What would you do here? Wei table

C

CantEverWin

"The One"
Silver Member
In an APA league match, after a time out to a APA 4 I was left with this. This is on a bar table.

I am solids. The I can't see the two ball well enough to make it in the corner. Well, it would go if I were to slightly curve around. If I was half a centi meter more north on the table it would have been 100% make able.

Also, a bank carom on the three crossed my mind but nothing ever seem to be dead.

Anyway, what would you have done?

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My first immediate thought is hit the left edge of the 3 ball banking it into the 13. The goal is to have the 3 hit the 13 and have the 13 come to rest againt the 14 to tie them up. You might get the 3 to sit right in front of the pocket. Put left on the cue ball to go one rail off of the 3 and send the cue ball passed the side pocket shooting for having it come to rest right above where the one ball is in the diagram near that spot, ideally on the rail.

One other immediate though is if you have a nice soft touch, and the 3 is not frozen to the rail, roll up and bump the 3 so the 3 will double kiss the cue ball after the rail hit and you might be able to sandwhich the cue ball between the 3 and 13. As long as you don't sell it, even if you hit it a little hard, as long as the angle is good you still might tie the 13 and 14. If you do get the cue ball sandwhiched between the two, stripes is likely in a tough spot.

Just my thoughts.

Kelly
 
That's a pretty tough spot you're in. If you leave him any shot he can make, and you don't block things up for him, he's likely out. I'd be tempted to hit into the rail just barely above the 3 ball at medium speed with maximum right english, hoping to spin off the rail and leave the three blocking that pocket. It's tough shot, because if you accidentally hit 3-first, you don't block the pocket, but if you hit too far up the rail, you don't hit the 3 at all and give up ball in hand.

My other thought against an APA 4 would be to hit the two slightly on your left side (it sounds like you can see the left side of the ball, just not far enough left to make it?), and try to follow the cue ball to the end rail and back up behind the 15, leaving him nothing but a hopefully off-angle 15-13 combo, which is tough for a 4.

You could also kick two rails to try to make the 3, hopefully either making it, blocking the pocket with it, or tying up the 13-14-3 somehow. You're sort of leaving it up to luck if you take that route, assuming you're not Efren Reyes.

-Andrew
 

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This is a shot that I hit with regularity and honestly I'm surprised that more people don't know this shot. But, if the 3 is one the rail or even slightly off the rail shoot into the rail first with a firm stroke with inside english, done right you can make it 6-7 times out of 10. The down side is that with the layout of the table you may not end up with a shot on the 2 but that's another issue. Work on this shot you'll be surprised how many times it'll come up in a game if you recognize the oppurtuinty.

Black Cat :cool:
 
Black Cat 5791 said:
But, if the 3 is one the rail or even slightly off the rail shoot into the rail first with a firm stroke with inside english, :
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I'd be inclined to shoot that also. I'd also be inclined to shoot a half massé on the 2-ball.

But, the shooter is an SL4. Not much to do here. IMO, shoot the bank combo/carom and leave the cueball up table near the cushion. Just like Scott drew up. It being APA, if the 3-ball drops, you have to continue shooting.

Fred <~~~ looks like a crapshoot
 
Kelly_Guy said:
My first immediate thought is hit the left edge of the 3 ball banking it into the 13. The goal is to have the 3 hit the 13 and have the 13 come to rest againt the 14 to tie them up. You might get the 3 to sit right in front of the pocket. Put left on the cue ball to go one rail off of the 3 and send the cue ball passed the side pocket shooting for having it come to rest right above where the one ball is in the diagram near that spot, ideally on the rail.

Just my thoughts.

Kelly
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That's my shot, too. (Snapshot's shot is pretty good too.)
Cory
 
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Can you not carom the 3 off the 13 into the corner? Maybe use some left english bringing the cue ball down table for the 2 ball in the corner pocket.
 
Kelly_Guy said:
My first immediate thought is hit the left edge of the 3 ball banking it into the 13. The goal is to have the 3 hit the 13 and have the 13 come to rest againt the 14 to tie them up. You might get the 3 to sit right in front of the pocket. Put left on the cue ball to go one rail off of the 3 and send the cue ball passed the side pocket shooting for having it come to rest right above where the one ball is in the diagram near that spot, ideally on the rail.
Click to expand...

Sometimes you have to rearrange the furniture. This is the shot. Do not shoot the three in and leave no shot for the last ball. That isn't good 8-ball strategy. The most important thing here is to make darn tootin' sure that he doesn't have a hanger when he comes to the table. Leave the cue ball on the foot rail and make him shoot off the rail. This game isn't over by a long shot. You're just gonna have to play more than one inning to win it.:)
 
Hal said:
Can you not carom the 3 off the 13 into the corner? Maybe use some left english bringing the cue ball down table for the 2 ball in the corner pocket.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I didn't even see it, but it looks like a high-percentage shot now that you mention it. And you'd have to pretty unlucky not to get some kind of shot on the 2 ball. Good call, Hal.

-Andrew
 
This is by far the best option against a 4.

Kelly_Guy said:
My first immediate thought is hit the left edge of the 3 ball banking it into the 13. The goal is to have the 3 hit the 13 and have the 13 come to rest againt the 14 to tie them up. You might get the 3 to sit right in front of the pocket. Put left on the cue ball to go one rail off of the 3 and send the cue ball passed the side pocket shooting for having it come to rest right above where the one ball is in the diagram near that spot, ideally on the rail.

One other immediate though is if you have a nice soft touch, and the 3 is not frozen to the rail, roll up and bump the 3 so the 3 will double kiss the cue ball after the rail hit and you might be able to sandwhich the cue ball between the 3 and 13. As long as you don't sell it, even if you hit it a little hard, as long as the angle is good you still might tie the 13 and 14. If you do get the cue ball sandwhiched between the two, stripes is likely in a tough spot.

Just my thoughts.

Kelly
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if you're playing on smaller tables i might feel differently.

-s
 
Kelly_Guy said:
My first immediate thought is hit the left edge of the 3 ball banking it into the 13. The goal is to have the 3 hit the 13 and have the 13 come to rest againt the 14 to tie them up. You might get the 3 to sit right in front of the pocket. Put left on the cue ball to go one rail off of the 3 and send the cue ball passed the side pocket shooting for having it come to rest right above where the one ball is in the diagram near that spot, ideally on the rail.
Click to expand...

I kind of like this option as well, except I think I play it a lot softer and put all of the emphasis on getting the 3 to block the pocket. I'd shoot it just hard enough to get the cb downtable enough to make sure my opp. couldn't shoot the 13 or 14 toward the bottom-right corner (I don't want them missing a thin cut and clogging up my pocket for the 8-ball).

Kind of like this, I guess:
http://CueTable.com/P/?@3BQNp2Cbio1...WcPt2WaUE2WYvX2hWrG2hPIM1kKqv2kYuc2kbyK2kMsR@

I think with the slow speed, my odds are pretty good to keep the 3 in front of the hole, and, no offense to any APA 4's out there, but I'd leave an APA 4 the long back-cut on the 15 (needing 3-rail short-side shape on the 13 or 14, btw) all day long. Plus, as you stated, you might get lucky and tie the 13 and 14 up with that shot.

Against a better player, though, I'm going for the out by spin-cutting the 3, and hoping for something like this.

http://CueTable.com/P/?@3BQNp2Cbio1...Wbio2Wchq2hWrG2hPIM1kKav2kbiV2kbiX1kbRw2kHoD@

Hey, if you're going to beat better players, you have to make better shots, right?

Good luck!
 
Hal said:
Can you not carom the 3 off the 13 into the corner? Maybe use some left english bringing the cue ball down table for the 2 ball in the corner pocket.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't call it a bad shot, but I personally wouldn't play it that way. I'd have to set it up to be sure, but it looks like, with the 13 that far from the rail, that the shot either has to be hit pretty hard, or very precisely to get the 3 to fall, and you run the risk of pushing the 13 over to the other rail and blocking the 8's pocket. I'm kind of biased against that shot, though, so some others players may like it better than I do. I don't know how many times I've been burned by that shot. It looks like a dead throw-in, and then you hit it and it titties out, or misses by a quarter-inch. The big thing for me, though is the possibility of blocking the 8. It would really suck to make the 3, just to have the 8 blocked. There's not even an easy bank from there.

Good eye, though. You can't shoot shots you don't see.
 
Thank you all for your responses. The shot I decided on that night was banking the three to tie those balls up. I didn't send the cue ball far enough and left the the stripe passed my 2, but I won the match anyway, because the guy just tried to run out.

Like I said in my original post. The bank carom may have been there. I looked for it, but just couldn't find it. Seemed I couldnt cut the 3 over to the right side of that strip to put it in the pocket. Maybe a better shooter sees it and makes it.

Again, thank you all for your responses.

Mike
 
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