Pool shots you can name without inventing odds

Pool shots, in a money rack, are a small vocabulary. A straight shot is cue ball to object ball to pocket. A bank is object ball to rail to pocket. A kick is cue ball to rail to object ball. A carom uses a third ball as a rail you did not plan for until you needed it. A safety may pocket nothing. A masse curves the cue ball with elevation. Learn the names so you can choose. The choice is the strategy.

The figures are large because the words are common: about 720 searches for pool shots, about 390 for bank shot pool, about 480 for masse, at the difficulties noted above. Common is not the same as high percentage. This page will not attach a make rate to any of them. The ghost ball still helps you find contact. It still is not a statistic.

Banks, kicks, and safeties are choices with different jobs. The cashier those shots settle into is 8 ball pool online.

The technique next to this is ghost-ball aim, names for these shots, and when a safety is the pattern. The group is the skill wagers guides.

The match is the 8-ball table. A finished rack can be checked on the fairness page. Adults 18 and over only, and only where a stake is legal. Limits are on responsible gambling.

A bank shot pool players love is the one that crosses the table and dies in the corner. Play it when it is the path, or when the leave off the bank is the next ball. Decline it when a safety exists and the bank is a wish. The instruction is plain: do not fire at a low-percentage bank when a safety exists. The 8 near their pocket makes that instruction stricter, not looser.

Call the pocket on a banked 8. The rail does not exempt the call. Speed matters because a hard bank comes off the rubber differently from a soft one, and English changes the cue ball after the hit more than it steers the object ball. If you need sidespin to make the bank, you may be aiming at the wrong contact. Reset the ghost ball on the rail path before you decorate the cue.

Prefer the shot you can leave

• Name the shot: bank, kick, carom, masse, or safety.
• If a safety exists, do not fire a low-percentage bank.
• Do not look for a jump button. There is not one.
• Use English to move the cue ball, not as a substitute for the line.
• Call the pocket if the object ball is the 8, including on a bank.
• Ignore make-rate charts that this site did not publish.

Use a kick when a ball blocks the straight line and you can still see a rail-first path to your object ball. Use a carom when a nearby ball can deflect the cue ball onto the one you need. Both are standard. Both are ways to stay at the table. Neither is a personality. If the kick leaves you selling out once it misses, and a safety would have frozen the cue ball on a rail, play the safety.

The playing surface is 2.54 m by 1.27 m, so a two-rail kick is a long trip. Pool-phys-v2 will send the cue ball along the hit you played, with no random miss to widen the pocket. Practice the one-rail kick before you collect two-rail stories. A miss is a miss the replay can show. It is not a cue upgrade you failed to buy, because this site does not sell cues.

A masse shot elevates the cue and curves the cue ball around an obstacle. It is legal to describe and legal to attempt when the rules you are in allow the elevation. It is a difficult way to pocket a ball and a common way to scratch or to leave a gift. On a cash rack, attempt it when the alternative is a certain loss and you understand the curve. Otherwise play the safety. No make percentage is printed beside the word masse on this page.

Jump shots are a separate idea: the cue ball leaves the cloth and comes down past a blocking ball. Bar rules often mark them illegal. This site does not offer a jump button. If you are blocked, kick or play safe. The fee stays 5% either way. Equal stakes do not include a bonus for the more acrobatic miss.