Rack ‘em up!

Happy New Year!! I guess it is. I mean, it is definitely the year 2021 — but there was really no way to have a normal ringing in of the New Year (with parties) like in past days. Now, it is a low-energy party for two or less. So, we improvised: Smaller, more intimate groups, with fewer unknown people as we celebrate. I hope yours went well, and all the best for you and your loved ones. Fort Bragg Strong 2021.

Jason Hawk is setting up his new table in the first days of the new year. He is waiting for the owner to arrive from out of town, and then we will have one more excellent table to play this year.

The table with short legs is anxiously waiting for transportation to the cement pad that Ed Smith, Jason Hawk and another volunteer, mixed, pored — and also inhaled — while mixing and spreading the cement.

Gibson refelted his table, it is a 4×8 and it has always had perfect rails, meaning if it is played to a rail shot correctly the ball will drop. What I mean is, some tables play “short,” or “long,” but not Gibson’s.

If you play a cue ball from a corner pocket, in a direct line to the opposite side rail of the table, past the side pocket to the second diamond, it will then hit the far end rail, then to the far your same side, side rail before the side pocket, continuing into the corner pocket opposite from where you started. So it is a three-rail shot to the same end of the table from where it starts and ends in the corner pocket at the opposite side from where it started.

With Randy’s table, it is a perfect three-rail shot from whichever corner pocket you choose to play from. On a table, if you play that shot and after going three rails, it hits the close end-rail that you are playing from, it is playing “long” and if it hits the opposite side rail you are playing from, it is said to be playing “short.” That means that an adjustment of where you hit that far side rail, the first rail struck, will change the ending position of the ball.

So, if it plays long, play the ball a bit closer to the side pocket from the second diamond, it will shorten the trajectory and bring you closer to making the ball. Why does this matter? Well, if a table plays long you have to adjust your aim, if it plays short, again, you adjust your aim. But if it is deadon you can do the math and the ball will go every time.

Most pool banks are simple, it is divided by two, if I come from a corner pocket and want to bank a ball into a side pocket on the same side I am playing from, then I would play to the middle diamond opposite. That is to say, there are three diamonds from the corner pocket and side pocket, if you count the side pocket as well, there are four diamonds. Four diamonds divided by two is two, so play the second diamond. If you are three dia

monds down from the side pocket for a kick or bank, hit the opposite side at 1.5 diamonds from its side pocket.

It takes practice to become proficient, the satisfaction you derive by regularly making them is worth all of the effort.

In 1765 AD, the first billiard room opened and featured a table with one pocket and four balls. French King Louis XI had the first recorded billiard table, stone bed, cloth, hole in the middle and balls. Must have been pretty tough deciding where to play your ball, but, times were simpler then, I guess. I don’t know. CUE TIP » Learn your table, if your table plays long or short doesn’t matter, what matters is, you know which it plays. If you have a home table as the “Old German” does, and know how your table will bank, as he does, no person stands a chance of beating you at one pocket. The first thing he says when you show up to play is, (and he says this with a huge smile) “why don’t we play some one pocket?” Contact me at mcbohanon@gmail.com.