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Man, pool halls are dangerous

Hail Mary Shot
ShootingArts said:
Fairly anonymous on the net. That tiny picture in my avatar is probably the only one you can find. I talk more freely on here than I do in person. Thing is, I have walked the mean streets and may do it again although I am less inclined to as I age and appear more of a target. I was half partners in a business at 15. In the year we held the lease it was robbed 22 times, six or seven of those being armed robberies. A fluke, I was never present during an armed robbery. While the major thoroughfare the station was on wasn't too bad, everything around it was! Well except the graveyards which were several hundred years old or more.

I screwed a shotgun in somebody's ear, foolish, it wasn't necessary. Another time, somebody came at me with a stabbing weapon, I had a gas nozzle in my hand and it will squirt six or eight feet. Alone during slow times at service stations and things got interesting sometimes. Three young men tried to crowd me, threatening me, in my next service station. I backed into a doorway where they had to come from the front and told them let's get it on. "You can't fight us, we are only seventeen!" "Fine, I am only sixteen." Stopped them in their tracks. Rarely trouble when you call somebody's bluff. Funny thing, I really was sixteen, maybe just a long fifteen, I don't remember.

Later I ran a wrecker. Always alone. Running for the law, citizens, and often drunks. Never know how many there were or if they are armed. When they are broke they figure if they get you out they will talk you into helping them. The wrecker made for a lot of interesting times and lots of interesting places. The auto salvage was slightly safer and I hadn't owned my business a month when people started learning I would tap somebody that needed tapping. No warning, no loud mouth, no shove. From a little amateur back yard and school boxing I had developed the habit of taking the inside lines and take my chances on dodging or deflecting roundhouse blows.

Once I was in a biker bar when two guys went to fighting. Every guy in the place besides me was packing, half the women. Damned embarrassing to reach down to my waist line and snatch out a handful of belly hair! The two guys that started off fighting were rolling around at my feet but things went crazy from there. Almost every man in the place started brawling for why I did not know, half the women were knuckle and skulling with other women or men. I don't know how many of them had a clue what they were fighting about. I ended up working the front door and they were tossing half the people out while keeping the other half inside. No idea how they sorted out who was who! With all of the guns there were a couple of accidental discharges and the law showed in about fifteen minutes or so. Funny thing, I never did figure out where those bullets went. None went in people and nobody was arrested for anything.

The bars are safer than pool halls although I do know of a few people shot in pool halls. One was still on the floor when I started playing.

Hu
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Guess another normal night in the office.
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Predator Shaft Query

K
dendweller said:
lovely
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I’ve watched countless videos of tip installs. If no sanding was required, it’s contrary to what we’ve seen and heard.
I did get the specs that I was looking for in a cue that’s been around for around 15-20 years.
When the tip got blown off, I immediately saw 2 things:
- The tip replacement was
botched.
- The ferrule tube did not
look like it had a CF tube.

I’m not guessing any longer.
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Alternative to Brunswick Superspeed cushions

fastone371
bradsh98 said:
I haven't tried the up and down test, in quite some time. My perception is from playing on a number of different tables. I think that it's fairly obvious that mine banks slower than it should.
Also of note: the nose height is 1.39". The current cloth is new Andy Premier (not yet broken in), which is absurdly fast and slick playing.
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So its faster than 860? The nose height is a little low, correct? Shouldn't it be closer to 1 7/16"?? So your cushions should play a little quicker than if they were 1 7/16"?? So you're saying right now your table is in a "fast cloth, slow cushion" condition. I used to have to play on a Valley with 860 that was so worn it looked and felt like green paint, it was originally dark green but was now a light green/white in its worn condition, it played like you had to hit a rail to get the cue ball to slow down or stop. That was definitely a "fast cloth, slow cushion" table.
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Man, pool halls are dangerous

muskyed
Here is two for me. The top one is my 9mm S&W Shield that I love, small but comfortable to hold and shoot. Also has a laser sight and a safety which I like. Because of the safety , it allowed me to clean up the trigger and firing mechanism to have a clean pull of just under 4 lbs. This is a fantastic pistol.
The next smaller one is a Ruger 380, a real piece of crap, but I may work on it sometime. Originally bought it for my wife for when she walks the dog down this mile and a half dead end dirt road alongside our property. You're back down nowhere down that road and I wanted her to be safe. The pistol is extremely small, no safety, but a horrible trigger with massive creep and about a 7lb pull, which is ok as there is no safety. It is almost impossible for her to rack the slide as it's hard to hold in the first place and so little. She didn't like it so we picked up a S&W EZ 380 that is bigger, has a better trigger, easy to shoot and load, and has a safety. She loves that pistol.
I actually just had my Shield out the other night. While we have no crime by us, our doorbell rang about 8 at night. Keep in mind we live in the middle of nowhere, and our house is about 250 yds off the road and totally dark at night. well I walked towards the front door and could see two guys at it. I turned around and got my Shield and put it part way in my pocket with the butt out so I could hold it. Then I went out through the garage coming out behind them. All was good, just a father taking his high school son around trying to sell a page of these discount stubs for a fund raiser. I'm sure they saw me with my hand on my gun when I came out but I immediately realized all was fine and they made a $20 sale.
1000014602.jpg
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Most popular Carbon fiber shaft size?

V
SSP said:
I own 2 of them, it is a great shaft, Becue does things a little different than any cue company I know, instead of trying to build the "one" shaft everyone is going to love, they build shafts for different types of hit, I wouldn't get to hung up on shaft size with CF, 11.8 to 12.3 is 1/2 of 1mm, don't buy into the hype that a.1 difference a computer can measure is something you will be able to notice, I guarantee you won't, what you will be able to notice is if the shaft is comfortable in YOUR hand, the Engage hits like a CF shaft, little to no feedback like a wooden shaft, some people don't like CF shafts because of this, the transfer of energy from your stroke is massive, the shaft doesn't create power, it just transfers the power from YOUR stroke more efficiently, the original Prime shaft hits very much like a Muecci wooden shaft to me, a little too whippy, if you don't have a power stroke and play a more finesse game this might be the perfect shaft for you, the Prime II shaft is right in the middle, power transfer of a CF shaft with the feedback close to a wooden shaft, to me it's the perfect balance, it's the shaft I'm using now, I'm using Becue's CF butt as well and it does make a difference, their cues are designed to transfer the energy from your stroke more efficiently, from the tip to the rubber bumper, in my opinion your cue is a tool made to help you win games, having the most visually appealing cue is nice, holding the 1st place Trophy at the end of a Tournament is nicer.......
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Hi, thanks for the great info. Have you ever tried the Whyte Carbon? Do either of the current Becue shafts hit anything like the Whyte Carbon? I really loved that one, when I was able to borrow one for a night at a tournament, and it was the 12.25mm version. By the way, I hate the way a classic, old school, Meucci shaft hits. On the other hand, I really love the way a classic D Series Mcdermott cue hits. I would love a CF shaft with the hit of a D Series Mcdermott, but with the power transfer that a high quality CF shaft is able to offer. Sounds to me like that might be the Prime M II. I really liked the sound of the 18" inch taper on the Engage 12.3mm shaft though, which the Prime M II does not have. Thanks.
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one pocket strategy question

measureman
qolbrand said:
are you talking about mike? i’ve watched him give a lesson to somebody on 2 and 3 rail banks. He hit every single one of them.

whenever ive played one pocket with guys above my speed i just do my best to not leave them anything ever. i figure the only advantage i have is that i can MAYBE be more patient than them and just wait for their mistake to happen before mine.

this is tough to do until you get trapped a bunch of times and learn not to leave the guy that easy of an escape again. anybody proficient at thinning the bottom of the stack and leaving you welded to it, for instance, cannot be left that opportunity, which takes away a lot of easy returns, including takeouts.

obviously im not in a position to give you advice but we played once a long time ago and i know how dangerous you can be.

if it is mike, just try to stay aware of those 2 and 3 railers knowing full well that he will fire at them when it is safe to
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No not Mike, it's Fred from Maryland.
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10 best players in the world

sjm
jbart65 said:
Who knew? A thread about the 10 best players in the world becomes a thread about the best player ever!

I never saw any of the past greats play live. I didn’t start watching pool live until 2020. I’ve watched a lot of past matches involving Reyes, Sigel, Strickland and so on. Yet I'm not qualified to judge the greatest of all time, especially since I haven’t watched all the disciplines intensively.

What I have been thinking, however, is that maybe Efren is not the greatest of all time. Or put another way, maybe he isn’t the greatest rotation player of all time. His subpar break alone certainly seems to suggest so. Has any great player ever had a weaker break? It can't be ignored.
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Efren is clearly not in the discussion for best rotation player ever and, as you noted, it was chiefly because of his break. Also, Efren, the largely undisputed greatest kicker of all time, was hurt by the introduction of the jump cue, which reduced his advantage by making kicking a bit less common. Still, what those of us who watched him remember about Efren is that, even in rotation pool, he'd win when the biggest spots, when the prize money was on the line. He wowed us against Strickland in the race to 120 and again at the Japan Open, which had one of the biggest first prizes ever. I reckon Efren is in the 10-15 range of all time nine ball players.
jbart65 said:
I can accept Efren was the greatest overall pool player. As sjm mentioned in another post, he changed the conception of how the game is played.

I've watched a number of videos evaluating Reyes runouts as part of my learning process, and he was a constant surprise. When I watch modern players, I have gotten to the point at which I can accurately predict how they will shoot almost every shot.

Even now, I can't do that watching a Reyes video. He had the constant capacity to do what no one else thought of - I can't count how many times the announcers themselves were surprised. Eventually they wised up, especially Danny Diliberto, who began to think like Efren when commenting on his games.
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This really isn't accurate. Efren surprised even the best commentators with his choices and ingenuity until the day he retired from mainstream competition. In fact, the entire pro pool world hasn't caught up yet, for it would be difficult to argue that any player of the modern era (possibly excepting Alex Pagulayan) plays with the kind of imagination that we always got from Efren. Billy Incardona, one of Efren's earliest influences, observed "when Efren started doing things that even I didn't understand, I realized he no longer needed my help with his one pocket game."
jbart65 said:
As for Filler and Gorst, Josh is 28 and Fedor turns 26 in two months. All-time careers already, but they are arguably just entering their primes, and they will be in their primes for another 10 years. Going to sit back and watch.
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Not sure of this. A player's peak years can come at any time. Yes, Fedor and Josh will both continue to win big titles, but whether they'll reach a higher level in their games is to be determined. No doubt, we've seen some players find their highest form later on, such as FSR and Chua, but Filler and Gorst are, for lack of a better term, "finished products," and I wonder if they can go much higher given that maintaining their current level will take nothing less than workaholism.
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Predator Shaft Query

K
Michael Webb said:
Best reply so far!
Thanks Dave
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YES!
FINALLY - Someone knows what they’re talking about.
The cue tech did bring out the cue to show me something that puzzled him. He’d told me that it appeared to be a CF tube that fitted into the ferrule. I did not see it again until he handed back the shaft. I’m surprised too that the ferrule was solid.
I did buy the shaft brand new from Pooldawg. They handled the OB shafts, and were well aware of my concern. The only change that was made was swapping out the stock tip for the Samsera tip.
Seeing the ferrule like that has me shocked.
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pool has changed

M
it is a different game from the past as least rotation games which are the standard for determining excellence now.

with ball in hand anywhere on the table for a foul changes the game. as opposed to shootout where you had strategy and little kicking.
as well as jump cues
and special racks where you can play individual balls on the break.

it is what the game is now, but hard to compare players who had to play conventionally.
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9 Ball Roll Out Situation

slide13
If you mean jumped ball off the table and not pocketed then it's a foul per BCA rules.

5. PUSH OUT. The player who shoots the shot immediately after a legal break may play a push out in an attempt to move the cue ball into a better position for the option that follows. On a push out, the cue ball is not required to contact any object ball nor any rail, but all other foul rules still apply. The player must announce his intention of playing a push out before the shot, or the shot is considered to be a normal shot. Any ball pocketed on a push out does not count and remains pocketed except the 9-ball. Following a legal push out, the incoming player is permitted to shoot from that position or to pass the shot back to the player who pushed out. A push out is not considered to be a foul as long as no rule (except rules 7. and 8.) is violated. An illegal push out is penalized according to the type of foul committed. After a player scratches on the break shot, the incoming player cannot play a push out.

10. OBJECT BALLS JUMPED OFF THE TABLE. An unpocketed ball is considered to be driven off the table if it comes to rest other than on the bed of the table. It is a foul to drive an object ball off the table. The jumped object ball(s) is not respotted (exception: if the object ball is the 9-ball, it is respotted) and play continues.


If you're using "off the table" to mean pocketed though, then absolutely not a foul and comes up fairly frequently actually.
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10 best players in the world

S
FeltyFran said:
Uh...do you like that our sport is third world status?
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The world championship pays 250k to the winner. The US Open 100k. Several other tournaments 10s of 1000s. The top players are now getting 6 figure sponsorships. They can earn more in exhibitions in a day than many people in the first world earn in 2 weeks. It's hardly third world status - maybe not yet a "minor major" sport like its bedfellows snooker and darts, but it's doing all right for itself.
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