Followup on 18-year-old Harrison Leinen - 'Hank the Tank.' He lost 8-7 to German journeyman Clemens Ebert and was ousted from the U.S. Open.

Leinen might be the most promising under-20 U.S. player I have seen in quite some time. I still hold out hope for Sam Henderson.

Lots of positives about Leinen. Good break. Lots of power. Plenty of finesse. Draws effortlessly. Solid pattern play. He’s also a patient shooter who doesn’t rush things like so many young players.

He has two big flaws from what I can see.

He struggles a bit on long, somewhat straight shots. That suggests he’s not the straightest shooter and needs to fine-tune his fundamentals.

His kicking and safety play are also subpar. He missed a half-dozen kicks attempting to get out of safeties. He ended up giving ball in hand.

His safety play was questionable. There were a few times he made head-scratching decisions that resulted in his opponents getting easy shots.

When he made smart safety choices, he often underhit the ball or overran his mark.

Perhaps it was his unfamiliarity with the speed of WNT tables, but he’s played in the last four WNT events in the U.S.

Frosty said:

I watch it for its beauty, the same reason that I play it. Second guessing and multiple looks of those that need to look 5 times at the obvious ruin that beauty. Often they’re just time bandits attempting to get in their opponents heads. Some like Moritz are just anal retentive OCD types that don’t trust in their training and instincts.

You say you want to get better? You’re learning bad habits watching players like that. In some disciplines like 1 pocket, shots require more reflection, as they’re a myriad of factors that affect shot selection. 9 ball is pool by number, you know what ball you’re on and the the accompanying order after that, there’s nothing to agonize over or look at 17 times.

Again, what some kindly call “deliberate players” in rotation games, are those that use it as gamesmanship or those that don’t trust their instincts & training and what they’re eyes are showing them, neither of these is something to aspire to.

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i lean towards your position, but i'm not quite as categorical

cueguy said:

Is SIB still in business? The web site is suspended and can't find them out there.
Ideas?

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Curious about this myself.

CocoboloCowboy said:

Pool has never been more than recreation, or maybe playing in a $5.00 Entry Fee Tournament. As I get older I feel lucky to be able to find someone to play with that likes One Pocket. I play to win, enjoy winning, but if I loose I lost nothing more then bragging rights.


Do not understand all the people who have to gamble, bet in action, as gambling has never been my thing. Use to play Football Cards during College & NFL season never won more then I lost, but it was fun to try, and predict winner for $1.00.


My neighbor landlord use to do the Santa Anita, Hollywood Park , and Vegas all the time. He said he never lost, but I question why he live in / managed apartments, and drove 8 year old Buick.


One day he & his wife had returned from Vegas after a big weekend of winning he said. I said Jack you are full of crap, there are two kings of gamblers, losers, liars, and no one ever win all the time.


BTW is the Horseshoe on Fremont still the Horseshoe, or because you killed the place are you new owner. Does the building say Jack’s Place?





JMHO

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You're shaming a guy for an 8 year old Buick?

If you have a quick change tool post, I use these. Easy to sharpen.

I haven't played against family or friends recently. If I did, I'd play off-hand, or banks and kicks only.

If you don't mind being brutal, you can play all safeties against them until they get frustrated and give up.

Great venue.., great players.., free spectator admission.., free collectible posters...

Past Turning Stone Classic Winners
Turning Stone Classic I – Mika Immonen
Turning Stone Classic II – Francisco Bustamante
Turning Stone Classic III – Charlie Williams
Turning Stone Classic IV – Steve Tavernier
Turning Stone Classic V – Francisco Bustamante
Turning Stone Classic VI – Thorsten Hohmann
Turning Stone Classic VII – Johnny Archer
Turning Stone Classic VIII – Johnny Archer
Turning Stone Classic IX – Lee Van Corteza
Turning Stone Classic X – Johnny Archer
Turning Stone Classic XI – Johnny Archer
Turning Stone Classic XII – Ralf Souquet
Turning Stone Classic XIII – Oscar Dominguez
Turning Stone Classic XIV – Johnny Archer
Turning Stone Classic XV – Johnny Archer
Turning Stone Classic XVI – Corey Deuel
Turning Stone Classic XVII – Rodney Morris
Turning Stone Classic XVIII – Shane Van Boening
Turning Stone Classic XIX – Mike Dechaine
Turning Stone Classic XX – Shane Van Boening
Turning Stone Classic XXI – Earl Strickland
Turning Stone Classic XXII – Jayson Shaw
Turning Stone Classic XXIII – Jayson Shaw
Turning Stone Classic XXIV – Jayson Shaw
Turning Stone Classic XXV – Mika Immonen
Turning Stone Classic XXVI – Jayson Shaw
Turning Stone Classic XXVII – Jayson Shaw
Turning Stone Classic XXVIII – Shane Van Boening
Turning Stone Classic XXIX – Billy Thorpe
Turning Stone Classic XXX – Shane Van Boening
Turning Stone Classic XXXI – Jayson Shaw
Turning Stone Classic XXXII – Shane Van Boening
Turning Stone Classic XXXIII – Shane Van Boening
Turning Stone Classic XXXIV – Jayson Shaw
Turning Stone Classic XXXV – Jayson Shaw
Turning Stone Classic XXXVI – Jayson Shaw
Turning Stone Classic XXXVII – Fedor Gorst
Turning Stone Classic XXXVIII – Fedor Gorst
Turning Stone Classic XXXIX – Moritz Neuhausen
Turning Stone Classic XL – Lee Van Corteza
Turning Stone Classic XLI – John Morra

BarenbruggeCues said:

May as well just use a 5% cobalt. Doesn't matter what you use you'll have to sharpen it.
Carbide is much harder to put an edge on unless you have the correct sharpening

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Thanks Dave, Any leads on one? I am sick of this style. they will barely scratch phenolic without burning and they dull so fast on any thing else it's a pain in the ass. I can sharpen my carbide tools. So I'd prefer carbide.

Michael Webb said:

Is that one used for cutting off or trimming the sides of tips?

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Cutting off. Any suggestions on a carbide alternative for cutting/parting would be very much appreciated.

jbart65 said:

You can never take one match as a definitive assessment of talent and talent gaps. Bergman this year has beaten Joshua Filler, Carlo Biado, David Alcaide, Wojciech Szewczyk, Quoc Hoang Duong and Arseni Sevastyanov.

In the PLP, he also won races to 5 vs Aloysius Yapp, AJ Manas and Kledio Kaci.

Any European who ends up on the Mosconi team will be better than Bergman. But Bergman is good enough to be competitive. The U.S. just needs players 4 and 5 to hold their own.

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Bergman handled Bergman!

jbart65 said:

Now that I think of it, Frazer didn't say if it was 1,000 total including all weekend sessions. Or 1,000 for any one weekend event. Maybe it's several hundred apiece for different sessions. So cumulatively 1,000.

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And you need to include 254 players who might want to watch the finals. And maybe their guests.

Jaden said:

Instead I engineered screw in extensions in solidworks through several iterations, and 3d printed them in solid ASA. printing and adjusting in solidworks as necessary.

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On the one hand, I love that. On the other hand, I want a pool table built by the Amish with no power tools. A conundrum.

One other thing on Sky. He lost to Manny Perez 9-7 in his first match. Turns out Sky and Manny lived together for "three or four years," in Woodward's words. Woodward also said he scratched on the break four times in the match.

Bob Jewett said:

If they are going to seat 1000 spectators, they will have to quadruple the current bleacher seating, which is about 270.

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Now that I think of it, Frazer didn't say if it was 1,000 total including all weekend sessions. Or 1,000 for any one weekend event. Maybe it's several hundred apiece for different sessions. So cumulatively 1,000.

Bob Jewett said:

If they are going to seat 1000 spectators, they will have to quadruple the current bleacher seating, which is about 270.

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That has to be the plan, right? They don't have the premium seating set up yet, so I just assumed the configuration would change. Maybe today.

jbart65 said:

... The weekend crowd could rival Hanoi in numbers and energy, with 1,000 tickets sold.

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If they are going to seat 1000 spectators, they will have to quadruple the current bleacher seating, which is about 270.
Edit: 255.

Remarkably candid remarks from Sklyer Woodward about his poor play recently. This what he told a WNT interviewer after a win yesterday.

“It feels good to actually practice for a week. I can show up at a tournament and actually start off playing good instead of trying to play myself into stroke, like I have been the last year or two.

Just telling the truth. It actually does feel good to be playing good the whole time instead of up and down. It’s nice."

Woodward said he was upset at his poor play and early exit from the Arizona Open. He recounted his reaction:

“Well, I said a few nasty words. I called my wife, and said, look, babe, clear my pool table off. When I get home. it’s all on. I’m practicing.

I haven’t had motivation since before Covid, really. I don’t know what it is. It finally triggered me. It feels good to actually want to play pool again instead of just show up at the tournament and play. I can get in stroke within in a couple of matches, but it feels good to practice and feel way more confident and comfortable over the ball."