Last night I was in an 8 ball match against a pretty tough player when I suddenly found myself in a very difficult situation. I had broken the rack open to start the game, but didn’t make a ball. My opponent started running the solids but missed his last ball. With most of the solids out of the way, I decided to run the table out and had nearly completed my run when I made a HUGE mistake and lost position on my last object ball. Arrgghh! I was very frustrated, so I stopped play, whipped out my iPhone, and took a picture of the layout before I continued shooting. See the actual photo from our match below.
How would you play this shot? (You have Stripes)
In my next post I’ll tell you what I did, but for now here’s my question for you: How would you have played this shot? In the edited photo below, I’ve provided the 4 options that I initially considered. Can you think of any other options? What would you have done in this situation? What do you think I eventually did?
The first 4 shots I considered. Are there other options? What did I do?
Have fun! 😉
Angle of Reflection 
I’m thinkin you took path A but I remember you saying that if you aren’t 90% sure you can’t make a shot you safety so you tapped the right side of it and let the cue ball sit against the rail next to the nine?
Good guess…you’re very close! Tune in tomorrow!
You need to play safe and place the cue ball by the third diamond behind the 8. This is a speed shot and if you have been practicing your safeties like you said, you should be able to do this.
A very good suggestion, not what I ended up doing, but a good strategy nonetheless. I did think about the shot you suggested, but I wasn’t sure I could pull it off with 95% confidence.
if you thin the 9 on the left with right English, you could end up with the 9 between the cue and the 7… but if you managed to pull that off, I’m not gonna play you any time soon 😛
😉
I would say option B would be the most likely shot.
Reason : If executed right it would leave the cb nicely for side on black.
If it fails but was played for “just-in” your ball should block side and force him to either bank or go for the far corner.
Of these four shot options, I leaned towards shot B because if I missed the bank I might be able to hook him behind the eight. On the other hand, if I made the bank, I could hook myself behind the eight (get too close or kiss it). If I didn’t make the bank and didn’t hook him, I was pretty confident he would either cut the six into the side or nail it in the far corner pocket. Too much risk for me. I looked for a safer shot.
a few guesses:
1. if u opt for aggression then path B is the best option, since you can let your stroke out and move the cueball 3 rails for shape after the bank.
2. if you went with a two-way shot then path A with medium soft speed is a good choice, since you can leave the stripe hanging near the bottom corner pocket (from the picture’s perspective) & block the pocket for the six ball.
3. however, i have a sneaking suspicion that you made a one-rail kick to the foot cushion (or the left cushion in the picture), nudging the stripe softly, then hiding the cueball behind the nine.
4. a very risky shot would be to hit the stripe straight on, and when the stripe rebounds it will hit the cueball full, sending the cueball to rest on the opposite rail (or bottom rail in the pic). i doubt you did that since the speed is really difficult to control. but it’s a thought. 😛
Very interesting options you present. I didn’t think about the kick to the bottom rail option…
sorry! in my third guess it should say “hiding behind the stripe”. i didn’t realize the stripe was not the nine ball!