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I think you're right. There were a lot of open tables. I've never seen so many opportunities to hit balls and practice. You're also right about the partial draws being delayed. I was scheduled to play Filler in round 3 of the one pocket at 4PM. He was still in the banks and they said that...

I've heard mentioned number of tables and qualifiers to enter. They didn't have qualifiers two years ago. They didn't have more tables two years ago. There are a lot of threads talking about solutions. I'm trying to understand what changed to create the problem. I'm still unclear. Anyone...

I didn't know youtube allowed videos that short...

Hahaha. DCC is funny. I got some good draws (relatively, still some great players) in rounds 5-7 to have opponents that weren't among the game's elite, but yeah, those two matches felt unwinnable. My other six matches I won with a combined score of 18-3 so I was doing ok. But all that time I...

Does anyone know how many entries there were in 2022? I see a lot of suggestions but I'm still not certain what changed. Was there really that big of a jump in participants?

There is clearly a problem with DCC schedules and the finishing times this year and last year have been quite problematic (tournament finishing at 7AM last year and around 9AM this year). There have been a lot of solutions proposed, but to me that overlooks the fact that for a number of years...

Thank you Tomato and THam. There are many great instructors out there, now more than ever. I'm on the record as not being geared towards fundamentals. To me fundamentals are really, really tricky. Everything is connected to everything else so if you change your grip or stance it can impact...

This is more true than not true but there are exceptions. Woodward beat Orcullo in a race to 150 on the bar table playing 10 ball. I don't think that's in play on a 9'. And I personally know a few bar table players that have Fargo Ratings 10-20 points higher than me that I would love to play...

Hey guys! Mike Page from Fargo Rate is going to join me for a podcast and I was curious if there were questions or topics you wanted discussed. I can’t promise we’ll get to everything but I just wanted a feel of what people want to dig into. I know Mike is a member and contributor here on AZB...

Some things you never forget. My first pro event was the 2005 US Open. I won one, lost one, won one, and was now playing Danny Basavich to get into the money. Cutting to the important part it went hill-hill and I was breaking. Before the break Scott Smith gets on the microphone and says to...

I am highly skeptical of all of this. None of it is impossible. Each of these independently could have occurred. But they are all extremely, extremely, extremely unlikely and special and rare. If God could be our judge and declare the winner I would bet against almost all of them. Running 9...

Thanks for the reply Matt! Well said! Agree with all of this. You get it and said it right. They were at the bottom half of their performance range. You weren't criticizing, just reporting. I think that most people have really warped ideas of how people play from watching highlight reels...

Matt has made three posts in this thread about the relatively low quality of play. But everything is relative. Poorly compared to what? Compared to elite international players at the peak of their game (this seemed to be the comparison in his first post)? Compared to Chris/Oscar on their...

It's a blend of all of this and more and we'll never know for sure how much weight to each. You can add a few things to this list. One is style. When someone starts out playing they have a vision of what they think top pool should look like and strengths that they build their game around...

Input = output. You can get more out of your game if you put more in than you put in up until that point. Not just more of the same. But if you can do a number of things you haven't done in the past then you can get more out of your game. More sparring against better players. Bigger...

I like it when an opponent makes an error near the finish of a rack or match and says "I was supposed to win that game/set". If it's someone I don't know I say nothing, but when it's a friend or student I'll push back a little bit. I'll say "So you were supposed to win because you weren't...

I think this post is a bullseye. Not a surprise. Nice write up Stu. 👍

In a mainstream tournament breaks are allowed on your break before you break. In most environments I think it’s ok to take a break as long as it’s your inning, usually at the beginning of an inning. But not everyone follows etiquette so you have to be prepared for all kinds of crap...

Hey guys! I am going to Turning Stone this January but it was harder than ever to get in (had to make it through the wait list) and as a result my normal road partners weren't able to join me. I'll go solo if I have to, but man, it is a burden to not have someone to split some of the expenses...

Hey Stu! I got through the wait list at Turning Stone so I'll see you around the corner! We're not far apart on this but there is a little gap. That's ok. We all see things a bit differently. I certainly agree that Chohan, for example, can get there at any time with anyone. He demonstrated...