Recent content by Thelonious Monk

My wife's bugging me to come up with a list of presents I want this year. Tis the season, right? Obviously, pool being hugely important to me, this should be a goldmine. But my mind's drawing a blank right now. So my question is this: say you have all the cues you want, the cases etc. etc...

Ah, very good point, Mr. dmgwalsh. I was able to edit/Sascha the spelling in the post but not the title. So now I only look like half an idiot. (Which is actually an improvement on my general demeanor.) Stupid German name spellings.

Firstly can I say that I was in the school of "give the guy a break" when the first Saschagate was running its course. Everyone deserves a second chance, we learn by our mistakes, yada yada yada. To pull the same trick a second time, however, to so willingly spit in the face of people who...

I think this is an interesting post. I can't believe some guys I play who tell me they have no idea what their highest run is. What, not even in league play? You never count? Come on! How are we supposed to mark our improvements without measurements? Can you imagine a golf player not knowing...

In a lesson I had with Tony Robles, he told me that if the cue ball's going to be heading into the lower portion of the ball in the rack, hit hard with below center (not FULL draw) and a little outside English. This should avoid the scratch and bring you to the side rail and out a little with...

Hey, Straight Man, Sorry if I gave the wrong idea. (Did I?) I thought my story made it pretty clear I thought that this was a one-off. The guy just lived the dream. And when I realized that, I had zero resentment. Let him have some fun after the fairytale pool week, I thought. I did make that...

I have a funny story for you. I was playing a straight pool league match, Amsterdam Billiards, last Monday night. I've been on a really bad run, tough division, stroke going through some serious issues... but that night I was well ahead for the first time in ages. But my opponent, a really...

I don't know if you're looking to play in the daytime or evenings. Like someone said, Amsterdam can be hard with all the leagues in the evenings. But in the daytime, right now Amsterdam has a pretty good deal going (I think because of the new competition from Society). You can get the powerplay...

Hey Blackjack, Good drill. Especially as I know that I'm often guilty of moving whitey round the table like he's earning me air miles! I'll give it a try but I have a question: I don't see you shooting the break shots. Are you just spreading the balls by hand and not shooting them? Or, if you...

Well, that raises a good point. You need to know your opponent for a move like this to work. I mean, it should help to know your opponent anyway, but especially and moreover if you were planning to use such a PO tactic.

Another situation I've thought of when a "push out" might be useful, you're stuck up against the stack, there are some loose balls directly beneath the stack that you might leave on if you don't execute a perfect safe. And then you notice a dead ball in the stack -- not an obvious one, and your...

Apologies if this has been discussed before (and I'm VERY sure I'm not the first person to think of it). I haven't been using this forum for long, so maybe it's been 'done to death' already. Just interested in a discussion though. Recently in league matches, I've been occasionally trying out...

It's certainly would be interesting watching to a small minority of us, Sausage. My wife always laughs at me when I'm reading straight pool books -- she compares it to the time she found her Dad engrossed in a copy of 'The Ins And Outs Of Early Ford Transmission'. But back to the point. I agree...

Look also in the picture at where he has the joint (where the cue changes from blond to black). I think he's using that line as well. He's set the joint up where the center of the cue ball would be and using that 'join line' to begin visualizing the tangent line. I think. Or maybe I'm...

Wow, I love this diagram. Thank you for posting, and thanks to Steve Lipsky for making it. One question I'm left with -- what do the spare cue balls A and B beneath the rack represent? Are they two final 'desperation' break balls?