Book of the Week: Bryne's New Standard Book of Pool and Billiards

30 Aug 2014

I picked up Byrne’s New Standard Book of Pool and Billiards to improve my pool game. After an evening reading the book, my game has already improved. There is a lot of book to read, so I think of it more of a reference book for advanced pool playing. He covers the basics and goes into high level play. The book is composed of two books: Pool and Three Cushion Billiards.Three cushion billiards is really hard and is played on a table without pockets. You are probably going to spending most of your time playing pool. I’ve never seen a three cushion table. Bryne goes over many situations for each type of shot and how things change with english. Cue

• The tip of the cue should be rounded like a nickel (dime is also an option).
• Always chalk before each each shot.
• Don’t spin the cue in the chalk. Use a back and forth rocking motion.
• Don’t lean your cue stick against the table.
• Grip closer to tip for precision.
• Grip closer to bumper for power.
• Stand with dominant eye over cue to aim

Bridge How you hold your bridge hand is very important for the stability of your shot. A closed bridge is preferably to an open bridge. That means you need to wrap your fingers around the cue, so it doesn’t have anywhere to go, but in and out. The book has a lot of photos for the different type of bridges in each situation. Stroke In the beginning, you want to hit the cue ball dead center with the cue stick leveled. For advanced play, you can hit the cue ball off center to control where it goes after it collides or make do a massé shot (hitting off center with cue stick sticking up) to make it go in a curved path. The book is pretty exhaustive in all the possibilities with diagrams and where to hit the ball for it to follow certain paths. Practice Be systematic. Don’t focus on pocketing the ball as much as controlling the cueball. If you can control the cueball, the shots get easier. Time to practice.