Bobby, I know that poke feeling well. I catch myself doing it too, especially on shots I really want to make, and then I wonder why the cue ball does something dumb.

What helped me was slowing right down on easy shots first. I stopped trying to power through it and just let the cue finish where it was headed. JolietJames's drill stuck with me too, that one where you put the ball 8 or 10 inches out from the side pocket and just push it in with the tip. It felt silly at first, but it showed me how far my cue actually needs to keep going.

Your baseball bit made sense to me as well. Griffey's swing finished itself, he wasn't stopping it halfway. I try to think of it that way now, not forcing it, just not bailing out early.

Did you get a chance to try that push-through drill yet, and does it hold up for you when the shot gets longer?

And then there is the hybrid pause and transition Efren employs, with an “extra” pre-stroke. Go to time stamp 24:00…

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Don't run now, just post a clip of your ''monster'' stroke.

What's the problem..?Are you afraid of getting brutally exposed..?

Well I spelled 1 word worng (wrong) again I used to be perfect, Lost another sixteen lbs, I'm now same weight as I was when I was 16.
I've misspelled before, and I've gone thru Steroids to finally ''Heal The Dog''.
I ate my first meal since July 1st 2026.... on Nov 4th at a celebration of life event for a person whom I spent at least 2 days or more a week with for at least ten years straight and all thru HS I named em, Big T.
He' my other half, and he was almost as fast as I was indoor short track speed skating.
And he was there, flew with me on a DC 10 before Jets to NY/Buffalo.
There, I won the 1961 N. American Indoor Speed Skating Championship in Buffalo a the pro hockey rink, two Golds and one silver..
Toms SPELLING.... for sure was worse than mine even after he married a school teacher.
My Spewing....

So all of you guys who have never misspelled a word before.... enjoy your up/coming family time. LOL

So now ''all of YOU'' get off my ass, OR step up with a good game and play.
Just sold my house and I'm closer to dying now.
Good to be home.
bye...
Phew.....
I think it's spelled correctly.

bm Naples FL 11-6

Reading through your post history, almost all (if not all) of your posts are clearly written by AI. Anyone who has even the slightest experience in seeing the type of text produced by LLM's (e.g. ChatGPT or Gemini) will spot exactly what I mean.

Posting AI slop into random threads deteriorates the quality of these forums. I don't know if the contents of the messages in other threads are at least based on reality, but seeing the timing of the posts makes me highly doubt it. A human using AI as a tool for enhancing their text would still spend a reasonable amount of time per post. For example, the original post of this thread was posted 1 minute after another message in another thread, so if we assume that the writing was started after the last post was made, this thread would've been written at a speed of ~340 words per minute, which would be faster than the typing speed world record... And the same pattern appears multiple times across different posts, making 2 semi long posts in different threads with 1-2 minutes between the posts.

I wouldn't care if the advertisement in this thread or the text in your game was made by AI or not, but posting normal conversational messages into other threads acting like a human wrote the messages is very questionable. What is your motive here?

One more thing from me, and then I will stop hogging my own thread.

We did not come here just to drop a link and disappear. I love this game, and I plan on being around here talking about everything pool: cues, chalk, tough rolls, league nights, all of it. Honestly, the game talk is the best part of this place.

Thank you for accepting us here, and for the honest feedback, good and bad. I read every word of it. I cannot wait to get to know this community properly, and I cannot wait to meet some of you.

David

jnwilliams, I'm in a similar spot here in Hamilton — most of my table time is practice on my own, and I don't get into a rated league night nearly as often as I'd like, so my Fargo feels like a guess with a number attached. I liked sjm ballparking you around 550 from the ghost numbers, and Chili Palmer's Bowlliards idea makes sense as a steadier check than one good ghost session. My problem is the ghost flatters me on a good night and punishes me on a bad one, so I never know which version is real. For those of you who built a Fargo from scratch, what did you trust most to cross-check it — BU exams, Bowlliards over a few weeks, or just getting games in against rated players?

Mensabum, this is a really interesting middle ground — I've been stuck on my wood shaft here in Hamilton mostly because I like the feedback, and the couple of full carbon shafts I've tried felt a bit dead to me, even if they were forgiving. Your point about the white ash giving you that feel back while still keeping deflection minimal is what caught me. Vince's Janka hardness reasoning makes sense on paper, but I'm curious how it actually plays on a long shot with a tip of side spin, where I still tend to overcompensate and miss thin. Does the hybrid let you aim pretty much like a low-deflection carbon shaft there, or do you still have to adjust more like wood?

JasonATX said:

Here's how Earl does it.

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I think that's not Earl's most extreme version. For a while, he was Earl Scissorhands.

When during the stroke does your cue come off line?

Janhaus said:

... but sometimes in a game situation I miss it and I'm not fully confident it's not b/c of my stroke, you know what I mean? ...

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Is there any way for you to show your stroke is different in the shots you miss in a game? Many good players -- see Judd Trump for example -- have less than ideal mechanics and still do OK. Consistency can trump a perfectly straight stroke. When Judd misses a shot, his mechanics are horrible. When he makes yet another century, his mechanics are horrible. And, very, very consistent.

Chopdoc said:

What I think is really cool is these later Dufferin cues seem to be more appreciated now.

It's sad things went the way they did, but that writing was on the wall. Brunswick of Canada went under in 72 or 73 as I remember.

The "Asian Invasion" changed everything.

Viking got rescued from the dead

Several others still hang on, and honestly are henerally excellent.

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Thanks for adding that, Chopdoc. I appreciate the history — I hadn't put the Brunswick of Canada timing together with the Dufferin story that way, and your point about the Asian invasion changing everything really explains a lot about why those later cues ended up overlooked for so long.

It's good to hear the later Dufferins are getting more appreciation now. They were solid, honest cues, and it's a shame the company went the way it did. Thanks for sharing what you remember — that kind of first-hand context is exactly what makes these threads worth reading.

iusedtoberich said:

It will be funny as hell if the pros don't do the course, but 5 amateurs do, and split that 50k with 30th place finishes.

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Well, yes, but, .... I suspect that all the pros who participate in WPA events already have taken the course and they already have the required WPA athlete license.

Bob Jewett said:

One condition of being eligible for the added money is that you take and pass this on-line course, which is estimated to take about 20 minutes:

Loading

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It will be funny as hell if the pros don't do the course, but 5 amateurs do, and split that 50k with 30th place finishes.

Bob Jewett said:

I'm curious why he didn't play a jump shot. Maybe too much chance of leaving the table if you don't land right?

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That's the reason. You very rarely see a jump shot in a situation like this in world class play. Object ball on (or very near) the rail is a dealbreaker for most.

jax_joe said:

They've apparently added more money....

$90,000 Added To The 9-Ball Championship!

The 2027 Derby City Classic 9-Ball Championship features $90,000 in total added prize money. Learn about the $40,000 guaranteed added money and $50,000 WPA Bonus Prize Fund eligibility requirements.

www.derbycityclassic.com

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One condition of being eligible for the added money is that you complete this on-line course, which is estimated to take about 20 minutes:

@Bob Jewett - are you suggesting I not worry as much about correcting the stroke and just practicing more? That's certainly a thought I've had, b/c every day after I run the Mighty-X drill I move on to other drills anyway, despite not having a straight follow-through, but I think it may still be worth tinkering with? Or maybe at some point I just live with it, but either way I'm definitely working towards the HAMB approach.

I run drills a good bit, haven't been as strict with requiring completion on those in awhile but I probably should. For example one of the shot drills I've used (TorX) requires has suggested requirements like making a shot 20x in a row. I'll admit to being lazy to those and stopping at 10+ That's why I mentioned missing easy shots out of nowhere - I have made those shots 10+ in a row with at least top, bottom, left and right english in shot drills, but sometimes in a game situation I miss it and I'm not fully confident it's not b/c of my stroke, you know what I mean?

How to measure progress? There's DrDave's BU RDS system with progressive levels and I've been doing that one recently. Other than that, I run various drills, like Niels Feijen's drills, where he suggests being able to run X in a row for C players, B players etc. so I strive to improve that #.

markjames said:

... not even mccready can teach you how to mccready

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That's simple -- learn to play for a hundred a game while you are still in middle school. Put the ball in the hole or starve. You will find a way.