If it is YOUR turn...95+% of the time, you are the favorite to win!
In playing a safety or "smart shot", it is usually best to keep your balls on the table.
Here is a recent situation I was in during leagues
....my opponent shot his ball in and called a safety (leaving me to shoot the 8)
Missing the ball on purpose and leaving it in-front of the pocket would have probably been a better option
Before he made this shot, he was the favorite to win the game...but in doing this shot, my opponent shifted the odds into my favor. I probably have a 70-80% chance of pulling off a really good safety back at my opponent.
The above safety is rather straight forward and was an obvious shot on the 8 ball...you do need to hit it either a) hard enough to hit the rail or b) accurate enough to hit the side of the 8 closest to the rail.
If I had been in my opponents situation, there are numerous options to keep the "odds in my favor"...
If shooting the 1, you should try to get the cue closer to the bottom rail to make your opponent hit 2 rails or apply english with 1 rail to hit the 8.
This is likely what I'd have done...
You need to hit this hard enough to seperate the 8 and 3 ball, but accurate enough to keep the cue behind the 3 ball.
A master opponent will likely (80-90%) hit the 8 ball on this kick, depending on how tight the 3 is locked up on the cue. But if you get the 3 blocking the 1 rail kick, you may get ball-in-hand 50% of the time for an easy run.
