My Fargorate progression

Interesting, the winner, Joshua Manual, CA, was a 548 in the tournament.

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Now he is a 560, 904 robustness. I've never heard of anyone moving up 12 points that already had 800ish robustness from a single event.

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Furthermore, one day after the tournament, he turned off his public matches. It was a requirement of the tournament for them to be on. I'd bet he turned them off right after winning to avoid anyone scrutinizing his prior matches.

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I had scrolled through some of his matches when they were public during the tournament, and it was a ton of 0-1 and 1-0 league matches.

Also interestingly, most people point to Solatto as the sandbaggers haven. Those matches are always public, can't be turned off under any circumstance. This player has not played a single Solatto match.

It would be interesting for @mikepage to do a deep dive into this tournament. It's the perfect recipe for sandbagging. High entry, 30k to the winner, encouraging professional sandbagging for the sole purpose of entering this event with a big edge.

Joshua closed out the tournament with a 2 pack to win first place (according to the write up by the TD, I didn't see it). As a 548!!! Me as a 570 I have played about a dozen 10 ball matches on stream with my local friends over the past year getting ready for this tournament. I don't think I've run 5 TOTAL break and runs of 10 ball on the barbox in that entire time.
Nice investigation, but even without all these data, I'll say it again, after 5 mins of watching him play, with his stroke and the way he cueing, I knew this guy is not 550. After seen a few racks of him playing that past tournament, I'm pretty sure he played at ~650 - 675 Fargo rate, on the barbox. This is ain't no he played the best pool of his life that weekend shit. He're got the 650+ stroke. I suspect he probably plays at ~ 630+ FR on a 9-ft table.

Some people might not be actually sandbagging their ratings. They might be taking lessons, grinding out action sets, practicing for these big tournaments.
Not saying this is the case here but, to call people out as sandbagging when you have no idea what they did in preparation isn't right either.

True. But if this Joshua Manual guy is not sandbagging, I'll quite pool tomorrow.

2026 AZB Ghost Challenge - Official Thread

I decided to video a set yesterday. 7-2 win I dogged an easy 9 ball or it would have been 7-1.
I played in a tournament a couple weeks ago and my Fargo went up to 635. 9ft Diamond 4.5 pro cut pockets.

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Nice, your rails are super bouncy haha. Think you've crushed this format 9-ball with template 1-ball on spot.
Next step up would be either triangle rack 1-ball on spot, or template rack 9-ball on spot.
Next level is no BIH after break... pass this consistently Fargo 680 will be saying hello to you soon 😅

Danny Tibbitts was inducted into the International Cuemakers Hall Of Fame.

Danny Tibbitts was inducted into the International Cuemakers Hall Of Fame. Danny started out as a carpenter and then opened his own cabinet shop. Then in 1985 he built his first pool cue. Over the next few years he honed his skills and eventually turned the cabinet shop completely into a high end cue building shop. He mastered V-groove point work with veneers to a quality few had ever seen in the late 80s and early 90s. His miters were very tight and his points longer than most others. His inlay work became some of the tightest out there. Danny used his hand wood crafting skills to do gold vine work in cues by hand. His Grecian cues with ivory vase and ivory columns with gold vine work were nice examples of how good he was at hand work on cues. He put his joint pin in the forearm first and then built the rest of the cue and all point work off that joint center. This made his points very even in length and his joints very concentric. Some of his early work can be seen in the Billiard Encyclopedia. He built cues in Woodstock, Georgia for over three decades then moved to Ellijay, Georgia where he is now semi-retired.
Danny_Tibbitts_2.jpg

Danny Tibbitts inducted into the International Cuemakers Hall Of Fame

Danny Tibbitts was inducted into the International Cuemakers Hall Of Fame. Danny started out as a carpenter and then opened his own cabinet shop. Then in 1985 he built his first pool cue. Over the next few years he honed his skills and eventually turned the cabinet shop completely into a high end cue building shop. He mastered V-groove point work with veneers to a quality few had ever seen in the late 80s and early 90s. His miters were very tight and his points longer than most others. His inlay work became some of the tightest out there. Danny used his hand wood crafting skills to do gold vine work in cues by hand. His Grecian cues with ivory vase and ivory columns with gold vine work were nice examples of how good he was at hand work on cues. He put his joint pin in the forearm first and then built the rest of the cue and all point work off that joint center. This made his points very even in length and his joints very concentric. Some of his early work can be seen in the Billiard Encyclopedia. He built cues in Woodstock, Georgia for over three decades then moved to Ellijay, Georgia where he is now semi-retired.

Danny_Tibbitts_2.jpg

"In the middle"

here how it goes in real life.

it only matters what the players put up in their own money. that is what they are really playing for.

if they have backers money then they are free rolling with nothing or little at stake.



generally the backers give a percentage to the player. some after each win. and those are the biggest suckers as they don't win often enough to break even with the payouts. and that is the way most players try to get.

the smarter backers put up all the money. but the player has to make up loses before he gets any money. and the backer makes or lets the game be played if he likes the chances. and only after a certain time period say 3 months. then they split winnings or wipe out loses and the backer leaves or starts a new deal.

usually the player gets into the backer as he borrows for expenses he needs. that is why being a backer is almost always stupid unless you can get a large enough edge to overcome all the downfalls.

for the most part backers are the biggest suckers in pool. only a smart few come out ahead.

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