Most players of Virtual Pool 4 are looking to improve. Some of you in both real life and VP4. I'm going to propose to you the game I think is the best practice, Straight Pool. This also applies to real life if you are an intermediate player or better. For VP4 it applies to just about anybody because you already have a great stroke and in real life you need to develop that first. So any VP4 player that has learned to pocket balls should start practicing Straight Pool. If you are a seasoned VP player, you should play Straight Pool as that will take your game to the next level.

Straight Pool is going to help develop cue ball movement skills and teach you good pattern play, both required to run a lot of balls in Straight Pool. Cue ball movement is critical in pool to shape up the next shot. Typically you need to play two balls ahead of the one you are shooting to get the proper positions. Pattern play is basically the process of deciding which balls to shoot in which order, and what ball paths to take to get to each ball.

Straight Pool is great for teaching both because there are lots of pattern choices and many shots require precise cue ball movement. Playing the correct patterns and paths is conducive to precise cue ball movement because you can play shots in ways that are more reliable and consistent. Unlike games like 9-ball most shots are pretty easy in Straight Pool. But that does not make it easy as you have many blocking balls, clusters, and getting the cue ball in the wrong position can prematurely end many runs.

The best way to play pool is shooting easy stress free shots. The way to do that is knowing what patterns to play for consistent cue ball movement. I'm not going to get into how to play patterns, or move the cue ball in this post. I recommend you try playing some Straight Pool in Practice By Myself mode and see how high a run you can make.

Steve Chaplin

Virtual Pool 4 Online