jbart65 said:

I don’t listen to DogginIt much anymore because Molina rubs me wrong. Spends too much time bashing Matchroom, especially the person he tends to refer to as “she.” Embarrassing, really. The industry needs a better independent podcast, but then, is there really any demand for it? Probably not.

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The funny part of this is that MM blocked me on all of his media because two years ago I was ripping on MR too much and he didn't like that.
Back then he would spend the whole show fawning over Emily and bashing WPA. Now he's completely flipped.

DynoDan said:

I have a simple/dedicated/no print design pocket holster for the snubby that works well in trad. Levi’s or chinos (stays in the pocket when you pull). Also have a companion Velcro holder in the car’s door-pocket. That crotch-mount version might justify soprano risk though for those at the beach wearing a swimsuit .

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I haven't shot competition lately but it was amazing how many people favored a front mount holster with the pistol pointed at their nuts or knee. Some of these people took their safety off when they came to the line too. Dead illegal but they mostly got away with it. I had my pistol back on my side and had worked on muscle memory so that my cue to take the safety off was my weak hand starting to wrap around my grip. with the gun pointing low but straight dow range parallel to the ground. No time lost and the gun pointed safely downrange before the safety was touched.

I noticed a big sheriff's deputy around town, well over three hundred pounds. He wore his competition style 1911 in a tactical holster hanging off his right thigh. Huge paddles on his ambidextrous safety. If someone with any knowledge had to deal with him they could have knocked the safety off of his cocked and locked .45 and blew his right knee off all with the gun securely locked in his holster which had the thumb strap behind the hammer! All in all maybe the scariest duty carry rig I have ever seen, for the carrier! I can't imagine how he passed any kind of physical testing and his duty rig would have been done away with if I were boss including the big dual paddle safety lever. I wouldn't allow any compensated pistol for duty carry either. I don't favor compensators for any kind of carry except during competition.

Hu

BasementDweller said:

I love watching and listening to the old matches, but they were all over the place on the science stuff. In fairness, most of them had a working knowledge of what was going on. They must have intuitively understood the game to play it at such a high level. I think they just got their variables mixed up at times. Heck, Jeremy Jones does the same thing today while being quite authoritative in the process.

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Yes. I remember a Buddy Hall video where he explained how the cue ball would react and where it would go with follow at an angle. You can also see the principle explained in Dr Dave’s book or other places. Dr Dave explains the cueball travels down the tangent line first etc…. Buddy Hall said the cueball has “whippin action”. Hall knew exactly what the cueball would do and could demonstrate it perfectly. The explanation was not as clear as other explanations perhaps.

nightmare said:

Hey, everybody!

I was both honored & excited to be asked to join the other greats of our game to recount my life & experiences in pool.

Thanks again to Mark Wilson, Allison Fisher MBE & Mike Gonzalez!

Here's the link to the four episodes that just dropped. The last three will drop next Cuesday!

Hope you enjoy them!

Mary

Kenniston, Mary | Guest: Legends of the Cue

Mary Kenniston’s life in pool is remarkable not only for what she accomplished at the table, but also for the role she continues to play preserving the history of the game itself. A pioneering competitor during the formative years of women’s professional pool, a longtime leader within the...

www.legendsofthecue.com

View attachment 892222

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Go Mary!!

I disagree with Mike Panozzo. The WNT is not only a tour, but it is the best tour. Still, its inability over the past two years to publish an event schedule in a timely manner has made the folks at Matchroom appear a bit disorganized and has made it harder for top players to properly plan for participation in WNT events. Who will forget that several players had already committed to a concurrent expo in Asia before the 2025 UK Open dates were announced, which led to a weak field?

There's no question that, despite their many differences as businesses, Matchroom and Predator could pull together. In fact, a few years ago, they tried to team up in the production of the PLP. Some may recall that it all blew up when Matchroom insisted that all participants wear a Predator patch during the competition. which infuriated players having a cue sponsor other than Predator. To my knowledge, Matchroom and Predator have not collaborated on a project since.

Matchroom took an extreme measure in 2024 when it asked its top players to boycott all WPA sanctioned events, even though that meant asking Predator sponsored players like Filler and Ouschan to boycott the events of their sponsor. Each agreed to the boycott under peer pressure but understandably reconsidered. In Filler's case, he became Matchroom's whipping boy, denied a spot on the 2024 Reyes Cup team and bashed publicly. I remember standing almost alone on this forum when I took exception to it. For Matchroom, however, it wasn't enough. Filler was declared ineligible for the 2024 Mosconi Cup. In 2025, both SVB and Filler chose the World 8ball over the Hanoi Open and Matchroom took harsh action again, denying each inclusion in the 2025 Reyes Cup, an action that made the event uncompetitive and, frankly, completely unwatchable.

I love Matchroom, but I feel that its lack of loyalty to two of its three biggest stars sent shockwaves through its roster of players. How could anyone feel safe when such severe measures were being taken against the headliners of the WNT? Loyalty is a two-way street and, while Matchroom would surely suggest that its stars have shown insufficient loyalty to them, the truth is the opposite. Guys like Josh and Shane ARE the WNT product, and they must be courted in a sport now having so many elite events.

I am growing a little more optimistic. Perhaps Matchroom, at long last, has come to realize that the WNT, a magnificent, ground-breaking international tour, is not the only game in town. Jayson Shaw, for example, played the Predator Las Vegas Open but just two weeks later skipped the WNT European Open. If that's not proof that Matchroom is backing away from its monopolistic thinking and methods, nothing is.

Another huge problem with WNT is the arbitrariness of selecting the wild cards at the Reyes Cup and the Mosconi. At the Mosconi, the inclusion of someone who hasn't earned a spot has become a tradition, and this will surely demotivate several Americans with Team USA aspirations, knowing that favoritism is part of the selection process.

Matchroom has an exceptional management team that must rethink its position a bit. Loyalty to the WNT has wavered a bit, but I feel that such loyalty can be recaptured if Matchroom dishes out a little more loyalty to its top performers. Matchroom can continue to count on the many dollars I will spend to attend WNT events, the dollars I spend on WNTTV, and the many dollars I spend on WNT merchandise. Still, they will have to take steps to ensure that WNT fields will be super-elite going forward if they hope to stay in the limelight. Nobody is rooting harder for them than me!

Black-Balled said:

The balls need to be racked on the spot, so there is a like 2+ cm of vertical wiggle room there.

Helpful sometimes.

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The rules have a single infinitesimal point as the spot. It is not the area of some protective sticker. Not all players follow that rule. Templates make it easy to follow the rule.

On a related point, the official rules now place the nine on the foot spot for the nine ball rack.

Spot - hit - speed - rack. These are the variables that can affect the result of a break shot. Spot - where you spot the cue ball. Hit - how the cue ball hits the rack. Speed - the speed of the break shot. Rack - the quality of the rack and any gaps inherent in the rack. A consistent rack is needed to have consistent results.

Panozzo’s point about the WNT feeling like a handful of events vs a true tour is spot on in my opinion. They need to do a better job of finding locations that fit for their format and then lock them in for longer, more consistent term. How can you expect players/fans to commit to something when the details aren’t ironed out well in advance.

At this point, it feels like Matchroom’s focus is 50% promoting pool/the players and 50% promoting Emily Frazer. It’s embarrassing at how much Emily inserts herself into the “tour.”

jbart65 said:

I don’t listen to DogginIt much anymore because Molina rubs me wrong. Spends too much time bashing Matchroom, especially the person he tends to refer to as “she.” Embarrassing, really. The industry needs a better independent podcast, but then, is there really any demand for it? Probably not.

I do skip thru sometimes to hear what Mike Panozzo has to say. He is the editor in chief of Billiards Digest.

Panozzo said Shane Van Boening doesn’t like Europe and probably won’t go to the UK Open. He also suggested other top U.S. players might not go, either.

“The shine has worn off the pro players’ WNT love affair, for sure,” Panozzo said. “They are not treating it any differently than any other event that’s out there. ‘I’ll look at the dates, I’ll look at the costs and I’ll decide.’ “

Evidently, players who played in the PLP were expected to pay for their own hotel rooms. Typically MR has paid for rooms for players invited to invitationals.

If this is true, it would be a bad sign. Suggests the economics of pool, at least for MR, is more of a struggle than it already seems.

Lots of talk about why the Euro Open’s field of players was underwhelming. Yapp apparently said his family did not want him to travel to Bosnia once the Iran conflict erupted, but that wasn't all of it.

Carlo Biado stayed in Vegas after the Predator Las Vegas Open for Griffs and other events. SVB did, too. Sky and Tyler played in an Ultimate Pool event. The Ko brothers are largely gone from WNT and WPA events, it seems. Mickey Krause, a former European Open champ, skipped the event for heyball in China. Lots of top Europeans played at the European Open events sponsored by Predator.

Question is, was the European Open a one-off. The UK Open will tell us more.

Last year, Shane Van Boening skipped the UK Open. Gorst was missing due to sponsor obligations. Albin Ouschan was a no-show. A contingent of Pinoys signed up, but most ended up not going. Chua was among the missing.

Still, most top players attended. Skyler and Tyler also showed up, along with another 10 or so Americans.

***

Panozzo’s comments suggest future MR events won’t have the same stacked fields they did a few years ago. One reason is Predator has stepped up its game.

Predator typically includes several events, giving the players a chance to make money in one or more tournaments. So they get more bang for their buck at Predator events.

Panozzo also said the WNT no longer seems like a tour to him. He didn’t really specify why, but he did point to late scheduling and alluded to the qualification process for Mosconi and Reyes.

“It’s gotten hard to call it a tour. Matchroom to me at this point has turned into a series of events,” he said. “It’s mix and match between WNT events, and WPA events, and Predator events.”

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molina is pissy because of access. he's not really helping that, acting as he does.

count me as someone who also thinks WNT and WPA should cooperate more. a joint tournament wouldn't be impossible.

Still available!

center line of the cue ball is just flat out more accurate and a good reason needs to be there not to use it.