Okay so here's another very interesting problem from the game of one pocket, and it's another great example of how being creative can get you out of jams. Again you're in a very, very bad position, and to make matters worse you happen to be playing the greatest one pocket player of all time, Efren Reyes.



The cue ball is a little hard to see, but it's up near the upper left-hand pocket. We're only about a couple shots on from the break, and Efren has apples more or less surrounding his hole. Meanwhile there's just nothing at all that goes to your pocket. The tricky part of this situation is of course the 8 ball, which if you do manage to leave the cue ball down near the left-hand pocket is just a routine bank for a player like Efren.

So what would you do? Note that you can't get through to hit the 3 ball, and you're also partially snookered on the 10 so your options are very limited. Remember that at one pocket, it's not enough to just find a shot to survive with, you need to try and turn things around.

Is there a shot out there that can get you out of this trap?

(I had to read up on how to play One Pocket before doing this so if I'm making some sort of illegal move let me know)

If you're playing against a player of this caliber chances are you're a player near that skill level as well. With this accuracy and control I would put some top spin on the cue and aim at the right hand side of the 9 and let the cue ball run to the right of the 10. If you hit it correctly it should rest between the 3 and Effren's pocket. Now he has no direct shot.

This is exactly what I would expect playing against the greatest one pocket player ever, being placed into some nasty spot.

My main priority would be to leave him with no looks at anything that goes towards his hole but also to attempt to disturb the cluster in the middle trying to develop some balls towards my own pocket.



I like to hit this ball with enough pace that it will rearrange the furniture enough to make playing me up table with a safety a non-option. If I hit the target ball squarely enough it should remain fairly close to its current position and I can slide the cueball into the small gap between the 3 balls there effectively leaving very little. It also looks that when struck with a bit of pace, it will move at least 2 or 3 balls closer to my hole.

Trying to clear balls out of his pocket and leave him nothing seems like a near impossible task so I'm more interested in the leave him nothing option and this one seems to be easiest paired with the bonus of developing some balls for later on my side.

Does the 12 ball plant into your corner pocket? If it does, I'll plant the 12, hitting the cue ball at maybe 70% break speed and it'll move several balls near my corner while the cue ball would bounce to the left side of the table giving me good angles on short easy shots.

No. Nothing in the stack is even remotely makeable to your pocket.

the only thing i can think of is to move 3 or 4 balls away from Efrens pocket, and leave the cue ball ether in the pack or on efrens side of the table and hope you dont leave a bank shot.

can we see both sides of the 10 ball? maybe with a bit of swerve play the ten towards our side hitting the 3 ball off the rail towards the middle of the table and landing on/before the 1 ball.



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failing that I'm really stuck. we could play it the other way round (sending the cue ball in to the pack and the 10 ball up the table) but i think thats a really super low % shot as we will often not get the cue ball tight in the middle of the pack (often hitting the green ball leaving the 8 ball double etc.) and it doesn't improve our situation much, just gets us out of trouble.



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Nope, you're blocked from hitting the left hand side of the 10 ball (as we look at it).

The problem with your swerve option is the 8 ball. Let Efren see that and you may as well just pay him the money and try to save time.

Disclaimer - never played one pocket but keen to give it a go.

Here my immediate thought was to play the gentle swerve into the 10 and leave white in the corner. But that doesn't do us any good really and has a significant scratch risk. Thought about it some more wrt the idea we are trying to improve our position as well as play safe. So will go for the following - knock the 1 into the right hand side of the 3 (as we look) and then the 10. On a good day this will hopefully get all 3 moving away from Efrens pocket and maybe get the 10 going alongtowards our pocket, whilst leaving the cueball near the left side as we look with the pack blocking any obvious banks like the 8.

grunch

Horrible spot. Trying to clear his pocket seems a near impossible task. Probably just go all out and attack tbh - into the pack, try and get some balls over our bag and lock the white to the two balls to the left of the pack. Hopefully leave no shot on and at least get us back into the game.

Reminds me a bit of a terrible position in a battle/war - you are much better off taking huge risks to abandon your position and get a better one than you are trying to shore up a hopeless one. One thing is for sure - you are going to be toast very quickly unless you do something radical here.

It would be a lot better to judge and read if it were a birds eye view.

I don't play one ball, Ive probably played the game four or five times in my years of playing billiards, which is sad considering Ive been playing for 20+ years and know my way around a table.

There is only one shot I see and it really doesn't change much of the game:
Clip the 9 so the cue-ball rests between the 3 and 10 ball. That's is the only shot I would try considering my opponent is Beta, its the simplest and safest shot you have offered at the table atm. I'd likely lose too..

Well, here is your solution, at 0:48.00 of the video. Nothing much to say other than WOW.

http://youtu.be/Hp776RAe7yo


For another shot that's just as sick, check out 0:14:40 of the video. This time from Efren. Both are great examples of some pretty creative shots using multiple balls, and are just the kind of things that happen at one hole.

Wow. Just wow.

Wowie

Jesus! Nice shot from the cannon there.

Its a great shot but he is pretty lucky the one does not stick on the rail/over the hole after hitting the 3 ball. Might try setting that shot up and seeing what kind of % of the time I can get that sequence to happen. Either way is a great - and certainly a radical (which is def what is needed here imo) - shot.

Nice problem Dino - hate to be a pain but do you mind doing one more this week - Is manic my end. No problems if not.