Reddit reviews Upscale One-Pocket

It's a tough game to follow, and even tougher when you watch masters play because some of their shots surprise even experienced players.

There are some great books on the subject, but because it's sort of obscure (compared to, say, golf) the really good ones are hard to find and expensive. You can still find some decent ones like Upscale 1 pocket. You can also find old instructional videos on DVD, anything from Grady Mathews is great.

In a nutshell, priority #1 is to not sell out a shot to your opponent. That includes a bank shot. So if you find yourself asking "why doesn't he just shoot a ball towards his hole and leave the cue ball HERE?" ...most of the time, the answer is "because he might sell out a bank if he misses".

Priority #2 is to move balls towards your hole while leaving the cue ball safe, but it's no use moving a ball towards your hole if the opponent can just bunt it away from your pocket again. So if you wonder "why don't the just move a ball to his side of the table and leave the cue ball safe?" the answer is often "because the opponent will just knock it away again, and just put you right back where you started... or worse."

So the ideal shot is one that accomplishes several things. It moves a ball towards your hole (ideally with a slight chance to make it) and the speed is soft, so that if you miss, you still leave the ball hanging really close to the hole and make it impossible to bank to the opponent's pocket. At the same time, you leave the cue ball somewhere that NOT ONLY prevents your opponent from shooting into his pocket (again, not even a bank shot), but ALSO prevents him from knocking away your recently-moved ball.

Your opponent will be in a real trap if you can leave a ball hanging in your hole, and leave him unable to touch that ball because most of the rack is blocking his view of it.

The idea is to try to accomplish both offense and defense in every shot. If you do offense only but don't play defense, you sell out and they might run out and you lose. If you do defense only, but never get balls close to your hole, they'll strangle you slowly by freely firing at full table banks or trick shots, because they know if they miss you don't have any "threats" near your pocket. And eventually they'll trap you as described above, where they have tons of balls near their pocket and any move you make looks like it can sell out.