I had my surgery about 12 years ago. I did not get prescription lenses and just went with a standard lens since it was less expensive and had worn billiard glasses for years so I could always get a xx new prescription.

Well, my surgery turned out great and V my vision is still 20/20 with standard cataract lenses after all these years. It doesn’t happen with everyone but the surgery is really amazing.

fastone371 said:

My bridge hand fingers get chalk between them, I chalk with my bridge hand, I don't switch hands to chalk like most people. I think it's because I do some things lefty and some righty, I write left hand but shoot right hand.

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I switch hands. I vac and brush the table every 2 weeks or so. Wipe my cue now and then. Any messiness is negligible.

No matter what chalk you use, your still have to clean your equipment now and then.

My ferrule is clean, hands don't look like a smurf, shaft isn't blue, cloth looks just about as good as it did 5 years ago, no skids.

I don't understand the hype I guess. For $70 I have enough chalk for a lifetime.

Don't care if I lose one down a pocket, someone steals it, if I forget it, it doesn't roll away, every pool hall has the same type. No downside in my experience.

skogstokig said:

you would know better than me, obviously. seems to be geographical differences within the US also, i haven't seen many youtube streams with barboxes in new england / mid atlantic states

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There ARE geographic differences. But it is not a simple popularity of barboxes issue. There are two different subcultures regarding them.
At the risk of oversimplifying, I'll call them two-world and one-world,

TWO-WORLD (northeast is an example, some very strong APA areas other examples)

Here there is a bar-pool culture and a pool-hall culture without a clean overlap between them. There is not only table-size difference. But the pool hall is playing on, e.g., simonis and good balls, while the bars more likely have heavy cueballs and slower cloth. Significantly, the strong players in the pool halls don't tend to be people who "graduated" from the bar scene; they are more often players who grew up in the pool hall. The better bar-pool players (say 550 speed) may not even be able to name the 650s in their area. Even though the most serious players here are "9-foot" players, these areas don't tend to produce as many good players.

ONE-WORLD (Midwest and particularly upper midwest largely this; other areas are mixed)

First, a few facts.

Tyler Styer had 2000 games in FargoRate before his first game on a 9-foot table. It was at the Super Billiards expo in 2024 when his 9-foot games (5,000 then) reached his 7-foot games (5,000 also).

You referred to Hayden Ernst as "a 9-foot player." In his record, though, the 9-foot games are from national-level junior tournaments like BEF, etc. The league games in his record and the vast majority of tournament games in the system are on 7-foot tables.

This is part of a different scene where the tables in the pool hall are mixed (Railyard, where Hayden plays, has 23 7-foot tables and 8 9-foot tables. Q-Master, the closest big room to me, has 39 7-foot tables and 29 9-foot tables. With some 9-foot tables in use for one pocket and people matching up, it is the 7-foot tables that are most available for tournaments. These aren't just the low-level league night. They also include serious play by serious players. Many good players bounce seamlessly between them. These 7-foot tables tend to have cloth and balls that mimic the 9-foot tables.

In this ONE-WORLD scene, players who are getting serious about the game naturally add more and more 9-foot play. There is not this big separation between them for the better players.

Chopdoc said:

The Ebony Titlist Gandy cue I have has point dimensions that would have nothing to do with your cue. It is a Brunswick blank.

FYI I am looking for a standard construction HC-140 for my collection. That ebony treasure is my only HC-140.

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And it’s a beauty!

Wow, that is beyond awesome.

11Cues said:

I recently picked up this unmarked cue and have been trying to work through the construction before assigning anything to it.

At this point, I suspect it may be an early Gandy cue by Ricco Cervantes, possibly built from a rosewood Brunswick Titlist blank. I’m hoping someone familiar with these early Gandy/National cues can either confirm that direction or tell me where I’m going wrong.

Two of Chopdoc’s cues in the Gandy Cue Information thread particularly caught my attention, for different reasons.

First is his ebony Titlist HC-140, identified by Dick Abbott as a circa-1969 Ricco Cervantes. The point geometry and veneer configuration look remarkably similar to this cue, with the obvious difference being ebony versus what appears to be rosewood here:

https://forums.azbilliards.com/threads/gandy-cue-information.127423/post-6283210

Separately, Chopdoc’s HC-150 caught my attention because of several other construction details. In particular, the translucent material and ring arrangement at the joint look very similar, as does the veneer-style ringwork at the butt sleeve. That cue is also described as having aluminum shaft inserts and two shafts:

https://forums.azbilliards.com/threads/gandy-cue-information.127423/post-6284550

I realize these are two different cues, so I’m not suggesting that either one individually duplicates this cue. What caught my attention is that several of its more unusual construction details seem to appear across these early Gandy/Cervantes examples.

A few details and measurements from this cue:

• 57 5/8” overall
• Butt: 28 7/8” excluding pin, 15.3 oz
• Two shafts: 28 1/2” to end of ferrule, 4.4 oz and 4.1 oz
• Both ferrules approximately 12.7 mm x 1”
• 5/16-18 joint
• 21.0 mm joint diameter
• Metal shaft inserts appear to be aluminum/nonmagnetic
• Approximately 13” linen wrap
• Butt diameter approximately 1.27”
• Four-point/four-veneer full-splice forearm
• No markings found anywhere

The cue was reportedly purchased years ago at a flea market in Chicago.

Does Ricco Cervantes / early Gandy look like the right direction here? And does the forearm appear to be a rosewood Brunswick Titlist blank?

Any information, corrections or comparable examples would be greatly appreciated.

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The Ebony Titlist Gandy cue I have has point dimensions that would have nothing to do with your cue. It is a Brunswick blank.

FYI I am looking for a standard construction HC-140 for my collection. That ebony treasure is my only HC-140.

Joss Cues for one.

Scoot lived up to this name....

11Cues said:

Thanks, Chopdoc! Really appreciate the confirmation on the HC-150. Would this one fall into the Ricco Cervantes period as well?

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Interesting to note a variation on this one you posted.

The veneer stacks in the butt sleeve are wood, not veneer matching the points.

My example has matching vinyl veneers in that location.

I do not know how common this variation might be.

The aluminum shaft inserts, vinyl veneers, and other design and construction details do indicate it is an early Gandy/Ricco cue.

stevelomako said:

Who has ever run out the rack?

I know it has to be a very short list so it’s not hard to keep track of who.

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I don't know, but I'll try to find out.

straightline said:

Talking about broadcast audio.

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Still don’t see where there would be much interference, but you’re entitled to your opinion