skills, even temperament, how to jive,
and the patience to let the odds work.
Snooker has fifteen red balls, six num-
bered balls, and you have to make a red
ball before you can shoot a number ball.
When the red balls are gone you shoot
the number balls in rotation, the table is
long, the balls and the pockets are small,
and there is very little room for error.
Keep your stick level, line up the shot,
but keep your eye on the cue ball when
you shoot. If you hit the top half of the
cue ball it will produce topspin, and fol-
low the shot after you hit the ball you’re
shooting. If you hit the bottom half it
produces reverse spin and will back up or
stop the cue ball after you hit the object
ball.
A good player can back the cue ball
the length of the table.
If you hit it on the right it’ll spin to
the right after the hit. On the left it’ll
spin to the left after contact, pretty sim-
ple.
That’s called English, but remember
the object ball spins with the opposite
rotation after you hit it. If there’s a ball
on the rail, shoot a little English toward
the rail and the ball you’re shooting will
hug the rail after it reverses.
When I first started a guy told me, if
you’re not shooting English, you’re not
shooting pool.
Always figure you’re going to make
the ball you’re trying to shoot, and try to
leave the cue ball set up for the next shot,
that’s called shooting shape. If you don’t
have a good shot leave the cue ball in a
place that’s hard for the other player to
make a shot, that’s called leave, and you’ll
probably get a shot after they miss.
Those two things, shape and leave,
will mean the difference between win-
ning and losing. Use a little chalk before
every shot, so you don’t miscue, plus it
gives you a minute to think and look
around.
That’s really all you need to know, and
if you practice every day for five or six
years, think about it and dream about it,
you might be a pretty fair shot, but even
then don’t bet over your head.
After you get to be pretty good, that’s
when the jive comes in, anything you
can do to break the other shooter’s con-
centration is what you’re looking for.
I’ve seen people drop sticks, stand in the
other shooter’s vision and move around
while they’re shooting, start telling jokes,
squeak the chalk on their tip while the
other guy’s trying to concentrate, and
maybe ask ‘em about their sister or their
mother.
One guy that was really good walked
around the table fast, shot fast, and never
stopped talking and laughing. He’d make
a shot and say, “don’t they roll pretty,”
“how long you been shooting pool,” “I
don’t think I would have shot that one,”
“that was real close,” “you don’t have any
money on you do you,” and if he beat
you, which he usually did, he’d say, “do
you need me to send a cab for you
tomorrow?” His daddy took his car away
from him once, and he drove his tractor
to town to play.
There’s as many characters in a pool
hall is there are people, and everybody’s
got a deal. A couple of guys got banned
for cheating at dominos, and maybe a
couple for being too young, but other
than that it was pretty relaxed place.
It served as a staging area for woman
chasing, drag racing, watermelon steal-
ing, rabbit hunting, beer runs, and trips
to Mexico–New or Old.
All and all it was a perfect combina-
tion of a place to have fun, collect mate-
rial, work on your game, get the news,
find a job, quit a job, buy or sell a car,
buy or sell a farm, get or sign an oil lease,
bet on a ballgame or a horse race, a
downtown social and business club, and
a great hideout if you needed one.
After the pool hall closed you might
stop by the café for a bite with your bud-
dies, or you might just all get in one car
and drive around drinking for a while,
but you eventually headed home. Most
nights you’d stop at the water culvert to
stash your beer, usually to take a leak too,
but you always looked up at a sky full of
stars, from straight up at the milky way
all the way down to the curvature of the
earth, and then ease on home, careful not
to wake anybody up.
Perry Cozzen’s new collection of short
stories, Further West, is available in print at
Front Street Books or Amazon and in
Audio and Kindle at Amazon.com.
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