Mensabum said:

Welcome to the club bro.
Somebody call for Rip Van Winkle??

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The secrets to the world aren't secret anymore! The circle track racers were the worst, followed by pistol shooters. I would be talking to a racer in private. "I have learned a great secret, I will tell you but you have to promise not to tell!" They tell me the secret. "Dude, that was published in the national magazine last year!"

The thing is, all of the secrets are different ways to get you close. If you can't make the adjustments for the particular playing session you are in all of the secrets don't mean diddly!

There was a beautiful two rail "Z" style bank to get you into the side pocket when it was blocked. It wasn't too hard on the old ten footers fifty-sixty years ago. I watched two very good players, fair to say world class shooters, alternate a half-dozen or so shots at a time on a modern clean shallow cloth table. After dozens of tries neither shooter ever pocketed a ball. That was one of the early shots I learned and I could drop it consistently on the old equipment including a crap cue off of the wall!

I tried the shot a handful of times on a modern table. The pocketing percentage is so low it is foolish to try the shot. On the other hand it is a great one to get your opponent to waste time on!(grin) I shoot it once in a blue moon when circumstances are perfect including some balls positioned to make the pocket play big.

Which reminds me of a saying I used to use to annoy opponents. I think it might have been Cisero Murphy that said dead balls were harder to see than to make after seeing them. When making one of these shots where the shot was harder to see than to make I would repeat Paul Newman's(Butch Cassidy's) words from the big movie of the day, "I have vision and the rest of the world wears bifocals!"

Actually relevant to the mental game, another trick is to carefully study the rack a minute or three when it is opponent racks. Spend enough time studying the rack and the opponent will always ask what is the problem. "No problem, just looking for something to exploit." That word "exploit" has a nasty ring to it and some of the best known slug rackers around get very careful racking for me after that!

While on the subject of the mental game, how to make your opponent go mental that is: When I catch somebody cheating and there is no ref or other recourse I have found it blows minds to act like I am cheating. Block the view of the shot from my opponent, then jerk my head around to look at them as if checking if they saw something.

I can often draw a scream of "FOUL" "Really, what did I do?" Now they will start guessing since they haven't seen something that didn't happen. If it had happened they couldn't have possibly seen through my body to call the foul. With a referee that might draw an unsportsmanlike call. Without one, the call goes to the shooter!

Ultimately pool is a gentleman's and ladies game. If it is call your own fouls you can simply ignore them as some do. Many events have the opponent calling fouls but also state that the opponent has to stay in the chair while a player is shooting. Ever see an official referee sit in a chair for the entire match?

I am never the one to start cheating but when the other person starts the cheating game I can bring things to levels the other player never dreamed of. "Cue ball fouls only" doesn't really mean that. However when somebody tries to abuse that rule I rake the table next game just leaving the cue ball and money ball on the table and them lined up for a tap in. "Cue ball fouls only!" If the other person wants to play we quickly arrive at working rules after a little yelling and crying.

Hu

Mensabum said:

you'd think deflection would be off the charts.

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Mensabum:
I could not find that word at Black Blade's website except for a customer's comments. Its possible that the weight is lightened in the first few inches of the shaft that causes deflection (but I doubt it). The customer:

Tell your friend to buy one. Report here what he finds. The worst that can happen is he is out $100 but he gets to test a cue that is really different and makes differences more than that of hit and sound.

As far as more control if the center of mass is closer to object you are striking, this is especially true with hitting the cue ball close to the rail and you lift the back end of the cue stick. One customer mentions that:

Here are more customer comments from Black Blade including that the Black Blade cue is sentient; its best use is as a break cue; its a cure for jabbing the ball; and Black Blade is very good if you have to return the cue:

Hilter's last shit is rare too, but I would not pay for it...

It never ceases to amaze me how this one simple concept creates some of the insane prices tossed around in the for sale section on a daily basis.

There is a cue for sale right now for over 7k that sat around one dealers inventory for eight months unsold at 5.5k. Myself and several other collectors all passed at that price and suddenly it's now more valuable then it was because of... Wait for it.....

Rarity.

All things being equal I prefer watching Predator events for one big reason. They use traditional ball colors! Makes for easy viewing of matches, no squinting to figure out which ball is which. It actually makes a huge diiference! I enjoy watching a helluva lot more.