One evening, after watching a pool tournament at the Commodore Hotel (next to Grand Central Station in New York City), I felt inspired to do a little playing myself. I had noticed, previously, that whenever I watched the experts, my own play improved dramatically. So I hiked over to a poolroom on Broadway called "Guys and Dolls.". My recollection is that this place was part of the renaissance resulting from the movie, "The Hustler."

I picked up a tray of balls and wandered over to a table near the window. The decor of this place was very different from what was standard in those days...the lights were all fluorescent, and they were in the ceiling, not immediately over the table. The cloths on the tables were various colors, mainly blue, as I recall, with a few in an odd rust color. After I racked up the balls and began to hit a few, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a guy sitting in the corner of the room, about fifteen feet away. He was dressed in a tuxedo, and looked vaguely familiar. It wasn't until some minutes later that I realized it was none other than Luther Lassiter, who I just had been watching at the Commodore. My first instinct was to say hello to him, congratulate him on his excellent play, and then ask, "What the hell are you doing here? You've just played in a top quality tournament -- you're too famous to be putting on a hustle (especially in that tux) -- so what is it? Is it the click of the balls, or are you lonely?" Of course, I said none of these impertinent things, but wound up in a nice chat with him (he was an absolute gentleman) even though he didn't know me from Adam. We particularly discussed his ability to make the 9 ball on the break (although the tournament at the Commodore was a straight pool test) because I had seen him do it at another time. He explained that his technique was to put the cue ball near the string (2nd diamond) on the right side of the table, near the rail. He would then aim at the one ball, hitting it nearly flush, but slightly to the left of center, with just a little right English and follow. When it worked, the cue ball would carom to the left rail and come right back to the center of the pack, which was now exposed by the other balls having been knocked out of the way by the initial hit. If things were working correctly, he said, the 9 ball would still be sitting there, and could be made in the far right corner of the table. He claimed that when he was really practiced up, he could make this shot 3 times out of 10.

The last I saw of him as I later left the room was that he returned to his corner seat, staring off into the distance, his thoughts his own.

John White

Now here's the debate. On the one hand, the pros smash the rack as hard as possible in 9 ball to increase the odds of a ball falling, and spread the rack wide. Pros will run out an open table. Hence, there is no need to try a low percentage (?) shot that doesn't guarantee a wide open spread of balls if the 9 doesn't go in. On the other hand, this method does seem to spread the balls reasonably well, and if you can drop the 9 ball 3 out of 10, then that is a tremendous advantage. I know I've used this break a few times, and dropped at least one ball just as often as I did breaking the normal way. I haven't hit the shot enough to learn how to make the 9 ball, but I think I'll practice it some.

Any comments on this technique?
-- D. White

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