When, in February, the PLP coincided with the Las Vegas Open (the dates of which were known nearly eighteen months ago), Matchroom's handling of the 2026 schedule looked questionable. Shane, Fedor, and Josh all skipped the PLP in favor of the Las Vegas Open, which greatly compromised the field quality at the PLP. Between singles, mixed doubles and teams, each of them won plenty of money at the Las Vegas Open. Now it looks like that schedule conflict was an outlier and Matchroom is striving to offer a player friendly schedule.

August now looks like a very special month for the pro players, with the Florida Open, Arizona Open and the US Open 9ball. This kind of scheduling keeps player travel and participation expenses down and enables pros to earn a better living. Nicely done, Matchroom!

The good folks at Matchroom are making good on their stated objective of having more events in the United States.

maha said:

but the amateurs can also knock out each other as they will when the play each other . which in turn leaves more pros to crush the remaining ones. so their real chances of winning does not go up.
as in all the tournaments structured as they are, the very top players take off all the money.

if enough is added then they can spread out the payouts so some can get a piece of the pie, but not the big slices.

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considering seedings i would think the odds for dead money players is about the same as in double elim.

sports is by default meritocratic. play better, beat the pro, become a pro.. i don't know what you are arguing for.

mrpiper said:

Love the game and league play, but want a good value for a home table that mostly only I ever touch.

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Think of these 2 things: Table consistency and familiarity

Do you like the tables that you play on in your league?? What are they? Do you consistently play on one size and one brand of table in your league??

If you play league on 7 ft. Diamonds Blue Labels and you like a 7 ft. Diamond Blue Label, then I would suggest you look for a 7 ft. Diamond Blue Label.

The leagues in my area (APA and NAPA) are "traveling" leagues so we do not play at the same location every week. Each location we play at has different sized tables, one with 7 ft. Diamonds, another with "oversized" 8 ft. Steepletons, another with Valley bar boxes and another with 9 footers (I need to check the brand but I think Brunswicks). Keeps you on your toes but makes consistency a bear.

Tried Irish linen once, got blisters on my thumb. Been wrapless or leather wrap, but most of my cues are wrapless with 4 having leather wraps

Would you be open to trade for a Schon STL-7?

maha said:

those not cues from china could improve your game or not.

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Chinese cues... if you spin them in a circle and stop quickly do they get disoriented?

Newer p3 not fat at all!

alphadog said:

So my question is if you put in a center beam why don't you support the beam.

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Is it "floating" above the legs? If not, I'd guess there's an engineering answer in there that might relate to how trusses support weight.

No slide rule here!

dendweller said:

I get that the wood is giving you feel that is missing from most cf shafts. What does the cf section give you that you don't get from an LD wood shaft, lower deflection, more power?

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i also was able to test a hybrid from vince
its a great shaft
better feel than my cf shaft and excellent energy transfer
and low deflection and sounds better
would recommend it
to answer you @dendweller
the shaft from vince compared to first generation hsunami and OB low deflection wood shafts had much more power and i cant explain why but more feel
i havent played with those shafts in a while so i couldnt compare how they differ in deflection
thats my best recollection

maha said:

just aim a little longer then you are supposed to according to the diamonds..
but dont hit them hard or they go so short you cant figure out where they are going.
dont use english on them as it doesnt do much good.
and if you hit them hard they go backwards after the second rail.

otherwise no problem with them.

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The good news is you can shorten up any bank. Seemingly impossible bank shots are routine on a Diamond.