I've had a bad experience or two on shimmed tables playing one pocket. The shims can be as problematic as anything. I wouldn't change the pockets if they are pocketing correctly and accepting balls well. You might make the table aggravating to play on because the shim material changes the way it pockets not so much that you have to tighten up your shot making ability. You want to have fun and improve your overall game in how you move and your cue ball control. That's my opinion. A shimmed table for One Pocket can make for a long grinding game that goes on for way longer than it should under half way normal conditions. I'd as soon both players had equal chances to pocket balls than count on more chances because of jacked up equipment where each pocket may play differently.The applications for 9 ball and 8 ball can be similar. If you want to hone your shot making skills buy some pocket reducers. You can take them out when you want to play.
Interesting comments, sir.
I made up my mind years ago when I decided to own table(s) that I wasn't intelligent enough to play one pocket and didn't want to invest time in learning it. Although I do enjoy watching the game when it is played by experts...like Pagulayan.
My game(s) were going to be 8 Ball and 9 Ball.....nothing more.
Nobody would ever be a guest in my home to play pool on my table(s). I don't like visitors anyway.
I wanted a hard miserable, TRAINING FIELD.....(like in that old movie Rocky when he trained in the meat house whacking those carcasses) to get down on and sweat for hours. Maybe shooting the same shot 100-200 times, then moving it an inch and shooting it another 100-200 times. Thousands of shots a day...long ones, tough ones, hard long backcuts, etc. etc. etc. never any of those stupid easy ones. I wanted a torture chamber (and I got one)....practice was NOT SUPPOSED to be fun, in my opinion.
I told the installer to give me dead, used rails, with bad rubber...to mix 'em up. Bad pocket fixtures with corners that would hook and tear my clothes in order to break my concentration Cheap ass slow cloth. Poor lighting. Installed in a shed that was cold in the winter and miserably hot and humidity ridden in the summer with insects and bugs swarming. And to shim those pockets up to 4 inches...he messed up and made them 4 1/4 inches. If I ever have it recovered, they're going down to four inches...I'll watch over that. I've even paid the kids next door to come in there and throw stuff at each other across the table, yell and scream, grab the back of my cue stick...anything to break concentration when I'm training
The only thing important to me was that the contraption be perfectly level...that was a must.
That is the kind of thing that I believe is needed for a guy to
train on so he can become all the pool player he wants to become.
I guess it's how much pain a fella is willing to endure to get to the point where he is oblivious to what the opponent does or what the railbirds are doing and he only concentrates intensely on his own procedures.
It sure does pay off at match time competition, though, when playing on good equipment.
To each his own I guess. I am a very weird person when it comes to training.
Have a good one........