Mensabum said:

It's nore fun playing with juice than without, for me anyway. But when playing for the rent, I wouldn't advise it. Just stay close to center, roll it around a bit, maybe tweak a little low, thats about it. Park your ass mid table, play angle and speed. Big ol cue ball. Tip only covers a small piece, but what a piece it is!!

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I was a dead boring player to watch. Almost all shots under thirty inches, most under twenty-four. The cue ball rarely went around the table until the last shot or two when there was no traffic to tangle with. With that big cue ball you learned "draw for show, follow for dough" fast!

Hu

straightline said:

Makes me think TOI is just cover for a natural tendency. Can't have the top players doing anything unintentionally now can we?

I started using outside on unfrozen shots down the rail after stubbornly missing 40% maybe more with center ball. It's entirely a throw thing - bad climate control, worn cloth, room has front door squad...

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Few people even consider room conditions. One of the tricks of the trade and one a traveling man learns. I have mentioned many times the lighting in the closest bar to my house. Unusually strong sidelight made the balls seem maybe a sixty-fourth or less over from where they really were. People didn't notice on most shots, it would bite somebody in the ass when they needed a tough shot perfect for all the marbles. Not something I mentioned to many, I had to learn so did they!

Another hall had the main table by an unshielded picture window. For about forty-five minutes a safety was anywhere along one long rail. Bend over without squinting your eyes to slits first and your eyes were toast for a game or two. It was a safety++ to trick somebody into looking into the sun eyes wide open. Another place, climate control blowing on just one side of a table was murder on an unsuspecting banks or one pocket player in particular. One half of the table had soft cushions, the other side they were like bricks!

There was an old time road man that would sneak his personal set of balls into big matches. He would sometimes refuse a tough match if he couldn't get at least his cue ball into the game.

Shots down the rail, touching or not, became almost unmissable when I quit shooting at the front corner of the pocket and started shooting at the middle of the back pocket wall I could see clearly. I first learned to move out a little when the old ten footers with unequal pockets would bounce out into the table when rolling past a side pocket tight on a rail. It was one of my checks for years to see if balls went past the side pockets cleanly or not.

If one player reads the table and the room, often the cue ball too, and the other doesn't, the careful player will win some games just by observation. If you are really a cold hearted bastard you can bait people into taking these bad shots, not that I personally ever did such a thing!grin)

Hu

BadBrad said:

This may not be a new rule, but I haven't seen it before...

Trapping or Wedging the Cue Ball
It is a foul if a player deliberately traps or wedges the cue ball in the jaw of a pocket. ...

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Suppose the cue ball is in the center of a head pocket and you want to take a foul and leave the cue ball frozen to the long-rail jaw of that pocket. Absolutely frozen. One way is to shoot a very delicate tap, moving the ball exactly 1.372 inches. A much easier way is to shoot towards the facing more firmly, hitting the cue ball two or three times until the tip is firmly pressing the cue ball into the facing. Then the cue is pulled back.

The first is a permitted way to take the foul, the second is forbidden by the quoted rule. I think it might have been clearer if they had described the shot as a deliberate double hit.

Another example of a forbidden stroke is an intentional miscue. And there are other situations where an intentional double hit can get you out of trouble, both at one pocket and other games.

Thanks for replying to this thread!

june-bug said:

I agree with you Biloxi. I received #76 from Anton some time ago. While its not my main player, I do find myself picking it up often and shooting a few racks. Its a great hitting cue for sure. Wish I knew what tip was on it.

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It's Triangle M with a fiber on the earlier cues and a ferrule on current ones

M

Kris_b1104 said:

Where'd you get that number from? 2021?
Have you been living under a cueball?

View attachment 869992

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Meh....I smashed that for years in a day job with benefits, 20 minutes from my home.

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MitchAlsup said:

Why would anyone get a tattoo ???

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It ain't for everyone, right?

I have a buddy who is quite well off, having started and sold multiple businesses. He has a giant 9-ball rack tattooed on the back of his left calf ... He often says, wtf.

I honestly cannot think of anything I want drawn on my body 100% of the time

And to the op: the world is better because of you. Nice and thanks too.

alphadog said:

Seriously you are upset because he was asking the ref to do his job? Fkt if you dont like the rule it obviously was a rule.

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No I wasn't....

blokid said:

IMO, It's 3/8x8 pin bro.

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Yes it appears that that is the protector that will work for me. It is on order, won't be here till after Christmas, and I will post results. Thanks for your help!

I saw this on Youtube. I really Liked the straight to the point type instruction. I don't like it when they talk fill-in for 10 min and then give 2 minutes of instruction(i.e. CJ Riley). Also as a Free gift these guys are likeable.

Even though they are not perfect, I favor these changes.

Still, why one-pocket remains the scapegoat for the Derby's enduring failure to maintain a reasonable schedule is beyond me. Yes, one pocket does cause some delays, but the biggest delays always occur in 9ball, and 2025 was no exception. In fact, in the closing hours of day nine, which had 9ball only, the production crew and the shot clock operators went to sleep long before the play was completed and a couple of snail-paced 9ball matches, played without the shot clock on the TV table, backed up the entire 9ball event by a couple of hours. Even so, things were much better than in 2023 and 2024.

The players and the staff must both do better if the play is to be completed in a timely manner.

I don't think the tighter pockets have anything to do with it. At least in pool rooms. When it comes to practice.

You go to the local pool room, without a doubt, THE TIGHTEST TABLES IN THE ROOM, HAVE THE ABSOLUTE WORST PLAYERS ON IT, playing one pocket or 9ball with 20 innings per game. LIKE THEY ARE CHALLENGING THEMSELVES ON HOW BAD THEY SUCK.
This is absolutely everywhere and as far as I am concerned, the standard.
So much so, that I think good players just don't even bother with tight equipment. Especially given the fact that no one wants to deal with garbage players who gatekeep the tight tables if you end up with a game wanting you to pay their table time to get off the table or wanting to finish their game that takes another hour.

If the entire room had 4' tight pockets, that's a different story, but where does that happen?
And 4' tight pockets with diamonds and that extra shelf is a total snoozefest to watch. By far, the stupidest pool I have ever watched. And no, I'm not talking about new cloth. I'm talking bout the other 51 weeks of the year that the cloth is old.

No dynamic creative aggressive pool play.
Pool players dribbling balls in the hole and winners being determined by who hung up the ball in the pockets more than their opponents, on shots that need some pace for position that literally can't go.

I think American pool players are in their own little world where the majority feel world class, but don't put in the time. Especially when you don't have to practice or prove yourself because you know your buddy is going to pick you anyway.

jay helfert said:

I saw so much bad officiating this year it made me sick. I kept thinking where do they find these guys. I found myself focusing more on the refs than the match. I had to laugh in one tournament where the wandering ref kept obstructing the play of players on the next table. She would stand right where they needed to be to get down on the next shot, and the player is left waiting for her to move. She actually bumped one player as she was walking by. He was just getting ready to get down on the shot. She was cute though so I understand why they hired her.

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I'd like to play with a cute ref who bumps into me a lot!

The Euros attend pool schools from a young age- strokes are totally honed for those that stay into their late teens. Euros play in " pool clubs" where they are highly competitive but supportive of each other and the game - so they stay with it much longer - in America, every time you walked in a pool hall- somebody was trying to rob you/ hustle you - people get tired of that real fast and move on to other sports/games/interests.

In America, rooms just kept closing and closing since 2000, and those that survived or opened since then mostly went to 7 foot tables- literally pulling out all the nine foot Brunswick's - everywhere! The growth of APA and other league play in America is mostly a 7 foot table affair as well.

Local tournaments in America at pool rooms often died out after a few months in most rooms because the tournament directors are often "in" on the money scams being run and people just get tired of it and quit.

Back in the day- every major city in America had Boys Clubs where playing pool was a mainstay event and there were local to national level pool tournaments that had boys playing the game from age 8 to 16 - no more!

At one time our collegiate level pool room proliferation was huge and there were local to national level events as well.

All of these factors contribute to the lack of pool expertise in America outside of casinos, poker, the internet, etc.

I won't say much about the Diamond long shelf 4 1/2 inch proliferation vs. the older Brunswick/ Gandy/ AESchmidt 5 inch pocket tables except to say that early success for a newbie in a pool room - where there was no instruction --led to more interest in getting involved with the game- period! I keenly remember early trips to my local room with my friends at age 16 in 1969 - if most of the shots were bouncing out of tight pocketed tables - we probably would have not returned too often, instead many of us spent a lifetime with a game we liked so much from the beginning.