Am I stripes or solids?

 It has been a long night. I think I am solids...


    We've all been there. Not quite sure what happened two or three shots ago. Either the shots on the pool table or those tequila shots! I just am not 100% sure if I am solids or stripes. Pretty sure I'm solids. I scratched in the side when I shot that 2 ball in the corner. Here is a story inspired by a story sent to me by my colleague and mentor Nils McConnell. 

    Let's start from the beginning of the game. I break and as usual, go big and dry. As I go sit down to sulk, I talk to the waitress and order another drink to help me forget how bad I am at breaking. I turn my attention back to the game and watch my opponent shoot the 2 ball in the corner, comes around table, kiss off a ball, and scratch in the side. Hey my luck just turned around for once! I have ball in hand with a wide open table (thanks to my awesome break)! Solids look pretty good, so I fire in the 6 in the side running the cue ball down for shape on the 7 in the corner. I am thinking, 5 more easy shots and the 8 for the out. As I get down on my second shot, I hear FOUL. I am a bit confused since: 1) I never foul, and 2) I wasn't close to doing anything remotely close to a foul. My opponent says he is solids. He says that he scratched on his second shot so the table wasn't open. I reply "OK, ball in hand". I pick up the cue ball and hand it to him as I go sit down, kicking myself the entire way to my chair. Now my opponent has a wide open table (thanks to my shitty break). Why wasn't I paying attention to the game? How did I miss his first shot? I didn't think it took that long to order my drink. 7-Ball goes down. Was I too focused on replaying my break and admonishing myself for another failed break shot? 5-Ball down. I know this game is all but over. 4-Ball down. I know it is late in the night, but I start doing math in my head. 1-Ball down. Now I am counting on my fingers. 3-Ball down. The table WAS open when I shot. What do I do? My opponent is lining up his shot on the 8-ball. I am thinking several things now: 1) I deserve to lose for not paying attention, 2) I don't think my opponent cheated me, 3) I can't call a foul now. All fouls have to be called and acknowledged before the next shot. After my opponent shot his first shot after the foul call, my window of opportunity expired. 4) this is just a game.

    After the 8 goes down, I walk over and shake hands saying good game. I made some comment about that is what I get for breaking the table wide open. My opponent says: ya, happens to me all too often. I go back to my table, continuing to down my sorrows. As I am looking around for the waitress to order another drink, my opponent comes over with two drinks in his hand. He sits down, sliding one in front of me. "I think I messed up that game" he says. He tells me his friends were giving him a hard time since I hadn't actually fouled. The table WAS open and he had scratched on his first shot. He apologized profusely.  I simply reply: "No worries man, was an honest mistake". We sat there for a quire a while talking about that one tournament where that one guy did that one crazy thing. All the while, he insisted on taking care off our drinks....

There is a lot going on here,  but only 1 rule applies

  • All fouls must be called and acknowledged before next shot is taken.(exception: scratching)
A foul was called, and I immediately agreed. I even picked up the cue ball and handed it to my opponent. I made three mistakes here. 
  1. Simply ask if the table is open before I shot. I normally do this just to avoid any possible issues.
  2. I just agreed with the foul call. I didn't take the time to simply count the balls down. Had I taken 3 seconds to look at the table, I would have noticed there were 5 solids on the table. I made the 2-ball,so he could have only made 1 solid. 
  3. I picked up the cue ball. I know this is a sign of respect, but once you pick up the cue ball, you forfeit any further discussion about the foul call. If I had left the cue ball on the table, and either one of us noticed the mistake, we would have discussed the situation and concluded it was still my turn.
Before the game was over, I realized the mistake, but didn't say anything. That was the correct thing to do from a rules and sportsmanship perspective. After my opponent shot his first shot after the foul call, my window of opportunity expired. This is just a game. This wasn't the first time I've lost and it surely won't be the last.

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