John Schmidt runs 820

How he racked and cleaned the balls. The same things others objected too. Not to mention the hundreds of tries, under perfect conditions, it took him to do it. Mosconi had exactly one crack at a record every day, and each day under different conditions. No comparison in my book. Not even close!

he was an old man then hu. he could bank balls a good as anyone alive in those days and multiple rail banks in the side.

and younger days in new york city he played championship speed.
i learned a lot about keeping your customer from him. and winning all the money was the key not beating him.
even when old he played good when he had too.
he used to play even with u.j. and he played jam up. although usually did not show it. they were good friends.
i was glad to be his partner and friend for a time.
True that. In his prime (well before TV) he was a jam up player and a great hustler. I knew him well!

Do the top one pocket players almost never shoot that spin transfer shot when there are two balls frozen on the spot?

... I do see pros hit it once in a while, but usually they don't.
Yes, a lot of them pass on the shot, but I think it's the right shot for any pro who can shoot a straight back draw shot from four diamonds away. Of course, if you hit it mediocre, it can lose, especially if you get a kiss. Also, you have to be sure the balls are spotted correctly.

Do the top one pocket players almost never shoot that spin transfer shot when there are two balls frozen on the spot?

Too risky. Bangers will shoot it because the chance of their opponent running both is low enough. More often than not, pros are going to make you pay if you don't make it.
That depends on the player and the equipment. If you can draw the cue ball straight back, and you know where to place the cue ball, and you know the speed that will both make the front ball and leave the back ball within a diamond of your pocket, and the balls are sticky enough to twist the back ball over enough, then it is the correct shot. Maybe depending on the positions of the other balls, if any.

If you know the adjustments, you can place the cue ball in a slightly different position on the head string and leave the cue ball other places than straight back.

How to adjust for banks close to the rail?

When shooting a bank shot with the object ball close to the rail, how do you estimate the adjustment needed to account for the angle shortening because the ball is sliding rather than rolling?

Are there any good drills for practicing this?

Thanks!
Set up a mirror image target. Find the line for a straight such bank that sits at 2 from the end rail. Extend that line forward until it hits the extended end rail nose. The intersection is the target for all cross-corner banks that are sliding. The point is roughly three diamonds from the side rail rail nose along the nose line of the end rail.

Of course this does not include any side spin you get on the object ball, but it does give you a starting point for twisted shots.

John Schmidt runs 820

he was an old man then hu. he could bank balls a good as anyone alive in those days and multiple rail banks in the side.

and younger days in new york city he played championship speed.
i learned a lot about keeping your customer from him. and winning all the money was the key not beating him.
even when old he played good when he had too.
he used to play even with u.j. and he played jam up. although usually did not show it. they were good friends.
i was glad to be his partner and friend for a time.

Age was catching up with him in a lot of the TV stuff. I had seen him earlier too though. Fats was an excellent banker for as long as he played when he got "on". I didn't bank too poorly myself with a high run of six balls multiple times in regulation play on a snooker table.

A few other claims to fame that I don't mention without proof. I never played tournaments when I was playing seriously so far from trying to be known I was doing my best not to be. I always used my first name very rarely giving my last. My picture in my avatar might hint at why I often picked up nicknames based on appearance!

The last I knew there is a match between UJ and Fats still on youtube. It is obvious that they were friends having fun although both were trying to win. Might have been the match with heavy rain on a tin roof with nothing to deaden the sound too.

Hu

Using cue tip to determine cue ball direction and position for next shot.

Pointing with a stick, no problem. Marking with a tip, problem! Some chalk marks a lot easier than others, especially if you chalk right before the touch and don't do anything to get the loose chalk off of the tip. It is easy to see that some people are attempting to mark aimpoints.

A player was attempting a very complicated shot and spent several minutes positioning his stick over the table on the cue ball's hoped for path. I had no problem with that. Marking would have been a problem!

I have and would again call down anyone deliberately marking, be it with chalk, chalk cubes, or slobber. I would probably just shake my head and shudder at Efren's old habit of positioning boogers on the rails! I think that was mostly to gross out those of us not from third world societies anyway!

Hu

How many cues is too much?

Here’s a simple way of deciding if you have too many cues. Go though your collection cue by cue, one at a time.
When was the last time you did that? How often do you repeat the process of touching, looking at all your cues?

OK, I suppose it doesn’t matter because here is an easy way to decide if you own too many cues. This does not
apply to those that buy cues to just look at or beam with pride over owning. I don’t understand that & don’t want to.

Just take out your pool cues and handle them one at a time and you need to be able to recall the last time you played
with that very cue. Don’t just remember hitting some balls but when you really played pool with that very pool cue?

Then do the same thing with the next cue and every single cue thereafter? If you can’t remember when, then you have
too many cues. If it’s more than 3-4 months, you own too many cues. If it’s been more 1-2 months, it’s not one of your
favorite cues, presuming you had one. Denying you didn’t is easy to do. I know because I did it for years but we all do.

Too many cues will always be a relative proposition. You can have a 100 cues whereas someone might have just 1-2 but his were a Joel Hercek & Danny Tibbits. You had better be packing some pretty big might in your 100 cues because it’s never how many cues you own that matters to a hard core pool player. It’s always been about what cues you own & don’t deny it.
I never understood why someone would switch cues all the time, needing to adjust to the deflection and overall feel...every cue I ever used (and there were only a few) I used for several years exclusively...just my two cents.

How many cues is too much?

Here’s a simple way of deciding if you have too many cues. Go though your collection cue by cue, one at a time.
When was the last time you did that? How often do you repeat the process of touching, looking at all your cues?

OK, I suppose it doesn’t matter because here is an easy way to decide if you own too many cues. This does not
apply to those that buy cues to just look at or beam with pride over owning. I don’t understand that & don’t want to.

Just take out your pool cues and handle them one at a time and you need to be able to recall the last time you played
with that very cue. Don’t just remember hitting some balls but when you really played pool with that very pool cue?

Then do the same thing with the next cue and every single cue thereafter? If you can’t remember when, then you have
too many cues. If it’s more than 3-4 months, you own too many cues. If it’s been more 1-2 months, it’s not one of your
favorite cues, presuming you had one. Denying you didn’t is easy to do. I know because I did it for years but we all do.

Too many cues will always be a relative proposition. You can have a 100 cues whereas someone might have just 1-2 but his were a Joel Hercek & Danny Tibbits. You had better be packing some pretty big might in your 100 cues because it’s never how many cues you own that matters to a hard core pool player. It’s always been about what cues you own & don’t deny it.

John Schmidt runs 820

he was an old man then hu. he could bank balls a good as anyone alive in those days and multiple rail banks in the side.

and younger days in new york city he played championship speed.
i learned a lot about keeping your customer from him. and winning all the money was the key not beating him.
even when old he played good when he had too.
he used to play even with u.j. and he played jam up. although usually did not show it. they were good friends.
i was glad to be his partner and friend for a time.

John Schmidt runs 820

willie did not like to lose or even get behind.
i played him around 1964 or so i guess. they were opening brunswick pool rooms faster than ben franklin could become a father;
so i got picked by the room owner to play him. as said he comes in a half hour early after sleeping a nap in his car hits a few balls and says let it begin.
we play to 100. he gives me a shot as he was supposed to let his player get a turn or so. well i ran twenty some odd balls nice and slow as i was in wonderland. he says kind of nasty, to me, hey kid you trying to show me up or something.( best i remember).
that got me to miss pretty quickly,
he walked up and said something like sit down you wont be getting up again. i didnt. watched the 100 go by. most all shots on the lower half of the table.
he didnt play rotation?. i saw him dump out a tray and run them all in order then walk away.

Willie had a reputation of being a bit ugly with anyone who showed any chance of winning. Fantastic player and an incredible work ethic, he sometimes did two exhibitions a day. Few that knew him well described him as a nice guy, and meant it!

In an era before the internet and when pool might be on TV a few times a year I admired his skill and in truth almost no men other than him and Fats were known to the general public. Fats was usually well below Willie and few remember that Fats actually won one of the all arounds between him and Willie that was on network TV.

We will never know and Fats was reportedly a good bit better than his TV performances. Judging by them I thought I would have had an excellent chance of beating him if we played mum pool or I got to wrap half a roll of duct tape around his mouth before we started!

Fats was so busy performing on TV that his skill level was largely hidden especially after they got through editing so my opinion might have been a bit optimistic!

Hu

Using cue tip to determine cue ball direction and position for next shot.

I dont mind it as much as when someone has to kick at a ball and they take all day doing mathematical calculations pointing at different points not once but least twice. They are talking to themselves while doing it then says no thats not right. Im sitting there like damn just kick it its not that hard of a kick just feel it no need for all this crap.

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