Straight In - How To Play?

D

DrCue'sProtege

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
ok, i remember a couple of weeks ago i ran across this situation. thought i would once again ask you posters for some advice.

the shot on the '8' Ball is totally straight in. and you need to draw back for the shot on the '9' Ball. and if you draw it straight back, you will run into the '9' on the rail.

so, what do you do? attempt to cheat the pocket ever soooo slightly to get an angle that lets you just miss the '9'? or try and draw it back to the '9', and hope you get a good roll as it contacts the '9' Ball?

DCP

CueTable Help

 
Shot ...

It depends on the shot, how long of a shot, whether the cue ball is close to a rail in back of it, whether backing up the cue ball might possibly cause the cue to scratch?

If you could diagramm the actual shot on Cuetable and post it, it would help a lot.

As a general rule of thumb though, I would throw the 9 to one side or the other of the pocket to get a variance of direction when my cue ball drew back. I would not kiss the 9 unless I absolutely had too.

Now, notice I said to the side of the pocket, which isn't 'cheating' the pocket. Cheating of the pocket, to me, means when you slide the ball
off a rail before it goes in the pocket. Cheating the pocket, you have to hit the rail in the right place, and with the proper speed, or it might not
go.
 
If you are good at the draw then you can slightly cheat the pocket and draw the CB back above the 9.

I am not good at drawing so I would play the two way shot and shoot it cross corner to the bottom right corner. With proper speed the CB ends up giving you an easy 9 ball shot and if you miss the 8 ball ends up in the middle of the rail.

This is a must have shot in your quiver.

The last thing you want to do is make the 8 and have no shot on the 9.

Jake
 
If the pockets aren't super tight, you can probably cheat it enough to do this:

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If you can't cheat it enough to avoid the scratch on the follow shot, you can probably still cheat it enough to try this:

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And if it's so tight a pocket and so straight a shot that you can't do either, draw into the 9 and hope for the best. If you do end up getting weird on the 9, you can probably play safe by tapping the 9 to the rail and leaving the CB very close to the 9, off-angle.

-Andrew
 
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DCP,

All things equal, I'd hit this with a touch of left, and I'd try to cheat the pocket to give myself just a hair of an angle coming back. I'd play it at a speed to hit the back rail and come out maybe two inches.

Playing it like this will give me a shot no matter what happens, regardless if I hit the side of the 9 or not. The left will spin me out just enough to make the cut.

But the most important point about your diagram is that the only mistake is to play it at a too-soft speed. Doing so and landing directly on the 9 is the ONLY way you will not be a huge favorite to win the game. As long as you don't land directly on top of the 9 - even if you don't wind up with an offensive shot - you'll have a couple of very effective safeties to choose from.

You have to choose your battles in this game; long sets are mentally-straining, and you don't want to waste too much energy on a shot like this. As long as you make the 8, no matter where you land on the 9, you're a big favorite. So... don't sweat this one too much.

- Steve
 
Straight in shot

Steve Lipsky said:
DCP,

All things equal, I'd hit this with a touch of left, and I'd try to cheat the pocket to give myself just a hair of an angle coming back. I'd play it at a speed to hit the back rail and come out maybe two inches.

Playing it like this will give me a shot no matter what happens, regardless if I hit the side of the 9 or not. The left will spin me out just enough to make the cut.

But the most important point about your diagram is that the only mistake is to play it at a too-soft speed. Doing so and landing directly on the 9 is the ONLY way you will not be a huge favorite to win the game. As long as you don't land directly on top of the 9 - even if you don't wind up with an offensive shot - you'll have a couple of very effective safeties to choose from.

You have to choose your battles in this game; long sets are mentally-straining, and you don't want to waste too much energy on a shot like this. As long as you make the 8, no matter where you land on the 9, you're a big favorite. So... don't sweat this one too much.

- Steve
Click to expand...

Whay Steve said exactly
 
Shoot it with low left or low right and compensate for the throw on the object ball, this will bring the cueball back at and angle instead of straight.
 
DCP, I would make the 8 in the corner with low left and try to draw the cue ball back as far as you can, for a decent shot on the 9.
 
Steve Lipsky said:
DCP,

All things equal, I'd hit this with a touch of left, and I'd try to cheat the pocket to give myself just a hair of an angle coming back. I'd play it at a speed to hit the back rail and come out maybe two inches.

Playing it like this will give me a shot no matter what happens, regardless if I hit the side of the 9 or not. The left will spin me out just enough to make the cut.

But the most important point about your diagram is that the only mistake is to play it at a too-soft speed. Doing so and landing directly on the 9 is the ONLY way you will not be a huge favorite to win the game. As long as you don't land directly on top of the 9 - even if you don't wind up with an offensive shot - you'll have a couple of very effective safeties to choose from.

You have to choose your battles in this game; long sets are mentally-straining, and you don't want to waste too much energy on a shot like this. As long as you make the 8, no matter where you land on the 9, you're a big favorite. So... don't sweat this one too much.

- Steve
Click to expand...

Exactly right Steve, speed is critical so don't end up short on this one. Personally I'd favor the right side of the c/b and the 8 to the left side of the pocket. That will bring the c/b across the nine to the upper corner pocket. By doing it this way it will give me a wider angle.

It should be noted if you favor or use a touch of either english it gives you more room for error. That is opposed to, trying to hit dead center draw and miss hit slightly to either side.

Another interesting thing about these shots. You can practice to try and draw back into the 9. What most will find due the allowable error factor, stroke, unwanted english, speed, where the 8 hits the pocket etc. Hitting the 9 isn't that easy. It's worth a few practice shots to see what your tendencies are.

Sorry I missed you in vegas Steve, I was looking.

Rod
 
Steve Lipsky said:
DCP,

All things equal, I'd hit this with a touch of left, and I'd try to cheat the pocket to give myself just a hair of an angle coming back. I'd play it at a speed to hit the back rail and come out maybe two inches.

Playing it like this will give me a shot no matter what happens, regardless if I hit the side of the 9 or not. The left will spin me out just enough to make the cut.

But the most important point about your diagram is that the only mistake is to play it at a too-soft speed. Doing so and landing directly on the 9 is the ONLY way you will not be a huge favorite to win the game. As long as you don't land directly on top of the 9 - even if you don't wind up with an offensive shot - you'll have a couple of very effective safeties to choose from.
[...]
- Steve
Click to expand...

Steve - I thought about it a little differently, and I'm curious about what you (or others) think of my reasoning. I'm a B/B+ player.

The sell-out situation, for me, is missing the 8-ball. And cheating the pocket and trying to draw back increases my chances of doing this. I would try to split the pocket with the 8-ball and draw straight back toward the 9 with the speed you suggest. Often, if I hit the 9 on either side, I'll be OK. Or if I hit the 8 a little sloppily I might be OK anyway. My thought is that even if I don't have a shot on the 9, as long as I am close to the 9-ball I can thin it leaving it more or less in place while getting the cueball to the other short rail.

Again, for me I think the biggest danger here is trying to do too much with the 8-ball and selling out by missing it.

mike page
fargo
 
DrCue'sProtege said:
ok, i remember a couple of weeks ago i ran across this situation. thought i would once again ask you posters for some advice.

the shot on the '8' Ball is totally straight in. and you need to draw back for the shot on the '9' Ball. and if you draw it straight back, you will run into the '9' on the rail.

so, what do you do? attempt to cheat the pocket ever soooo slightly to get an angle that lets you just miss the '9'? or try and draw it back to the '9', and hope you get a good roll as it contacts the '9' Ball?

DCP

CueTable Help

Click to expand...

imo Just draw it back playing the left or right side of the pocket, which ever has more room to work with and do not worry.
 
I couldn't draw a cue ball that straight if I had to. I would just rare back and fire it in.
 
mikepage said:
Steve - I thought about it a little differently, and I'm curious about what you (or others) think of my reasoning. I'm a B/B+ player.

The sell-out situation, for me, is missing the 8-ball. And cheating the pocket and trying to draw back increases my chances of doing this. I would try to split the pocket with the 8-ball and draw straight back toward the 9 with the speed you suggest. Often, if I hit the 9 on either side, I'll be OK. Or if I hit the 8 a little sloppily I might be OK anyway. My thought is that even if I don't have a shot on the 9, as long as I am close to the 9-ball I can thin it leaving it more or less in place while getting the cueball to the other short rail.

Again, for me I think the biggest danger here is trying to do too much with the 8-ball and selling out by missing it.

mike page
fargo
Click to expand...

Hi Mike. I agree completely... in fact, I was just about to make a post saying that under no circumstances should a player ever allow himself to miss the 8 here. You shouldn't pull the trigger on this until you know you're going to make it - then you accept whatever you leave yourself. With the proper speed, you're either going to have a good shot at the 9 or an excellent safety opportunity.

I think the only difference between using left or not is that without it, you may have to play safe on the 9 just a little more often than if you used it. But since the safety from there is so effective anyway, this won't translate into much difference on the win/loss ratio.

Good thoughts, Mike.

- Steve
 
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Hey Rod... you were in Vegas?? Oh man, I would've loved to have finally met you. There's always next year...

And I agree with you - hitting the 9 is probably harder than it looks.

- Steve
 
mikepage said:
Steve - I thought about it a little differently, and I'm curious about what you (or others) think of my reasoning. I'm a B/B+ player.

The sell-out situation, for me, is missing the 8-ball. And cheating the pocket and trying to draw back increases my chances of doing this. I would try to split the pocket with the 8-ball and draw straight back toward the 9 with the speed you suggest. Often, if I hit the 9 on either side, I'll be OK. Or if I hit the 8 a little sloppily I might be OK anyway. My thought is that even if I don't have a shot on the 9, as long as I am close to the 9-ball I can thin it leaving it more or less in place while getting the cueball to the other short rail.

Again, for me I think the biggest danger here is trying to do too much with the 8-ball and selling out by missing it.

mike page
fargo
Click to expand...
I think you are correct, Mike. I think it's often more important to get position than to make the ball, but here, you need to be sure and make the 8. Draw back straight at the 9 and hope you hit it and get straight in. If you can hit it head on, then you are probably shooting straight enough to win anyway.

unknownpro
 
Icon of Sin said:
Shoot it with low left or low right and compensate for the throw on the object ball, this will bring the cueball back at and angle instead of straight.
Click to expand...

That's just not true. If you use left, the CB will draw back to the left unless you compensate for throw. What I mean by this is that left english will throw the OB to the right, and as an equal and opposite reaction will throw the CB left. If you compensate for throw, that means you've adjusted so that the OB doesn't go right anymore. If the OB doesn't go right anymore, the CB doesn't go left anymore. If the OB were to go straight and the CB were to come back to the left, where did the leftward momentum come from? The only possible source would be masse-like spin against the cloth, and if you don't elevate noticeably, I don't think there's enough of that direction of spin to make any difference in CB path.

And incidentally, I think Hal hit the nail on the head here. I don't think you could draw the CB back for a full hit on the 9 if you tried. Little inaccuracies in your stroke will take care of getting the CB to one side of the 9 or the other. So all you have to worry about is speed control.

-Andrew
 
Andrew Manning said:
That's just not true. If you use left, the CB will draw back to the left unless you compensate for throw. What I mean by this is that left english will throw the OB to the right, and as an equal and opposite reaction will throw the CB left. If you compensate for throw, that means you've adjusted so that the OB doesn't go right anymore. If the OB doesn't go right anymore, the CB doesn't go left anymore. If the OB were to go straight and the CB were to come back to the left, where did the leftward momentum come from? The only possible source would be masse-like spin against the cloth, and if you don't elevate noticeably, I don't think there's enough of that direction of spin to make any difference in CB path.

And incidentally, I think Hal hit the nail on the head here. I don't think you could draw the CB back for a full hit on the 9 if you tried. Little inaccuracies in your stroke will take care of getting the CB to one side of the 9 or the other. So all you have to worry about is speed control.

-Andrew
Click to expand...


Andrew, I agree with you about the English. The only reason I would use English is if the cue ball hits the 9 ball it will spin away some and give you a little more room instead of being locked up to the ball.

Another way to make this shot and get position is to Jack up on the cue and use low left so the cue ball will curve a little when it draws back. The way it is set up it would be fairly hard for the average player to make the shot unless the cue ball was closer to the 9 ball.
 
DrCue'sProtege said:
ok, i remember a couple of weeks ago i ran across this situation. thought i would once again ask you posters for some advice.

the shot on the '8' Ball is totally straight in. and you need to draw back for the shot on the '9' Ball. and if you draw it straight back, you will run into the '9' on the rail.

so, what do you do? attempt to cheat the pocket ever soooo slightly to get an angle that lets you just miss the '9'? or try and draw it back to the '9', and hope you get a good roll as it contacts the '9' Ball?

DCP

CueTable Help

Click to expand...
I think you should draw straight back into the 9-ball, no cheating. Hit it hard enough to bounce off the cushion/9-ball. That is, don't let it cozy up and lock to the 9-ball.

This shot is a real-world shot that all of us have faced.

Fred
 
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