Hill-Hill, again
Posted at 7:02 AM, November 25, 2008 to Online pool
So my league match, a straight up race to 5, went to hill-hill again. We both got a little sloppy towards then end. In the beginning though, I took leads of 2-0 and 3-1, but he won the next two, one on a lucked in 8 ball. It was a thin cut with the 8 ball on the long rail less than a diamond up from the pocket. He cut it down the rail, but it didn’t have enough speed and it hung in the corner, but the cue ball went back and forth across the pool table and ended up knocking it in like a timing shot. We alternated the next two games to get to 4-4. This ended up being the match shot. I had stripes. My teammate mentioned the possibility of trying to bank the nine ball up the table, follow with the cue ball so it would bounce out and, if I missed, still leave a bad angle for his three ball. I ended up playing the safety you see on the second page.
My opponent tried to bank the 3 ball cross side, but ended up jumping the cue ball off the table. So I put the 11 ball in the left corner with a touch of follow, cut the 9 ball and was able to get straight in on the 8 ball for the win. Overall, I played ok. I had a couple 5 or 6 ball runs, but I couldn’t quite finish them off.
League play
Posted at 6:37 AM, November 19, 2008 to Online pool
I won my league match last night. It was a straight 5-4 race that went hill-hill and ended up getting decided when my opponent scratched on the 8 ball. He also did that in the first game. He was a good shotmaker, but a little lacking in position play and stroke. I used that to my advantage in the end. I was left with the following situation playing stripes. I just missed the break out on the previous shot. My two options were to play off the left side of the 14 with hopes of obstructing his chance at the 5 and bumping the 8 closer to the side pocket or play off the right side of the 14, which is what I tried to do. My thought was maybe I could get the 14 and 8 both on the rail to force a bank. I tried it, but the 14 came off the rail a bit too much. My two-way on this though was to get the cue ball above the 5 ball so he didn’t have a natural angle to set himself up for the 8 in the corner (see page 2).
So he pocketed the 5 ball, tried to bank the 8 and wound up scratching instead. The rest of the match was pretty tight though. I shot well, even having to bank the 8 once. I took a 4-1 lead, but he won the next two matches to get to the finish.
Shot practice
Posted at 6:27 AM, November 19, 2008 to Online pool
On Sunday, I spent some time focusing on a few shots from the APTSA program. One was a simple trick/fancy and follow shot. Another was a draw shot that Gordon Hedges asked me about. And the third was a stroke shot that Andy Segal made against me at the Comet Classic. This third shot seemed to be problematic for a lot of players though, and I’m still having a rough time of it. The cue ball is within a chalks distance of an object ball, and you have to get the cue ball to jump enough so it caroms off the object ball and over a cue stick. What’s more, the cue ball also has to have enough spin on it to take it down the table rather than just relying on the carom. Here’s my best diagram of it from Cuetable. There’s a bit more involved with it, but this is the gist.
Bouncing back
Posted at 6:40 AM, November 11, 2008 to Online pool
I had a tough loss last week in league, but came back nicely this week against a weaker opponent. It was a 5-3 race plus I gave my opponent 2 balls every rack. It looked like it could have been tight as she got down to the 8 ball in the first rack, but missed and then scratched on her next attempt on the 8. After that, things fell apart for her and opened up for me. In the fourth game, I ran six of my balls and then the 8 to get the hill. In the fifth game, I was making a good run of it as well until my last ball. From the position below, I had to use the bridge to get to the 10 ball. I only needed a little bit of draw to get an angle for the 8, but put too much in to it as I usually don’t draw well off a bridge. That put her one ball square in the way of the 8 ball. As you can see on page 2, I ended up jumping her 1 ball successfully, pocketing the 8 ball, but then the cue ball slowly trickled in afterwards for a scratch and loss of game. I put away the sixth game when I was down to the 8 ball and she fouled, not hitting a rail after contact, handing me the match.