The Hustler M By Florian Kohler The Hustler Masse
F
or the shot of this magazine section we’re going to start with an old and very famous shot from the 60’s. First seen in the movie the Hustler starring a young Paul Newman. From what I remember, it’s his character ‘fast Eddie’ who shoots that masse during a game. In reality it was the legendary Willie Mosconi who executed that shot back in 1962. If I’m starting with this trick it’s because I’ve actually re-invented it a new way! But let’s first focus on the classic version.
a vertical masse, I’d say between 80 to 85 degrees. Apply to that some left English and the CB will first hit the yellow, make it in the corner before taking a big backspin. It will travel along the long rail with the possibility of touching it many times. Even if old, once you mastered that shot and really put great power on it, it will remains an amazing shot. The good thing also is the shot is possible with a regular pool cue!
As you can see on the diagram, the setup is really easy, the cue ball is near the long rail (if you don’t freeze the CB to the rail it’s easier and safer for the table) on the first diamond line. The 1 ball is on the same line, 2mm to 1cm away from the white ball. Again, you can freeze the two balls but it is only making the shot harder. A third ball, the 9 ball, is hanging near the corner pocket. The shot consists in hitting the CB with
Let’s now speak about the Venom way. As you may know I’m the creator of the double and triple masse. In this case it’s a double masse. The setup is exactly the same and the execution similar. But instead of trying to directly pocket the 9, you’ll now need to ‘catch’ the CB with another masse shot. The ‘catch’ takes place where the A ball is diagrammed (A ball represents the ghost ball) in my personal favorite spot for the second 43
