penguin said:

But are the prices on his web site up-to-date?

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not even close and also this one exists, order one and wait 1.5-2 years

Great thread! I never knew all those cues in the movie were McDermott D series. Love those C and D’s.

iusedtoberich said:

IMO, if its a straight shot it's your mechanics....

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There are people who consistently hit a straight shot on one side. Some of them have a straight stroke -- the cue ball goes where the stick was pointed at address.

Would you call that mechanics?

Baby Huey said:

Bob and Stu, this lack of full utilization of tables has led to complaints of “slow play.” In the streamed match between Garcia and I think Megliano (spelling not correct I think) you could see at least 4 tables open for over an hour. I think this occurs in part due to the time allotted for buybacks. Something has to be done about the time allotted for buybacks which can be 12 hours. I know because I lost at 10 pm and had until the next day at 10 am to buy back then the redraw could happen.

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There is a system in place such that they can do a partial draw for the next round while the current round is still playing and not all the buybacks are in. If they use that system, they can keep the tables busier. I'm pretty sure they were doing this on Saturday when matches from two rounds were happening at the same time. I think they had also made buyback mandatory by then, so there was no guessing about intent.

If one match gets really far behind, then you can't do a redraw because those players will be two rounds behind. And if one person -- not pointing any fingers -- consistently takes over two hours the TD has to have the gumption to get out a 30-second shot clock. This is mostly a problem when they are down to so few players that the entire round can play at once on the 47 tables. The round cannot go faster than the slowest match plus whatever break you allow between matches.

Even when there are lots of players in the round, you need to be careful to start the snails as early as possible. If you start a snail's match last in the round, everyone else can have a nice, long dinner break.

Here are the longest matches by round on Saturday (Sunday):
Round 5 -- 2:16
Round 6 -- 2:32 Patsura-Sniegocki
Round 7 -- 2:15 Teutscher-Carman
Round 8 -- ~2:10 three matches
Round 9 -- ~2:03 two matches
Round 10 -- 1:54 Meglino-Wallace
Round 11 -- 2:10 Ruuger-Pinegar
Round 12 -- 1:24 Meglino-Patsura speed demons! (Sunday)
Round 13 -- 1:51 Meglino-Patsura back to normal (Sunday)

My conclusion is that unless the matches are sped up for the final rounds, you have to budget two and a half hours per round. I think all players should have at least a 15-minute break between rounds.

For the entire nine ball event, the average match was close to 1:30.

IMO, if its a straight shot it's your mechanics. If it's a cut shot with spin, it's 50/50 either way. The reason is, nothing moves straight, and you need to predict all of the reactions between tip and cb, cb and cloth, cb and ob. If one prediction is a hair off, the shot will miss.

I had a shot where for years I was inconsistent at. Then Bassavich came to my local room and did a clinic, and afterward someone asked him about a shot. He demoed it and showed how to aim it. It clicked that I had been aiming it all wrong all those years, and maybe my arm was moving sideways to "fix" the wrong aim. Now years later, I know how to aim that shot and my arm goes straighter and I'm more successful pocketing it.

PS, I'm not talking about all the cte stuff. I just mean knowing how the balls all move sideways, and adjusting for a thinner or fatter initial aim to compensate.

I play for about 15 yrs. I have a 9 ft table in my basement.
I just finished my 2nd hour session with an instructor.
My biggest mistake is i didnt took lessons 15 yrs ago. My mechanichs were not solid.
Specially PSR.