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That said, it is very important to be able to pot reliably when it becomes necessary, especially towards the end of the game, when your opponent does not have time to counterattack. If a player pots a wink of his colour, that player gets another shot; hence experienced players will often leave it until the last round of a game before starting to pot, but may then still be able to pot all six winks to win.
To play a potting shot, the squidger is placed fairly near the centre of the wink, tilting away from the pot. It is then pulled off the back edge of the wink. The faster the squidger is pulled back, the higher the trajectory of the wink. The angle of tilt varies with distance from the pot - a wink near the pot requires an almost vertical squidger, pulled back over the wink quickly (with a twisting motion of the wrist), whereas to pot a wink from the baseline the squidger needs to be almost horizontal. The pressure required on the wink obviously also increases, and baseline shots are normally played two-handed to steady the squidger. Most people prefer to pot towards themselves, as with squopping, but there are a few who prefer to stand at a right angle to the direction of the shot, in order to better judge the length of the shot (bringing in obviously happens away from the player, typically allowing the player to lean on the wink to give it the required range).
As well as putting winks in the pot, potting style shots are often used for bringing in, especially with a smaller squidger, since it is easier to see the wink and to keep digits out of the way with a potting shot. The disadvantage mainly comes from the high trajectory, which can cause unpredictable bounces. Potting shots can also be used to "bomb" piles - a large wink landing from a height can radically alter the shape of a delicate stack of winks.
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To pot with a phone card, the squidger, held almost vertically, is pressed down hard on the centre of the wink. As the squidger bends, it is pulled back and twisted very quickly; the flexibility of the card gives a faster pull-back and hence a more vertical shot than would otherwise be the case. Care must be taken that the squidger does not slide of the wrong side of the wink and send it flying off the table (so that the player misses a shot), though. Careless use of a phone card while leaning over the pot is also the most common cause of a wink in the eye. Phone cards tend to work better with small winks than with large ones, since it is difficult to get much power into the shot.
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Because it is only legal to touch winks vertically under the one first played, pile play of this kind often requires independent adjudication. In addition, it must be the top surface of the wink that is played first, so it is not legal to merely brush the side of a wink.
In order to play a chip shot, the first thing needed is a steady hand. The second is usually a sharp squidger. The trick is to hit the top wink as lightly (and as near the edge) as possible, and to apply more force to the lower wink. It can be useful to have a squidger you can slide in at an angle under the top wink, although the movement of the squidger must be short, smooth and continuous. A small squidger can come in handy in avoiding winks in the same pile which it is not legal to play.
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There are two common approaches to playing Bristols; the first is to play the upper wink squop style, making sure that enough force is on the lower wink to move it. The second, more common in Cambridge, is to use the squidger in the plane of the direction of movement, with the circular edge of the squidger used to push the winks almost horizontally. The further the line of the centre of the winks is from the desired direction of travel, the harder the shot.
If a pile of winks needs to be moved at right angles to its line, the best approach is to use a large squidger and to try to play them evenly - this is less reliable than a Bristol, and is generally not safe for great distances.
At the other extreme, if the bottom-most wink is behind the uppermost in the desired direction of travel (or if you have a 'fried egg' little-on-big squop), a gromp must be played, in which both winks are played, squop-style, in one movement. It can take considerable skill to keep the winks together (which is why there isn't an animation).
Technically, the names Bristol and gromp are applied to the movement of the piles, rather than whether they result in squopping a wink. Small piles can often take several goes to merge as they Bristol towards each other.
Another shot, played in a similar manner to a Cambridge Bristol, is the Good Shot. If a small, flat wink is very close to a tall pile, this shot can be used to try to dismantle the pile from underneath. The tactic is to use a small, thick squidger in the plane of the direction of travel, but to press the wink very hard into the mat. The squidger is then drawn back very quickly, and the wink should travel very fast and low into the pile. It's a risky shot, because if the wink gets too much lift and misses the pile it can easily go off the table.
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While spectacular, this shot is usually not too difficult, although there is often less risk of losing a squop if the bottommost wink can simply be chipped out. A pile flip does rely on the winks being set up favourably, and the top wink will often travel unpredictably.
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To play a lunch, the upper wink should more-or-less be ignored, with the proviso that the squidger must hit it first. The shot is not dissimilar to playing an air-shot, where one cannot rest on the wink being played.