Billiards Digest — Pooldawg Stroke of Genius, Pool Videos

Player: Steve Dobrowolski
Event: Roanoke One-Pocket Championship
Date: May 13, 1995

This month’s Stroke of Genius didn’t win the Mosconi Cup or the U.S. Open. Heck, it wasn’t even the final of the Roanoke One-Pocket Championship. That being said, this one-pocket masterpiece is the perfect combination of creative vision and perfect execution, which turned into a game-winning safety.

In his first-round match against Buddy Hall, Steve Dobrowolski brewed up this little two-way shot on his way to a hotly contested 5-4 win. In just the third shot of the game, Dobrowolski approached the table after Hall’s safety left him glued to the head rail. Not having any real angle on an offensive shot toward his pocket (lower left in the diagram), Dobrowolski saw that the two-ball cluster with the 8 and 13 was a problem.

“I knew I had to move those frozen balls down there or they were going to plague me the whole game,” he said. “And then I saw I could snooker [Hall] while I did that.”

Dobrowolski rolled the cue ball into the 15 ball, which sent the 6 toward the troublesome cluster. The cue ball then rolled between the tight space between the 3 and 4 and off the side rail. Hall was left with the cue ball nearly frozen to the 12 ball, just inches from his own pocket.

The Rifleman couldn’t shoot his way out of the ridiculously precise safety, and Hall left his opponent an opening in his next trip to the table. Dobrowolski began firing balls into his pocket. Less than two minutes later, he had cleared eight balls and won the game.

“Shootin’ isn’t everything in this game,” he said. “You gotta be able to play some safeties.”

Some safety, indeed.

(Video clip provided by Accu-Stats Video Productions.)

See January's shot: Reyes' "Greatest Shot Ever"
See February's shot: Varner's "Astonishing" five-rail draw
See March's shot: Strickland’s two-rail kick-combo on the 9
See April's shot: Van Boening’s jump-kick safety at the U.S. Open
See May's shot: Souquet’s force-follow in Derby title match
See June's shot: Davenport Doubles the Points
See July's shot: Reyes’ Cross-Side Bank Break
See August's shot: Deuel’s Electric Draw at U.S. Open
See September's shot: Frank’s Killer Kick at Derby City
See October's shot: Reyes Thinks Thin, Kills Shot
See November's shot: Ulrich Says, “Might as Well Jump”
See December's shot: Parica’s Crazy Combo
See January's shot: Mika’s Mighty Combo

(Check out Accu-Stats’ full library of great shots and amazing matches at www.accu-stats.com)