One Pocket Improves 9Ball?

…and so the pendulum swings…

Over the last year or so I haven’t had much time to play, so I’ve focused exclusively on One Pocket because I’m fascinated (addicted) to the strategies and mental exercise involved. Now that I’ve got a little extra time to get to the table (twice a week vs. once), I’ve decided to add 9Ball back into the mix. When I first got back into 9Ball a few weeks ago, it seemed that I’d completely lost my ability to run balls. I’d developed more of a ‘pokey / pushy’ short stroke from One Pocket, and was struggling to run more than 3-4 balls. After 2-3 weeks of getting back into a rotation game, I’ve discovered that my ball running ability has gotten much better.

I’ve always heard that playing multiple types of pool games is good for improving your overall playing ability, and I can attest that this is true. After playing One Pocket almost exclusively for a year and a half, my 9Ball game is now much better. I’ve actually changed my stroke (in a good way) when it comes to playing rotation games. I’m now moving the cue ball MUCH better and with more “touch”. It’s hard for me to describe exactly what I’ve changed from a technical point of view, but I guess the best way to describe the change is that I’m no longer “hitting” or “shooting” through the cue ball; rather, now I am “thoughtfully pushing” or “thoughtfully focusing on the rotation that I’m imparting to the cue ball” when I stroke. This is a huge mental change from my former thought process of “how hard do I have to hit this shot to get the resulting position I want” approach. As a result, the object balls are traveling much slower, I’m getting more “bite” on draws and spins, and the cue ball position results are much more accurate. I want to play around with this for a few weeks and see where it takes me.

 

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2014 US Open One Pocket Championship

I got to Reno late Sunday night and hit balls for a couple hours to adjust to the 9′ Diamond tables.  The rails on a Diamond play differently than the Gold Crowns I am accustomed to.  I got a few hours sleep and was up early Monday hitting balls again.   My first round match was scheduled for 7:00pm, so I was able spend a good bit of time hitting balls and relaxing.  In the first round I drew Brandon Shuff, a pro from Virgina.  I played pretty well (for me), but it wasn’t enough.  Shuff dispensed me pretty quickly with scores of  8-1, 8-3, 8-5, 8-2.  To be honest, I was pretty happy to play him that close.  My next match is later this afternoon.  I drew a second round Bye so I still don’t know who my next opponent will be.  It’s amazing to see how well these guys play.  Having a blast.  Later.

My Match with Orcollo – Part 2

The Third Rack – Dennis broke and left a spread nearly identical to his break in the first rack. Although I was in a tough position, the up side was that I had seen it before and could learn from my earlier mistake. I shot a ticky and got the cue ball directly in front of his hole. He didn’t have a shot, so he came off the long rail on my side of the table and put me back against the stack. At that point I started my new strategy: Look for a stop shot anywhere on the table that would allow me to leave the cue ball up against another ball. For the next 7 or 8 innings, that’s all I did: Stop-Kiss. Stop-Kiss. Stop-Kiss. I was trying any trick possible to not allow Orcollo to get a clean shot. Then, Orcollo made a mistake and left me in the following position (my pocket is the one on the lower left):

I saw the bank shot immediately, but knew it was a risky proposition. If I missed, Orcollo would run out for sure. If I made it, I would get my one ball. Was it worth the risk? I stood in-line with the shot for a minute debating the merits of taking the shot and quickly realized my decision boiled down to three key facts: (1) Orcollo was the best player in the world, (2) there’s no way I could out-shoot him or out-maneuver him in the long run, and (3) in three matches, this was the very first time I had had any chance to make a ball. If I was ever going to take the risk, now was the time.

I studied the shot, got into position, stroked three or four times, then ‘felt the magic’ and let the shot go. “Click.” I stroked the cue ball with a little low right, stopped it about 10 inches off the rail, and the object ball rolled perfectly into my corner pocket; nothing but net! Yipee! I had made my first ball, but better yet, had position on several others. I forced myself to slow down and think (and breath) before each shot, fighting my natural tendency to rush. When I was done, I had pocketed 6 balls and had left Orcollo frozen again against another ball. I sat down and realized I was up 6-0 in game 3. Mission accomplished!

3 innings and 3 safeties later, Orcollo left me in this position:

I know this sounds crazy, but when stood up behind the cue ball and looked at my position, I immediately saw a reverse bank shot off the ball near the side pocket. Not makeable, you say? A risky shot only a fool would take? I wasn’t sure about the shot either, but I had already accomplished my goal of making one ball, had already lasted much longer than in my first two games, and now I was free-wheeling. Sure, why NOT go for it?

A couple months prior to the tournament, I had developed an analytical method for calculating reverse bank shots. I’ll explain the methodology in a future post, but suffice it to say, here’s what I had to do (according to my algorithm) in order to make the shot: I had to stroke the cue ball with about 3 tips of right (basically as far as you can go without miscueing), the cue stick slightly elevated, and about a 1/6th fraction hit on the object ball. Yes…crazy! But here’s the craziest part…IT ACTUALLY WORKED!

The object ball came off the long rail with pocket speed and didn’t even hit the jaws of my pocket as it made its way in. The cue ball wasn’t moving that fast but was spinning like crazy when it came off the long rail. The cue ball went two rails and came back across the table for perfect position on my final ball. (Ok, to be honest, I didn’t plan that one). I walked down table to take my final shot, but Orcollo waved me off and conceded the game. VICTORY!!!!!

I honestly don’t remember any details from the rest of the match. I think Orcollo got spooked (who is this unknown guy?) and he completely changed his playing style. Over the next hour or so in racks 4 and 5, I never saw another makeable shot. I tried to stretch the match as long as I could, but it was no contest. Afterwards, he complemented me on my play, and that by itself was worth the price of admission. Yes, now I’m hooked on One Pocket!

My Match with Dennis Orcollo

“Hey Reddick, you drew a monster in the first round!” a friend yelled as I worked my way through the crowd.  I was headed to the US Open One Pocket Championship tournament board to verify my start time and find out whom I was playing.  “Michael Reddick vs. Dennis Orcollo – 1:00 PM.”  Yikes!  Dennis Orcollo, the #1 rated player in the world and widely known as the top money player on the planet.  A monster indeed!

This being my first pro One Pocket tournament, my strategy was very simple:  JUST MAKE ONE BALL.  I kid you not.  Yes, it sounds like an artificially low goal, but hey, One Pocket is a very tough game, especially when played against the best players in the world.  At the time I had no idea how tough it would be for me to make one ball against a top rated player, but I was about to find out the hard way.  I got to the match table at 12:55 and Dennis was already warming up.  Talk about intimidation!  I tried to play it off like I was cucumber cool, walking slowly to my chair, yawning, screwing my cue together, yawning again…like it was just another day’s work for me; but inside I was experiencing a firestorm of emotion.  I kept repeating a mantra in my head to calm myself: “Relax, Breath Deep, Just one ball.  Relax, Breath Deep, Just one ball.  Relax, Breath Deep, Just one ball.”

Dennis approached and asked if I wanted to warm up.  “Yeah, sure,” I deadpanned.  I stepped to the table praying my hands weren’t shaking so badly he would notice.  I decided against hitting any practice shots for fear that my nervousness would cause me to miss even the simple setups and thereby reveal to Dennis just how outclassed I was.  Instead, I set the cue ball near the long rail and hit a couple lag shots to see how straight the ball would roll.  Next, I set the cue ball in front of one corner pocket and sent whitey 3 cushions to the adjacent corner pocket to see if the table was playing short or long.  The ball went in on the first try and with pocket speed to boot.  I shrugged my shoulders as if this was normal for me (it certainly was NOT) and told Dennis I was ready.

THE LAG – We walked to the table and shook hands.  Click / Click.  Our lags were nearly simultaneous.  You know that feeling you get when you KNOW you hit a good lag?  I got that feeling as soon the cue ball left my tip.  I celebrated quietly in my head as my ball rebounded from the head rail, made its way back down, and slowly rolled to a stop within an inch and a half of the bottom rail.  Damn good shot if I do say so myself!  I glanced up to see where Orcollo’s shot had landed: Half an inch from the rail.  WHAT??!!!

THE FIRST RACK – The break is a huge advantage in One Pocket.  Giving up the break to the #1 player in the world takes that concept to a whole new level.  Dennis broke and the results were nearly perfect:  I was frozen to the side rail, there were 4 or 5 balls near his hole, and I had no possible cuts or banks available.  In my inexperienced eyes, I couldn’t even find a good safety.  I fell back to my most basic One Pocket strategy:  Try to put the cue ball directly in front of his hole.  I tried to get whitey there safely but there was a lot of traffic and I held back a little too much on the speed and left him a makeable cut shot.  DOOM!  Dennis is widely regarded as the best ball runner on the planet, and he quickly showed me why:  1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 and out!  So there I was: 1 shot, one loss, and I hadn’t even made a single ball!

THE SECOND RACK – Now it was my break.  I would have the advantage.  Yeah, right.  I broke with mediocre results.  I accidentally knocked the corner ball from the rack into the vicinity of his pocket and didn’t leave him tight on the side rail.  He decided not to take the hard cut and instead we exchanged a couple safeties.  Then he left me frozen against a ball with very few offensive options except for a kick shot at a ball that was very near my hole.  I calculated my probability of success at 85-90% and took my chances with the kick.  Bad choice.  The object ball rattled and didn’t drop.  Worse yet, Dennis had a cut shot available and a natural angle for another ball.  POW!  1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 and out!  At this point I had taken a total of only 5 shots over a span of 18 minutes, was already behind 2-0 in a race to 4, and I hadn’t even made one ball!

This match was quickly turning into a slaughter.  I then experienced a bout of extreme embarrassment along with a modest dose of anger.  I had never entertained the thought of beating Dennis, but I certainly had no intention of setting the world record for the shortest One Pocket match ever!  TIME FOR A NEW STRATEGY!  From now on, my only objective was to stall the match as long as possible.   FORGET OFFENSE!  Every single time I approached the table I was going to be looking for the best safety possible, preferably a frozen ball safety.  Little did I know, this change in strategy would have a profound effect on the outcome of the third rack…  (to be continued in my next post).

2013 US Open One Pocket Championship

It’s December 31^st, a day when most folks ponder memories of the past year and set goals for the next.  I’m no different.  2013 was a great pool year for me.  I didn’t play that much pool, maybe one day a week on average, but I did manage to check one item off my bucket list:  Playing in a US Open event!  I started playing One Pocket in January 2013 and immediately fell in love with the game.  I even decided (foolishly?) to enter the US Open One Pocket Championship in July of 2013 to see just how good the pros play the game.  It was a fantastic experience and one I will never forget.  I spent almost a full week in Vegas playing One Pocket and also playing in various 8 and 9 ball mini tournaments sponsored by the BCA.  Here’s a photo of the venue at 2:30am the morning before tournament play began.  I think I was the only player hitting balls and was so excited I couldn’t sleep.  Can you hear the theme music from The Color of Money?  Yeah, me too.  Pool 24/7.  My version of heaven!  In my next post I’ll tell you about my second biggest highlight from 2013:  My US Open One Pocket Championship match again Dennis Orcollo, the top money player on the planet.

One Pocket Complexity

I’ve been practicing to improve my One Pocket game over the last several weeks, but haven’t posted in almost a month.  I’ve been struggling to figure out the best way to break the game down into its primary components.  What do I work on first, second, third, etc.?  In my last post, I listed several core shots and skills that I needed to improve.  I’ve been working on those intermittently and working on some other skills as well:

1.  Crossover bank shots – Bank shots where the cue ball passes through the future path of the object ball before the object ball gets there (and avoids the kiss).

2.  Standard spot shots – A single ball is spotted on the foot spot and you have ball in hand in the kitchen.

3.  Double ball spot shots – Two balls are spotted (with the first ball on the foot spot) and you have ball in hand in the kitchen.

4.  Kick-aways – Kicking the cue ball off the bottom rail, then knocking an object ball away from your opponent’s pocket and sending it up-table.

5.  Dig outs – Successfully removing a ball that is basically within the jaws of your opponent’s pocket without scratching.

6.  Intentional Scratches – Your opponent has a ball deep within the jaws of his pocket, and there’s no way to remove it, so you pocket your opponent’s ball and make the cue ball follow into the same pocket for an intentional scratch.  Since you scratched on the shot, your opponent’s ball gets spotted, and you have to spot one of your balls as well.

7.  Spin Safes – Yeah, I invented some of these terms.  What I mean by ‘Spin Safes’ is being able to spin the cue ball off of any object ball anywhere on the table and have the cue ball go back one or more rails and come to rest on or within a couple inches of the bottom rail.

8.  Ending your inning on your own terms (a.k.a “Leaving your opponent stuck against an object ball with virtually no viable shot other than to try to return a safety”) – The need for this skill has been drilled into my head (and wallet) repeatedly over the last month.  If you are going to leave the table, you’d better make sure when your opponent gets to the table, he/she has virtually no offensive options.

This covers most of the key skills I’ve been working on, but I haven’t even talked about learning some of ‘the moves’ yet.  I guess I’ll cover that difficult subject in a future post.

Building A One Pocket Game

I started playing One Pocket in January 2013, and I’ve now put together a list of the seven most common shots and moves that come up when I play the game. These are the skills I need to master in order for me to improve my One Pocket game and move to the next level. I’ll be working on these skills for at least the next month.

1. Break shot – The break is arguably the most important shot in that a good break can immediately put your opponent in a very bad situation, or conversely, a poorly executed break shot can immediately lead to a sell out.

2. Short Banks – The most basic shot in One Pocket. This shot is a core skill that must be mastered at a very high level of proficiency to allow you to score “easy” points and punish your opponent for placing object balls near his pocket and leaving the cue ball near your pocket.

3. Long banks – The second most basic shot in One Pocket that can be used to score points from almost any position on the table.

4. 2-Rail Banks – A common One Pocket shot that allows you to shoot up table and place a ball near (or in) your pocket that was originally located on your opponent’s side of the table.

5. 3-Rail Banks (long rail first) – A common One Pocket shot that allows you to shoot up table and place a ball near (or in) your pocket that was originally located in the middle of the table or on your opponents side of the table.

6. 3-Rail shots (short rail first) – A common One Pocket shot that allows you to shoot down table towards your opponent’s pocket and place a ball near (or in) your pocket that was originally located directly in front of your opponent’s pocket. These shots have a devastating impact on your opponent when executed correctly.

7. Running balls- As with any pool game, the ability to run multiple balls in one inning can easily mean the difference between winning or losing. If your opponent knows you have the ability to run balls, it can have a huge psychological impact and will likely alter the strategic and tactical choices your opponent makes. To work on ball running skills, I practice the “L” drill for at least 30 minutes each practice session.  The “L” drill is great for working on cut shots while at the same time controlling speed and spin so you can get position on your next shot.

Over the next few weeks l’ll talk about each of these skills in more detail and provide some tips and tricks for success. For now, it’s getting close to 11am on a Saturday morning, my wife is working a full shift today, and the pool hall opens in a few minutes, so guess what I’ll be doing for the next 7 hours?!  See ya later!

BUMMER!

I traveled 2,600 miles to the New Jersey / New York City area and spent 4 days there on official day job business, and never once had the opportunity to visit a pool hall.  The man actually expected me to work while I was there.  What a bummer!  I had wanted to visit Amsterdam Billiards, Society Billiards, Steinway Billiards, Castle Billiards, and Gotham City Billiards while I was traveling, but I guess I’ll have to do that on my next flight out.  Now I’m suffering from pool withdrawal.  I haven’t played in over a week.  No problem.  I’ve already got three One Pocket matches and a practice session scheduled for tomorrow, so I guess I’ll get my fix soon.