Learning from Experience

9-BALL

16. "Why do I play like a genius up until the 9, at which point I'm only Ray Charles?" is the most common query (in some form) in this game. The answer has a lot to do with your identifying that ball as the 9. Forget about all that, and where you stand on the wire, and what you'll do with your winnings (or not do if you lose), etc., and simply focus on producing the best stroke you can.

17. If you choose to hide the cue ball behind two balls in tandem or a mini-cluster, take your idea one step further and nudge those balls apart at the same time to make them playable (Fig. 17). There's not much point in achieving ball-in-hand if the table isn't open when you do; also, it takes most of the pressure off your opponent to complete his kick if you can't run out anyhow.

18. The old saw about "A good safety is at least as valuable as a pocketed ball" is certainly true. But it'll pay off better for you if you learn to anticipate (and correctly) what your opponent's response to your defense will be. This is even more true in one-pocket.

19. It might not be easy getting your opponent to agree to this, but the old 9-ball rules (rollouts permitted at any time, ball in hand after two consecutive misses) made for a far better game than today's. If you like pool's strategic aspects, you'll like this game better too.

20. Mike Sigel made close to fifty grand with this single piece of advice for Paul Newman: "Hit the head ball as full as you can, and hit it about three-quarters as hard as you can." Newman promptly sank the 9 on his first try and told director Martin Scorsese to hire Sigel as technical advisor on "The Color of Money." You probably can't make the same kind of money with that advice, but take it anyway.

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