Eight ball end pattern

When you play to run out in eight ball, you need to be able select the correct end pattern to get good shape on the eight ball. In order to do this, you need begin by thinking the pattern backwards and then forwards. In other words, before you shoot the your first ball, know how you are going to get to your last ball. BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND. First select a ball that you think would give you the best position on the eight ball. This is called the "Key Ball". Then figure out which ball would give you the easiest position play to get on your Key Ball. This is your secondary Key Ball.

Traditional Straight Pool Opening Break Shot

Straight Pool (or 14.1 Continuous) is a game in which all balls must be called, even on the opening break. So, unless you are able to accurately predict what might fall and in which pocket on a power break, such as that made in the game of Eight-ball, you will need to master the most common and fundamentally defensive traditional opening break of Straight Pool shown in the diagram above. When executed "perfectly", each of the corner balls can actually end up coming back into the stack in the exact same positions they were in before you shot. Although it is not easy to do, and certainly you should not even expected it to happen each time you shoot it, I have achieved it myself from time to time. So, it is possible! Regardless of whether the "perfect" outcome occurs, what you can more commonly expect to have occur is what is shown in the diagram above, or perhaps even the diagram below where more balls come out of the stack. If you get something more like what is shown below, then you probably hit the corner ball too full which is easy to do on a table length shot such as this.

Even with this result, you have still left a difficult leave for your opponent, who must now either think of a safety play, or take a risky shot by trying to pocket the 11 ball in the lower left corner pocket.

Because it can be difficult to sometimes control how many balls will come out of the stack, the most important aspect of the opening break is that you must learn to get the cue back up table and as close to or preferably ON the headrail as shown. Focusing on placing the cueball on or as close to the headrail as possible will make any potential shots left for your opponent much more difficult to execute. This should be your main goal on the opening break!

Smart play #1: WPBA US Open 2008 Ranola vs Ellerby

Here is a nine-ball situation that came up in a recent match of the WPBA U.S. Open 9-ball Championships, Iris Ranola vs Sarah Ellerby, 6-2 in a race to 7. Iris Ranola was running the table against Sarah Ellerby and in the process of making the 6 ball, accidentally also made the eight which she was going to use later in the run to get on the nine-ball. With the eight off the table, this left her in the above precarious situation. What would you do here?

Ewa Lawrence was commentating the match and made a suggestion (shown below) of making a bank safety on the seven ball, sending the seven off the bottom long rail up to the middle of the right hand short rail in this diagram. Since this would require hitting on the right side of the seven ball, the cueball would travel up table to the right hand short rail and back down again to sit on the same rail as the nine. I like this suggestion alot.

What really happened? Iris chose to try to make the seven by cutting it up to the corner pocket. However, she missed it. If she had made it, she would have left herself an extremely difficult cut on the nine-ball anyway as there was no easy way to get back down for the nine. Sarah got up to shoot next, but stroked the cueball poorly jumping it off the table. Iris was lucky enough to step back to the table and run the seven and nine out with ball in hand. Luck was definitely on her side.

The Lesson: If you are going to shoot one hard shot that will leave you another hard shot, look to see if there is a better safety option instead. I think Ewa's shot would have been the correct choice here.

It's A Matter of Focus by Denny Stewart

Concentration is not something that you can force, or control. Matter of fact if you’re even trying to concentrate that means your not concentrating! Fighting your mind does not work, you can't will a state of mind, or we'd all be willing dead stroke every time. It just doesn’t work that way. What you can do is FOCUS the mind. It works like this, as you achieve your focus, the mind quiets automatically. A quiet mind only picks up what is relevant in the here and now. You will get into a state of relaxed concentration.


Having the proper rhythm helps the player to keep their MIND & BODY
Working together as one unit and to develop the sensation of Deadstroke. Ask yourself this question. Have you ever shot a shot when you weren’t ready? This is one small example of what happens when your mind and body aren’t working together.

Each routine has a starting point called a SWITCH. By having these defined starting points for various routines, it becomes easier to “start over” whenever necessary. Once these starting points have become a habit, it becomes easier to keep the mind and body working together. This starting point becomes a SWITCH that triggers specific responses in the mind and body that helps to keep your rhythm smooth and intact.

Let’s try this now, when your at the table and going into your PreShot routine, or planning a shot, then executing it, it is relatively easy to focus because your actively engrossed in what you’re doing moment by moment. But you are very vulnerable between strokes, shots, or when you’re in the chair.

Something that might benefit you for when you have those stray thoughts of winning, losing, who's there and what if I miss etc. (basically all chatter) is to focus the mind on your breathing. Nothing is more "here and now" than your breath. It also has a beneficial calming effect. So now you have some tools to keep your head in the game. Focus on the here and now while you’re at the table and running balls, and for all else you can erase with some focus on your breathing. It will keep you in a lot more games.

Next time when you’re getting ready to practice try this.
Set up a straight in shot to the side pocket. You’re going to stop the cue ball when you shoot it. Now once you have decided on what tip position and speed you’re going to shoot it at, close your eyes and I want you to feel it, hear it then listen for it to go in the pocket.

Try it and see and feel the effects of it.


This article was provided compliments of Denny Stewart from the Ohio Pool School.

For more information about Denny, visit his website at http://www.myspace.com/ohiopoolschool or email him using the email address shown above.

Open V-shaped Bridge

In order to be a good pool player, you need to have a good solid bridge hand to stabilize your cue as you shoot. The bridge hand will assist you in hitting the cue ball accurately and applying the appropriate english (or center ball hit). There are two basic bridges:

(1) The open v-shaped bridge

(2) The closed bridge

Regardless of which bridge option you choose, remember that your bridge hand is always made with your non-dominant hand and must be firm!

The open v-shaped bridge is the easier of the two bridge styles. However, as you become a more proficient player, you will find yourself using both bridge styles depending on the shot.

The following visual guide is for beginning pool players who want to know how to form an Open V-shaped bridge:

1. Make a fist on the surface of the table with your non-dominant hand

2. Without losing the elevation of the knuckle area of your hand, spread your fingers out

3. Raise your thumb up and pinch it against the first finger/knuckle area

4. You should see the formation of a "V" shaped groove

5. This "V" shaped groove will form a stable bridge for your cue stick to glide over your hand

End game situation #1

In the above game of Eight-ball, you are stripes and it is your turn. What would be the best thing to do here? Do you bank, play safe or make a ball. Please post your solutions under comments.

Object ball frozen to cushion

In this shot, the object ball is frozen to the rail and you have a very steep angle with the cue ball.

The secret to making these kinds of cut shots is to actually aim to miss, just a little, and play the cue ball into the rail first with low english in the direction of the object ball. The cue ball will rebound off the cushion and into the object ball to make it into the corner pocket. This is actually much easier to execute than to try to cut the ball in.

Try it as shown. As you get more proficient, move the object ball further down the rail until you reach a point of difficulty or low proficiency that would not benefit you in a game. Practice this shot and know you percentage for making it one diamond out from the pocket, 1.5 diamonds out, 2 diamonds out, etc. That way, when it comes up in a game, you will know whether or not you should shoot it, or play a safe instead.

Follow and Draw drill

This is a great little exercise to learn how to follow and draw for basic position zones.

Place one ball on the foot spot (8-ball) and another on the headspot (9-ball). Place a third ball in the dead center of the table. Last, place the cue-ball anywhere on the straight line that allows you to pocket the center ball in a corner pocket and either follow or draw for postion on the next ball. You can shoot one rack of balls to follow to cue ball position A for the 8-ball, and another rack of balls to draw to cue ball position B for position on the 9-ball.

Your position goal should be to achieve either straight in position on the next shot, or at least a comfortable confident cut shot, no more than say a 30 degree angle.

Pocket Billiards 101: How to throw a ball with english.

In the above diagram, you are solids and you need to make your last ball, so that you can play the eight in the lower corner pocket. The problem is, your opponent still has a ball on the table (the stripe 12 ball) and this ball is preventing you from hitting your object ball at the cut angle you need in order to make it into the upper left corner pocket. Cue-ball diagram The answer to your problem is to "throw" the ball into the pocket using some right side-spin/english as shown in the cue-ball diagram above. By putting right side english on the cue-ball, the object ball will be thrown off it's trajectory slightly to the left of it's intended path. This occurs because the right hand spin (a counter clockwise rotation on the cue-ball) will transfer to the object ball in an equal and opposite manner, Think of two cog wheels interacting. When one turns in one direction (clockwise), the other turns in the opposite direction (counter-clockwise) This is exactly how english transfers from one ball to another. The friction created when one ball hits another allows for a transfer of spin (known as English in billiard terms). Left english on the cue-ball will throw the object ball to the right. Conversely, right english on the cue-ball will throw the object ball left.

Executing a simple Stop-shot

In the above eight-ball game situation, you are solids and your opponent is stripes. It is your turn to shoot. The out is simple. Just make the 6 ball straight in the corner pocket, stop the cue ball dead on impact, and you will have easy position on the 8 ball for the win. How to execute. Simply aim below center on the cue-ball, as shown in the diagram and be sure to use a moderate speed, but crisp stroke. If you hit the shot too softly, or aim to high on the cue ball, the cue-ball will roll forward after impact and you may be snookered from the 8 ball by the 11 ball. If you hit the cue-ball too low, the cue-ball will come backwards. This is called "draw". In this case, it would be unintentional draw. Remember that the cue-ball's reaction after impacting the object ball always tells you what happened in the stroke, so pay attention to the cue-ball.

Aiming: Why we miss

So, you've aimed the object ball into the pocket you intend to make it in and established center point on the other side of the ball that you need to hit in order to make the ball go in the pocket. The trouble is, you aim at that spot and for some reason miss! Why??? The answer is pretty simple. The point you have visually put all of your focus on is in-fact the "point of contact" which is not the same as where you should be aiming. If you ended up under-cutting the ball, this is probably what happened. In the above diagram, the cue ball was aimed at the point of contact and not the point of aim. As a result, the cue ball actually ends up making contact with the object ball earlier than expected because of the spherical nature of the two balls. Since the cue-ball ends up contacting the object ball earlier than expected, the line drawn from the two centers indicates that the object ball will in-fact miss the side pocket to the far side of the pocket. We call this an "undercut". Undercuts are the most common aiming error made in pool, so don't feel bad if you have been making this mistake. Okay, now that we understand the problem, lets examine how we can fix it. The correct way to aim this shot would be to aim the center of the cue ball to the center of the "Ghost Ball". In pool, the "Ghost Ball" is referred to when an imaginary ball is used as an aiming tool in determining where to drive the cue-ball in a given shot. This imaginary ball represents where the cue-ball would be at the exact moment of impact in order for the object ball to travel in a particular direction. When two balls are touching, the centers of these two balls form a line that show what direction the object ball will travel. If you shoot the ball using the ghost ball aiming point instead of the point of contact, your shot should look like this.

Eight-Ball 101: Analyzing The After Break Layout

Okay, so you just broke and made the one ball on the break. It is your turn to shoot again. Should you automatically pick solids since you have already made one on the break? The answer is NO! and for several reasons: Remember that the table is always open following the break. The first legally pocketed ball made after the break is what determines which player has what group of balls. Therefore, you do not have to take what falls on the break. Nor should you, simply on the basis that there would be fewer of that group left on the table for you to make. Contrary to popular belief, that is not your best strategy. So, now that we have addressed some common misconceptions, lets get to work on analyzing the table properly and selecting the best group of balls to win the game with.

1. Take a look at the 8-ball. Note that it is free and clear of any other balls or clusters. This is important because, if it weren't, you would have a problem that would have to be solved there in order to win.
2. Look for any clusters on the table. Which groups of balls do they involve? In this case, the 6 (solid) and the 9 (stripe) are tied up together. Therefore neither group of balls are favored in this cluster. However, the 5 (solid) and 7 (solid) are also tied up in another cluster, making the solids a less favorable choice from the cluster stand point.
3. What key balls can be used to break the clusters? In the case of the 6 and 9 ball, the 10 ball (stripe) is also located nearby and can be pocketed at some point in the game when the cue ball is at an angle to rebound off the 10 directly into the cluster. The 5, 7 cluster does not really have a key ball nearby that can be easily made and used to break up the cluster. With this analysis in mind, another point is scored in favor of selecting stripes.
4. Do any balls block pockets? Essentially, balls in the jaws of a pocket, or basically blocking the path of other balls, can be viewed as defensive blockers. In this case, the 11 ball (stripe) is a blocker which can easily be made at some point in your run.
5. What balls are makeable as a first shot from where the cue ball lays? Okay, so now you know "stripes" would be the best choice in this layout. Now you must decide what shot to take first. The easiest shot would obviously be the three ball into the side pocket. But, now that you have properly analyzed the table, you know that establishing solids as your group of balls would ultimately not be a strategically sound choice. Keep in mind that sometimes you may have to attempt a more difficult shot as your first shot in order to establish the best group of balls for yourself in order to win the game! Luckily in this layout, several striped balls lay in easily makeable positions. My first choice would be to make the fifteen and play shape for the 14.

Now that you know how to analyze the table and select the best group of balls to win, stay tuned for my upcoming analysis of how to think through the runout of this rack in my upcoming blog entry to come soon!!!!

Eight-ball side break

The eight-ball side break outlined above is a great break to use on bar-sized tables, especially when the tournament rules allow for a win if the 8-ball drops and the cue ball does not scratch.

1. There are a few key elements to consider here:
2. Look for a gap between the 8 ball and one of the side balls in the same row.
3. If there is a gap, break from the side opposite the gap.
4. Place the cue ball a few inches off the side rail with at least 51% of the ball behind the headstring.
5. Aim for the second ball in the rack, just missing the head ball.
6. Be sure to put draw on the ball on the final stroke.Apply power, but maintain your accuracy!!!

When looking at the rack, you must first examine the balls on either side of the 8 ball. In this rack, that would be the 3 ball and the 2 ball. A common misconception is that both of these balls must be touching in order for this to be a good rack. Well, that is true if you are the racker. However, as the breaking opponent, I would not refuse a rack where one of these balls are loose. Rather, I would choose to use the eight-ball side break. These balls on either side of the 8, when frozen to the 8, are basically jail guards keeping the 8 ball from moving out of the pack on the break. However, if one of these are loose, you can use the energy transference of the frozen balls on the other side of the gap to increase your chances of moving the 8 ball our of the pack and often into the side pocket labeled "A". In addition, the 8 ball will sometimes get a kick from a ball in the pack and be sent up table into pocket "B". When this break is executed correctly, you should get a nice spread of the balls and the cue ball should be located between the 2nd diamond and center of the table. If you end up scratching in the lower left corner pocket, then it is likely that you either did not actually hit below center on the cue ball to apply any draw to the cue ball, or you hit more on the side of the second ball in the rack, creating a perfect scratch angle. Try paying more attention to your line of aim and where you are hitting the cue ball on the final stroke.

Eight-Ball Pro Rules Made Simple

1. 8-Ball is a "call shot" game. In order for a player to legally pocket a ball and continue his/her turn at the table, the following must occur:
   • The opponent must make a specific ball in a specific pocket. If the correct ball falls in the correct pocket, and no foul is committed, the shot is legal and the opponent may continue his/her turn at the table.
     • Please Note: It is NEVER necessary to call the number of rails hit, object ball or cue ball kisses.
   • Obvious shots. Unless otherwise agreed by both players, obvious balls and pockets do not have to be indicated, but are assumed. Obvious shots are basic cut shots. A shot is NOT considered obvious if it involves kicks, banks, or a cluster of balls in which the intended ball sits in close proximity (less than one balls distance) to other balls of the player’s grouping. In these cases, the player must state the intended ball and the intended pocket. If this is not done, the opposing player may consider it as a missed shot and the shooting player’s inning must come to an end. However, this does not constitute a foul.
2. The Rack: The first ball in the rack should sit directly on the foot spot of the table. In the last row, one corner ball must be a solid and the other a stripe. The 8-ball sits in the middle of the third row. There should be some sort of alternating pattern used to decrease the likelihood of clusters after the break.
3. The penalty for a foul in 8-Ball is BALL IN HAND ANYWHERE on the table. The only exception is when a foul is committed by scratching on the break. When this occurs, the incoming player must place the cue-ball behind the breaking headstring.
4. Who breaks first? The first player to break the balls may be determined by the flip of a coin, or by each lagging a playing ball to the end rail and back. The closest to the second rail wins. (It does not matter if the ball hits the second rail or not.)
5. What makes a break legal? The shooter must either pocket a ball on the break, or drive at least four balls from the rack to the rails. If this does not occur, the opponent has the option (1) to accept the rack as is, or (2) to have the breaker re-break. If this foul occurs a second time in a row, the opponent has the option to re-rack and assume the break.
6. Succeeding break always goes to the winner of the preceding game unless otherwise agreed upon in advance.
7. The break. Any ball(s) made on the break, without a scratch or foul, entitle the breaking player to continue at the table. If no balls are made, the opposing player’s inning begins.
8. Choice of grouping (solids or stripes) always remains open directly following the break, regardless of what balls are made on the break. The first legally pocketed ball, after the initial break, will determine which group of balls is claimed for each player.
9. If the eight ball is made early in the game, before the offending player has completely pocketed all of his/her balls, a loss of game will result.
10. The eight ball may never be struck first in an attempt to pocket another ball or to play a safety when the shooting player has other balls of his/her grouping remaining on the table. If this occurs, the player loses his/her turn at the table and the incoming player is awarded ball in hand ANYWHERE on the table.
11. Combination shots are allowed; however, the 8-ball can’t be used as a first ball in the combination unless it is the shooter’s only remaining legal object ball on the table. Otherwise, should such contact occur on the 8-ball, it is a foul.
12. All balls stay down. All balls pocketed or jumped from the table surface remain pocketed, regardless of whether or not they are the intended ball or pocket.
13. Object balls jumped off the surface of table, and do not return to naturally come to rest on the playing surface of the table, are considered to be illegally pocketed. The ball is placed in a pocket and counted towards the player that has that grouping. The offending player loses his/her turn at the table and the incoming player must continue from wherever the cue ball rests.
14. If the cue ball is jumped off the table, the incoming player has ball in hand anywhere on the table.
15. If the eight ball is jumped off the table, a loss of game will result for the offending player.

For a printable version, click here.

For a more complete reference to the World Standardized Rules for 8- Ball, please click here.