Kris_b1104 said:

I'm just curious, why did you put shaft in quotation marks?

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That's what subject is about!

Something wrong with that?

So many possibilities:
- they can’t kick well
- they can’t bank well
- they can’t combo well
- they can’t jump well
- they can’t make loooonnnngggg shots well
- their CB control is not that good so they have trouble breaking up clusters
- they can’t deal with slow or fast play well
- they can’t shoot elevated over a ball well
- they can’t shoot frozen on the cushion well
- they are easily frustrated by safeties
- they are easily flustered by being down early in a match
- they get down on themselves when they dog a shot

All of these behaviors are exploitable to leverage if you pay attention to their body language, the things they say out loud or mutter to themselves, and their shot execution. Don’t play on your phone. Don’t watch the football game on the TV screen. Don’t talk up the cute server. Watch your opponent at the table.

In case you old people are not feeling old enough...



As for myself, I remember watching this song on "Your Hit Parade" (6:40 if the link doesn't take you there):

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They don't make songs like that any more.

WildWing said:

Dash ring pattern in the joint collars plus the 18 thread suggest an early Joss, but strange that there's no logo.

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I have a feeling it was refinished.

sjm said:

Nice post. I think the primary takeaway is that Fargo is not the best method of comparing players across generations. In the end, it is all about who won the toughest titles on the pool calendar.

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Agreed, and I'd go a step farther. I would say that Fargo is weak at comparing across generations. I think that comparing one year to the next is fine (largely the same ecosystem of data), but once we are looking at ten years apart... I have no faith.

To continue the example, SVB in 2015 was apparently 824. These are the players today that are at that or higher. (Which also means that 2026 SVB would give 2015 SVB a game on the wire in a race to 11, or something like that.)

1. Joshua Filler DEU863
2. Fedor Gorst USA850
3. Pin-Yi Ko TWN849
4. Ping-Chung Ko TWN848
5. Francisco Sanchez Ruiz ESP846
6. Shane Van Boening USA846
7. Aloysius Yapp SGP842
8. Ameer Ali IRQ842
9. Jung Lin Chang TWN841
10. Johann Chua PHL841
11. Carlo Biado PHL838
12. Jayson Shaw SCT836
13. Wojciech Szewczyk POL834
14. Albin Ouschan AUT833
15. Eklent Kaci ALB831
16. Anton Raga PHL831
17. Quoc Hoang Duong VNM831
18. Wiktor Zielinski POL831
19. Naoyuki Oi JPN830
20. Jonas Magpantay PHL827
21. Dennis Orcollo PHL827
22. Kun Lin Wu TWN825
23. Alex Kazakis GRC825

iusedtoberich said:

One way to set it up is like I have it in the opening picture. They are close enough that a little bit of jacked up is needed to avoid a double hit. Just a touch.

One could argue putting them closer together increases the accuracy, while jacking up decreases it. That's the crux of my question. Is there an optimal setup?

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iusedtoberich said:

PS, has anyone here played this game?

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my answer would be the distance where you dont have to jack up.
my second answer is i used to play it when 9 ballers would try to gamble with me when they were clearly better
usually they didnt know the game and i would say its like nine ball but the breaker has to call before the break which back pocket is his for the 9 to win the game and i get the other back pocket for the 9 to win
the games ended up like 1 ball onepocket which i knew better than them and often i would beat them when i would definitely lose playing regular 9 ball.
i found at around 650 fargo or so they could more commonly play position to make the 9 in their pocket or make the bank necessary

BUMP

Sheldon said:

If you need to exploit your opponent somehow, maybe the weakness is yours.

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I really like that word exploit. When I played tournaments a little bit, first time any of the well known rack artists used to rack for me the first time I would carefully look over the rack a minute or two. Soon the other player would jump up. "Something wrong?" "No, I am just looking for something to exploit."

Somehow that word had a nasty sound and after that I got very careful racks instead of slug racks they were somewhat famous for.(grin)



Never a bad idea to chase your opponent's weaknesses but as others have suggested, best to clean up your own act first! Shooting too hard and aiming at the wrong place are two common issues.

Are you optimizing the available pocket every shot? Studying your own flaws makes it easier to see the same flaws in others.

Hu

BevMan said:

Thanks for your analysis and advice Chopdoc!

I did notice the grain, but it's parallel after the first 6" so probably why it roles and shoots well. How do you tell synthetic wrap under the coating and why would it make any playing difference? As I said, I actually prefer unwrapped or clear-coated like Meucci. But it has a lot of features beyond a typical cheap cue and I'm curious as to the maker if anyone knows.

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How can I tell? I'm a wizard. LOL!

Just experience really. I examine a lot of cues.

Playing difference? With a finish over it there would be no difference.

Those first six inches matter a lot. My wife said so.

The mystery of shaft wood. Excellent shaft wood turned by a master has warped. Cheap shaftwood turned in a sweaty Asian factory has stayed straight.