwards from a possible break ball. Draw the line through the break ball to a nicely positioned key ball, then to a legitimate pocket for the key ball, then directly back through the key ball to a ball that lies near this line. From that ball I'd draw a line to a legitimate pocket for it, then back through the ball for the next ball which should lie near that line. And so on....
Click to expand...

I did it by looking for a break ball and a key ball first. I pair those two balls together, then I paired up the rest of the balls. So I had this:

2 & 7
9 & 6
1 & 13
8 & 15
10 & 3

After I do this, it kinda narrows the pattern down to 5 balls instead of 10. I just have to put the pairs in whichever order works best and I'm done!

9 & 6, 10 & 3, 8 & 15, 1 & 13, 2 & 7

I probably wouldn't be doing this in a match, but this was the easiest way for me to figure out the puzzle.
 
Interesting. Thanks for sharing. I guess it's hard in real life and in real time to keep the numbers in our heads no matter how we do it. Maybe remembering shapes would help. But the fact that just this one layout of balls allowed at least 3 perfect stop-shot patterns and a few more near stop-shot patterns makes me think it would be worthwhile working on a method to link more than a few balls together, and be able to recall those links.

This layout has 10 balls on the table. If you can use the first 5 shots in a rack to get them open like this, and then come up with and remember a stopshot pattern or something close to one, how easy would this game be.
 
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