I played on a 1 pocket GC3 at a room in Philly 2 weeks ago. It was triple shimmed to 4.5" pockets (or possibly extended rails, I'm not sure). It was the main action table front and center. This used to be the "standard" for one-hole play.

I played 5 9 ball sets on it. Both me and my opponent were playing out of our minds and running out like water. It might have been the best I played in a year.

What struck me is when a ball brushes the rail a bit, it still goes on this table. On a Diamond Pro-Cut 4.5" pocket, with its different facing angles and deeper shelf, it rejects those same balls. (I already knew this, but this particular 9 ball session really reinforced it).

Going from a 4.5" GC to a 4.5" Diamond already increased the pocket difficulty by a large amount. Now that Diamonds are the standard table, taking them down to 4", 4 1/8", or 4 1/4" pockets for one pocket play is needless imo. It makes it TOO difficult.

straightline said:

To you. I have no ingrained gamesmanship and welcome the difficulty. To me it's a productive endeavor. There for sure is more shooting to learn than being a gamester allows.

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What degree of tightest are you speaking of?

IMO, you can go too far and ruin the game — you have to be able to work the CB a bit for position to play real pool. If it’s all about just pocketing the ball you lose that.

There needs to be balance between pocketing balls with accuracy and enough room to work the CB, IMO.

Lou Figueroa

lfigueroa said:

Uber tight pockets change/ruin the game.

Lou Figueroa

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To you. I have no ingrained gamesmanship and welcome the difficulty. To me it's a productive endeavor. There for sure is more shooting to learn than being a gamester allows.