CanadianGuy said:

there is anecdotal info to suggest the following cue sports tier heirachy,

Carom (maybe should not be on list as not pocket billiards)

Russian Billiards/Chinese Pool/English Billiards
Snooker
UK pool
American pool

no chip on shoulder required because pool 'might' be the least difficult,
its without a doubt imo the most fun and plenty tough enough

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Surely you have to differentiate between types of game for American pool? I'd say 9 ball on an American table is as difficult if not more difficult than 8 ball on a UK table. But 8 ball on a UK table is way harder than 8 ball on an American table.

I'm not sure where to place carom as it's so different to all the others. And English billiards is dead, no one plays it so don't see the point in including it.

My list would be:

Russian Pyramid
Snooker
Hey Ball
American 10 ball
UK 8 ball/ American 9 ball
US 8 ball

Admittedly I've never actually played Russian pyramid or Hey Ball (I'm wondering how many people that have this debate actually do have experience in all of them). I've not included one pocket or banks pool, thought they were obscure enough to not merit being on the list and I don't have that much experience of them. The list could get quite long if we try to make it exhaustive as I think South America have a lot of regional cue sports you could consider too (sinuquinha & sinuca brasileira are 2 that I'm aware of).

luv1pocket said:

Where can I buy a Micarta ferrule for a cuemaker to install on a shaft? More importantly what are differences between linen and paper micarta on them? On cue components I see linen for $12 and paper for $45. I wanted to get something similar to the yellowish ferrules from the 80s and 90s.

Westinghouse Linen Micarta Ferrule

This pool cue ferrule material is Genuine yellow Westinghouse Linen Micarta from many moons ago. This is a linen based micarta ferrule material (not a paper based micarta ferrule material). This linen based micarta is a strong ferrule material that will still generate a good amount of spin...

cuecomponents.com

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The micarta you are looking for might cost you $100 for the ferrule if you can find it. That material is hard to find, because it contained asbestos and hasn't been made for years.

Island Drive said:

Alex P is one of thee best, but not one of thee best in snooker.
I think the 9' play area develops quite a different feel and array of shots, that snooker players don't ever shoot, think of or develop.

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For sure. When Alex P tried to qualify for the world snooker tour (and he did well but didn't ultimately fell short) he was complimented, by snooker players, for playing safeties that snooker players wouldn't see. There's always something to learn and the cross-pollination (that is happening more and more) is a good thing.

rexus31 said:

Didn't World Snooker #1 Judd Trump play in a WNT major a couple years ago and matched up with Jayson Shaw? If I recall correctly, Shaw skunked him. IMO, they are two different disciplines with slightly different skill sets required to play at a world class level. IMO, it's like asking who's better: The #1 Cricket batter or the #1 Baseball batter?

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Shaw said afterwards that he played safeties he knew Trump didn't know how to get out of. He also of course is a much better pool player.

It is apples and oranges - snooker players who had dabbled in pool have done well in tournaments but probably need to get lucky with layouts/patterns against the top players (high 700s and 800s) to have a chance of beating them. The very best pool players on the otherhand will rarely make breaks bigger than 50 or 60 and will lose to top amateur players in a race to 4 pretty much all the time.

Snooker is harder. Pool involves skills that snooker players rarely master. That's about the long and short of it.

OP back at yah.... how many snooker players have the ability to win against the top one pocket players?
Since it's full rack pool you'd think they would do very well in this discipline, but?
Alex P is one of thee best, but not one of thee best in snooker.
I think the 9' play area develops quite a different feel and array of shots, that snooker players don't ever shoot, think of or develop.

vintagecollectibles831 said:

Hi, have you tried the Engage? That is the one that I have really been wanting to try, since seeing this video.

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He states that the Engage 12.3mm comes with an 18" extended Pro taper. So, that sounds awesome to me.

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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.......

He was in ecstasy, with a huge smile on his face as his wife moved forward, then backwards, forward, then backwards again, back and forth, back and forth
in and out
in and out
It was going on 20 minutes at this point
Her heart was pounding
her face was flushed
then she moaned, softly at first, then began to groan louder
Finally, totally exhausted, she let out an almighty scream and shouted: "OK, OK! I can't park the damn car! You do it, you smug bastard!!"

middleofnowhere said:

I have thought about the noise thing. I used to carry a Charter Arms bulldog in my truck. Its a 44 special. At the range it is loud as hell. I can't imagine shooting it especially inside a truck. It might blow out my eardrums .I always wonder what happens to cops when they shoot on duty. Does it effect their hearing.

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I for a short period of time worked as a armored car guard and to qualify we had to shoot from a confined space similar to the back of the armored truck and in the wide open always with ear plugs .
Thankfully while on shift we were never in a situation that required gun fire , I still don't care for a Mossberg pump shotgun , my favorite is now a Benelli Nova shotgun , for a sidearm it was a large frame .357 loaded with .38 ammo

BasementDweller said:

I've played with just a couple of shop lights above my 9 footer for years. I sort of think players are now conditioning themselves into needing better lighting than they think they do. Don't get me wrong, playing on my buddy's well lit Diamond is nice, but playing on it all the time and then trying to play on a poorly lit table in some random room would get annoying if not difficult. It just seems like a variable I don't want or need to deal with.

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I'm sure I could get by with only leaving the blinds open and having sunlight filter through. In fact, I could probably get by without a table at all. I am certain I didn't need Centennial balls but I bought those. I don't need my boat because I don't live on the water. Thing is, I am not looking to get through life only having what I need. I also am not looking to lower my home room standards to those of poorly lit table in some random room. I can pretty much guarantee I will not be in a random room on a poorly lit table. The variable I don't want to deal with is annoying people in random rooms. I will make my own room, just how I want it.......has not a thing to do with need.