How to choose a shot

Most positions offer several ways to score. Good players don't take the first one they see; they take the one with the most room for error. Here is the checklist, in the order an expert runs it, and the order the Carombo engine uses to rank its routes.

Beginners play the same shots as professionals. What changes with skill is how well the shot is played, not which shot is right.

1. The hit comes first

Start from the first object ball, not from the cushions. Which hit on which ball gives you the most comfortable contact? Everything else, the route, the speed, the spin, follows from the hit. A shot that needs a perfect hit is a bad shot, however pretty the route.

2. Look for the big ball

The target is the second object ball, and its size is not fixed. A ball in the open is about two ball-widths wide: the cue ball has to pass within one ball-width of its centre on either side. A ball near a cushion, best of all near a corner, can be reached directly or off the cushion first, and becomes three, four or more ball-widths wide. Look first for a second ball near a rail that gives you a target more than two balls wide. It is often the biggest factor in the whole shot. See Big ball.

3. Two ways to score

When the second ball sits a couple of diamonds out from the corner the route is heading for, the shot has two ways in. Short, the cue ball hits the ball directly. Long, it misses, takes the two cushions of the corner and hits the ball from behind. Your most common error, coming up a little long, still makes the point. See Two-way shots.

4. A half-ball to third-ball hit

Thickness on the first ball changes the cue ball's direction. Around a half-ball hit (and down to about a third), that change is at its smallest: a little thicker or thinner, the cue ball goes almost the same way. Thick hits and thin feathers are where small errors grow. See The hit.

5. Running english over reverse

Running english widens the angle off each cushion and keeps the ball moving at a steady pace; its rebounds are predictable. Reverse english fights the cushion, kills speed and varies with every change of pace. Prefer running english all the way. The exception: the last cushion into a big ball, where a little reverse can bring the cue ball in onto a wide target. See Running and reverse english.

6. Ball first over cushion first

Going to a cushion before the first ball adds an error you can't see: the rebound. The further the cushion is from the first ball, the more that error grows. Play ball first wherever you can, and save cushion-first shots for textbook patterns (ticky, lag ticky, umbrella) or positions where there is nothing simpler. See Ball first or cushion first.

7. No kisses

Before you play, follow both object balls after the hit. Will the first ball come back across the cue ball's path? Will it hit the second ball before you do? Never choose a route that depends on a double kiss off the first ball, or on a timing shot where an object ball has to arrive at the right moment. See Kisses.

8. Speed and spin to suit the hit

Only now choose the stroke: the speed the route needs and no more, and a tip that supports the hit. A thin hit wants less speed; a hit that must go straight through the first ball may want a stun stroke. Hard strokes make every error bigger, so don't hit harder than a strong, comfortable stroke. See Speed and spin.

9. When it's close: the next shot

If two shots are close, play the one that leaves a good next position: the cue ball ending near the third ball (not on it, and not at the far end of the table). See Position play.