Arcade Pool

Beginners' tips for any 9 Ball matches - - - By Simon Burrows

When faced with the problem of not being able directly to hit the
lowest numbered - ball first - (thus not being able to make a legal
shot), here are the three steps you should experiment with before
giving up - hope. - Failing these three ideas, number four - (below)
gives some - ideas about - what to - do to - make - the - best - of - the
situation :-

(Alternatively, these - tips may - be used by more advanced players
in the - attempt at - potting - a - ball - which - would - otherwise - be
impossible to pot with a direct hit)

I.
First - of all you - need to see whether it is possible to hit
the lowest numbered ball by bouncing the cue-ball off one or
more cushions.

If you have the aiming tool turned onto 'full', it is easy to see
whether this - is possible, - because the aiming line will point in
the direction - the cue-ball - will bounce - off once it has hit the
cushion. - If you can't quite see whether you will hit the lowest
numbered ball - after coming - off the - cushion first, - because the
aiming tool's - lines don't - reach that far, increase the power of
your shot and the lines will extend.

II.
Next, you need to see - whether the use of side-spin combined
with bouncing - the cue-ball off one or more cushions will be
effective.

The use - of side - spin when - hitting - the - cue-ball - against - the
cushion will - affect the - angle at which the cue-ball bounces off
the cushion. - This - means that - if you - couldn't hit - the lowest
numbered ball - with no - side-spin because - the angles you got off
the cushions - weren't 'satisfactory', - you could - experiment with
the right and left spin options to see whether these give you the
right angles to hit the target ball with.

III.
Finally, if the angles you can get off the cushions with and
without side-spin - aren't enough - to hit - the required ball,
you can play around with the power of your shot too.

When playing - shots with - side - spin - against - the - cushion, - the
severity of - which the - cue-ball deviates from the 'normal' angle
depends on - the speed - that the - cue-ball is - travelling - - - the
faster it's - going, the more severe the angle is off the cushion.
This means - that as - well as - deviating the - angle that - the ball
travels off - the cushion with side spin, you can also do the same
by changing - power. - (As long as you use some side spin as well,
otherwise it - makes no - difference!!) - This is particularly good
because it - will change the angle in smaller chunks than fiddling
with the - amount of - side spin used, so it can be used for 'fine-
tuning' the shot.

IV. -
Failing all this, you need to decide how to make the best of
the - situation. This - depends on - whether you - are playing a
standard 9 Ball game, or whether you are in challenge mode:

Standard Matches: -
In standard - matches, the - penalty - for - not
hitting the - lowest ball - first - is - not - too
severe. - Because - of - this, I - think the best
idea would be - to simply thwack the - cue-ball
around - the - table and hope - you fluke it and
hit the desired ball off many cushions.

Challenge Matches: -
In - 'Challenge Matches', the penalty - for not
hitting the - lowest-numbered - ball - first - is
very high - (three lives). - The only way I've
found which - can limit - the damage is to just
simply pocket - the cue-ball - without - hitting
any of - the other - balls, because the penalty
for this is only two lives!!! - I really don't
think it's worth trying a mad shot to hit the
correct ball because the penalty is v.high if
it doesn't work.

By Simon Burrows

In challenge modes, I've found that it - is often not best to
use full - power on - the first - shot, because - this tends - to
leave the - cue-ball in - an undesirable position for the next
shot. - Instead, using three-quarter or two-thirds power will
still pot - a couple - of balls, but should leave the cue-ball
nearer to - the middle - of the - table, ready - for your second
shot.