If you look around the room and don’t see any suckers…you are the sucker!
You have stripes here. You are now on the 8-ball. Your opponent has 2 solids left. What do you do?
“Kick at the 8-ball to make a legal hit!”
“Massé around the solid!”
“Kick at it with lots of speed and try to bank it across the table!”
Suckers.
Here’s a situation where taking an intentional foul will stack the odds in your favor, whereas doing the “right thing” and attempting a legal hit on the 8-ball is suicide. In this case, if you try to hit the 8-ball, you will likely solve your opponent’s problem by breaking the solid ball and 8-ball cluster and giving them an easy run out.
Therefore, there is no payoff in making a legal hit on the 8-ball.
Instead, make an illegal hit and pocket their solid ball in the jaws of the corner pocket and give them ball-in-hand. Now it is almost impossible for them to run out and also almost impossible for them to play safe.
Instead of watching your opponent run out, you get to watch him struggle. Your chances of winning are much higher with this approach than if you try to make a legal hit on the 8-ball.
Photo: Wade M/Flickr Editor: Edith Lazenby