I recall Ronnie Allen speaking of his style of play. It was something along the lines of, "sometimes I play like a lion sometimes like a lamb."
My version could be, "some nights I show up. Sometimes I don't. " Motivation would be a key factor. Piss Me OFF and you will see my best game. The adrenaline rush of a imminent fight is huge.
A Required Caution:
Adrenaline rush can be addictive.

Some used chemicals to enhance play. They burned out quickly. I prefer doing it on the Natural even if I ain't a natural. I have however paid for the lesson Z and put in the practice. It's still a recreational endeavor. My number one gambling rule was, Never play for more than I can afford to lose or be cheated out of.

David in FL said:

I'm curious, have you actually tried one?

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i did it gave me too much action. I'm guessing it was a learning curve, but i like to hold the cue ball a little more, so i went back to ,my harder ferule and med leather tip.

In my apprenticeship weekly visits to the White Spot 9 ball academy I noticed a huge difference between players that practiced a lot and players that were in competition a lot. The practice guys could make the shots but often folded up under pressure. My method was to balance practice with competition. Soft tournaments and competition kept me in funds to take to the 211 pool room in Seattle and play er uh pay for lessons.
"I pay for lessons and of course I charge for lessons." Was a line I often employed when prospecting on the pool tables after work. A fellow prospector used the line, "I don't play very good. But I will gamble."
When prospective conversations led to them asking me, "how good do you play?" My answer would be "I am the best player within ......" Then scan the room ...."a 10 foot radius. "

smoochie said:

Earl the pearl Strickland, in his prime he kept saying that he's a tournament player and not a gambler.

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earl vs efren in HK, a.k.a. the color of money match..

skogstokig said:

possibly. combining the ram shot break with taom chalk could be interesting

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Thankfully it will be much cleaner than it would be with other chalks

skor said:

I don’t like gambling period.
I think it’s the worst thing for pool.
I gambled a few times, just to teach some idiots some life lessons, never took the money at the end of it…
Thankfully, I have other ways to make money.
I got to be the best that I could be, without gambling.

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Cool story bro

straightline said:

I have a question. When are nano powders unsafe?

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when they get dusty and you inhale them.

There’s no answer to this lol everyone’s natural ability is different. I got pretty good pretty fast but I’ve seen people in leagues for 30 years who play all the time and are still terrible. Not to mention quality of practice. What kind of practice are you putting in. To many variables for this to have a real answer

Sounds about right. If we think about the maximum rating an adult person could reach within their lifetime from their current starting point with realistic motivation/training amount etc. (so no 10h a day for 10 years bullshit which works for 1/10000 of the people for economical, motivational and health reasons), then 600-700 is the most common upper bound. 700-800 for some, if they are already quite highly rated and/or somewhat talented and/or well-off for the sport physically. I doubt anyone has gotten to 800+ as an adult if they weren't already a 700+ as a 18 year old.

I chose adults to discuss here, because a hypothetical 4 year old is much harder to gauge as it's not clear at all how much of their potential is capped by genetics and how much by their motivation and amount/quality of practice for the rest of their childhood/teen years.

Kris_b1104 said:

Imagine winning $1.5M and then coming back to play WNT tournaments

As Gideon mentioned, he will probably only be interested in WPC.

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pool players shouldn't hang their hopes on a big outside sponsor continuing to add money like this.. it's very possible this whiskey co. didn't find it being a good return for their investment and that this was just a one-off.