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I agree that gambling is not a big factor in snooker's success. Snooker took off commercially in the early 80's, and the betting companies have only been significant sponsors relatively recently. And gambling is not going to be pool's saviour - it is a chicken and egg situation: The big...

It occurs to me that with an ash cue the advantage of having the chevrons uppermost is that this is usually the least worst option. The grain on the side of an ash cue is not actually that straight - it is wood after all - and may well give the illusion that the cue is not perfectly straight.

It certainly is something that a player is capable of perceiving while playing; but I am not convinced that it actually contributes anything useful. If it did, where good ash cues are commonplace, one would expect all the top pros to use ash rather than maple, and for them all to orientate the...

What sort of thing are you looking for?

I believe Patrick Johnson plays pool with a 10mm tip, and has a number of posts on the subject.

Because snooker players have squirt at manageable levels through the thinner shafts they have always used. So they don't need a 'high tech' solution. But for a pool player who is used to playing with 12 or 13mm shaft, and who is not comfortable playing with something around 10 or 11mm...

It is not a 'theory'. It's nonsense No, sorry. I am sure you could find reference to if you browse one of the UK based snooker forums, but I wouldn't waste your time. You come across enough rubbish on the internet as it is without deliberately seeking it out.

I remember reading some advice on selecting a cue from a snooker pro many many years ago. He said that all you need to do is to look along the cue and see if it looks straight by eye. If it looks straight then it is fine. Do not then roll it along the bed of the table to further check for...

Agreed. Even when taking into account the lighter balls, the thinness of the shaft compared with a standard pool cue more than compensates for the denser ferule material. So less squirt. But having said, that I do think that brass is probably sub-optimal, and is one area where snooker cue...

The brevity of the glance down to the cb does surprise me though. McManus here is aged 45. One might have expected to see an effect on dynamic eye accommodation by that age - how does he manage to refocus on the cb so quickly? Perhaps he is not actually getting sharp focus on where the tip is...

Nice find. Not easy to spot such a quick flick down to the cb and then back up again. Again interesting that it was a shot played with extreme side / english.

The BBC recently showed a recording of Hendry playing some years back, and there is a bit in that which quite clearly shows him looking at the ob last. Unless he changed his eye patterns (which I think is unlikely) it does seem as if players do not always do the same thing every time. I...

According to Robert Byrne's 'Wonderful world of pool & billiards': Schaefer beat Hoppe in 1921 in a tournament memorable because of the shock waves it send through the billiard world, which had come to think of Hoppe as invincible.... [after Cochran had won in 1927] Hoppe never again was able...

That is really interesting. I had thought that although some pros thought that they looked at the cb last, in reality video evidence shows that they switched up to the ob before releasing the cue. But I agree that these two clips clearly show a counter example. In both these shots the side...

I was not suggesting that he breaks the reds like an 8 ball rack - although I would pay good money to see that happen in a pro match :D). The way it would happen is this: Normally a pro snooker player playing from somewhere in balk (the kitchen) who does not have a pot on, will try to find a...

Don't advise using abrasives on a regular basis. For regular maintenance, a single wipe with a barely damp cloth and immediately dry well. Every now and again wax the shaft (I use Butcher's bowling alley wax; other brands are available). This assumes that it is a maple shaft. For snooker...

If someone is giving advice to Corey, I don't think that what he does with his chalk matters. The important advice for him concerns tactics: don't try to imitate what the full time snooker players do - the good ones will hang him out to dry. What he has to do if he wants to compete is mess the...

Rick - excellent point IMO, and one that is not made frequently or forcefully enough. Looking from the outside, all you see are the outward manifestations of what a player is doing. And describing the pool stroke in these terms has two major problems: First, looked at from this perspective...

Most expert snooker players keep the cue more or less level while addressing the cue ball - hence more of a piston than a pendulum. But where the backswing is elongated (and this is usually only on the final backswing immediately before the cue is delivered), the butt will tend to lift. The...

I believe that Chris Melling was a pro Snooker player for some years before he started playing 9 ball competitively (although he was also a top player at UK 8-ball)