You’re halfway there, and eager to keep going.
The main objective in pool is to pocket all your balls before your opponent does, and after every shot, leave the cue ball in the perfect position for the next one.
That’s why it’s important to master the break to spread the balls out well. With top and bottom spin and side spin (English), you’ll be able to “run the table” (pocket all your balls) much more easily.
If you want to pocket a ball that’s blocked, you’ve got a few options: focus, study the table carefully before shooting, play the rails, or play defense if the shot is too difficult.
Playing defense is ideal for when your opponent only has a few balls left to win and you’re not confident you can make a shot.
You could also jump the ball or play a massé — however, those belong to the professional level. Click the links if you want to see how it’s done.
Learning to “Read the Table”
This is arguably the most important leap between an intermediate player and one who’s starting to play seriously: learning to read the table. Reading the table means looking at the whole layout before you shoot — not just the ball you’re about to pocket, but how every other ball is positioned — and using that information to plan not just one move ahead, but several.
Once you read the table well, you start playing with more confidence and fewer mistakes, because every shot stops being an isolated decision and becomes part of a plan. This is exactly what separates a player who “gets lucky sometimes” from one who wins matches consistently.
Common Mistakes at This Level
There are certain habits that nearly every semi-professional player carries around without realizing it — worth reviewing them:
- Always going for the easiest ball, without thinking about the next shot. It’s tempting to pocket the ball that’s a total gimme, but if it leaves you without a shot on the next one, it can cost you the whole match. Before you take the easy ball, ask yourself: where does this leave me?
- Applying spin to the cue ball when you don’t need to. Spin looks impressive and makes you feel like you’re “playing seriously,” but if the shot doesn’t call for it, you’re just adding one more variable that can make you miss. Hit center ball when the shot doesn’t require spin.
- Losing focus right as you’re aiming. Keep your eyes locked on the cue ball (or the contact point) throughout the stroke, and don’t let anything distract you. If you’re unsure, step back from the table, study the shot again, and only then get back down to shoot — changing your mind once you’re already down on the shot almost never ends well.
- Forgetting to chalk between shots. There’s no exact rule for how often to do it, but especially before a draw shot or a hard hit, skipping the chalk is basically a guaranteed miscue.
Train Under Different Conditions
If you only ever practice on your usual table, under the same lighting, on the same cloth, you’re going to feel the difference the moment you play at another club or in a tournament. Playing in different rooms exposes you to different lighting, temperature, and humidity — factors that genuinely affect your game, even if it doesn’t seem like it. Shooting in a room with air conditioning isn’t the same as one without it, and neither is playing on fresh cloth versus worn cloth. Take every chance you get to play on a table other than your own — it’s just as valid a form of training as any drill.
Straight Pool: The Concentration Drill Almost Nobody Practices
If you want to speed up your progress toward the next level, spending time practicing Straight Pool (14.1 continuous) is one of the best habits you can pick up. It looks like an easy game because all you’re doing is pocketing balls, with no weird combinations or complex variants — but it’s actually the opposite: running 20 or 30 balls in a row demands a level of concentration and position control that plenty of advanced players, even after years of playing, still can’t pull off consistently.
Here’s why it’s worth it: if you spend time training in Straight Pool, when you go back to your usual games (Eight-Ball, Nine-Ball, or Ten-Ball) you’ll notice your concentration and your position-planning strategy are noticeably sharper than those of players who only ever practice short rotation games.
The Mental Game: What Separates This Level From the Last One
Plenty of experts agree on something striking: pool is somewhere between 80% and 85% mental. That doesn’t mean technique doesn’t matter — it means that past a certain technical level, what’s actually going to win or lose you matches is how you handle fear on a tough shot, how you control your nerves in a decisive moment, and whether you can stay mentally ahead of your opponent through the entire match, not just on the easy shots.
Something worth remembering the next time you get frustrated watching someone better than you play: every player has been through the exact same thing at some point, professionals and legends of the game included — nobody gets good at pool by skipping the process of missing, getting frustrated, and continuing to practice anyway.
To Sharpen Your Game
Practice with this semi-professional drill plan — that’s where all this theory starts turning into real results on the table.