Break Shot

Gallo made millions for New York's Colombo Mafia family before becoming an undercover FBI informant. In "Breakshot," he captures the American underworld in all its tawdry spectacle.

World Champion Pool Player Ray "Cool Cat" Martin shares his secrets for playing winner's pool in this classic book, which includes an introduction by the author. Written with co-author Rosser Reeves, The 99 Critical Shots in Pool remains one of the most authoritative guides to the game ever written. Over 200 illustrations show the proper form, technique, and approach to shots such as: • The Center Ball Cheat-the-Pocket • The Hook Shot • The Seven Ball Stop Shot • The Jump Shot • The Frozen Kiss Shot • The Nudge Shot • The Side Pocket By-Pass Shot Ray Martin, a Billiards Congress of America Hall of Fame inductee, is one of only seven players in the twentieth century to win three or more world 14.1 titles. He co-wrote this book with Rosser Reeves in 1976.

Computational pool is a relatively recent entrant into the group of games played by computer agents. It features a novel combination of properties that distinguish it from other such games, including continuous action and state spaces, uncertainty in execution, a unique turn-taking structure, and of course an adversarial nature. This combination leads to new challenges, both in modeling and reasoning about the game and in designing agents for effective play. We address the modeling challenges by presenting a model of generalized billiards games and showing that an equilibrium exists within this model. To address the practical challenges of designing an agent, we discuss CueCard, our agent which won the 2008 computational pool tournament, with a special focus on which new advancements made this agent successful. The second portion of the dissertation focuses on a topic inspired by the computational pool domain, that of execution skill. In many AI settings an agent is comprised of both action-planning and action-execution components. We first present experimental work in which we examine the relationship between the precision of the execution component, the intelligence of the planning component, and the overall success of the agent within our computational pool framework. Our motivation lies in determining whether higher execution skill rewards more strategic playing. Finally, we present a method for modeling imperfect execution skill in normal form games and examine the effect that changing execution skill levels can have in these games. We then study games in which players have imperfect execution skill and one player's true skill is not common knowledge. In these settings the possibility arises of a player "hustling", or pretending to have lower execution skill than they actually have. Focusing on repeated zero-sum games, we provide a hustle-proof strategy; this strategy guarantees a player the same payoff without knowledge of the opponents execution skill level as they could guarantee with knowledge of the opponent's true execution skill level.

Techniques and guidance for everyone provided by a world champion and hall of fame pool...

This vintage book contains a comprehensive guide to playing billiards written by the 1941-58 billiards world champion, Willie Mosconi. This timeless volume includes comprehensive instructions and useful tips on every aspect of the game, and is highly recommended for anyone looking to improve their billiard skills. Complete with helpful photographs and step-by-step instructions, this volume would make for a great addition to collection of antiquarian sporting literature. The chapters of this book include: “The Game of Billiards”, “Fundamentals”, “The Bridge” “Stroke and Follow-Through”, “Cueing the Ball”, “Hitting the Object Ball”, “Combination and Kiss Shots”, “The Championship Game”, “How Much do you Know?”, “Speed of Stroke”, etcetera. Many antiquarian books such as this are increasingly hard to come by and expensive, and it is with this in mind that we are republishing this book now in an affordable, modern, high quality edition. It comes complete with a specially commissioned new introduction on billiards, snooker, and pool.

Practical, step-by-step tips for players of all levels From Snooker to Carom to good-old-fashioned 8- or 9-Ball, Pool & Billiards For Dummies reveals the tips, tricks, and rules of play, covering the variety of the ever-popular games that make up pool and billiards. This hands-on guide discusses everything from the rules and strategies of the games to how to set up a pool room to choosing the right equipment, and is accompanied by dozens of photos and line drawings. See how hard to hit the cue ball and where to hit it, the angle to hold the cue stick and how much chalk to use, how to use a bridge, and how to put spin on the ball Includes advanced pool techniques and trick shots for the seasoned pool sharp With Pool & Billiards For Dummies, even a novice can play like a champion!