Watched a little yesterday evening. Their events are pretty tough to watch the first couple of days. Today there is only one winner's round at 7PM. May tune in for it, may not. Might just check back in Saturday night.

CocoboloCowboy said:

How many times can you name a PGA Event Winners did not get paid?

How many time have we reading in last 20 years some Pool Player got stiffed after winning tournament, or rubber check.

Will keep happing until all of pool is under one group who has scruples.

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you think an independent tournament in bantuville, south africa, a failed state, would ever be the equivalent of a PGA event?

lakeman77 said:

This sounds like it written by AI

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yeah, and this is not the first 'new member' doing that and I wonder why. Been a few lately that have been removed.
I guess trying to establish an account w/some credibility for future scams and/or link placement?
The perfect grammar and "Mick Varner", "Gatty", "Plays very well and feels exceptionally balanced" are all kinda giveaways.

I've got nothing against the AI tools, I use them daily. (Not for this post!) Just like poolhall props and scams, w/a little experience it's not hard to see it. But as mentioned in another thread it's soon going to be harder to tell.

Thanks for the response back from everyone. Outside of playing with seasoned players and picking up pointers to help me develop into a competitive player, are there good books that would teach me the fundamentals of playing pool. Things like learning the different angles, strategy and tricks in playing. Something I did in table tennis to compete at the state and even national level. But it's time for me to move, when the other players refer to me as the coach and not a competitor.

Mensabum said:

I've been rabid for ages!!

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All the minutes you spend lying awake thinking up shots and patterns - those are powerful self hypnotic suggestions.

As a sidenote, Johan Ruijsink was at the event. I believe he arrived on day four, by which time just three Americans remained in Styer, Verner and Hohmann. By day five, all three of them had been eliminated. I wonder just how much scouting for Team USA he was able to manage.

bbb said:

This is not a scientific answer to your question
But if the majority of pros for years and years and years, look at the object ball last,
it must be the better way to play
If cue ball last was really better
By now I would think all of the pros would do it.
Jmho
Icbw

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Not a very good argument. It comes from the era of buckets. No 11.379 mm tips - precision wasn't real big other than don't miss for a couple hours avg.

CBL solves many problems; not the least of which is high speed accuracy. It shifts focus to the CB and your stick (you know the only thing that actually hits anything) accuracy; and all but eliminates perspective bias and it's real time re-aiming tendencies. Net effect, you hit the ball with a straight piston stroke, where you intend to hit it.

I think that is just a mark the owner put on it for identification purposes in case it got lost or stolen

iusedtoberich said:

Nick Varner is a multiple time world champion. His peak as a player was in the 1980's. He used his star power to start a billiard company in the 1990's, and that's the cue you have. It's an import cue, not worth much today. He is still semi-active as a player, and his company is still going. I think he's about 80 years old now.

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Not sure if he still does, but as recent as a couple of years ago he still traveled around giving day long group lessons.

As part of that he brought/brings a bunch of his cues to hawk...

Another gorgeous cue bob….

Bob Jewett said:

Well, the good news is that it looks like your stick is coming straight through on the line you set up on.

Set the shot up with donuts. Back where your stick crosses over the rail, put two donuts just to each side of the shot line. When you think you have the line correct, look down at the donuts and see if the butt is centered on the shot line.

I have heard that eye dominance can change with fatigue. That could be why the error changes sides. Your preshot looks pretty solid.

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In my experience, eye dominance changes with fatigue, aging, and sometimes just for the hell of it. It can also switch back without warning.

I'm not an instructor, but from the video linked, the shooter really has his eyes locked on the object ball. I mean really locked. Might want to try diverting some PSR attention to checking the CB centering/ stick alignment and some CB-OB visual back and forth before finally fixing gaze on the OB. Just a suggestion.

If you are convinced it is a shifting eye dominance problem there is the definitive pseudo-cure of closing non-dominant eye to aim and align. For you, this would require some significant head adjustment to get your dominant eye over the cue. It isn't a long term cure for your issue, but if fatigue sets in, your vision starts to get funky, and you want to keep playing for a while longer, it can help lessen the frustrating misses.

This is not a scientific answer to your question
But if the majority of pros for years and years and years, look at the object ball last,
it must be the better way to play
If cue ball last was really better
By now I would think all of the pros would do it.
Jmho
Icbw

I recently bought a new Treadway jump/break for less than half that.