Back on the Bar Boxes..

[Tom_In_Cincy]

I am playing in a weekly league for the first time in over a year. Its full of my very talented friends, close to my house, great happy hour prices, $2 mixed drinks until 9 pm, and $1 beer on Mondays.

Well, its been almost 10 years since I played on a barbox on a weekly basis for a league.

http://endeavor.med.nyu.edu/~wei/pool/pooltable2.html

I forgot why I disliked barboxes. This week I was reminded.

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I was hooked, my opponent played a great safe. I had just enough room to feel confident about a jump shot. If I nailed the jump shot, and stuck the cue ball at contact, the 13 ball was going to go 3 rails. (couldn't cut it into the corner, it was a dead scratch in the side pocket)

I felt frogy, I made the 13 but the cue ball did something funny... it hugged the side rail and went into the corner pocket. Is that suppose to happen? Well I guess so.. it did and I was still surprized.. but wait... there's more...

Since the first time my jump attempt it showed me that the cue ball would go forward and travel down the rail, still feeling frogy.. I did the same shot and the cue ball did the very same thing.. after making full contact to bank the object ball, and it went too... the cue ball scooted down the rail... only to scratch in the corner pocket..

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I know this would never happen on a 'real' pool table with a 'real' cue ball.. but both shots just amazed me...

Anyone care to help me explain why the cue ball rolls down the rail into the corner pocket?

BTW, My opponent was just as amazed as me.. and when I made both shots.. he politely said "Great Shot, you didn't deserve that scracth.. "

lol, been playing on billiard table, that league table will seem like small kiddie pool compared to the billiard table this sunday [img]/ccboard/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[cheesemouse]

Tom,
Welcome back to the la la land of pool, ain't it grand...LOL

[ QUOTE ]
Anyone care to help me explain why the cue ball rolls down the rail into the corner pocket?

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...all I can say is the guy that designed the Valley table was a genious for the company and they retired him to south Florida were he promtly bought himself a Diamond Smart 7 footer. Now he just chuckles when he sees the cueball roll in a straight line when it comes to a stop.....anyway, what's a fella suppose to do except laugh like hell when the Valley Barbox proforms one of it's miracles.

[Rod]

Hi Tom,
In the first diagram it looks like a dead scratch to me with any follow english. The angle is natural for the c/b to follow down the rail. Should have hit it with a tad bit of low. The second one is not a natural angle for the c/b to hug the rail to the corner pocket. Yes it can be done fairly easy but it would be rare on a jump shot. Possibly the angle was a little longer than you have illustrated, it wouldn't take much. The heavier c/b will just add to the effect. Bar boxes are indeed strange animals and the corner pockets suck in about any ball.

There are a number of shots and trick shots that use similar angles, except they need more top and force.

Just for fun here is one. I've played this in games a number of times so it's not like it never comes up. If this is stroked too hard the c/b will hug the rail and follow in the corner. Neat shot to have in the bag if their is traffic in the way of a normal follow shot.

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Sounds like you have found a perfect league, friends, close to home and cheap booze! LOL