I have shown this position in lessons to players of all levels, and the plays are all over the board from hitting none, to one, to hitting two. As you can see from the rollout below, the right play is to hit one. In this case, many are tempted to not hit anything and simply hope that but self-destructs with a combination of doubles that doesn't play and forces him to break his prime. Pretty slim odds. Others hit two, simply because they are used to doing it, not realizing that by hitting two blue doesn't have any immediate bad rolls. But hitting one gives Blue an immediate bad roll--2-6. And hitting one makes just about any 2 (except 2-5) potentially pretty bad if Blue doesn't perform on the next roll. So 12/9* is obvious, and then continue, simply because playing 8/7 leaves just too many blots to recover from if they all get hit. |
3-1 Match Play >