You are correct, I misstyped earlier.

Thanks, Sorrow.

I'm back in my roommate's place while we do some renovations to my new place, so I'm on that 7' day and night. Playing the ghost has been so much fun. I rack balls 1-9; break; take ball in hand; and try to run out the solids (the 9 is just a random obstacle).

I play a race to five with the Ghost, and we've had some epic battles. I finally beat him last week, now its a pretty even matchup....

The only thing that worries me is that I'm turning into Jack Klugman, talking **** to the ghost when I'm running good.

I usually play ghost 8-ball by racking normally, break, and try to run with no BIH. If I miss, I then switch to my opponent's shoes. Once I miss once for each player, I call it a loss.

I think using all 15 would be better practice than just 9 as you've got more obstacles to figure out, and figuring out problems is the heart of becoming good at 8-ball.

No. 9-ball is a far more challenging game than 8-ball.

He's playing 8-ball, but just using 9 balls instead of 15.

Ok I stand corrected, sorry.

OP a better drill would be to take all 15 balls and play some straight pool/14.1 on that bar table. You can get the gist of the game from Wikipedia but it's by far a better way to learn cue ball control and patterns, especially the tight control you'll usually need at 8b.

I agree with this. He is not quite to the level where he can run out from the break a lot yet, so maybe the best thing would be to do as you suggest and if he misses, switch and shoot for the ghost one inning and then give himself one more shot to get out. So he gets 2 innings at the table to get out for the win.



I like to play ghost 8-ball by racking, break, and try to run with no BIH. I start with a coin under the rail at the middle diamond. If I miss, I lose and move the coin a diamond to the right. If I run out, I move the coin to the left. My goal is to keep the coin where it started or to the left. I want to run out 50% or more of the time.

Had a few drinks last night, grabbed my cue, hit a few balls. Helped me discover a big leak in my game: fear. The reason my runs end after a few balls is that I'm not thinking about how long the run is during the first few shots. But once I get about halfway through the rack, the thought of actually attaining the goal creeps into my head, and I tighten up and shoot timidly. "It's there for the taking, don't screw this up." I start shooting scared.

Came home buzzed last night. Wasn't scared of anything. Ran everything in sight.

Scared Me shoots like a wuss.. Shooting that way is like asking out a girl: if you're wussy and mealymouthed about, she's going to reject you, just as you feared she would.

Fearless Me was pulling her hair and smacking her ass last night.

And she LIKED IT! The response was 100% positive.

Yes that fear is an issue, but trust me once you get a few longer runs under your belt it goes away. This is one reason I suggest practicing straight pool - being able to shoot any ball you like should get you into the habit of making longer runs, which will get you far more comfortable with running the eight you need to win a game.

Also, a trick that might help is rather than counting how many balls you've run, try planning your run backwards from the 8-ball, then count down the eight shots you need to get it done. If you make a positional error then take a little extra time to re-plan, again working backwards from the 8. Continue doing that basically for as long as you play the game.

You can also plan a run in mini groups, thinking something like, "okay first I'll get these three balls in the open, then I'll transition up table off the one by the side pocket, get the two balls up there, then bounce down to the other end from the ball near the pocket to get the last three down by the spot." This is how most straight pool players work their way through a rack.

Thanks buddy...now the straight pool suggestion makes a lot more sense to me.

But knowing my psychological history, I think its going to take more than that to get me past this.

I went ahead and ordered Capelle's book on the mental part of the game. Will post results.

Yeah well I still get some butterflies when I'm on a good run at snooker or straight pool, it's very natural (trust me, it's a whole lot different when you're on 75 or so and want to get that big number). What you'll find is that as you get a little better you won't fear the run any more -- instead you'll go for it. Pressure can always work two ways, it can either cause you to fold up and miss, or it can cause you to buckle down and focus. Make yourself one of the people in the latter group.

If all else fails try to remember two key fundamentals in all tight spots -- keep your head down and put a good stroke on the ball. Ultimately that's about all you can control anyways. Monica Webb told me that once and it's solid advice for anyone.

My game took another leap this week when I found this short video:



Maybe that's something everybody knows...but I didn't know it!

Never felt better about my game. If I step up to the table with 4-6 wide-open balls left, I'm running out way more often than not. I'm not even consciously deciding where an object ball needs to be struck, my hands and eyes just do all that automatically now.

Joining a new league, starts this week, so excited, hope to compete for MVP...

...oh, this league plays on 9' tables? Better practice on one of those, for a change.

First hour: can't run three balls. Literally. I warm up by rolling out three balls, BIH, and run out in numerical order. Once that's too easy, I go to four balls.that progression usually takes a minute or two. Today it was close to a (very frightening) hour!

I was doing much, much better after the second hour...but dreams of MVP have been put on hold!

Really been struggling on these big tables since jumping over a few weeks ago. Was hapless first night of league play, the lack of confidence brought back the yips (I missed a very simple BIH shot!), exacerbated by the fact that my new team was all friends of mine, and my brain was thinking "Watch THIS, guyz!", instead of focusing on the shot.

The other team was terrible, tho. Seeing I did not need to fear a run-out every time I missed a shot, I stopped worrying, settled down after dropping the first two racks, and won the next two...but with a satisfactory 3-2 record in sight, I Yipped/dogged away the last rack.

I walked away thinking, "Well, at least I left plenty of room for improvement! I'm gonna call that one my preseason game, my first time under fire in a while. I won a couple of racks...we can BUILD on this!"

But I knew it starts with confidence, which requires competence...so I went back to fundamentals. I broke out the Capelle book that helped me so much, and opened up to the "set up these simple shots, and just make 'em over and over" section.

The first shot called for you to put a ball near the second diamond, a few ball-widths away from the rail, and cut it in.

I overcut it.

Set it up again, missed it in the exact same spot.

Then a third time.

After a few minutes of this, I began to see the problem. On a small table, a ball this far from the rail looks like its out in the middle of the table; on the big table, it looks like it's practically hugging the rail!

I wasn't just seeing THAT shot wrong. I was seeing ALL shots wrong!

I adjusted, finished the drill, confidence soared, and shots started falling from EVERYWHERE!

we just played our second league match. I still yipped a few shots, but not nearly as many, and none were gimmes, and none were on the last few balls...and I went 5-0!

I can still get better, too. That's exciting.

Week 3, shot pretty good, went 3-2.

Went out and practiced a few nights later, and really put some good runs together. It was the first time I wasn't uncomfortable with the table's size. Finally, I'm comfortable with the length of most shots.

Week Four we played a team that was WAYbetter than any we had seen up to now. First rack, I only saw two shots, moderately tough, missed them both, and that was that. Took my first shutout.

My teammates blanched. They're not even recreational players. If YTF got shut out, what's in store for them??

"We may be in for a long night," I moaned.

"Or a short one!", one laughed.

We lost all five racks that first set. Our team made a total of 15 balls. Ugh. Those guys are good.

My second rack, I scratch on the break. He runs a few easy balls, misses. I struggle with long shots, but I missed this one by a foot. A foot! My friend hung his head.

Opponent tried to run out, but never broke out his last ball, giving me one more chance.

I step to the table, point to a hanger, and tell head-hanging friend, "Normally, I would leave that one there...but I'm 0-for-3, haven't made a shot yet tonight, and need to get one under my belt." I slammed it in...and shocked both teams (and myself) by running eight-and-out!

How does THAT happen? Go form Can't Make a Ball, to Can't Miss, just like that? Ran the next rack, too! Won the last two racks, too, going 4-1 against this vaunted, highly rated team.

This is getting fun.

Never let yourself play differently based on the skill level of the team/player you are playing against. You should be playing like your opponent is the #1 ranked pro in the world every time you are at the table. If I play a safety it better be a damn good one. If I miss I most likely won't get back to the table.

I am one of, if not the best player in my area and I watch guys that normally are lucky to make 4 or 5 balls in a row and maybe have one run out in their life and they play like gods when they play me because they bare down and take their time and make sure their aim is perfect etc. Things they don't normally do when they are playing anyone else. I can't help but think why the hell don't you play like that every time? You would be such a better player. Not saying you do that, just random advice.

Yeah, I treat every opponent like they're a threat to run out if I leave them a shot.

Solid advice in this post.

Fun fact though, when playing guys at the highest levels I tend to find myself not even wanting to play safe, like at all. They're all so good that you take the worst of even the most locked up safeties. Often you want to just shoot a low percentage shot just to stay at the table. It's a very cruel game these days.

Found the league stats online. I'm top ten in points. If not for that horrid Week One, I'd be top five.

I'm not top twenty in MVP (points differential) tho. Can't blame Week One though, those MVP leaders are first-inning run-out artists. That's not my style.

Yet.

Friend of mine asked me to sub in on his team for a few weeks until their regular guy gets off 2nd shift. They just got bumped from the bottom half of the league (low skill level players) to the top half (much better players) this year. His team is not that good. He can run out once in a great while and the other 2 couldn't run out of a burning building. I thought it to be a good excuse to get out and plus I get my weeks in to qualify for state tourneys. We play 4 games each in this league and this week my 4 games were 1) opponent that is capable of running out once in a great while... he breaks dry, I run out to last ball and miss an easy shot (I'm rusty, haven't played pool for several months, leave me alone), he runs out. 2) I break dry, he shoots a couple balls and misses, I run out. 3) he breaks dry, I run out. 4) I break and run out to the 8 ball which is almost dead on the spot I under cut it at the corner pocket and it goes 2 rails into the side for a loss. GG, you didn't even touch the cue ball.

In 4 games I was at the table for 4 total innings (not including the dry break), missed only 2 shots, and managed to lose 2 games and get 33 points. My teammates averaged 3-4 innings per game... In fairness, my opponents only had 2 innings at the table I guess.

That 8ball going 2 rails into the side I don't think I could set that shot up and repeat the outcome in 100 tries. Horrible shot, even worse luck. I need to start practicing again.

Lol.

Can't wait to use burning building line.

Week Five stats finally updated. I'm still 9th in points, but noticed that I'm in a tie for third in racks won.

Still mired in 18th in MVP points, tho. (???)

There's a stat category called ERO, anyone know what that is? Almost everyone has a zero, a few ones, only the top players have a 2 or 3. I imagine they're run-outs, but what's the E? Eight? Mine shows a zero, I hadn't been noting them on the score sheet. I know I had at least three.

ERO stands for eight ball run out. Most leagues require that it's your first turn to a full table of balls and that you run them all out.

Thanks!