List of players for U. S. Nationals

The simplicity and static nature of always having 3 balls within the 2d playing surface is what makes the game so appealing, imo.

(Though I did jump the edge of a ball once and got the NO frown😬)

Carom games can use 3 or 4 balls and each player has his one cb for the whole game.

3balls is usually 3 cushion and 4 balls is usually straight rail.

Player must make his ball strike the other 2. In three cushion, one must strike the 2nd ball after contacting 3+ rails with cb to score. In straight rail, one must contact the 2 red balls without contacting the other player's cb with his own cb.

Super simple, infinitely complex.

No ball in hand, no hangers!
Usually is Incorrect in general!

'Korean' straight rail is played with 4 balls!

Are Junior players being set up for a tough life?

The horrible notion that champions are born, not made, haunts me. In my deepest heart lurks the idea that champion pool players spring up like a jack-in-the-box in their mid teen years. They simply have it from day one. Hoppe was champion of the world at sixteen. Jimmy Moore, age nineteen, was Michigan state champion in 1929 after having played pool for one year. Ralph Greenleaf, at the top of his game, in an exhibition match lost to a high school student. Mark Wilson tells us that Justin Bergman and Justin Hall were terrors on the table about the time they got their learner’s permits. Jimmy Caras’s father would put him up against guests at his hotel when Jimmy was still in school. Shannon Daulton…well, enough said. We all know the story about Billy Incardona taking Mike Sigel to one of the Carolina’s to play a teenaged Earl. Jean Balukas said her father and Frank McGowan didn’t show her how to play. She simply learned herself.

I once heard the following single side of a phone conversation at a pool tournament. An unknown backer is sitting behind me. His cell phone rings. “Hello, Mrs. Smith…yes, Jimmy is with me. We’re in Lexington, Kentucky….You see Mrs. Smith, we don’t always know until late where we’re going to take Jimmy, so we can’t always say….oh, we’re very concerned about Jimmy’s education as well. That’s why we always get back by Monday morning. We don’t want Jimmy missing any classes. We know his graduating is very important…etc.”. I’ll let you figure out how old Jimmy was and how well he played pool.

In short, if you’re not beating the world after three years of devoting yourself to pool, you’re not going to be at the top of the heap.

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