Potting both balls?

[jlr]

Hi,

I understand from reading the rules that you are not allowed to pot both balls off the break more than three times before you ‘leave one up’.

However, when I watch videos on YouTube, everyone seems to pot both balls twice and then leave one up.

is this just different rules (the games were Guernsey League) or is there some tactical reason to do this?

To be clear - every break I have done this far, I seem very likely to ‘leave two up’

many thanks

James

[billiardsmichael]

James,

There are a couple of ways of attacking the break and one-up. The "old school" way is to play two breaks then try and leave the third with the red hanging over the 50, so you can simply tap it in and get back to the break. That way if you accidentally pot the red you have the safety net of being able play a similar shot again. This is still common particularly in the channel Islands where they play "off the spot" rather than using the whole D which you can do for non-break shots on the mainland.

The other method is to play three breaks and then play the one-up leaving the red roughly level with the black peg. You can then "split" potting the red off the side cushion into the 50 and white directly into the 100. This is a quicker way of scoring and therefore is the way the vast majority of players now play.

There are plenty of people on here who can give you a better history, but that's my tuppence for you!

[jlr]

Many thanks for the explanation. Had noticed they never used the whole D, so many thanks for clearing that up too.

Back to practicing now - I think I have cracked leaving one up. It’s getting them both down I need to focus on.🤔

Best

James