Which is the hardest?

[CantEverWin]

I haven't posted in awhile, but I had a situation come up that brought a question to my mind.

In a game I had a shot come up that gave ne two choices of combination shots to shoot at. Both were nearly the same angle. The diffrence was the seperation between the middle ball and the object ball. My question is what is the easier shot to make.

Its on the RSB table so, its hard to set up things exactly but I'm sure that you guys will get the picture by the three choices I give you.

Situation 1: START(
%Ap7D0%BC7]0%CC0\1%DC7[9%EC7\7%FC3\0%GC6[7%HC8[9%IC3[5%JC8\5
%KB9\2%LC6[7%MC5\0%OU0N4%PP6Q8%Wn7D2%XU5N1
)END

Situation 2: START(
%Ap7D0%BC7]0%CC0\1%DC7[9%EC7\7%FC3\0%GC6[7%HC8[9%IC3[5%JC8\5
%KB9\2%LC6[7%MC5\0%O]3I9%PP6Q8%Wn7D2%X]7I7
)END

Situation 3:START(
%Ap7D0%BC7]0%CC0\1%DC7[9%EC7\7%FC3\0%GC6[7%HC8[9%IC3[5%JC8\5
%KB9\2%LC6[7%MC5\0%Oj1E4%PP6Q8%Wn7D2%Xj5E3
)END

For arguements sake, disregard scratching or position. Again, its not set up that well but I think that the players on here will understand the though behind what I am setting up.

Mike

 

[sjm]

I think #2 is the toughest, though #1 is nearly as tough. Clearly, #3 is significantly easier than the other two.

 

[mjantti]

I think #2 is the toughest, though #1 is nearly as tough. Clearly, #3 is significantly easier than the other two.

Agreed 100%. The slight inaccuracy in the angle is multiplied most in #2, #1 doesn't have much distance between the middle ball and the cueball so the hit is pretty accurate. In #3, the middle ball has a larger angular target area on the object ball.

It would be more interesting to put these three scenarios to top pros like Strickland, Archer, Efren, Bustamante and let them choose what kind of a stroke they'd use for each shot: a)slow roll b)punch c)hard stun d)soft draw ("drag" shot). For instance, I think Earl would prefer c) and Efren d) on most shots.

 

[Bob Jewett]

... In a game I had a shot come up that gave ne two choices of combination shots to shoot at. Both were nearly the same angle. The diffrence was the seperation between the middle ball and the object ball. My question is what is the easier shot to make.
...

A general rule for shot difficulty is discussed in:

http://www.sfbilliards.com/articles/1994-04.pdf

Briefly, for a normal shot, multiply the distance from the cue ball to the object ball by the distance from the object ball to the pocket (each measured in diamonds) to find the difficulty. For a combination shot, multiply the three distances together, but measure one of them, such as the distance between the two object balls, in ball diameters.

Example: two diamonds from cue ball to first object ball, two ball diameters between object balls, three diamonds from second object ball to pocket. Difficulty is 2*2*3 = 12. This is the same as shooting a ball down the rail that is three diamonds from the pocket and the cue ball is four diamonds away.

That's the theory. In practice, you don't practice combos as much as regular shots, so they seem harder than the prediction.

Angles