If I had a friend who wanted a first cue, I would point him towards something along the line of a Player's plain jane wrapless or a Sneakiest Pete. Basically, where I'm going with this is you can play some great pool with a 19oz $50 - $100 pool cue. Ideally, it would have a 3/8" x 10 pin, a quality ferrule(aegis, ivorine, melamine, ivory, etc), 13mm shaft with a reasonably playable taper, about 19 oz's of weight and balanced just in front of the top of the wrap area. Let's not fool ourselves into thinking we need some wild exotic or even a name cue. If the cue is straight and has a good tip. . .Most low end cues are coming with a Lepro. Frankly, I would toss that and replace with a Triumph, pressed Elkmaster, Wizard, Triumph or similar cheap, but good medium tip. I would also point him at an ultimate tip tool(works without clogging) and a cheap, but effective 1-1 hard case with a small pocket. Then I would gift him a cube of green chalk so he doesn't have ferrule ring on the first day.
My goal would be under $100 out the door. We had a guy in college who played with something like this and could beat ANYONE he played on the right day.
