Because of different cut angles of shots, side pockets are usually 1/2” wider than CP which is completely logical.
Ergo, 4.5” & 5” or 4.25” or 4.75” & 5.25” or 5” & 5.5”; IMO, only someone new to pool should practice with 5” CP.
Cavernous Pockets...
- Thread starter L.S. Dennis
- Start date
Ergo, 4.5” & 5” or 4.25” or 4.75” & 5.25” or 5” & 5.5”; IMO, only someone new to pool should practice with 5” CP.
Not really. In a standard commercial room you want the bangers to spend money and have fun. Most of the customers where i play need all the help they can get. They can't make a ball on 5" much less anything tighter.
I can live with 5 inch side pockets.
Myself.
The same. Just ran a three pack a 8 ball. How log it take you to run Porn Hub?
Took me bout an hour.
Same as my pool game. Start out strong but half way through I'm tired, thinking about having to fix the garage door later, and give up before the game is over.
I agree, over 95% of our clientele need forgiving pockets. Most of our 9’ tables have 4.75” corners, but the altered 140° pocket facing angles make them play nicely for our level of players.
For our tournament play, the higher skilled player will always have the advantage, regardless of the size of the pockets.
Folks, I believe pool should be played for the recreation and enjoyment of the participants.
It doesn’t matter what the equipment is as long as everyone genuinely enjoys themselves.
My approach and preference for toughening up the table is to simply raise the height of the bar.
I enjoyed playing challenging golf courses on the Monterey Peninsula that always humbled me.
It wasn’t an accomplishment to shoot my close to my handicap, or lower, at my local courses but
I never even came close playing the coastal courses or the southern Cal ones, like Torrey Pines.
Every single time we played any of those courses and returned home to play some of our local
golf courses, I always initially played under my handicap for awhile and then normalcy returned.
Here’s what I believe….play with challenging conditions, aside from inclement weather or pool
tables with issues, as often as you can and you’ll be surprised at how much you will improve.
I birdied one hole and had six pars when I played Spyglass and still shot a 97. The other holes ate
me up……no greens in regulation, bunkers, in the water, “3 & 4 putted”….but I loved every moment.
Returned home, played my local golf course and shot 5 shots under my NCGA index. It was not just
a coincidence. I played better because my shot approach was better. I think pool tables are the same.
If you played mainly on tables with really tight pockets, under 4.5”, and then play on one with over 5” CP
and wider side pockets, you’re going to average higher runs when it’s your turn to shoot plain and simple.
The most balls I need to run is 8, 9 or 10 balls to win, depending on the game assuming my opponent has
a dry break. Usually that’s not the case and they make some balls so the runout becomes a lower number.
The aforementioned doesn’t include straight pool but practicing with tighter pockets will really help your
game accelerate if you play with larger pockets. When the conditions get easier, you typically play better.
My quest has always been to play on 10’ tables with 4-1/4” CP (SP 1/2” wider). If you played with that setup
for awhile and then competed on a 9’ table with “5” CP, you will soar with eagles when it’s your turn to shoot.
It doesn’t matter what the equipment is as long as everyone genuinely enjoys themselves.
My approach and preference for toughening up the table is to simply raise the height of the bar.
I enjoyed playing challenging golf courses on the Monterey Peninsula that always humbled me.
It wasn’t an accomplishment to shoot my close to my handicap, or lower, at my local courses but
I never even came close playing the coastal courses or the southern Cal ones, like Torrey Pines.
Every single time we played any of those courses and returned home to play some of our local
golf courses, I always initially played under my handicap for awhile and then normalcy returned.
Here’s what I believe….play with challenging conditions, aside from inclement weather or pool
tables with issues, as often as you can and you’ll be surprised at how much you will improve.
I birdied one hole and had six pars when I played Spyglass and still shot a 97. The other holes ate
me up……no greens in regulation, bunkers, in the water, “3 & 4 putted”….but I loved every moment.
Returned home, played my local golf course and shot 5 shots under my NCGA index. It was not just
a coincidence. I played better because my shot approach was better. I think pool tables are the same.
If you played mainly on tables with really tight pockets, under 4.5”, and then play on one with over 5” CP
and wider side pockets, you’re going to average higher runs when it’s your turn to shoot plain and simple.
The most balls I need to run is 8, 9 or 10 balls to win, depending on the game assuming my opponent has
a dry break. Usually that’s not the case and they make some balls so the runout becomes a lower number.
The aforementioned doesn’t include straight pool but practicing with tighter pockets will really help your
game accelerate if you play with larger pockets. When the conditions get easier, you typically play better.
My quest has always been to play on 10’ tables with 4-1/4” CP (SP 1/2” wider). If you played with that setup
for awhile and then competed on a 9’ table with “5” CP, you will soar with eagles when it’s your turn to shoot.
Hmmmm, this is interesting considering the current discussion. Fair warning and disclaimer, I am attempting to retype a quote. Minor differences may sneak in!
(quote) By 1923 the Chicago hustlers were leaving me alone. I was one of them. It was in 1923 that I got a run of seventy-four balls in rack pool. That may not sound like much today, but it was on a five-by-ten-foot table with four-inch corner pockets and two-and-a-quarter-inch balls. The world tournament record on that kind of equipment was only eighty-five. (end quote)
This is from a sorta auto-biography "as told to" so there is some room for breezes blowing through the book. I just found it interesting that he gave table details in the book I was reading while this thread was going.
If he played on a five by ten with four inch pockets, the balls, cloth, and general conditions of the day, those low numbers were far from easy to post as low as they seem!
Hu
(quote) By 1923 the Chicago hustlers were leaving me alone. I was one of them. It was in 1923 that I got a run of seventy-four balls in rack pool. That may not sound like much today, but it was on a five-by-ten-foot table with four-inch corner pockets and two-and-a-quarter-inch balls. The world tournament record on that kind of equipment was only eighty-five. (end quote)
This is from a sorta auto-biography "as told to" so there is some room for breezes blowing through the book. I just found it interesting that he gave table details in the book I was reading while this thread was going.
If he played on a five by ten with four inch pockets, the balls, cloth, and general conditions of the day, those low numbers were far from easy to post as low as they seem!
Hu
We have that exact spec table in our poolroom and I had the same visions about what playing and practicing on that table would do for my game, which is exactly why I acquired it 6 years ago.
Sorry to say I can’t say it has had much effect in improving my game, but that likely has more to do with my age (66) and my far from perfect fundamentals. Sorry, but in my opinion, practicing and playing on a tough table in and of itself is not necessarily going to make you a better player.
However, if you are highly skilled player, playing on a tight pocket table is certainly an absolute necessity to prepare you to compete against top competition, particularly if it is to be played on tight pocket tables.
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Chris, you referred to your game not improving. Well, I can attest to the fact we have a lot more physical
limitations and distractions when you reach senior status and often, a lot sooner than that. Let. Me ask
if after playing mostly on that tough table, did you then go play on a table with much larger pockets? And
did you play the same, better or worse? The scenario I’m imagining is like the table arrangement at the new
pool hall that just opened in Fresno. There’s seven 7’ Diamond tables with 4 1/2” CP and eight 9’ tables that
are 50/50 (4 with 4-1/4” CP & 4 with 4-1/2” CP). So the change in pocket size isn’t that severe but if there was
also tables with 5” CP, a strong player that mostly played with 4-1/4” CP tables would play a whole lot stronger.
with 5” CP. I presume you’re referring to your overall game improving but maybe that’s more a Father Time factor.
Not sure what you’re asking, but of course any player including myself plays better as the pockets get larger and/or as the table size gets smaller.
The pool table difficulty is totally meaningless unless the player is serious minded, committed to improving,
and prepared to put in the hard work it takes to overcome flaws, improve your stroke execution and learn.
Learning is the hardest part. Here’s a simple thing to try. Set up the hardest shots you can create. Shoot it
until you can make it minimally three consecutive times (or more). Once could be pure luck, twice might be
coincidence but three times and you know how to execute the shot. Try it on tough bank shots three diamonds
or more wide and variable distances between the CB and OB, frozen on the rail and off. Do the same thing with
long backward cut shots…..3x in a row. Now go play on a table with 5” CP pockets & it feels like you can’t miss.
and prepared to put in the hard work it takes to overcome flaws, improve your stroke execution and learn.
Learning is the hardest part. Here’s a simple thing to try. Set up the hardest shots you can create. Shoot it
until you can make it minimally three consecutive times (or more). Once could be pure luck, twice might be
coincidence but three times and you know how to execute the shot. Try it on tough bank shots three diamonds
or more wide and variable distances between the CB and OB, frozen on the rail and off. Do the same thing with
long backward cut shots…..3x in a row. Now go play on a table with 5” CP pockets & it feels like you can’t miss.
That is my whole point…..when you go from the toughest table arrangement to anything more forgiving,
the game just gets easier. You might not play better at any given moment because of your mental outlook,
physically feeling, mechanical mistakes when you played etc. Those are things we refer to as our game is
off. Sans that, I always play better on tables with bigger pocket size but so does my opponents. That has
not been the case when I play on tough tables. I can play more competitively with stronger players than I
am when the table conditions have smaller pockets which is not the case on other tables with bigger CP.
On those tables, the folks I compete with will run the table more often than when the pocket size shrinks and
that’s not good for me because they are better players than myself. That’s not the case with 4.25” CP tables.
It’s an equalizer as far as I’m concerned which is why I always search for the toughest pool tables to play on.
Like I earlier wrote, a 10’ table is Nirvana to me. Growing up, there were so many to play on but not anymore.
So since that’s no longer feasible to do, the next best substitute is playing on 9’ tables with really tight pockets.
Man that porn Hub has some disgusting shit. Must be hysterical for the analysts.
For a few years I practiced and tuned on a snooker table, shooting with a pool stick. Then I often gambled on bar tables, maybe nine footers but with bucket pockets. Either one, for the first few hours or so potting balls was ridiculously easy.
I did find a downside to the snooker table, even a very tough pool table. If you play on it too much it subtly changes your game. Your choice of shots, shots or safeties, how you play these shots and safeties, all impacted by the tables you spend a lopsided amount of time on. For those few years I spent most my time on snooker or seven foot bar tables. With the nine footer being betwixt and between it wasn't too much of a challenge, as far as something out of the ordinary. I would no doubt have benefitted from some nine foot specific tuning but I did OK.
There is a lot to be said for tuning on a tough table. A lot to be said for tuning on the table you compete on the most too. I always tried to do a lot of both.
Hu
I did find a downside to the snooker table, even a very tough pool table. If you play on it too much it subtly changes your game. Your choice of shots, shots or safeties, how you play these shots and safeties, all impacted by the tables you spend a lopsided amount of time on. For those few years I spent most my time on snooker or seven foot bar tables. With the nine footer being betwixt and between it wasn't too much of a challenge, as far as something out of the ordinary. I would no doubt have benefitted from some nine foot specific tuning but I did OK.
There is a lot to be said for tuning on a tough table. A lot to be said for tuning on the table you compete on the most too. I always tried to do a lot of both.
Hu
Snooker is a game unto itself as is 3 cushion billIards.
Played on a 6x12 vs. 5x10, snooker becomes devilish.
As far as masterful cue stroking goes, 3 cushion is #1.
It is a wonderful game and can be the most frustrating.
If you’ve ever seen a long curving putt slow down & be
1” short, lip out, or drop in, that’s like your 3 cushion shot.
Once you send your cue ball at the first rail, you get to see
it travel the path you imagined, like a putt and cheer it on.
It is the most creative game I’ve ever played and when you get a
run going, the feeling of exhilaration is better than in straight pool.
Played on a 6x12 vs. 5x10, snooker becomes devilish.
As far as masterful cue stroking goes, 3 cushion is #1.
It is a wonderful game and can be the most frustrating.
If you’ve ever seen a long curving putt slow down & be
1” short, lip out, or drop in, that’s like your 3 cushion shot.
Once you send your cue ball at the first rail, you get to see
it travel the path you imagined, like a putt and cheer it on.
It is the most creative game I’ve ever played and when you get a
run going, the feeling of exhilaration is better than in straight pool.
Well written.
Playing eightball on a really tough table- I’ve noticed that a good shooter often plans for shapes after pocketing the object ball. But a great player also predicts and then selects a shot where if I dog it thick I like mostly where we “most probably” lie. AND if I dog that exact same tough shot attempt thin I like mostly where we “most probably” lie. In addition to that fact. If I play a great safe...I like it anyway.
And you don’t.
Some stupid bar box.
Some classless section of Vegas with zero PLO.
Some league practice room.
It’s like getting half a free shot. Cause you have to kick.
I don’t need much eyesight or much stroke. I need my experience, more patience, my advanced strategy and better speed control.
Like one-hole.
I’ll be partying on your cash till I ride.
Lot more percentages out there than many new billiard sports players realiz.
And Utiliz.
They respect your nine ball game Eddie, but they fear your eight ball game.
-Bad B.
Here ya go.
You need some Walnut three way vintage JBL’s and the man cave for a bit though.
Install a powered sub.
You have a garage door don’t you? So I’m guessing you have a girl, don’t you?
Don’t ask for permission.
****. Don’t even tell her.
Turn the volume down when she asks though Line.
Like a gentleman.
Trust your wingman Eddie on that score.
Fix that garage door.
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That's how the experience levels out. I always felt the futility of committing to "real player" and took a different path. I went with what attracted me to pool in the first place - precision marksmanship. Incidentally, for those that would point out the positional aspect, that's included as a function of either. I learned what the game entailed and what made competing successfully work and it still came down to skill. As refined a craft as you can manage; that's how technology works. F1 cars can zip around commuters in first gear. They don't bother. It would be a waste of time and resources. What they and the rest of tech do is simply zip into the future. If I can practice past 50 fargos that's winning.