Waxing the cue ball? WTF is Kaci talking about now?

World number six Eklent Kaci has called for any player caught cheating to be banned for a long time after the cue ball behaved in a strange fashion at the World Pool Championship.

Kaci, who was beaten in the final in Saudi Arabia last time around at the hands of world number one Fedor Gorst, exited the tournament in the last 32 at the hands of world number 61 Patric Gonzales.

Gonzales was amongst seven Filipino players to book their places into the World Championship last 16, joining the likes of Carlo Biado, Anton Raga, Jefrey Roda and James Aranas at the business end.

However, Albania’s Kaci raised his concerns via social media following his abrupt exit and fuelled the strong rumours that certain Filipino players have been waxing the cue ball in some manner.

“I lost in the last 32 against one of the 30 Filipinos in the tournament,” Kaci began. “[There was a] weird cue ball, it was all over the place.

“I think the cue ball was waxed real bad, and I think whoever gets caught doing it should get banned for enough time for their gloves, towel and whatever to get real dry.”

Kaci later added: “I’m not complaining because I lost. It’s not my first time and it’s not going to be my last time losing that’s for sure.

“My mind says that the cue ball was playing different, compared to my previous three matches, where the start of the match plays just fine, and then mid-match until the end tables and balls play tougher and tougher.

“Last match I had too many over-draw shots, playing a safe shot, aiming half of the ball with english, and didn’t even hit the ball, missed lots of shots by a mile where english was needed, out of position totally sometimes.

“Even if nothing wrong was with that cue ball, I still think that the authorities in charge about this stuff should take this seriously. It has happened many times in many tournaments, where lots of players have complained about it and no one has gotten punished. It will keep happening from one or another.”

Kaci’s concerns come following the cue ball behaving oddly in Jeffrey Ignacio’s 11-10 win over Aloysius Yapp, with world number two Yapp putting ‘wax on, wax off’ on his Instagram story post-match.

Yapp has since apologised for that quip and who it may have affected. But he also said: “We players are letting the relevant authorities handle it now. Whatever the verdict may be, we players we accept it.”

Yapp added: “It’s basically impossible for a cue ball to be slicker at the end than at the start after 21 racks of play, with the refs sweaty palms and humidity in the room too.”

World Pool Championships 2025, July 21-26, Jeddah

Emily Fraser talking about the Reyes Cup will be Asia vs the World this year.

It shouldn't be Asia vs the World, it should be the Philippines vs the World, or stop calling it the Reyes cup.

The Philippines can take on the rest of the world.

not a fan of that format change. but on the other hand US players would never get to go to the reyes cup, which after all is a perk for the tour players.

more important is what money is in play?

Players cue vs Players pure x

I have a 35+ year old Players plain Jane cue, butt finished to look like ebony, cost me $40 when I bought it new. It was my player for almost 10 years. Butt is straighter now, after all these years, than my $1600 'custom' ebony cue player, with beautiful recon stone inlays, which is only about 10 years old. The Players cue became my break cue, when I started finishing CF blanks into completed shafts. It's now my 'house' break cue, and still almost dead straight in the butt. I liked it with the factory (no-tech) shaft when it was my player, but you can get used to just playing with just about anything. My next player after that was a Predator PJ cue, with the first gen 314 shafts. Bottom line for me: If Players and their 'PureX' line are still as good or better than they used to be years ago, in terms of QC, their sticks should last and stay straight for decades - IF you take proper care. That means never leaving them in the trunk of your car, and minding that they don't get beat up while in use. Haven't seen any real inlays in them yet, but some of the decal designs are so good that I WISH they were real inlays. Have had at least one cue maker eyeing one of mine to figure out if the design was 'overlay' or inlay. The finish on them is so good though, that they will look good for decades - again, if you take care. I have four different PureX designs on hand right now, just so I can offer a newbie a very good looking and good finish quality cue, with a LD CF shaft, for far less than they'd pay for a new Predator or Cuetec.

As for the HXT shafts: They aren't as low deflection as the best LD offerings from Predator, Cuetec, et al, but I'd say they are about 80-90% as good. Certainly way better than a NO-tech shaft but again, you can learn to shoot lights out pool even with a NO-tech shaft, as long as you've gotten used to how much that shaft deflects on various speed/spin shots and you adjust your aim accordingly.

The person who's question you replied to has not been on AZB since 2018 LOL I was wondering why there was a notification on a 7 yr old post.

World Pool Championships 2025, July 21-26, Jeddah

I wasn't able to watch a lot of the games so far, but just looking at the draw and reading through the thread here, a few thoughts came to my mind:

First, even a mediocre playing Gorst is still strong enough to beat most of the players out there. And eventhough snooker comparisons often don't fit very well with pool, this reminds me of Ronnie, who often had slow starts into a WC, a few scares on the way and in the end still played the best when it most mattered.

Second, eventhough guys like Albin, SVB or Filler went out early. There are three world champions still left in the tournament, which shows that there is something special about this typ of players when it most matters.

Third, after the Philipines Poland might be the country with the highest density of pool talent today. And still...somehow they always fall short on the biggest stage.

And last but not least, every WC in the past years has this one player like Ameer this year, relatively unknown but plays great and with a lot of heart but sadly in the end it is one of the big names who takes the trophy home. I wonder if we will see the new Daryl Peach this year.

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