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What do you change first when the break keeps coming up dry?

KINGSCOURT905
Bob Jewett said:
I suspect the RAM shot, used on power shots and especially the break shot, has not yet gotten into Canada.

I think many of the suggestions made here are of very little value if it's the opponent racking on the typical pitted bar table with the typical worn and maybe mismatched object balls. In such a situation, every rack is going to be different -- different gaps in different places. In such a situation, I think the best you can do is learn to hit the head ball perfectly full, as hard as possible, and with almost no spin. And ask your opponent to at least get the front ball frozen against its neighbors.
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Fair point on the rack — most nights I'm on a bar box with worn balls, so that tracks. Hitting it full and hard with no spin is basically what I've been trying to stick to.
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What do you change first when the break keeps coming up dry?

gregcantrall
Bob Jewett said:
I suspect the RAM shot, used on power shots and especially the break shot, has not yet gotten into Canada.

I think many of the suggestions made here are of very little value if it's the opponent racking on the typical pitted bar table with the typical worn and maybe mismatched object balls. In such a situation, every rack is going to be different -- different gaps in different places. In such a situation, I think the best you can do is learn to hit the head ball perfectly full, as hard as possible, and with almost no spin. And ask your opponent to at least get the front ball frozen against its neighbors.
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Given those conditions were My battleground nightly, I developed the habit of inspection of the rack before my 8 ball break. The really obscene racks were asked to adjust. Smaller gaps were just noted and possibly adjusted for. 🤷‍♂️ Less skilled bad rack artists would leave a gap between head and a second ball. My experience was that gap allowed easier exit for the 8 ball to that side pocket. Didn't mean it would go just had a better chance. 🤷‍♂️ A few times the rack artists knew what they had done and even asked if they should fix it. "No that's fine like that", would be my cordial reply.
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What do you change first when the break keeps coming up dry?

gregcantrall
KINGSCOURT905 said:
Does that second-ball look change much for you when the cloth plays fast versus slow and shaggy?
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🤔 The bite in the cloth effects how whitey comes off the second ball to the side rail.
How the different tables break is a wide spectrum.
Long ago and when I was hitting them good, I had a tournament where my first break brought the 8 out and it hit the rail just above the side. My second break I adjusted my input to whitey and the 8 came out good and hit just below the side. My 3rd break had a minor adjustment again and the 8 came out and straight at the heart of the side pocket. A few inches out a stray ball got in the way. 🤷‍♂️
So I start the same on new equipment regardless of the cloth. If I play long enough I might be able to adjust to the equipment. Might!!! 🤷‍♂️
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The Straightness Checker Rollers are not a reliable way to test for straightness, in my opinion.

F
To get the best look at the straightness of a cue, I roll it on my table in the dark, with a bright little LED light behind it. With my cheek on the table, EVERY little gap or wobble along the entire length is visible. Any variation one can't see this way seems highly irrelevant. In addition, while somewhat crude, I use standard playing cards like feeler gauges to judge the amount of gap or change in taper. Each card is typically 0.3mm. Slide in the gap to block the light without moving the cue makes a decent estimate.
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The Straightness Checker Rollers are not a reliable way to test for straightness, in my opinion.

H
vintagecollectibles831 said:
Why is it that when I spin the full cue on the rollers, it looks very warped, but when I roll the cue on a pool table, it appears to be pretty straight, overall? I already know the answer, lol. It is because the slightest bit of so called warp, in the cue, makes the entire cue appear to be extremely warped, when spun on those rollers.

And, this is due to a credit card (or less) thickness lift, up near the joint, on the pool cue butt.

I am just so angry. This ebay buyer is telling me that I sent him a cue with a really bad wobble, which is completely untrue. When I showed a video of how the cue rolls on a pool table, which is pretty straight, overall, without any wobble, and very slight movement in the shaft, which the video showed. I also explained the very slight movement in my description.
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In my experience, a cue always "looks" straighter when rolled on the table and it's usually because the tip and some part of the butt make contact first on the table, gravity then pulls the rest of the shaft closer to the table by a hair (basically, the weight of the cue is pulling the cue shaft towards table slightly when rolled). IMO best way to check for straight: 1. roll the shaft on a set of rollers. 2. Roll the butt on a set of rollers 3. place 1 roller towards the front of the butt and one roller towards the end of the butt and spin the full cue (no roller on the shaft). #1 shows you how straight or round your shaft is, #2 does the same for the butt and #3 tells you if you have a minor joint facing issue or maybe a bent of offset pin.
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