Arcade Pool

Name : Arcade Pool
Producer : Team 17
Source : Cheet Sheets Issue 37


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

PS. 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.


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Used with kind permission of Cheet Sheets Magazine.
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