Rules Question - Why

No it wouldn't. You are being obtuse and ridiculous. A catastrophic design flaw on a pool table would be the legs spontaneously breaking, giving the opportunity for the table to fall on someone. Spitting a ball back out due to someone hitting too hard is more operator fault than equipment fault.
Yes that would be catastrophic. Given the purpose of a pool table, spitting pocket can be loss of game due to faulty design. Catastrophic by scale.

Tommy Kennedy

The TK-Archer US Open final from 1992.... there are two productions of it. One is Accu-Stats, one is ESPN. I believe it's the ESPN version that shows more of Tommy's face when he smiling the whole match. I watched them both over the years and the camera's are on different ends, plus the ESPN crew had the handheld cameras, etc. Def worth watching both versions if you haven't seen one of them.

Looking for a solid American cue

You really cannot go wrong with any of the cues on that list. It would truly be best if you could hit them and make a choice for yourself. I personally play with a Schon, but own a variety of other cues. I have never hit a Jacoby as there are none around my local hall.

There is a, local to me, cue marker by the name of Carl Giuli. He is in tight with Joss, and his cues are remarkably similar in build quality to them. He has an auction for one of his cues every month on eBay. You can get a lot of cue for your money if you watch them closely. My current Giuli is one heck of a cool looking cue...and everything is always for sale.......

View attachment 862892
Hey man, thanks for your reply. I’ve seen these cues on fb, they look pretty good indeed. Any idea of estimated delivery time?

Rules Question - Why

But the pocket spitting would come under catastrophic design flaw. Consider any other precision instrument that has shown behavior similar to those pockets.

No it wouldn't. You are being obtuse and ridiculous. A catastrophic design flaw on a pool table would be the legs spontaneously breaking, giving the opportunity for the table to fall on someone. Spitting a ball back out due to someone hitting too hard is more operator fault than equipment fault.

Matchroom, WNT, Mosconi Cup, and American Pro Pool

As Skor mentioned, the myriad reasons for the US lagging behind the rest of the world have been hashed over in these forums and nauseum, and in the 10 or so years I have been visiting this forum, not much has changed as far as I can tell.

SVB is still our Captain America, Sky still hasn't won a major (not to take away from his MOT), and aside from a brief, mostly dimmed glimmer of hope from Wolford, Styer , Reinhold, and now verner, there is no dominant heir apparent ...or at least one on the level of a young SVB or Sky.

Still, I would love to know the statistics on A). Sheer number of people who play pool at least once a week in the US vs. other countries, and B). The amount of money that is spent on pool equipment/gear in the US vs. other countries, and C). How many in the US have the dreaded 7 footer in their garages, man caves, spare bedrooms, etc.

I am still amazed at the number of random league players who couldn't pick but maybe 2 of our MC members out of a police line up, but yet they show up several nights a week carrying their JB Case filled with well over a 1000 dollars worth of cues and equipment.

I would imagine the big industry sponsors (Diamond, Cuetec, Predator, etc. ) heavily rely on US dollars, and that is a big reason MR puts much more resources into the US vs. Viet Nam or the Philippines.
America promotes NOT moving up on your team - if handicaps worked, they wouldn't have to break up teams. I say let 5 7's in APA play on the same team(they may need to move the top handicap to 10)

which are the latest most popular cue tips?

If Thoroughbred is the tip for you then you should use it, I don't care if a top pro uses a Bulletproof Recoil tip or not, it's simple for me, there are hundreds of variations of leather tips and have been the only type of tip for at least a hundred years, I know people are skeptical about trying a new technology, do you know how I know that? Because I was too, I'm just a guy who loves Billiards, I contacted Bulletproof Billiards several times and asked questions about their tips, they answered every question I had promptly which gave me the confidence to give them a try, I tried at least 6 different leather tips in a year and half before giving the Recoil tip a shot, I'm about 9 months into these tips now, they just work for me, will they work for you? I don't know, you will have to try one for yourself and see, if it doesn't cut it off and continue on your journey to find the right tip for you 😉
Cannot fault the people at Bulletproof. I broke one of their break tips, and they offered me to trial some recoil tips, as well as replacing the tip I split. I just haven't got around to sorting out all the postage stuff :) I'll likely try it at some point, I was just curious why they don't just pay a big name to give them a bash, the longevity of the product alone, would surely see it sell in abundance if a big (ish) name backed them.

I bought a nice stockpile of Thoroughbred tips (on recommendation from a user here) after trying a ton of others. It works. Good feel, low maintenance.

which are the latest most popular cue tips?

When are they going to pay a top pro to tell us all these are the future? :unsure:
Still a rave review for thoroughbred tips from me.
If Thoroughbred is the tip for you then you should use it, I don't care if a top pro uses a Bulletproof Recoil tip or not, it's simple for me, there are hundreds of variations of leather tips and have been the only type of tip for at least a hundred years, I know people are skeptical about trying a new technology, do you know how I know that? Because I was too, I'm just a guy who loves Billiards, I contacted Bulletproof Billiards several times and asked questions about their tips, they answered every question I had promptly which gave me the confidence to give them a try, I tried at least 6 different leather tips in a year and half before giving the Recoil tip a shot, I'm about 9 months into these tips now, they just work for me, will they work for you? I don't know, you will have to try one for yourself and see, if it doesn't cut it off and continue on your journey to find the right tip for you 😉

Rules Question - Why

Cars that failed as rarely as this occurs on pool tables would never be recalled. That kind of 'failure' wouldn't even be a blip on the car reliability rating.
But the pocket spitting would come under catastrophic design flaw. Consider any other precision instrument that has shown behavior similar to those pockets.

Deliberate extremity:
Gun that occasionally blows up in the chamber.
Bow that occasionally skews way off target.
Etc...

Those flaws have already been addressed.

Pool table that costs as much as a car... pass.

The Banker is Back!

Max Eberle is not even in the top 30 in the US. That would put him at somewhere around #500 in the world. He has been playing very little pro pool the last 10 years.
I think I was Shaun Wilkes neighbor when he got snubbed after making the points. Takes your heart away when you put in the time and $$$$ and then get skipped. Has happened to quite a few...we wonder why we cant grow the sport in the USA. All points, all the time

The Banker is Back!

Here's the top 10 Americans capable of Mosconi Cup pressure, in no particular order:
  1. Shane Van Boening
  2. Fedor Gorst
  3. Skyler Woodward
  4. Tyler Styer
  5. Oscar Dominguez
  6. Billy Thorpe
  7. Shane Wolford
  8. Chris Reinhold
  9. Hunter Lombardo
  10. Josh Roberts
And here’s where the U.S. list gets thin quickly. There are promising juniors and regional killers, but few currently have the seasoning under global lights.

For Europe, top 10 is almost too easy. In fact, Europe could field three full teams at Mosconi Cup level. Mosconi Cup contenders, in no particular order:
  1. Joshua Filler
  2. Francisco Sánchez Ruíz
  3. David Alcaide
  4. Jayson Shaw
  5. Albin Ouschan
  6. Niels Feijen
  7. Mario He
  8. Eklent Kaçi
  9. Moritz Neuhausen
  10. Max Lechner
  11. Pijus Labutis
And worthy of mention are Kledio Kaci, Mickey Krause, Alex Kazakis, Denis Grabe, Sanjin Pehlivanović, Oliver Szolnoki, Aleksa Pecelj, Wiktor Zieliński, Konrad Juszczyszyn, Thorsten Hohmann, and Arseni Sevastyanov.

Asia has the deepest talent pool of all. This list is stacked and still incomplete.

1. Johann Chua​
2. Aloysius Yapp​
3. Ko Pin-Yi​
4. Ko Ping-Chung​
5. Ko Pin-Chung​
6. Lo Ho Sum​
7. Michael Baoanan​
8. Chang Jung-Lin​
9. James Aranas​
10. AJ Manus​
11. Carlo Biado​
12. Bernie​
13. Dennis Orcullo (when he can travel)​
14. Lee Van Corteza​
15. Anton Raga​
16. Jeffrey De Luna​
17. And about 20 more whose names I cannot remember​

Asia is the deepest, Europe is the most structured, and the U.S. has talent but not the depth. The U.S. has less junior structure, less national coaching culture, fewer competitive leagues feeding upwards, and less financial incentive to become a professional. The existing lot of U.S. pro-caliber players continues to shrink, not grow, especially when compared to Europe and Asia. Pull this thread up next November, and it will be the same song.
We only have talent for #1 and 2. We immediately drive off a cliff after that.

Anybody betting on anybody past Shane and Fedor hates their $$$ with a passion.

What's really bad is anybody betting on Shane having a winning record hates their $$$ just as much as betting on everybody other that Fedor.

I always say we need to do a seniors MC - Keith, Hatch, Varner, Mike and....Earl(under adult supervision 🤷‍♂️)

The Banker is Back!

At least Billy is fun and pumps up the crowd. My first 2 picks every MC would be Shaw and Billy, next would be Filler, after that I don't really care, Fedor and Shane are boring but can get pumped up. If nothing else, let's hope we have entertainment and a pumped up crowd.


It would be awesome if they let the lag winner pick the game.

Billy- Banks
Corey- 8 ball
Fedor- 1 pckt
Chohan- 1 pckt
Shane- race to 100 9 or 10 ball 🤣🤣🤣

Im betting on team USA if we can win the lags.

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