Raymon Groot will look to defend his USBA National Championship title this week as the 2026 USBA (United States Billiard Association) National Championship is held at Bergen Billiards in Palisades Park, NJ. The event kicks off on Thursday (April 23rd) with eight round robin groups of seven players, and the top three from each group advancing to the next stage of tournament play. Groot will have his hands full, with five time Champion Hugo Patino in group A with him. Another player who fans will be watching is Pedro Piedrabuena. Piedrabuena is a twelve time USBA National Champion and will […]
I have not seen anyone mention lights or the light reflection on the object ball. I use that a lot when I can, I know I cant be the only one who does that.
It can be done on a every Saturday night event at as well once you know the total number of players. With that information one can quickly figure out the number of matches that it will take to finish the tournament. Reasonable time it takes to play a race to 3, 2 whatever is easily figured as well. With just a little paying attention to the details any tournament can basically be played in advance.
Instead we often see the finalists split the pot at 2AM. Somehow the players think running into the dawn is OK. I guess for the players who go home at 10PM, it is. They got to play for a while and see some good players, and they get to bed at a reasonable hour.
I install the collar first. If the shaft doesn't have a center drilled hole I do that first.
When the collar is installed. I turn everything to size, then do the threads, then I finish the shaft, so I take into account the thickness of the finish when turning down the shaft collar.
Here is an exercise that Alex Lely teaches for end pattern mastery:
Set up a nice break shot and shoot it. Remove all but five object balls. This makes you think about the four ball sequence to get on the break shot. Run the balls -- hopefully, as you planned -- and shoot the break shot. After the break shot, again remove all but five object balls. If you miss, start with a new rack and break shot. See how many racks you can complete before five or ten misses.
Big national events across several days with a pre-populated player's list can schedule matches in advance every 2 hours. Local weeknight events that are walk-ins operate on a different model. The second a match finishes, the next one is scheduled.
It can be done on a every Saturday night event at as well once you know the total number of players. With that information one can quickly figure out the number of matches that it will take to finish the tournament. Reasonable time it takes to play a race to 3, 2 whatever is easily figured as well. With just a little paying attention to the details any tournament can basically be played in advance.
An alternative is to learn the game you are playing. The orthodox play is to lag the cue ball two cushions to end up frozen to the middle of the head cushion without hitting any object ball. This is absolutely standard strategy. Your opponent is on the first foul. It is important to know what that means for safety play.
running 50 is so much easier than running 8 racks of 9 ball. hundreds of players back when the game was played ran hundreds and more.
every pool room seemed to have a few. i dont know of many that have run 8 racks of 9 ball. certainly no pool room players ever did that.
only high level pros.
Or the tournament could be completely mapped out before it even starts. CSI does a pretty darn good job of just that. A match starts at a certain time & it ends at a certain time. Keeps the ball rolling. Players do not have to be hanging around the tournament either just in case their match starts early. Just show up at the stated start time.
Big national events across several days with a pre-populated player's list can schedule matches in advance every 2 hours. Local weeknight events that are walk-ins operate on a different model. The second a match finishes, the next one is scheduled.
