You are playing some three man rotation billiard games with a weak amateur who can pot well but play virtually no positional play, and a quite solid player, well versed in both potting and positional play, but who still misses frequently. Both play fairly and independently. You are the most skilled player in the game, although not by such a big margin as to not be vulnerable.
You win a three way lag and get to choose the order of play. Which order of players should you set in these three games:
a) Killer (known by hundreds of different names all over the world, killer is a game where you rack fifteen balls up, and simply have to pot one ball into any pocket with play rotating after every shot. All players start with an equal number of lives, you lose a life every time you miss, when all your lives are gone you are out, and the last man standing scoops the prize pool – any questions/problems with the rules that you feel effect the problem post them in the thread and I'll try and clarify).
b) Snooker (all three play in rotation, a foul gets added to the other two players score equally, and the winner is the person with the highest score at the end).
c) Nine ball, with the other two players having to pay $10 to whoever sinks the five, and $20 each to whoever sinks the nine.
Solution:
Spoiler:
Rotation pool has a huge amount to do with order, and regardless of how it is being set, you need to be aware of the various considerations and adjust your play accordingly. I'll finish with some general tips about styles of play depending on order at the end, but will cover the three examples in the question first.
a) Killer.
In killer or any similar game, you always want weak players in front of you, and strong players behind you. This is because weak players will rarely leave you in problematic positions, will often miss and leave balls over pockets, which generally makes your life easy both in terms of potting, but also in leaving you easy positional shots to get the cue ball safe and leave the strong players behind you in lots of trouble. You should also give them the break, as it will most likely be poor and leave the table complex and closed which aids you considerably in hampering the good player.
Answer: Weak/You/Solid.
b) Snooker.
Rotation snooker is a very underrated game and one I would recommend anyone trying out next time they are down a hall with friends. Our considerations change here, as unlike killer where we have quite a simple agenda, in snooker we have much more complex factors to think about.
In general in snooker, you will come to the table with easy shots more often when behind a solid player (one who does miss – against a pro this is no longer true for the most part). This is because they will be trying to break build, which means when they do miss, they will often leave the white in good positions for the next ball. Weak players are usually much harder to get in behind, as not only do they leave the cue ball awkward lots (due to the fact they are terrible at positional play), they often set hard snookers when they pot reds, simply because they know they cannot break build and just look to scrape points wherever they can with easy roll up nudges behind colours.
You should also take the break, aiming to leave it relatively easy for the weak player, and hope he can play a good enough shot to make the strong player make a mistake.
Answer: You/Weak/Solid.
c) 9 ball.
With money on both the five and the nine, we should always take the break in this spot, hoping to at least get to the five or set a very hard snooker early if the clearance is not on. We also want the good player behind us, as they will suffer the most at the hands of our safety shots if we play any, giving the weak player ball in hand if they miss and easier positions if they escape and a as a result a few shots at the table, before we can get back in after they miss and do a lot of damage.
Answer: You/Solid/Weak.
Some general tips on rotation pool:
Take many more risks with weak players behind you – they will struggle to capitalise on any mistakes which more than pays for the extra risks.
Take less risks and play safe a lot more with strong players behind you – they will do a lot of damage if they get in easy, but will often just be bypassed by a good safety shot, leaving you to duel it out again with the weaker players in front of you.
Against opponents who don't seem to put any emphasis on order make sure it is set with some kind of skill event such as a lag; against players who are skilled and do understand order, lean towards getting it done randomly to give yourself the best chance at a playable draw.
Always watch out for collusion in rotation games with strangers – it is very easy for two players to sandwich you in between them and win even if you are better than both of them.
Have some agreement set for payment of table time – it is very easy without set rules for players to get away without paying light time or for arguments to break out over who's turn it is to pay for the next game. Nominate a ball that if potted forces that player to pay the next game, or agree the biggest winner/loser each hour has to pay the next hour of light time.
Some of the best games to play for money are rotation games. They are much more random than one on one matches which keeps weak players in the games for longer, and provide excellent cash game opportunities for good thinking players.
Last edited by RayPowers; 11-18-2010 at 12:35 PM.
Reason: Solution added
a. solid player then weak amateur then us. solid player will leave us in a bad position, but amateur will just pot/go for tough shots and not think about position he leaves us in. We don't want the break because if the lives count on the break then the player will just smack the balls which is high variance and leaves the table open. Or if lives don't count he'll play a safety break and the weak player will probably leave us on a ball after attempting a long pot.
b. weak then solid then us. when the solid player misses a shot he will have thought about position leaving us a better chance of a high break. We don't want the break because I'd imagine both players arent great at safety. The weak players break will be bad giving the solid player a chance to string a few balls together but miss down the black area and leave us with some options.
c. us then solid then weak. we want the break and play after the weaker player who will go for adventurous shots making it more likely that the table will be open for us.
i agree with above but might change around the killer order depending on the rules. i have played killer were if player A fouls (loses a life) we can put him back in to play forcing him to play from were the balls are. assuming both players wont struggle to pot early on when there are alot of balls on the table, playing after the strong player gives us an advantage when there are only a few balls left on the table (even more so if we clear the table completely before re-racking). if the final ball or two is left safe on the rails his only option is to take a tricky pot and risk losing a life and getting forced to play the next shot if the balls fall safe. it takes out the option for him to play a safe shot losing a life but forcing us to lose a life as well.
also we can control the weak players shots by feeding him easy shots and predicting how he will play them to leave the stronger player the tougher shots....
Yeah assume for the sake of the problem that a player can be put back in after any miss in killer.
Also assume that killer and nine ball are being played on a good quality regulation US pool table, and that the snooker problem is on a good quality regulation snooker table
