A pool strategy trainer. Pick 8-ball, 9-ball or kick practice, call your shot (ball, pocket, spin, speed, a safety or a push out), then ask the coach. It simulates every option on a 9 ft table and tells you what it would play and why. Use it to learn how to think about a shot. Treat the percentages as estimates.
What the coach weighs
The pot sets up the next potEvery shot is scored as make chance × how good your next shot is. The easiest pot is often wrong.
Distance and cut angleYour margin for error shrinks with cue-to-ball × ball-to-pocket distance and with thinner cuts.
Stun first, spin when neededStun leaves along the 90° tangent line. Follow bends forward, draw bends back.
ThrowOn a cut, friction drags the object ball a few degrees off the ghost-ball line, most on slow stun shots near a half-ball hit. Aim slightly fuller.
Speed beats spinMost position errors are speed errors, and hard shots cost accuracy.
When to play safeIf your best pot is under about 45% and a safety holds your opponent under 40%, play safe.
9-ball and the push outHit the lowest ball first. After the break you may push: leave a coin-flip shot so your opponent's choice doesn't help them.
KicksAim at the ball's mirror image across the rail, then adjust for how the cushion takes speed off the bounce.
The table and balls
The look follows a Diamond table and Aramith balls. Size and pockets follow their specs; friction and cushion bounce use typical measured values, not ones taken on these exact products.
The physics, and where the numbers come from
Checked against those sources, the simulation matches Dr. Dave’s rolling distances within 5% and his throw curves within about half a degree.
Estimates and limits
- Skill level sets how accurately you aim. The levels are set so a long half-ball cut (4½ ft each way) goes in about 25%, 45% and 75% of the time. That calibration is an estimate, not measured data.
- Pocket size at an angle: how much a pocket shrinks when you come in at an angle is estimated.
- Strategy thresholds such as when to play safe, and the push-out rule that your opponent takes any shot of 50% or better, are rules of thumb.
- Not modeled: left and right English, squirt and swerve, jumps and masse shots, banks and combinations as options, pockets rattling, and your opponent’s skill.