let's move this cue $950

This looks awful.

The qualifiers for the British Open Snooker championships is on now.

3% of the top 100 players are women. Interesting

I have seen Scruggs BEM - no stain - plain Jane’s - more than any other variety of TS PJ cues. Sort of like TAD style forearms but with plain BEM butt sleeves- no inlays - maybe a ring or two- SS joints and some 3/8 10 joints-

sjm said:

I have discussed shot conceptualization with many of the women who are in the BCA Hall of Fame, Allison Fisher included, and some of the top women players of all time are counted among my closest friends. I have played hours and hours of pool with many of them, Allison Fisher included, and I have socialized with many of them on a regular basis. I am not speculating. I have also attended about 100 WPBA events in my life.

Still, competence is relevant if you mean competence in the ability to determine the percentages and, thereby, design the right shot for the right occasion. Yes, it can be argued that this might be deemed a competence gap.

Cueing competence, however, is not relevant here. If a man and a woman are equally competent in shot execution, the man, with very rare exception, will be the better player because of his edge in decision making and shot design. I am hard pressed to think of even three exceptions I have ever seen at a pro level of play.

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Stu,

As always I have really enjoyed your contributions to this thread. I would like to add something that hasn't been touched on I don't think, but I do think it rests at the heart of this issue.

Maybe someone in the academic field will have an easier time confirming this information (I am looking at you Doctor Dave). I believe adult men have somewhere between 12 and 17 times the amount of testosterone in their body when compared to adult women. As boys age they experience periods of large doses or exposure to large amounts of testosterone. I think there is a period between 3 and 6, and then again when boys are adolescents. If we were talk about the relative difference of any substance at 12 to 17 times, I think most people would accept that this is a significant difference. In addition to this, what is the effect of this difference OVER TIME?

For me, it seems reasonable to think an increased exposure to testosterone over time is different than the supplementing of testosterone or estrogen when a person decides they are trans or whatever the right term is. Sure a trans woman or man begins to receive the biological benefits and costs of their changed hormones, but it starts when they start changing their gender.

A lifetime of alcohol abuse ruins a liver. A night of alcohol abuse cause a headache. I realize hormones are not alcohol, but I find it hard to believe there are no effects of testosterone or estrogen that are a function of time. Additionally, in talking about the differences of men and women players who are not trans, I don't think it's an unreasonable argument to suggest that testosterone does not only influence strength. It helps to regulate emotion, increase aggression, and tolerate risk taking. All of this, it would seem to me, would influence decision making.

I find it frustrating that much of the modern discussion related to men and women does not really (in my view) talk about the relative difference of testosterone. I think some people. like to pretend that this is not significant, when it clearly is. Suppose I suggested to everyone that there was no difference in their coffee or its effect on their body, now or over time, if we increased the sweetener in their coffee by 12 times. Everyone would be aghast at the horror and amused at the ridiculousness of my suggestion.

kollegedave

I'm down to a 571 from my peak of 577 a few months ago. I guess I peaked at the right time for the big $1000 entry Vegas event I played in and cashed.





2 tournament updates: first was my own Afternoon Delight in Philly. I had a player from England come to Philly to meet his English buddy that already lived there, and made a fun post of it on FB.

Next update is I went back to Atlanta, and finally someone started a FargoRate tournament within the greater Atlanta area. It has been pulling teeth for anyone to do anything FargoRate here. I was so happy after 2 years of asking all the TD's to do one, finally one did. It's a brand new weekly 10 ball event at Mr Cues 2 Billiards, which is the main player's room in the area. It's been getting about 16 players, which has worked out perfectly to be done at a reasonable time. It's on 9' Gold Crown 4 tables, which is a great departure from the Diamonds in the Philly area. It's fargorated hot, and the TD has been experimenting with the race length to get it done around midnight. Its on DigitalPool brackets, which is also brand new to this area.

The format is one I've never seen before, but I like it. Every player is guaranteed 2 matches. It's a double elimination bracket, but it's not double elimination, rather "double play". If you win your first match, you advance on the winner's side, and if you lose from there, you go home. You do NOT go to the 1 loss side. If you lose your very first, you go to the 1 loss side and play from there. The winner of the winner's side and the winner of the loser's side play for 1st and 2nd. For the bracket, when a later winner's side match is finished, and the loser goes to the loser's side, the TD WD's that player from the loser's side, to advance the other loser's side player that advanced from the very first loser's side round.

It's some extra work for the TD managing the bracket, but I like the format a lot. It's almost single elimination, but gives everyone 2 matches to make their drive to the pool room worth it. It also doesn't go forever like a normal double elimination. The TD told me he knows the digitalpool guy, and is trying to get the format added to the software.

The balls are brand new Aramith Tournaments, which I found out a customer bought for the entire room, as he was sick of the old worn Centennials. I also found out the same person did the same at another room I go to. Wow, that was awesome of him.

I mention the balls as the rack were the delta 13 (the good one, not the cast one). Even with those conditions, making a ball on the 10 ball break I'd estimate tournament wide was maybe 1 out of 3 racks. It was hard as hell. It's nothing like the top pros making the balls 4 rails in the corner and no rails in the side.

Anyway, I'm super excited to have a tournament with a format I like, that I can focus on playing in instead of being the TD. I played in it twice thus far, and the first one has been updated on my fargorate. I didn't do well either time, but I'm looking forward to more.
Bracket:

No interest in playing on tables like that - I play six hours a week - maybe - not six hours a day.

CarPool said:

@bradsh98 You wouldn't have a drawing of the pocket angles, would you?

I looked at your thread on subrail mods above and have a comment or two.

Your fixturing is good and I'm sure it works. I probably will do mine differently only because I only plan on fixing mine, will probably never see another set.

First, If you have room for it, a good table saw. Cabinet grade, stay away from the contractor saws. New is pricey, but an old Powermatic model 66 or Rockwell/Delta Unisaw can be had on the used market for considerably less.

To use with the current set up I would use a router with an adjustable angle base in place of the circular saw. A router and a stable guide will give you as good a finish as you are going to get, far superior to what you can get with a circular saw. Honestly, a better finish that even the table saw.

That's been my experience in my 40 years of making sawdust anyway. Hope it helps.

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Thanks for the tips!

I actually have a Grizzly 5HP cabinet table saw, and a shop full of Grizzly woodworking equipment that I've never even plugged in. I've got a 24" planer with a Shelix helical cutterhead, a 24" drum sander, a 14" vertical bandsaw, an 8" jointer, and a large cyclone dust collector.

I do frequently use my "mobile" shop tools, such as a Kreg router table, Dewalt contractor saw, Grizzly drill press, and my miter saws, along with my Bosch dust extractor. Once the work on my shop is completed, I hope to have all of the stationary equipment in place, and fully functional, which will make life much easier.

I love the idea of using an adjustable angle base router. The only reason that I haven't invested in upgrading my sub-rail modification tooling, is because of the low volume of work that I'm seeing. When I posted that tooling in 2021, I said that I was doing about 10 sets of Brunswick rails per year. Funny enough, that number has steadily decreased. In fact, I think that I did 2-3 sets last year, and I've only done 1 set this year, so far.