Fantastic

I played in the Florida Open and had a 2foot long shot on the 9 with a very slight cut angle to go up 1-0 vs Kazakis. I had run 5 or 6 balls to get to it. I was perfect on it. I hit it with a bit of outside and medium speed. I hit it fat, and missed. I would have bet the farm on that shot. It was the new conditions that caused me to miss.

Also of note, Simonis Shark Gray, which is the MR official cloth, is only available in 860, not 860HR (might also be available in 760, but irrelevant for this). Most new pro tables these days ship with 860HR, which is available in Tournament Blue. 860HR is the Diamond standard cloth install for the past several years.

So even though top pros are playing on new cloth multiple times per year, they are mostly playing on 860HR, not 860, except for MR produced events on Shark Gray.

I believe Asia supports a lot of high end cue maker’s demand.

Kim Bye said:

Well It's the same for every player, so that's a moot point.

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∆

DrCue'sProtege said:

So, let me ask again.

What table is the Mosconi Cup being played on???

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Are you blind? There are 100 videos by MR and interviews all over Youtube showing the matches.

I think the deflection has been saved for the interviews.

I love how folks can find 200 words to say something as simple as, "play better," when waxing about the U.S. dilemma.

I had 10 or so nice customs in my pool life over the years, starting with a nice cocobolo Scruggs in 1998. Now all I shoot is production butts.

A buddy bought a cheap decal cue for $150 and showed it to me a few weeks ago. It looked nicer than high end custom stuff, no lie, the decals were so well done. I said to him, "you'd have to be nuts to spend 2k on a custom cue today".

iusedtoberich said:

Custom cues are dead. Have been for 15 years.

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3 orders later and then they tell me. So I am just here for the stories and guys making 1-2 cues a year in their garages? Studiotronics is a cue industry plant!

The brand new cloth has less friction, so when the CB squirts sideways, it squirts more than on old cloth. It can be tough to figure out, especially because most players only play on new cloth once per year or two when their local room recovers.

Carom players play on 10' tables using 57" cues...

The cue is sized to your body, rather than the table, imo.

Custom cues are dead. Have been for 15 years.

ribdoner said:

the most loose of the loose is FILLER, the positional routes he chose on a couple of shots were mind bending

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The execution was equally stunning.

dr_dave said:

slick cloth = delayed swerve = more net CB deflection (combined effects of squirt and swerve)

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Yes, especially with more tip offset, more butt elevation and less speed - initial CB deflected direction is unchanged, but final CB direction (“net CB deflection”) is reduced.

pj
chgo

Quesports said:

I’ve been too busy to get involved in this thread so far.

Also I only have time to watch the YouTube videos of the matches…

What I see there is an American team playing very tight and nervous and a Euro team that is taking a stroll in the park.

They are very relaxed and confident while the opposite is true of the American team.

One team is confident and the other is not.

Likely because the Americans expected to lose before this event even started..

Just watch the body language it tells the story of this event perfectly.

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the most loose of the loose is FILLER, the positional routes he chose on a couple of shots were mind bending

fjk said:

How close are the points?

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Really as perfect as I’ve seen.
What’s your cell or email? I’ll video it for you.
Mine is Dave 828-962-4545

hang-the-9 said:

The cues people aspire to own now are Predator and Cuetec. Those are by far the most common cues and shafts I see people use, and there is really not much research past those two done for what else is out there. Probably due to how easy it is to do web searches and see ads online now. Years ago, you went by word of mouth, friends, TV or AccuStats videos, so you ended up hearing of many more makers. Custom cue makers don't have ads on YouTube or TikTok.

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Brand recognition and how they are advertised to has change dramatically.

Tarheel said:

A quality custom cue by a top tier builder will never lose value. One just needs to have the discretionary income to afford it. I certainly didn’t have that ability in my teens, 20’s and 30’s. Which is where most of the production market resides. The good stuff is still in demand.

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Do you have evidence of people under 30 wanting and waiting for an opportunity to scoop up even a 3-5k cue?

MitchAlsup said:

Most young adults do not have the kind of income (or wealth) that would allow them to buy a high end cue.

And you don't fix that problem by making high end cues lower priced--
You fix the problem by making low end jobs pay more--
{{OR make lesser gamblers win big more often}}

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Don’t discount brand recognition. There are plenty of kids on the internet paying or claiming to pay thousands for Jordan’s that were released 25-30 years ago, but have been re-released in new colorways or in limited quantities/special materials. Why would they throw cash at a cue maker who might be in the hall of fame, but that they have never heard of. Even if many were to see names of famous cue makers, they would still likely opt for the most bang for the buck per the collective voice of people on their preferred social media sites.

I've always wanted to open my own place, but I do understand the risk. My plan is to first start a mobile repair business for tips, ferrules, bumpers on house cues and at tournaments. The idea here is also to get the lay of the land in my area to see where the hot and cold spots are geographically. There are plenty of bars and a number of good pool halls where I live, I can see it working out if there is a "live above" situation with an apartment attached. Then I'm not paying mortgage on my home and for a separate business.

I've thought of the self serve model based on membership. Byob, key card access, no food, no alcohol, just essentially a storage warehouse and members, but that's slim margins, and no real growth of the game. It's a tough road for sure. OP needs to wake up and see the reality of how hard it is to run a pool room.