Bridge, stance and a straight stroke: cueing basics
Why a 1 or 2 degree error in the cue's line is enough to miss a pot: the geometry of the bridge, stance and stroke, with the miss distances worked out.
Pool and snooker: how the two games differ
Pool and snooker compared: table size, ball size and count, how each game is scored, what a foul costs, and where the 147 maximum break comes from.
Pocket geometry: why a fast ball misses a pocket it should make
A 4.5 in corner pocket gives a 2.25 in ball only a 2.25 in window straight on, and none at 60 degrees. Add pace and the jaws turn more shots away.
Safety play: when not potting is the better shot
A safety is a legal shot played to leave your opponent nothing. In an illustrative example, a 30% pot beats the safety only if a miss leaves them a hard shot.
Combination shots: potting one ball off another
A combination pots one ball by driving another into it. Aim errors multiply across the gap: a 1 mm slip becomes about 5 degrees on the second ball at 300 mm.
Pool table sizes: 7, 8 and 9-foot tables compared
Compare 7, 8 and 9-foot pool tables: playing surface in inches, the 2:1 ratio, how many balls fit across, and how much room each table needs around it.
The physics of the break: momentum through a rack
Why a square hit on the head ball breaks best: equal-mass collisions pass momentum straight on, the cue ball stops, and gaps in the rack waste the energy.
Bank shots: angle in, angle out, and where it fails
A bank shot follows the mirror rule: angle in equals angle out. Reflect the pocket across the cushion, aim at the image, and see why speed and spin spoil it.
Throw: why cut shots need a touch of overcut
Ball-to-ball friction throws the object ball a few degrees off the line of centres. Over a metre, 2 degrees is 3.5 cm, so cut shots need a little extra cut.
The 30-degree rule for a rolling cue ball
A rolling cue ball leaves a cut shot about 30 degrees off its line. The maths gives 33.7 degrees for a half-ball hit, and 27 to 34 across the common cuts.
The 90-degree rule: where the cue ball goes after a stun shot
After a stun shot the cue ball leaves along the tangent line, 90 degrees from the object ball. Here is why, how the speeds split, and how spin bends the path.
Aiming with the ghost ball: cut angle and ball overlap
How the ghost-ball method turns a pot into a single aiming point, and how cut angle maps to the fraction of the object ball your cue ball covers.
Cue-ball spin explained: topspin, backspin and sidespin
How tip height sets topspin and backspin, why 2/5 of the ball's radius gives natural roll, and what sidespin does through squirt and throw.
9-ball rules: lowest ball first, and what counts as a foul
How 9-ball works: the diamond rack, the lowest-ball-first rule, the fouls that give ball in hand, the push out, and why the 9 wins from any legal shot.
8-ball rules: the open table, groups and the 8 ball
How standard 8-ball works: the rack, a legal break, why the table stays open after the break, how groups are decided, and the shots that lose on the 8 ball.