sudocrushms said:

Said it before so i'll keep it brief: Europe can easily field 3 teams that could be the Americans.

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Maybe, but you can only play five!

Looking at Fargo, the next best five the US could field would be Mike Deschaine, Justin Bergman, Oscar Dominguez, Anthony Meglino and Tony Chohan. Lukas is much further down on Fargo, but he'd be a candidate for the team, too. Not awful, but definitely a big underdog.


That said, I think the current Team USA would stack up just fine against a second or third Team Europe. They would also stack up fine with all but the top Asian team imo.

Europe could field a second team of FSR, Kaci, Ouschan, Wojciech Szewczyk and Kazakis. I think Team USA would only be slight underdogs, at worst. Albin and Kaci have slipped, and FSR and Kaci have both been shaky in team events.

A third Team Europe would be Zielinski, Niels Feijin, Max Lechner, Daniel Maciol and Kledio Kaci. Team USA stacks up just fine with them.

Moving on to Asia.

Team 1: Ko brothers, Yapp, Biado, Chua. They would crush Team USA.

Team 2: Raga, Magpantay, Duong, Oi, Robbie Capito. Team USA would be even odds imo, and favorites on home soil.

Team 3: Wu Kun Lin, Jin Hu Dang, Jefrey Roda, Chang Yu Lung, Regalario. Team USA would be the favorites.

Team 4: Lee Van Corteza, Roland Garcia, Ignacio, Aranas, Harry Vargara. Team USA would be favorites.

jbart65 said:

Yes, I verify everything. One great thing about AI is it gives all the original sources for its info. I cross check against those sources or other sources.

I not only lived thru the dotcom bubble, by the way, I covered and wrote about it as a journalist.

Lot of speculation, to be sure, and lots of failed companies (Pets.com, Wortldcom, Enron, etc). But the fiber got laid and used, the Internet became huge, and it fundamentally altered the U.S. and global economies.

Some companies - Amazon anybody - even became big and enriched a lot of people. In any case, the stock market only took a few years to recover.

But yes, we have gone astray. Back to pool.

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The difference between the explosion of the Internet and "AI" is "AI" doesn't actually exist. It's just clever software and brute force compute. There's nothing really revolutionary about it except the money being sunk into it (see the OpenAI, Oracle, NVIDIA circle jerk). Those platforms have their uses, but as humans do: we'll just use it to generate memes, skim intellectual property, and break our trust in reality. The environmental, economic, IP, and adjacent implications far outweigh its use.
That's all i have to say 'bout that.


Back on topic: Who do we got for the first matches today? Team is always a tossup, but the first doubles match is gonna be huge. If Fedor and SVB can't win that one, the US is in trouble early. I think it's 3-1 Europe at the end of the day.

They could just sit in a glass display case.

Yes, I verify everything. One great thing about AI is it gives all the original sources for its info. I cross check against those sources or other sources.

I not only lived thru the dotcom bubble, by the way, I covered and wrote about it as a journalist.

Lot of speculation, to be sure, and lots of failed companies (Pets.com, Wortldcom, Enron, etc). But the fiber got laid and used, the Internet became huge, and it fundamentally altered the U.S. and global economies.

Some companies - Amazon anybody - even became big and enriched a lot of people. In any case, the stock market only took a few years to recover.

But yes, we have gone astray. Back to pool.

SSDiver2112 said:

Decided to make a similar set for my new cue.

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Those are beautiful. Do you do commissions for joint protectors? Wouldn't mind a set for my Virtuoso.

garczar said:

And some our losses have been a 'tad' one-sided, didn't get to 6 seven times and only got to 3 three times. Pretty shitty record to be brutally honest.

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Said it before so i'll keep it brief: Europe can easily field 3 teams that could beat the Americans.

Asia could field half a dozen teams...at least...
(Preaching to the choir, i know)

MJL said:

BTW, that same table, Toulet Pantheon, is up for auction again on Dec 13, 2025, however at a reduced starting bid of $20,000.

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I think you did much better with your score. You purchased a classic American beauty.

jax_joe said:

Basic set from Baxter to match my cue's wood, ring, and horn:

View attachment 845301

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I've got a similar set of Baxter JPs for my Schon.

SSDiver2112 said:

No pictures but I have seen some bent pins.

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I've got a buddy that has a pretty nice Viking that was dropped and the pin is a little off. He was able to mate the shaft to the butt to get it pretty close to straight.

jay helfert said:

Good news. It's all tied up! Team USA is hanging in there so far.

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Is it zero - zero? At work

That explains why the video wouldn't play for me. Fuck Facebook.

garczar said:

And some our losses have been a 'tad' one-sided, didn't get to 6 seven times and only got to 3 three times. Pretty shitty record to be brutally honest.

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Wow, that is really, really bad. Ten out of eighteen matches we got crushed. And only three matches we won. So that means Team US was only competitive in five other Cups (six or more wins). To me losing 11-6 or 11-7 is not really that close anyway. 11-8 or better and it's a good match. Wonder how many went that far?

ThePitster said:

Interestingly, the UK sports betting offer USA at 2-1, with Europe obviously favourites at 2-5.

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I like taking the odds on the final score, 11-6 or 11-7. You're still getting 3.5-1 on your money. I think I like Jayson at 11-4 and Moritz at 5-1 in singles. Europe at 250 to win 100 is not bad either.

jay helfert said:

You are correct. Team USA has won three of the last eighteen MC's. I wouldn't be bragging about a 3-15 record though. That equates to a one in six chance for Team USA overall. In other words calling them a 6-1 underdog is about right.

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Interestingly, the UK sports betting offer USA at 2-1, with Europe obviously favourites at 2-5.