ShootingArts said:

Abel,

As others have put more gently, you are trying to fly when you haven't reached a high speed crawl yet. If you spend five to ten percent of your time working on the masse shot and the rest on fundamentals you will be best off. Right now it is like you are trying to pitch major league when you can't throw a baseball fifty feet yet.

Start working on pocketing balls and working on speed and angles for shape with sidespin being a last resort.

Learn the basics and the more advanced techniques will be a natural progression. Try to skip over or not thoroughly learn the basics and the gaps in your pool education will bite you for years to come.

Good Luck and Have Fun!

Hu

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Thanks for your input. I have played pool for the last 15 years, just haven't lived where there is league play. They bring people in at a 3 or a 1 out here, and so I said 3. Moved up to 4 in 6 matches. I'm not sure what level I am for sure, but I feel solid on my fundamentals, regardless.

@slide13 Thanks for your perspective. what firmness is your Kamui black; ss/s/m/h?

couldnthinkof01 said:

Did you just get the apple green installed?

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About 18 months ago.

And the pic is from 3-4 years ago.

I used to get new cloth about every year.

I usually alternated between Apple Green and Powder Blue.

Chi-Rack said:

Hello. I'm new to the site. This is a very informative forum and the genuine friendships and generosity between contributors is wonderful. The reason I'm here is that I recently got a set of 2 1/16" clay agate balls. Pictured below.

I can't find any history of these. View attachment 794101K2K alludes to turn of the century but exactly when and what gives them their unique colors? Any information or even book recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

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These balls are "speckled," not "agate." Speckled balls look like a Robin's egg, one color like a blue 2 ball with white specks. Your balls to look to have a tiny amount of other color specks as you may notice on your 9 ball. But on most of your balls you need reading glasses to see anything but white specks. Agate balls do not have specks within an overall solid color. Agates are made totally of ground-up bits of multiple colors. Early 1900's Agate balls may have been an agatized mix of red and white, possibly with small amounts of other colors making an overall red or pinkish-looking design. An example set like that sold very high a few years back, in the thousands. But some nearly identical balls sold for much less as the ground up bits were so tiny that the material looked like ground beef "hamburger balls" rather than "confetti" balls.
Other Agate balls resembled the traditional 8 different ball colors that had all 8 color bits (or 9 including white bits) - a green 6 resembled a solid green ball because in addition to the other colors, much more green bits were added to create an overall green look.
Your speckled balls are also not early 1900's ....they are in 1950's catalogs and we're listed as "molded balls" and were also sold in nearly identical non-speckled sets. I have a 1950's catalog that lists molded balls in 7 or 8 different sizes, but your speckled balls were made in fewer sizes. Your balls are just as nice looking as they would be if they were the only known set. But luckily for those that want to display a set, they are on eBay frequently for relatively cheap. The most beautiful pool ball set ever made, true Agate colors with thin Compo-Ivory, Brunswick style numbers in 2-1/4" full size have sold for at least $5,000.00. Be happy in a Buddhist billiard monastery that you have never seen them. Because you would have taken out a second mortgage to outbid the man who bought them.
There is a set out there that are 2-1/4" and are white-speckled with red rings and red numbers. There is only one known complete matching set. I have only seen two loose single balls like them - check out this near-mint #7. Imagine what that set would sell for!

It appears that Bruce is writing crossword puzzles, including for the New York Times.

Orange 5-ball for life!!

Robbiecameron said:

... Our most recent Open 9 Ball tournament used a 32 minute per player match clock with each match scheduled one hour and 5 minutes apart in a race to eight (8). We used four (4) seven (7) foot Diamond tables with Simonis 860HR and Dynasphere balls. There are no “time outs” allowed. The match clock continues running.
...

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Thanks for the detailed report. That's an interesting way to handle expired times.

Hopefully he is feeling good and enjoying his life.

Frosty said:

Cheap has always been, and will always be popular with some. It’s nice that tolerances are tight, but the mention in how they “play differently” in the original post is a red flag IMO.

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It's not a red flag at all.... Just different. It's something to do with the surface finish... It's MUCH glossier than any other ball that I've seen. Because of the surface finish, the balls stay cleaner, for a MUCH longer duration than any other ball that I've used.

The difference in play is only slight. The balls tend to spin more and slide more. Much like a freshly polished set. Though, they play that way for a very long duration.

From my own personal testing:
We started playing with a set of Challengers on our shop table, back in May. We have yet to clean them, and they still look like they did on Day 1.

To compare differences, I decided to switch over to a freshly polished set of Centennials. I have put in about 3 hours of play, (on a Diamond), and have noticed that the balls have the typical black pocket markings (Diamond specific), and fingerprints (from racking). The Challengers showed none of that, in dozens of hours of play.

I have just ordered a set of Aramith Tournament Series balls, to practice for an upcoming tournament. I'll note my observations with those balls. From my past experience with them, they do not stay clean for very long, especially in comparison to the Dynasphere Challengers.

Think what you want, in regards to perceived value, based on the low price... These balls are not just an excellent value, but an excellent set of balls.

easy-e said:

Definitely not embarrassing at all! The embarrassing thing, IMO, was all of the statements about how Justin was stealing in this match. I hope everyone knows now just how good Tom is.

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Tom, Joe, and Shane, while people from here might not have heard of them, you better respect their game. All 3 are BB monsters.