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    Byrne's Treasury of Trick Shots in Pool and Billiards
    Byrne's Treasury of Trick Shots in Pool and Billiards
    Byrne's Treasury of Trick Shots in Pool and Billiards
    Ebook426 pages1 hour

    Byrne's Treasury of Trick Shots in Pool and Billiards

    By Robert Byrne

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    Fully illustratedin color for the first time!with drawings of nearly 350 mind-boggling trick shots, Byrne’s Treasury of Trick Shots in Pool and Billiards will teach you everything from the basic butterfly formation” to the most difficult and impressive shots. Robert Byrne will help novice and experienced players alike perfect their trick shots and learn about the historical context of each trick.

    Trick shots are anything amusing, surprising, or educational that can be done on a pool or billiard table with standard accessories, and have been around as long as the game itself. Byrne demonstrates historical shots, including some invented by the famous Captain Mingaud, the world’s first professional exhibition player, and newer tricks seen while travelling to tournaments around the world. Filled with easy as well as hard, and technical as well as showy tricks, the book’s clear diagrams, paired with secret insider tips, describe simpler stunts for the beginner, those that take years of practice, and some that the author doubts you’ll ever be able to do.

    Whether you want to impress a crowd, a group of friends, or yourself, Byrne’s wild, stunning, and unforgettable trick shots will make you question some principles of physics and wow an audience of one or one-hundred.

    Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Sports Publishing imprint, is proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in sportsbooks about baseball, pro football, college football, pro and college basketball, hockey, or soccer, we have a book about your sport or your team.

    In addition to books on popular team sports, we also publish books for a wide variety of athletes and sports enthusiasts, including books on running, cycling, horseback riding, swimming, tennis, martial arts, golf, camping, hiking, aviation, boating, and so much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to publishing books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked by other publishers and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSkyhorse
    Release dateJan 27, 2015
    ISBN9781629148946
    Byrne's Treasury of Trick Shots in Pool and Billiards
    Author

    Robert Byrne

    Robert Byrne is the author of seven novels, five collections of humorous quotations, seven books on billiards, and an exposé of frauds in the literary world. Byrne was born and raised in Dubuque, Iowa, where he has a regular humor column in the Dubuque Herald Times. Visit his website at Byrne.org.

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      Book preview

      Byrne's Treasury of Trick Shots in Pool and Billiards - Robert Byrne

      Cover Page of Byrne’s Treasury of Trick Shots in Pool and BilliaHalf Title of Byrne’s Treasury of Trick Shots in Pool and Billia

      ALSO BY ROBERT BYRNE

      Books on Pool and Billiards

      McGoorty: A Pool Room Hustler

      Byrne’s Complete Book of Pool Shots: 350 Moves Every Player Should Know

      Byrne’s New Standard Book of Pool and Billiards

      Byrne’s Advanced Technique in Pool and Billiards

      Byrne’s Book of Great Pool Stories

      Byrne’s Wonderful World of Pool and Billiards: A Cornucopia of Instruction, Strategy,

      Anecdote, and Colorful Characters

      Other Books

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      The 637 Best Things Anybody Ever Said

      The Other 637 Best Things Anybody Ever Said

      The Third—and Possibly the Best—637 Best Things Anybody Ever Said

      The Fourth—and by Far the Most Recent—637 Best Things Anybody Ever Said

      The Fifth—and Far Finer than the First Four—637 Best Things Anybody Ever Said

      Title Page of Byrne’s Treasury of Trick Shots in Pool and Billia

      Copyright © 1982, 2011, 2015 by Robert Byrne

      ByrneAll Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

      Skyhorse Publishing books may be purchased in bulk at special discounts for sales promotion, corporate gifts, fund-raising, or educational purposes. Special editions can also be created to specifications. For details, contact the Special Sales Department, Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018 or info@skyhorsepublishing.com.

      Skyhorse® and Skyhorse Publishing® are registered trademarks of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.®, a Delaware corporation.

      Visit our website at www.skyhorsepublishing.com.

      10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

      Cover design by Richard Rossiter

      ISBN: 978-1-62914-505-1

      Ebook ISBN: 978-1-62914-894-6

      Printed in China

      To my many friends in the game

      —especially those I didn’t mention—

      I dedicate this book.

      Acknowledgments

      Most of the contributors to this book are mentioned at the appropriate places in the text. I owe a special debt of gratitude to Lee Simon, owner of Novato Billiards, for the use and abuse of his equipment; Terry Moldenhauer of Golden West Billiard Mfg. Co. for lending me his remarkable collection of movie stills; Bob Jewett, who has taught me so much about the technicalities of the game; Paul Gerni for giving me the run of his home as well as his notebooks; Jess Meshanic for much valuable historical information and for putting me in touch with wise men from the East; Mike Massey, owner of pooldom’s most awesome stroke, for freely sharing his extensive knowledge of trick shots; Jimmy Caras, Ivor Bransford, and Myron Zownir for helpful and stimulating exchanges of letters; Paul Lucchesi, Sr., for helping me push back the origins of many standard shots; Joan Byrne for research at the Library of Congress, Hugh Fraser for research in London, and Joan and Pete Margo for general research assistance; Edward Meyers, Archivist of Ripley International, Ltd., for his thoroughness in searching through the late cartoonist’s legacy; Herb Juliano, Curator of the Sports and Games Research Collection at the University of Notre Dame, for furnishing the Mingaud title page; Clem Trainer for unwavering interest and support; Dick Meyers of Billiard Archives for digging up some rare items; Mark Mikulich for the beautiful line drawings of tables, players, and hands; Bill Marshall, also known as Willie Jopling, the world’s leading creator of pool trick shots, for an endless stream of information; the staff of Paragraphics for helpfulness and good humor; the late Charlie Peterson, America’s greatest exhibition player, for getting me interested in the subject in the first place; and Knox Burger and Kitty Sprague for transcending their roles.

      Contents

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      INTRODUCTION

      Book One

      POOL

      1. Ten Classic Shots

      The just showin’ off shot

      The rosebud cluster

      The butterfly formation

      The jump-out-of-the-rack shot

      The over-and-under shot

      The football shot

      The short massé

      The scenic railroad

      The machine-gun shot

      The shoot-off-your-mouth shot

      2. Ten Classic Variations

      The delayed machine gun

      The massé machine gun

      The accelerated jump shot

      The left-turn football shot

      The football bank shot

      The stymie football shot

      Central cluster railroad shot

      The railroad switchyard

      Single-track switchyard

      Myron Zownir’s second effort

      3. Wisdom of the Ancients

      Escape over the wall

      Captain Mingaud’s bank carom

      Two tough kiss-back follow shots

      The kiss-forward and the push-through

      The wide kiss-forward

      The relocation kiss-forward and the triangular draw

      Force follow around a ball

      The hug-the-rail shot

      The follow-curve shot

      Michael Phelan’s challenge

      Professor McCleery’s creep

      The spinning kiss-across

      The running carom, and more

      The kiss-across time shot

      4. Twenty-five Easy Ones

      Fred Herrmann’s slow collapse

      The fifteen-ball combination

      The paralyzed intermediary

      The photo-finish shot

      Another photo-finish shot

      The self-racking bank

      Kiss follow from the pocket point

      Pocket point kick shot

      Three great spit shots

      A subtle four-ball cluster

      The missile silo

      The time-lapse shot

      The ball-in-hand shot

      Cuteness on the rail

      The optical-illusion bank

      The triangle push

      The hidden double-hit shot

      The rail bounce-in

      The shunted railroad shot

      The sliding triangle

      5. Almost as Easy

      The two-triangle slide-draw

      The time shot bank

      The four-ball split

      Mike Massey’s shuttle shot

      The U-turn handkerchief shot

      Mosconi’s Hustler shot

      Why don’t you shove it?

      Two pairs

      Bruce Venzke’s fruit salad

      Byrne’s time shot

      A relocation carom

      The gate in the wall

      Rotten Rodney’s improvement

      A shot from Pierre Morin

      6. Stymies, Puzzles, and Clusters

      Two three-ball challenges

      Two original puzzles

      The classic stymie and the rail as interference

      Jewett’s clearance shot

      Eight-ball mystery shot

      Ten-ball mystery shot

      The rosebud obscured

      Two more three-ball challenges

      Two tough problems

      Two through the gate

      Three balls in sequence

      A little-known three-ball cluster

      Fred Whalen’s secret shot

      Charlie Webster’s Houdini shot

      7. Novelty Shots

      The tantalizing tennis balls

      The fork in the road

      The pool sweep

      The ball-tray bank

      The Japanese gate

      Five-ball triangle shot

      The golden arches of Hollywood Fats

      The ball-tray rebound

      Something new from Lynchburg

      The wild stampede of Tony Meatballs

      The Siamese balls

      Novelty railroad switchyard

      Gilroy’s shot

      Shooting on cue

      8. Tube Shots

      The submarine

      A moderately amusing sequence

      The penny wrapper overlap

      The aerial draw

      The half-ball drop

      The free-fall draw

      Banked subway combination

      Banked subway cut

      The aerial sideshow

      The rail nose transfer

      The orbital splashdown

      The double overlap

      9. Shots with One Ball

      The kiss-back bank

      The jaw-points five-rail bank

      The rail draw curve

      The hopscotch shot and the side-pocket squeeze

      The Hustler bank, plus

      The high-road shot and the center-table triple bank

      The two-man precision reaction shot

      The side-pocket wing shot and beyond

      The second-chance shot

      Around the world

      The impossible cut

      The frozen kick and the passing lane

      The pocket point ploy

      Winging it

      A good but not great escape

      10. Jump Shots

      The squeeze-through jump

      Over the hurdles

      A backward double combination

      Two corner jumps

      The two-ball stack shot

      Rapid-fire hurdling

      Jump into the rack

      The frozen jump shot

      The frozen jump applied

      Jumping over the rack girl

      The jump collapse shot

      Over and under and around

      The Evel Knievel shot

      The beer-bottle shot

      The triangle bounce

      11. Choice Inner Secrets

      The comeback kiss

      Hippie Jimmy’s amazing push

      The resistance draw

      Jewett’s repeating in-off

      Seven rails to Dixie

      The impossible carom

      Calling a racked ball

      How to cheat

      Another full rack shot

      The holdup double bank and the English feather

      Chris McDonald’s best shot

      A valuable jump shot

      A problem with four solutions

      The no-scratch one-pocket bank

      The push-kiss shot

      The chalked-ball bank and throw

      The chalked-ball cut

      The middle-ball force

      12. Personal Favorites

      Ivor Bransford rings the bell

      Ivor’s shot simplified

      The Denver sandwich

      Another shot from Denver

      A cross-table challenge

      The ultimate clearance shot

      Jewett’s rail draw trap

      Scramble shot with add-on

      Two-rail show-off shot

      Byrne’s side-pocket surprise

      Triple-bank throw shot

      The inner circle and the frozen ring

      Easy-action four-ball shot

      Easy action with bank

      Paul Lucchesi, Sr.’s, shot

      The afterthought shot

      Thread the needle

      13. The Great and the Near Great

      Central cluster add-on

      Denver sandwich variation

      New York Joe’s shot expanded

      A Cueball Kelly shot

      Cut, kiss, carom, and throw

      A splendid four-ball shot

      A nice shot

      The purse snatcher

      The diagonal hug

      Another hug shot

      Cross-table clearance

      Another Cueball Kelly shot

      Hallucination modified

      Two unsolved problems

      A final unsolved problem

      A challenge from Lynchburg

      A four-ball shot

      The multiple criss-cross

      14. Stroke Shots

      The Bill Hughes massé shot

      The triangle-assisted massé

      An exquisite position shot

      Length-of-the-table position massé

      The long-rail massé

      The one-pocket power draw

      Two-rail power draw

      A Mike Massey monster

      J. Howard Schoenmaker’s force follow

      A force-follow bank shot

      A force-follow swerve

      Force follow around the table

      Square draw around the tray

      The circular draw shot

      Two King Kong draw shots

      The ultimate kiss-around

      Snooks Perlstein’s shot

      Tom Smith’s reverse draw

      15. Hot Lips and Magic Fingers

      The pumpkin-seed squirt

      Double the rail

      The dragster and two others

      A sweeping curveball

      The out-and-in shot

      Limbo

      The Middleditch spitball

      Steve Simpson’s blowhard shot

      Finger billiards for all

      16. Showstoppers

      The eight-ball shot

      Bucktooth Cook’s trash-can shot

      The Meatman’s rapid-fire banks

      The every-which-way shot

      A five-ball eye-opener

      The rake’s progress and the French backflip

      The Deacon’s blind cut

      Just showin’ off . . . complete

      Just showin’ off . . . double

      Sixteen balls at once

      Book Two

      BILLIARDS

      INTRODUCTION

      1. Appetizers

      Charlie Peterson’s topple shot

      The push-aside shot

      Reverse diagonal bank

      The ten-rail bank

      Abel Calderon’s feather

      McGoorty’s cross table

      Harold Rooff’s moment of glory

      Whitey the Beer Salesman’s shot

      The running ticky

      Ball-first ticky

      Mr. Norman Smith’s shot

      Pepe Gomez’s shot

      The legacy of Scarface Foraker

      Double-stroke three-cushion shot

      Maximum reverse

      The Panamanian bag shot

      2. Time Shots

      Three-rail natural

      A shot from Not-so-fat

      Four-rail natural

      Five-rail natural

      Slow relocation

      Cross-table chase-down

      Double-the-rail kiss

      Double-the-rail draw

      Cross-table rendezvous

      The long and the short

      Dekker’s double-time shot

      Egyptian pursuit

      Something from Willie Hoppe

      Dudley Kavanaugh’s shot

      Johnny Layton’s tube shot

      Victor Maduro’s time shot

      Two-stroke time shot

      Deep freeze

      3. Kiss Shots

      Joe Plazonja’s shot

      The original Dump shot

      The Dump shot extended

      Long rail kiss-back

      The Copulus kiss-around

      Kiss-forward and kiss-across

      Reverse kiss-around

      Arthur Thurnblad’s kiss

      Bill Smith’s shot

      Rail first kiss-around

      Byron Gillette’s specialty

      A Jimmy Lee shot

      Something even worse

      Wayman C. McCreery’s shot

      A Ceulemans killer kiss

      The ski-jump shot

      Reverse-kiss dive

      4. Jump Shots

      N. Lederer’s shot

      Something from Jake, Jr.

      Rippe rides the rail

      Jump double-the-rail

      Charlie Morin’s shot

      Two short jump draws

      A long jump draw

      Maximum suction

      Knock on wood

      Bud Harris’s jump

      5. Draw Shots

      Bud’s rail-first draw

      The Wizard’s double draw

      Double draw extended

      Double-the-corner draw

      The draw ticky

      A Zeke Navarra natural

      The greatest shot ever made

      Draw through the hole

      Cross-table swing

      The idiotic ticky

      Jake, Jr.’s, draw ticky

      6. Follow Shots

      Hug the rail

      Bulldog Brink bends the ball

      Basic force follow

      The cozy corner

      Rail first follow

      Rail first hug

      Diagonal force follow

      The double-around shot

      Curved double-the-rail

      Reverse zig-zag

      Follow stroke shot

      Two from Chicago

      Follow into the corner

      More corner follows

      7. Massé Shots

      Short massé

      Draw massé

      The yo-yo shot

      Massés long and short

      Five-rail massé

      Spectacular finale

      BIBLIOGRAPHY

      Introduction

      This is a book celebrating the recreational aspects of one of

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