Billiard Tips On How To Win
Let us consider what to do when the red is on the spot with the cue-ball tight against the top cushion and so far from the pocket opening that the half-ball loser into the facing top pocket is nowhere near playable. To make this loser you must raise the butt of your cue, hit your ball high and with as much right-hand side as you can put on it. Aim to strike the red ” full in the face,” when your ball will swerve, hit the red half-ball, and enter the pocket accordingly.
How to Impart “Swerve”
It shows what happens when you raise the butt of your cue and impart side. The Use of Side
You will see, when playing billiards game that you have only to move your ball a very little to place it on the correct line for a half-ball shot. Then you must use right-hand side, but be chary of doing this unless you are sure that your ball is between the cushion and the correct half-ball line.
You will see the utility of this side if you move your ball a little closer to the red. In the other direction, when your ball gets further from the top cushion than the half-ball line, then you need left-hand side to correct the course of your ball and take it into the pocket.
Fine Ball-to-Ball Contacts
When your ball gets too far from the cushion for you to make a pocket in this way, I think you had better abandon the use of side, strike your ball high and clean, and depend on dividing the object-ball.
Obviously, the further you take your ball from the cushion, the finer you must strike the red to score the facing top pocket, and if you move your ball in this manner by minute degrees until it is better to try to pot the red than to attempt a loser off it, then you will learn a most valuable lesson as regards the effect of plain ball-to-ball contacts finer than half-ball.
Old-world cue-men, used to play what they called “hazards by the twist.” Under this general heading they appear to have included all pocket-strokes, other than those played plain-ball.
It may have been general to a fault, but it certainly had the great merit of marking a sharp line between plain-ball strokes and those which demand the use of side, screw, or top, especially side. It was especially useful when instructing someone about how to play billiards using Billiard tips.
These strokes are much too easily confused with plain-ball strokes by the great majority of careless players, or by those who do not realize what a tremendous difference there is between plain-ball and other strokes in actual play.
Close Billiards is altogether different. If Side Must be Used, Always Use the Maximum
When circumstances compel you to depart from plain-ball striking, the only really safe general rule for you is to put on as much side as you can impart to your ball, and allow for its effect by dividing the object-ball to give the cue-ball any desired direction after ball-to-ball contact has been made.
Strength of Stroke
If you employ as much side as you can command when playing at slow or slow medium strength, your ball will turn in the direction of the side it carries, when you play with the nap of the cloth; it will turn the reverse way when you play against the nap of the cloth, and will always turn in the direction of the side when you play on a napless cloth.
Swerve is Not True Side
When, however, you play at strengths greater than those I have previously specified, your ball will travel straight no matter how much side it has on it. Then, if you play a fast shot, your ball will keep straight in spite of any amount of side.
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