There are plenty of games of pool where you’ll have a shot which is close to the pocket, straight in, the balls are off the rail and you need to get the cue ball to the other end of the table.
Although it looks like an unlikely situation, this is another pool shot that’s not as hard as it may seem. The trick lies in The Two Finger Rule which is a technique for accurately gauging pool shots.
If you have not yet seen my explanation of The Two Finger Rule, take a moment to check out my earlier explanation here on the Billiards Direct Blog.
Now that you’ve got the idea for what the Two Finger Rule is, let’s go over how we can use it to make the shot I mentioned earlier.
Take your two fingers to the ball you want to make and create a reference point on the rail to aim at. Now, go back to your cue ball and aim straight through to that point.
Ordinarily, this would be all you’d need to do to make your ball but in this situation we also need to get shape at the end of the table. We’ll need to introduce a new element to our shot: Draw.
Draw is an easy way to help get your cue ball to the other end of the table. However, by adding draw to your shot, the cue ball will lift off the rail sooner.
To compensate for this you just want to aim just a little bit further up past where your Two Finger Rule mark was. Move that imaginary mark slightly closer to the object ball.
The amount you aim will be a little bit different for everybody because everybody has a different draw. You can also experiment using less/more draw to see how far you can make it down the table.
If you want to use high, just move your Two Finger Rule spot a little closer (towards your cue ball). The same techniques apply as before. It’s all a matter of your shooting style and what you’re comfortable with.
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