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

Robert Byrne has won numerous tournaments including the National Senior and National Amateur tournaments in three-cushion billiards. His books and videos on pool have sold nearly a million copies. Inducted into the Billiard Congress of America's Hall of Fame in 2001, he lives in Dubuque, Iowa.

Bestselling author, Hall-of-Famer, and master-teacher Robert Byrne is back with his most impressive effort yet: an exhaustive compendium of more than 350 pool shots that will take its place among the game's classic instructional books. Ranging from tickys to double-kisses and from jump shots to diamond systems, Byrne's Complete Book of Pool Shots takes players on an accelerated trip from pool kindergarten to graduate school. Most of Byrne's expertly diagrammed shots are not widely known and many are described here for the first time-in many cases, these are the secrets of a lifetime. Players of every skill level, including the most advanced, will find their game greatly strengthened by the clever moves Byrne has assembled.
For twenty-five years, Byrne's New Standard Book has been
"the definitive work on pool and billiards" (National Billiard Review). This new shot-by-shot reference will enable players to reach an even higher level. They'll have to read it before their opponents do.

Contents Acknowledgments xv Introduction xvii
1 Basics Getting Started Right 2
o The geometry of aiming 3
1 Follow and Draw 5
Sidespin 7
Safety Play 8
2 Cheating the pocket 11
3 Accuracy versus slop 12
4 Speed control-I 13
5 Speed control-II 14
6 Getting an angle 15

2 Fouls
7 Push-shot fouls 19
8 More push-shot fouls 20
9 Still more push-shot fouls 21
10 Shafted and fouled 22
11 A double-hit foul 23
12 Fair push shots 24
13 Two massé shots 25
14 How to spot a double hit 26
15 Two deceptive double-hit fouls 27
16 The grip-hand stop 28
17 Fair and foul-I 29
18 Fair and foul-II 30
19 The cut-shot foul 31
20 Avoiding a scratch-I 32
21 Avoiding a scratch-II 33
22 Foul to score 34
23 The impossible cut 35
24 Two optical illusion fouls 36
25 The lift-brush foul 37

3 Caroms
26 Solving and creating problems 41
27 Cluster busting 42
28 More cluster busting 43
29 A game winner 44
30 The distance factor 45
31 Two safety plays 46
32 Rail-first caroms 47
33 The tangent line 48
34 The three-ball carom 49
35 Push-throughs 50
36 The pull-back carom 51
37 Pull-back limits 52

4 Billiards
38 The kitchen carom 55
39 Billiard cluster-buster 56
40 Another billiard cluster-buster 57
41 Rail first to control the first ball 58
42 Rail first to control the cueball 59
43 The thick or thin choice 60
44 One rail to score 61
45 Cross-table shots 62
46 Up and down 63
47 Two-rail diagonal 64
48 Second-ball position 65
49 Length of table position 66
50 Side pocket position 67
51 Zigzag 68
52 Three rails in the side 69
53 Standard three-cushion bank 70
54 Long angle, three cushions 71
55 Four rails 72
56 Four rails with draw 73
57 Four-rail breakout 74
58 Another four-railer 75
59 Standard five-railer 76
60 Second-ball position, outside 77
61 Second-ball position, inside 78

5 Throw
62 Frozen cueball basics 81
63 Combination basics 82
64 Four applications 83
65 The roll-off shot 84
66 Cut-shot throw 85
67 Frozen rail combos 86
68 Two crucial shots 87
69 Minimizing drift 88
70 Two throw banks 89
71 Two puzzles 90

6 Sidespin
72 Sidespin limits 93
73 Double the rail 94
74 Doubling the long way 95
75 Doubling for position 96
76 Sidespin effects 97
77 Doubling limits 98
78 The "impossible" position shot 99
79 Inside and outside sidespin 100
80 A rail-shot trick 101

7 Topspin
81 Topspin limit 105
82 Fair and foul follows 106
83 Cheating the pocket 107
84 Speed control 108
85 Second-ball follow 109
86 Third-ball follow 110
87 Frozen surprise 111
88 Clearance follow 112
89 Rail curve 113
90 Phelan's follow 114
91 McCleery's creep 115
92 Cut-shot follow 116
93 Applying the curve 117
94 Heavy follow action 118
95 A treacherous shot 119
96 Thick or thin? 120
97 Small-gap follow 121
98 Massé follow and draw 122
99 Phelan off a ball 123
100 Cross-table dive 124

8 Backspin
101 Backspin limit 127
102 Two for starters 128
103 Three practice draws 129
104 Two more tests 130
105 Stun and draw 131
106 Spot-shot flexibility 132
107 The curve-around draw 133
108 Second-ball draw 134
109 Frozen second-ball draw 135
110 Angled second-ball draw 136
111 The frozen push-through 137
112 Elevated draw 138
113 Frozen rail draw 139
114 Rail draw 140
115 Rail-draw practice shot 141
116 Thin-hit rail draw 142
117 Rail-first cross table 143
118 Rail-first up table 144
119 Rail first to frozen ball 145
120 Small-gap draw 146
121 Extreme small-gap draw 147
122 Jump draw 148
123 Second-ball draw 149
124 Deadball draw 150
125 Deadball safeties 151

9 Stun
126 Stun practice 155
127 Rail-first stop 156
128 Second-ball stop 157
129 More stun practice 158
130 Still more practice 159
131 The right-angle principle 160
132 Tangent-line practice 161
133 Useful applications 162
134 Stun run-through for safety 163
135 Another safety play 164
136 An eighteen-foot safety 165

10 Rail first
137 Rail-first option 169
138 Simple rail firsts 170
139 Rail-first follow 171
140 Rail-first flexibility 172
141 Standard four-rail pattern 173
142 Frozen rail-first 174
143 Two little-known patterns 175
144 Draw and follow 176
145 The basic principle 177
146 The impossible cut 178
147 Rail-first safety 179
148 Two rails first-I 180
149 Two rails first-II 181
150 Another rail-first safety 182
151 A second option 183
152 Rail-first stroke shot 184
153 Rail first to score 185

11 Banks
154 Long and short 189
155 Slide and roll 190
156 The three-balls test 191
157 Transfer of spin-I 192
158 Transfer of spin-II 193
159 Maximum angle 194
160 Ball-induced spin 195
161 Triple banks 196
162 Double and triple 197
163 The long way 198
164 Kick-back strategy 199
165 A stop carom and a double bank 200
166 A moving carom and a kiss bank 201
167 Frozen kick back 202
168 Pocket-point escape 203
169 Time shot 204

12 Side Pockets
170 Scoring and position 207
171 Two kiss-backs 208
172 Around-the-table kiss-back 209
173 Off the points 210
174 Avoiding scratches-I 211
175 Avoiding scratches-II 212
176 Avoiding scratches-III 213
177 Off the point to score 214
178 Two escapes 215
179 A pocket-point kick 216
180 Time shot 217

13 Double kisses
181 Kiss-across subtleties 221
182 Kiss-across safety 222
183 Unfrozen double-kiss safety 223
184 Two-rail diagonal safety 224
185 Another two-rail kiss 225
186 Three cushions to score 226
187 Off the end rail 227
188 Kiss-back paths 228
189 Topspin curves 229
190 The sheepherder shot 230
191 Kiss-across surprise 231
192 Kiss forward 232
193 Diagonal kiss forward 233
194 The Hustler bank 234

14 Tickys
195 The primary pattern 237
196 Variations 238
197 The follow ticky 239
198 Around the table 240
199 Two rails first 241
200 The draw ticky 242
201 Long diagonal draw 243
202 The "impossible" ticky 244

15 Sink-ins
203 An easy one 247
204 An even easier one 248
205 The draw curve 249
206 First trick shot 250
207 Around the table 251
208 Simple safety 252
209 Sink in to score 253
210 The limiting position 254
211 Rail first 255
212 A great escape 256
213 Richie's shot 257

16 Jumps
214 Easy and hard 261
215 Second-ball jump 262
216 Ball-rail jump 263
217 Easier and harder 264
218 The thin-hit jump 265
219 Falling off the ledge 266
220 The point jump and the jump draw 267
221 The frozen spot shot 268
222 Lots of luck 269

17 Pocket points
223 Point the way 273
224 Kiss back off the point 274
225 A challenge shot 275
226 An accidental discovery 276
227 Escaping corner hooks 277
228 Two 2-point shots 278
229 A kiss-back dream bank 279

18 Massés
230 The geometry of massé shots 283
231 Degrees of elevation 284
232 Two swerves 285
233 Three-step aiming 286
234 Three practice shots 287
235 Two practical massés 288
236 Inside forced massé 289
237 Outside forced massé 290
238 Reverse position 291
239 Swerve position 292
240 U-turn position 293
241 U-turn extended 294
242 Massé draw 295
243 Frozen massé 296
244 Frozen rail swerve 297
245 Kiss-back massé 298
246 The push curve 299
247 Backward position 300

19 Systems
248 Around the table-I 304
249 Around the table-II 305
250 Around the table-III 306
251 Opposite three-I 307
252 Opposite three-II 308
253 Opposite three-III 309
254 End rail first-I 310
255 End rail first-II 311
256 End rail first-III 312

20 Selected Secrets
257 English and distance 315
258 Two clearance shots 316
259 A clearance bank 317
260 Interference system 318
261 Aggressive defense-I 319
262 Aggressive defense-II 320
263 Defensive offense-I 321
264 Defensive offense-II 322
265 Winning options 323
266 A sneaky ploy 324
267 Safe or sorry 325
268 Choice of position 326
269 Creating a break ball 327
270 Insurance-I 328
271 Insurance-II 329
272 Run around or back around 330
273 Time shot-I 331
274 Time shot-II 332

Appendix The Culture of the Game 333

Index 353