My first cue from Cody Cash at PK Custom Cues

Previously (80's and 90's) I played with a lot of Meucci's, Joss, and some other more mass produced cues. I quit playing for a long time and started back a few months ago. I started reading about the different cue makers in Wichita and found this one on the route66cues site. These pics are from that site as he is a better photographer than I am. I really liked many of the Muecci cues I had and I especially liked and still own a Joss, but this one will probably end up costing me a ton in the long run. Beginning of an addiction.



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Pace of Play

Local tournaments should ALL be single elimination, luck counts, 9 ball. That's a fast game, and fast format. It also leaves open tables much earlier for regular paying customers. It also promotes action as eliminated player have time and tables to match up.

8 ball should be banned. Takes forever. Double elimination, especially TRUE double elimination, takes forever (for any game).

The priority of the TD IMO is a reasonable end time to the event.
Or the tournament could be completely mapped out before it even starts. CSI does a pretty darn good job of just that. A match starts at a certain time & it ends at a certain time. Keeps the ball rolling. Players do not have to be hanging around the tournament either just in case their match starts early. Just show up at the stated start time.

Did Adam ever build Karella cues?

Closing the loop. Just got off the phone with Don Spetkar. I forgot that I actually have his phone number and have communicated with him a few years ago about something else.

Karella Cues were never built in Japan.

This cue was an upper end model, built in Taiwan most likely, maybe late 80's. They weren't built in China until late into the company's existence. I closeup of the pin might tell us, but maybe not. Believe me when I say that at that time, the Taiwan cue company, KPS and Ernie Chen, had improved to the point that they were making some quality cues. It wasn't always like that with Ernie Chen.

Hi, thank you so much for the info. That makes perfect sense. I was researching ended ebay auctions for Karella cues, and some sellers used the name Orchid with Karella, and one of the logos that I seen said "K Orchid" on it. They were calling them Karella Orchid cues, or the other way around. I thought that some of the other Karella cues that I seen looked like a Taiwan Falcon too. I knew that Orchid cues were made by the owner of Falcon cues, and some of the Falcon cues were probably also made in his Taiwan factory. So, these Karella cues are basically Falcon cues, I guess. This one that I have sure does look high quality to me. Very nicely figured BEM forearm, with real Wooden inlays, and nice ringwork. No Overlays in this cue. 5/16x14 Piloted joint pin. The Pilot looks really big too. Thanks again for the info. I really appreciate it.

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Funny pic/gif thread...

I miss having a Labrador / lab in the house ! It could be the challenge of training them to become a hunting partner and even more so a companion animal for all reasons !
I miss getting woke up by a cold damp nose nugging my hand or whatever other part of my that isn't covered by a blanket ha ha

Another thing I miss is the look of accomplishment when they make a retrieve for the first time on a difficult bird .
I could go on and on but all that will do is possibly bore you and make me want to go get another lab puppy !

dear diary: a 14.1 journey to nowhere

You have learned some lessons well, and others not at all. I don't mean to be overly critical, but you have to work on your end pattern plans.

1. You cleared up most of the problem balls at the correct time, and in the beginning of the rack I can't really fault the way you went about things. Granted I might have done things differently, but it's a matter of taste really.

In your first rack you made a classic and fundamental mistake. When you have a ball close to the rail and you have to move the cueball down table, you never try to get low on it. Stay high, make sure to have an angle so you don't end up in the position of death: Straight in with both balls near the rail. Walk over there to find out where you want to get. You might be surprised at how high you can stay and still have a good shot with control. You got out of trouble this time, the next time...perhaps not.

2. You do seem to understand which balls connect with eachother, giving you more control over the cue ball and smaller movement, but some times when you have a long(ish) shot you seem to go a little crazy and hit it too hard and with the wrong english. I noticed this in your earlier videos as well. The shot on the one being the prime example. You last shot on the 7 was perfectly doable, had you not put inside english on it. I'd take my medicine here, hit it with straight draw and taken the longer shot, I might have even put a touch of outside on it to make sure what happened to you, could not possibly happen. The angle on the breakshot is alpha and omega. I'll take a long shot with an angle over any length of straight in. For a side breakshot, the further the break ball is away from the rack, the more angle you generally need on it. Play on tighter pockets for a while, and you'll know why.

3. Once the balls are all open, take a pause, walk around the table and make a plan for the end pattern. Remember that the end pattern is there to make the ending of the rack as close to idiot proof as possible, not just to look smart or knowledgable. The 7 and the 14 are both dreadful key balls to the 8. The 12 was your only good one. Had you not bumped the 14, the 7-14-8 could have been, not good, but defensible if you could set up well on the 7.
thanks man. i think i’m realizing that i dont get to just snap my fingers and be a straight pool player. i can practice all the different theories and order of operations and end patterns and make the damn balls, but not all at once. if i could, i would have by now.

the end patterns do seem to be what i struggle with the most.

When i very first started playing this game, i would play a combination of 9.1 and take 5 over and over and over again. i think i’m probably due for another session of that.

And yes, bumping the 14 was my ultimate demise there. I wanted to use one of those balls by the corner as the key and the 7 as the k2.

its hilarious to me that when i turn my brain off i get better scores, but it doesnt feel like im learning anything or getting better. Still, i gotta hope that going through these cycles of trying really hard and missing everything somehow seeps in so that when i turn my brain off and shoot, i’m making better decisions in the long run.

World Top 200 Players by Fargo Rating (April2026)

What are you smoking? I want some.

Edit: Shane is a way more refined player today than he was over a decade ago. He's made many improvements on his wobbly stroke and has been even more accurate in the past 5-10 years. Shane today would give 2007 Shane the 6 or 7 ball. The knowledge and shot repertoire he has gained in his arsenal is enough to beat young Shane.
No, I want some of what you have:):):):):)

Is a pool tournament not gambling?

I read the whole article. That new rule where you can only deduct 90% of your gambling losses (against your winnings) does sound really dumb. It made a good point that poker winnings are thin margins, and that 10% swing will completely change many player's taxes.

It doesn't jive with other tax laws. In the stock market, I've had years where I had 100k in profits, and 100k in losses. They wipe each other out. If the same rule was applied to that, the losses would be capped at 90k, and I would have shown an IRS profit of 10k that I'd then owe taxes on.

IDK how this affects legit professional pool players that legit file taxes with their pool winnings. From what Rexus posted above, they would file as a professional, not as gambling winnings, in which case this change would not seem to apply at all. But again, I have no idea how the real pool pros actually do their taxes.

World Top 200 Players by Fargo Rating (April2026)

The best Shane played was around 2007-2012. He was dominating everything and everyone! Both in tournaments and action matches. The main game was 10 ball, and he had the break down better than anyone else alive. Now the game is back to 9 ball, and his break advantage is not as large. Plus he was younger, hungrier, and probably shooting a bit straighter than now.

i disagree.. you're probably right about the creep, but your take is too sweeping here

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