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enimrac · Mar 11, 2026

PickPocket said:
Hey AZB,

This is yet another, TIP advice request.

I've got both CF, LD & Regular Old School wood shafts, I've put various tips on them, and switch between playing with them all regularly. I've leaned towards the Kamui Tips for years now, but I have several that have other brands installed. (Ultraskin, Triangle, Pred Victory, G2. Kamikaze)

My Main LD Wood player = Tiger Sniper
CF#1 = Prev Victory (Med) - Not a fan, have one also on a wood shaft & just don't love either one.
CF#2 = Soon to be an Kamui Athlete.
Have a couple wood shafts with Kamui Blacks
Have 3-4 with variations of the Ultraskins.
and almost everything I only shoot with occasionally has a Triangle on it.

I like the Sniper, I like the Kamui's I think the Ultraskins are a good all-around tip, but I want to try something new, and after reading a lot of threads/posts & doing some youtube review watching, I was hoping to narrow down to installing (2) new tips on a couple of spare shafts.

What should I go with?
I've read some good things on the Caiden tips, HOW Titan etc...

I would suggest to stay away from the Caiden. I had one on for a few months and couldn't stand it. I had to scuff it multiple times while i was playing just for it to hold chalk.

bobbydee · Mar 11, 2026

My favorite is the whole one goes to fist bump and the other to shake. Then you both reverse. Then someone ends up shaking a fist.

philly · Mar 11, 2026

DrCue'sProtege said:
A buddy of mine that's a pretty good player came over today. We played some 9-Ball and then he sort of introduced me to One Pocket. Seems like an interesting game, alot of strategy involved. Once we got down to the last 3-4 balls it took a while to finish off that rack.

Oh, and before anyone asks, he was interested in playing on the new Diamond Professional and checking it out. I don't think either one of us was bearing down like it was the finals of the US Open. He has played down at the Derby City before

Anyway, just wanted to let everyone know I now have been introduced to One Pocket.

r/DCP

Good for you.
You'll love the game.
Find one pocket specialists to play.
There are a lot of books on one pocket but playing it is the only way to get better.
Takes a while to really see and understand the table in one pocket.
Persevere. It's worth it.

vintagecollectibles831 · Mar 11, 2026

Mensabum said:
No. These are half wood and half CF, for want of a better description. Wood base with CF shaft end.

Oh, I have only seen what you are referring to on HAMA cues. I do not know of any other cue makers who build cues like that, but I understand if HAMA is not the only cue maker who is doing that type of CF shaft. Google "HAMA cues", on Google images, to see what I am talking about. They do different Woods in the base of their shafts, and then Carbon fiber in the taper area. Some of them are so beautiful. They are made in Japan, I believe (but not sure). I would really love to try one out someday. By the way, the CF in their shafts looks far different then any other CF that that I have ever seen. It is really super cool looking, in my opinion. Really odd looking. I wonder if it feels very smooth, lol.

trob · Mar 11, 2026

Culture. Why do most Europeans play insanely slow. Who knows… maybe their snooker background.

JasonATX · Mar 11, 2026

I've got a Whyte Carbon, Revo, Cynergy and a Becue CF shaft for my Schon. The Revo probably wins out, but that's likely more because I use a Revo on most of my customs.

If you are bored and want to see what my cue looks like, Crossroads Cues sold one of the other 12 of my cue model recently. They never IDed it, but from what I can find, it's a LTD 420.

JasonATX · Mar 11, 2026

It's sometimes a handshake but normally a fist bump around here. I have said something like "Good match" in the past, but it totally makes sense why I should not. I guess I never really thought about it. I like SJM's comment and I'm going to start using that.

KREE8TIV · Mar 11, 2026

Always have said at the beginning of match , " Thanks for inviting me " , fist bump ( mostly ) to start match then another fist bump or hand shake at end of match , nod

j2pac · Mar 11, 2026

Mensabum said:
Thanks for the 'Tip'.
Pardon the pun.

skor · Mar 11, 2026

Mensabum said:
I don't play tournaments , but I practice a ton of 14:1 and trying to get a tight rack is impossible at one of these places. Templates and straight pool don't get along well in my book.
I asked my original question bcuz I truly didn't know if this was something the pros addressed or just took in stride as I do.

At one club that do suffer from this issue of mixed sets, I bring my own set of balls when playing with friends, I used the club sets in league and tournaments as it's too much to deal with to move the balls from table to table and gather them between matches... for those I do carry an Aramith pro red dotted cue ball. They have Aramith Black sets to rent but there is no way I'm paying for that....

At another club, they have premier sets for the regular crowd and Black sets for tournament and for the better players at no extra charge so when I go there I leave my set at home.

In your case, I would just buy a set and take it to the club, I know it's a hustle but worth it. A well maintained, clean, good quality set of balls make a lot of difference.

Benelli · Mar 11, 2026

One issue with Valley's this old is trying to update the rails. The mounting points are not the same with current Valley rails so trying to use off the shelf requires you or your mechanic to tap new holes in them to align with the table's attachment points. This becomes magnified with Ridgeback if you decide to go that route.

skogstokig · Mar 11, 2026

AtLarge said:
Filler had 5 B&Rs on 8 breaks, including a 4-pack (with a 9 on the break). But the bum missed 3 shots!

filler against the field isn't a crazy bet when he's this in stroke..

skogstokig · Mar 11, 2026

sjm said:
Yes, it is surprising. I am not familiar with many Eastern Europeans that have made any kind of mark on the world stage. Educate me. Who are the ones to watch among the Eastern Europeans?

jbart was talking about eastern european 700's, and while they may not make a mark on the world stage (these are hobby players and semi-pros) they are plentiful. i would think poland alone has well over a hundred. if you take east europe from the north all down to greece, you could fill this field with 700+ players, with or without established ratings

jlrowe · Mar 11, 2026

A smart word of advice...If he is a big biker looking dude. Don't say "Better luck next time bud don't quit your day job."

InsertCleverNameHere · Mar 10, 2026

ChrisinNC said:
In a tournament match, at the completion of the match, if I’m on the winning end, I feel the most courteous and respectful thing to say to my opponent when looking them in the eyes and shaking their hand is to say nothing at all.

The last thing I ever want to hear if I’m on the losing end is “good match”, especially if I played poorly, which is usually the case for the loser. Saying “I got lucky” is not much better, but I feel saying nothing at all is the best choice to show respect to my opponent.

The exception to this is in the rare case in which both players played well, then it would be acceptable to say “That was a good hard fought match” or “You played very well” or something to that effect. Opinions?

Handshake and a gentlemans nod. Undefeated.

Though I do hit them with the "see you in the finals" sometimes.

jlrowe · Mar 10, 2026

I like my tips on viagra. I like them so hard it sounds like phenolic when you hit with them. But of course they got to hold chalk well. So i use Talisman Hard. The extra hard dont seem to hold chalk as well but when the hard gets down below half sounds like you are hitting with the ferrule and holds chalk well.

Flakeandrun · Mar 10, 2026

j2pac said:
Yep. Fantastic tips. $10 bucks a pop @ Seyberts. If you use discount code APARULES during checkout, you get an additional 5% off your order.

+1 for thoroughbred, one of the best recommendations I've had from this forum

Flakeandrun · Mar 10, 2026

jay helfert said:
He screwed me on a cue sale. I sold him an original Mike Sigel signature cue for $1,000 in perfect, like new condition. After he got the cue he decided he didn't want it and complained to Paypal that it had scratches on it. He then sent me back my cue with severe damage to the butt. Paypal gave him a refund the day the cue was delivered back to me. When I confronted him about the damage to the cue he went quiet on me. Paypal closed the deal and will do nothing for me!

See attached photos. None of this damage was on the cue when he received it from me.

Similar happened to me with a shaft here in China using Xianyu.
I sold it to a person, who had clearly bought it without paying attention to the required thread of his butt.
I had explicitly said no returns in the add, and provided pictures of the shaft on my end in detail.
He damaged the shaft and tried to initiate return after I refused to accept it as return.
The process through Xianyu is interesting, in this instance, it initiates a peer review for 48 hours whereby users of the APP vote, if the vote is in favour of the seller, it is reviewed by Xianyu directly. They requested I send them any further evidence.
Luckily I also had videos (which my phone had metadata for with relevant dates).
Money was then mine, no refund required.

Does PayPal have a similar review feature Jay?

skor · Mar 10, 2026

I always say "thank you", win or loose.
When I loose and my opponent say "good match", I usually replay in a jokingly manner "not good enough"

j2pac · Mar 10, 2026

ChrisinNC said:
In a tournament match, at the completion of the match, if I’m on the winning end, I feel the most courteous and respectful thing to say to my opponent when looking them in the eyes and shaking their hand is to say nothing at all.

The last thing I ever want to hear if I’m on the losing end is “good match”, especially if I played poorly, which is usually the case for the loser. Saying “I got lucky” is not much better, but I feel saying nothing at all is the best choice to show respect to my opponent.

The exception to this is in the rare case in which both players played well, then it would be acceptable to say “That was a good hard fought match” or “You played very well” or something to that effect. Opinions?

I usually say something positive to my opponent even when I lose. If you can't handle losing...play better.

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