Thinking Your Way to More Pool Victories
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| Thinking Wins Games |
This article is part of PoolSynergy, a monthly collection of the best writing on pool. Check it out to see the other 8 articles on the theme of strategy.
Here’s a strategy that can help you in any game: Give yourself extra shots every inning. Quite a spot, isn’t it? Well, it’s not something you need to get from your opponent, it’s something you can give yourself and there’s nothing your opponent can do about it.
“How can you do this,” you ask? It’s conceptually very simple, but you have to train yourself to look for opportunities. Just do more than one thing on every shot you can.
There are many ways to do this, but they fall into several basic types.
- Make a ball (or play safe) and move a ball into a better position
- Make a ball (or play safe) and move an opponent’s ball into a worse position
- Play a two way shot that leaves you in a good position if you make it, and leaves your opponent safe if you don’t
Breaking a cluster is an example of the first type, since your goal is to move one or more balls in the cluster to a better position.
Each of the ‘make a ball’ versions of the types listed above assumes that you are still playing position for your next shot. There’s no sense in improving the table at the expense of not leaving a good shot.
You want everything you do in a game to increase your odds of winning that game. Making balls usually does that, though making a ball that leaves you in a bad spot can suddenly turn the odds strongly in favor of your opponent (the failed 8 ball run out).
You want everything you do in a game to increase your odds of winning.
Suppose in an 8 ball game you have a ball stuck on the rail next to the side pocket. This ball is a problem for you and its very existence lowers your odds of winning this game. If you could make another ball in the side pocket, and carom off that ball instead of going in cleanly, you’d move it to a better position and enhance your chance of winning much more than simply making the ball would do.
Suppose instead that your opponent had a ball in front of the side pocket. Caroming a ball in off that opponent’s ball might not be hard, and you can move his advantageously placed ball to a more disadvantageous location.
This idea, of doing multiple things in every shot you can, is applicable to every game you play. For example, in straight pool, don’t just play safe, knock a couple balls free while you do so. You’ve just made it harder for your opponent to play safe back against you. Another straight pool example is creating a break shot. Making a ball and bumping another into position for being used as a break ball can pay huge dividends. This seems to violate the general rule against touching other balls, but it’s not really an exception to the rule, since the rule is really “Don’t accidentally touch other balls.”
Another example of moving a ball into a better position is to create a ball which you’ll later use to break out a cluster. A lone cluster far from other balls is tough to fix, but if you can bump another ball down table while making another shot, you significantly improve your odds of dealing with the problem. This would come up mostly in 14.1 and 8 Ball.
It can be very valuable to create a cluster or trouble spot for your opponent.
A common strategy in 8 ball where you opponent has a ball blocking the hole for balls of both yours and his, is to combo your ball into the blocker, potting it and leaving your ball as a new blocker. What else can you do here to enhance the value of this shot? Well, many intermediate players seem to forget to pay attention to the cue ball as well. They often get so involved in managing the actions of two or more object balls they miss an opportunity to position the cue ball to make the opponent’s next shot even harder.
In 8 ball especially, since you and your opponent have different suits, it can be very valuable to create a cluster or trouble spot for your opponent while you make balls or play safe. Bumping one of his balls close to another makes his position play that much more difficult, even if the ball you moved is only close to another, and not right on it. Imagine how different the odds of you wining become if you did that more than once in a turn. And by the way, don’t say anything about what you’ve done. If he recognizes you skill, fine; if he thinks you’re just inordinately lucky it could ruin his ability to focus.
In 9 or 10 ball you may need to break a ball out of a cluster. You may find a way to make another ball and run the cue ball into the cluster, but that carries some risk. Instead, you might be able to play safe and send a ball into the cluster and accomplish the same goal with much less risk. You might also be able to hit the ball in the cluster directly and move it elsewhere, and hide whitey on the other side of the remaining ball(s), again accomplishing your objective with much lower risk.
In one pocket, getting more than one thing accomplished per shot is a requirement if you’re to have any chance of winning. Why? Because every knowledgeable opponent is going to be doing this to you, and if you don’t do it you’re not in a fair fight. Making balls, moving balls away from your opponent’s pocket, moving balls to your side of the table and leaving the cue ball safe are the four main components and doing many of them each shot is important.
Doing the right thing is every bit as important to your success as doing it well.
I highly recommend one pocket to help you learn to think more strategically. It’s not for nothing that it’s known as chess on the table. The specific moves you’ll learn in one pocket aren’t often applicable to other games, but the mental approach, getting everything possible out of each and every shot, is.
Once you reach a minimum level of proficiency at the game of pool, doing the right thing is every bit as important to your success as doing it well. You need to become very good at both to rise to the higher levels. Seeing opportunities you didn’t used to see will help you to choose the best shot to make. That shot is usually one that accomplishes more than one thing.
What new skills do you need to execute these strategic moves successfully once you think of them? Having a good feel for the distance an object ball will travel is important if you want to make trouble. Also, when you use an object ball to break up a cluster, you don’t want to send the newly freed up ball into another, so the force of the collision is very important. The other skill useful in these moves is the ability to make simple caroms and billiards. Useful occasionally otherwise, they really help you to bump balls into or out of position.
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One Response to “Thinking Your Way to More Pool Victories”
g2
- November 16th, 2009
Excellent Read John! So many players ignore the opportunity to not only play safe, but ALSO increase their chances of winning by opening up their own table &/or creating clusters for their opponent. This is a BIG TIME secret many players miss out on & a great learning lesson for those who take notice. Awesome!
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