Thanks for the reponse. And understand the difficulty of 13 ball Saratoga.. A group of us play (on foul weather weekend mornings so golf not working, yes, retired) a modified version using fast-rack format: 9 balls, 8 ball on break spots, ball-in-hand on fouls, 9ft table. Plays faster than usual 8 ball. If group is large (6 or so) doing partners, alternate shot. Decent enough players (400-500 fargos) but hardly mistake proof shooting. Probably more laughing and trash talk than anything else. Thanks again for the response. Really glad Drew pointed at your channel. .m.
I tried this yesterday and went something like 0-12 lmao. I'm an APA 5 in 8 ball, probably 425-450 Fargo (hopefully gonna work on that in the near future) and I only play 8 ball so this wasn't really my forte to begin with. I feel like playing on a 7 footer also makes it a bit tougher at times. I did get to around the 7 ball a few times but messed something up and lost. I see you also posted an 8 ball ghost vid so on to watching that now. You're a great shot and I like the simple production, I'll be subbing!
Dude, 10 ball is the hardest, aside from 15 ball rotation. Good of you to take it on, because it can be ridiculously frustrating against the ghost. Going in I was sure I was going to win 1, maybe 2 games, and that was it. What I'd recommend for you is 8-ball ghost, but even maybe take a step back and do 15 balls any order. Basically break, take ball in hand and run out the rack any ball, any pocket, any order. You can score this against the ghost as well. I have a video on this coming out soon. But yeah I would start at 8-ball or the 15 ball I mentioned, and then move to 9-ball before trying to battle 10-ball. It's only 1 more ball, but it's at least 25% harder than 9-ball. Good luck and keep me updated!
If you have the time...do ghost match playing Saratoga 8-ball. Lovely work on the 10 ball vs. ghost. Got here watchin you and Drew. Can totally identify with his reactions to easy shots garfed.
Oh man, I don't know. I've run through Dr. Dave's runout drill system (search his channel for RDS) and the 15 ball rotation is super tough, which is basically what half of Saratoga would be. Matt (featured in videos here) and I played 1 game of Saratoga once and vowed never to play it again. There's a lot of safety play in that game. I may play around with it for something to try, but I would expect the ghost to crush me. Thanks for the view and the comments though!
I do both, and I think both are a good way to practice. Playing against the ghost is all about the runout game and that's it. Positioning, patterns, etc. The break throws in a lot of unknowns to that, and I find trying to play the ghost gets me more focused on the break and less focused on running out. That said, I do practice the break a lot, and I think for a future video I'll try no ball in hand off the break. Thanks for the reply!
Here is a modification that helps a little bit to play the Ghost…. Instead of taking a shot you think you might miss when you find yourself out of position, play a safety shot. If you successfully snooker the Ghost, you get a MODIFIED Ball In Hand. Here is how…from the snookered position, you can play the cue off of 3 rails (must be 3 different rails, not a triple cross bank using the same rail twice) to make your new position on the next ball to continue. You get safety practice, escape practice AND you don’t have to lose to the ghost, just because you get out of position, you get an opportunity to get out, but it’s not simple. Try it out!
Thanks for the comment, and great idea! I've been thinking of ways to incorporate safety play into playing vs. the ghost. At one point I played "myself" by flipping a coin or something over every turn, but that was very time consuming and didn't work well. Another idea instead of playing 8/9/10-ball vs. the Ghost is to play 15 ball any ball any pocket. In fact, stay tuned for a video very similar to that in the next few days/weeks.
Nice shooting!
Thanks for the reponse. And understand the difficulty of 13 ball Saratoga.. A group of us play (on foul weather weekend mornings so golf not working, yes, retired) a modified version using fast-rack format: 9 balls, 8 ball on break spots, ball-in-hand on fouls, 9ft table. Plays faster than usual 8 ball. If group is large (6 or so) doing partners, alternate shot. Decent enough players (400-500 fargos) but hardly mistake proof shooting. Probably more laughing and trash talk than anything else.
Thanks again for the response. Really glad Drew pointed at your channel. .m.
Thank you! That's the best kind of pool sometimes!
I tried this yesterday and went something like 0-12 lmao. I'm an APA 5 in 8 ball, probably 425-450 Fargo (hopefully gonna work on that in the near future) and I only play 8 ball so this wasn't really my forte to begin with. I feel like playing on a 7 footer also makes it a bit tougher at times. I did get to around the 7 ball a few times but messed something up and lost. I see you also posted an 8 ball ghost vid so on to watching that now. You're a great shot and I like the simple production, I'll be subbing!
Dude, 10 ball is the hardest, aside from 15 ball rotation. Good of you to take it on, because it can be ridiculously frustrating against the ghost. Going in I was sure I was going to win 1, maybe 2 games, and that was it.
What I'd recommend for you is 8-ball ghost, but even maybe take a step back and do 15 balls any order. Basically break, take ball in hand and run out the rack any ball, any pocket, any order. You can score this against the ghost as well. I have a video on this coming out soon. But yeah I would start at 8-ball or the 15 ball I mentioned, and then move to 9-ball before trying to battle 10-ball. It's only 1 more ball, but it's at least 25% harder than 9-ball. Good luck and keep me updated!
If you have the time...do ghost match playing Saratoga 8-ball. Lovely work on the 10 ball vs. ghost. Got here watchin you and Drew. Can totally identify with his reactions to easy shots garfed.
Oh man, I don't know. I've run through Dr. Dave's runout drill system (search his channel for RDS) and the 15 ball rotation is super tough, which is basically what half of Saratoga would be.
Matt (featured in videos here) and I played 1 game of Saratoga once and vowed never to play it again. There's a lot of safety play in that game. I may play around with it for something to try, but I would expect the ghost to crush me. Thanks for the view and the comments though!
Good shooting. No ball in hand after the break is how I prefer to practice. It's more like playing other competitors in real match situations...
I do both, and I think both are a good way to practice. Playing against the ghost is all about the runout game and that's it. Positioning, patterns, etc. The break throws in a lot of unknowns to that, and I find trying to play the ghost gets me more focused on the break and less focused on running out.
That said, I do practice the break a lot, and I think for a future video I'll try no ball in hand off the break. Thanks for the reply!
Good job.
Thanks!
Here is a modification that helps a little bit to play the Ghost…. Instead of taking a shot you think you might miss when you find yourself out of position, play a safety shot. If you successfully snooker the Ghost, you get a MODIFIED Ball In Hand. Here is how…from the snookered position, you can play the cue off of 3 rails (must be 3 different rails, not a triple cross bank using the same rail twice) to make your new position on the next ball to continue. You get safety practice, escape practice AND you don’t have to lose to the ghost, just because you get out of position, you get an opportunity to get out, but it’s not simple. Try it out!
Thanks for the comment, and great idea! I've been thinking of ways to incorporate safety play into playing vs. the ghost. At one point I played "myself" by flipping a coin or something over every turn, but that was very time consuming and didn't work well.
Another idea instead of playing 8/9/10-ball vs. the Ghost is to play 15 ball any ball any pocket. In fact, stay tuned for a video very similar to that in the next few days/weeks.
1 missed bank and 1 missed shot in 9 racks is awesome shooting.
thank you!