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© Copyright 2003, Jim Loy
Here is a difficult position. I am on the eight ball. I would
like to go one rail, off the bottom side rail or the right end rail, and just
nudge the eight for a safety. But that is fraught with peril, as Grady Mathews
might say. If I foul, my opponent has ball in hand on the three ball with an
easy break (which may go wrong, so all is not lost).
I think I should consider banking the three ball out of there (making sure I don't scratch in the upper right corner) giving up ball in hand. I could try to bank the three into either of the corner pockets on the left side of the diagram.
Of course that gives up ball in hand. An aggressive opponent may use ball in hand to bank the two, leaving a relatively bad angle on an eight ball bank for me. I know plenty of people who would do this.
Here is what should happen, if my opponent is not aggressively inclined. I bank the three up near the far end rail. My opponent does not shoot down the three trying to get a difficult break. Instead, he/she uses ball in hand to turn the three back into a break ball near the upper right corner (or maybe near the upper side pocket). And I bank it out of there again. Eventually, I will make the three ball, either as a bank or by shooting it directly into a pocket, if that is possible. I think I would like to not make the three ball the first time, just to see if my opponent will try the bank on the two in that situation, and to give him/her a chance to try a difficult break from the other end of the table. After one of us shoots the three down, my opponent must bank the two or go into something like the situation in An Interesting Position, and I may win that.
An alternative from the diagrammed position is to bank the three into the cluster, making a three ball cluster. But after my opponent shoots a few safeties from that position, he/she may be able to position the cluster into a three ball combo; wouldn't that be a bite. But if I were he/she, I would miss the combo. Anyway, in the above position, that looks scary to me, as I might just turn the three into an easier break ball. But in other positions, that may be my only option.
In similar desperate situations, earlier in the game, you may be forced to move four or five balls (both stripes and solids) into a cluster. Scenario: you are sunk, you don't have a shot and your opponent will get a break and run out when you miss, then maybe you should move his/her break ball into the cluster.