Today I’m going to show you a shot that is very common. Higher still level players have no problem making this shot. For the beginner players, this is a shot that scares them. Here’s a simple way so that it will never be scary again.

Imagine you’re playing a game of 8 Ball. You have the 8 ball in the jaws of the pocket and the cue ball has a little bit of distance behind it. Most players would just shoot the ball in and stop it, or draw it back or put the cue ball wherever they want. But what if you don’t know how to draw the ball back that far?

The best, simplest way to get this shot is to aim for the crack; the gap between the rail and the 8 ball. Don’t try to aim for the rail just before the ball or else you’ll miss it because the ball is too deep in the pocket.

You will never, ever miss this shot if you aim for the cracks between the ball and the pocket. You’ll make your ball and it’s virtually impossible to scratch. The best part about this technique is that it works even if the gaps are small or the gaps are large. You’ll make it every time.

Let’s learn how to shoot a Masse’ shot. (Pronounced like “Mass-Ay”) For those who don’t know what a Masse’ shot is, it’s basically a curved shot. Imagine that you want to make a ball into the pocket but there’s another ball in your way. You can’t shoot straight through it so you’ll need to curve around it. That’s exactly what the Masse’ shot it. A curved shot. It’s almost like that cool bullet curving technique in Wanted.

In the video example above, I’ve got a ball that I want to make into the corner pocket. Unfortunately, there is another ball in the way and that makes it impossible to make my shot straight-in. By using Masse’ I can curve the cue ball around that obstructing ball and make my object ball in the pocket.

What you first want to do is to elevate the butt of your cue. By doing that, I’m going to make the cue ball deflects. I’m going to hit the cue ball on the right hand side because I want it to curve to the right. It’s going to deflect to the left but it’s going to curve to the right. So, ideally the english will grab and take it around to my object ball. Take your shot and watch the magic happen.