Breaking the 1-pocket barrier

So, something interesting happened this past weekend. We were at the poolhall, it was late in the evening, and I wasn't shooting too well.  I was playing Josh, who's about my speed so it's usually a good game, and after a while, he asked if I wanted to play some 1-pocket.  Well, I haven't ever played. Not once. I've watched it from afar quite a few times and I tried to watch a match or two on youtube, but it's hard to dedicate that much time to the game.  I've turned down lots of offers at my usual place because I'm on a limited time-line there and this game takes a while.  So, it's late, it's Josh and I say, "Eh, why not?"

So... we play it even, first to 8-balls.  The first game, was a real learning experience - as you can expect I lost... badly. Something like 8-2 (fouled a few times, but oh well).  The 2nd game went a little better. I started seeing the smallest hint of patterns and defensive moves.  I still lost, but it was closer, I think 8-6.  The 3rd game, was much better.  I learned very quickly that unless it's a dead ball, don't try it if you don't need to.  I also learned very quickly that leaving your partner with absolutely nothing is almost more fun than making  a ball for yourself.  I took my time with most shots, evaluated the percentages, and calculated the leave if I missed.  As a result, I owned that game.  I won 8-2!

Offensively, I made some good cross-bank shots and got pretty good shape for the next ball.  Defensively, I nearly always left my opponent behind the stack, or frozen to another ball.  Whenever he got a ball close to the pocket, I kicked it away, even if it meant passing up a chance to make a ball in my pocket.

Overall, it was more fun than I expected it to be; but I won't be switching schools just yet. ;)

Damn the 1-Pocket Tables!

So, Cue & Cushion (my usual hall, link in the sidebar), recovered one of their tables yesterday, but they also turned it into a one-pocket table.  This is really annoying.  Well, I mean that it's annoying because the difference is the pocket openings are smaller than "standard" pockets.  By about an inch I'd guess.  Technically, the pocket is 4.5 inches wide - 2 ball widths - but its really amazing how much smaller they play.  Standard pockets, best I can figure are about 5.5 inches?  It's 2 and a half balls wide, these pockets are just 2 balls. Balls are 2.25 inches in diameter, so...

The good thing is if you can get good on that table, most other tables are a breeze.  The bad thing is running drills and practices become THAT much more annoying.  I wasn't able to complete a single drill with any relative flow. Having to shoot the same shot 5-9 times and still not getting position is really quite frustrating. 

As far as playing on new cloth goes, I'm not entirely sure I noticed *that* much of a difference - outside of the color and lack of chalk on my hands.

I'm sure I'll play on it again, but man it's annoying.  In the end, I had to revert back to how I play on a snooker table - very very softly.  A snooker table's pockets are a mere 1.25 balls wide, so there ZERO room for error there.