Steve Lipsky PERFECT 85 from SBE 14.1 Challenge

stevekur1

The "COMMISH"
Silver Member
Hey Guys,

Steve gave me the honor of posting this video of what i call a Perfect 85, when he got through the third rack i really thought he was going to nail a Perfect 100.

i was scoring a match on the adjacent table, trying really hard not to watch stevie as he ripped through rack after rack so i wouldnt shark him.

Like Charlie aka Forumghost516 called Stevie "The Mission", after you watch this footage you will understand why !

I Started the video from the begining so you can see it unfold, Steve was playing Bob Maidhoff in the 1st round of the Final 8.

Sit Back, Relax & Enjoy the Show !

http://www.vimeo.com/10393269

Steve

Maybe stevie can give us all a sort of player review with CueTable on some of his thoughts !!!
 
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Skess

Another sidearmer...
Silver Member
Very impressive! And I like his pace. Very steady.

I'd love to see my game get to that level.
 

Bobby

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Very nice run, that was like a 14.1 clinic. Steve always makes it look so easy. Thanks for posting it.
 

14-1StraightMan

High Run 127
Silver Member
Very Steady

Excellent shooting. Under those circumstances to run that many balls in all that pressure of that Tournament is truly outstanding. Steve made a great break shot in that last rack. It was a hard shot and made it as clean as can be. After seeing him run all those racks so clean. I was telling myself (no way is he going to miss this ball) but he did and it happens to the best of them and I can see that he is one of the Best.
Great shooting Steve. It was a pleasure watching.
 

Steve Lipsky

On quest for perfect 14.1
Silver Member
Some quick notes that I see immediately...

In the first rack, I am guilty of doing two things which I've actually written about on this forum! The first, described in a post I once made called "Your One Thing" (about something you do which you know is wrong, and you're trying to improve upon), is leaving a lone ball slightly uptable when you have a chance to shoot it off at the beginning of the rack. I've been doing this forever and I almost feel like there is a mental block about it.

mistake1.jpg

I clearly could have shot this ball right from the get go. It was laying slightly bad, but as a lefty, my bridge hand should have fit next to the 12. It would have been a shot I had to be careful with, but if I took my time with it, it would have been no problem. Instead, I leave it, and my end pattern gets a little awkward because of it.

The other thing I do wrong here is something that I wrote about a while ago, but was just brought back to everyone's attention in the thread called "More 14.1". In one way, I feel silly for doing exactly what I say should be avoided, but in another, it's nice to show in a real-world scenario just how dangerous this seemingly innocent mistake can be.

mistake2.jpg

Just like I describe in the "More 14.1" thread, these two balls aimed into the side pocket seem so benign. But watch as I never seem to get a good angle on either of them, and keep leaving them until later and later in the rack. I lose soldier after soldier, never dealing with this problem.

Again, I feel silly for making this mistake, but it's kind of a good thing that it's on video so we can really analyze how bad these two truly-innocent looking balls can be. I never make a decision to clearly play position on one of these two balls early, and it ends up handcuffing me a bit towards the end.

One other side note on the run - I'm hitting some of these break shots hard, even for me. But it was sometimes tough to open these racks, due to all the people and humidity in the convention center. One of the main reasons that even the top guys were having trouble putting up numbers during the qualifying stages is because they weren't opening the racks well on their break shots. I took note of that and tried to adjust my game accordingly.

- Steve
 

Ratta

Hearing the balls.....
Silver Member
Hats off Steve-

most important thing in pool on a higher level is all about the rythm. And you really have a constant rythm. I loved to watch you playin- really exiting, and i am sure, that you re for sure able to run constantly centuries!

lg from overseas,

Ingo
 

14-1StraightMan

High Run 127
Silver Member
Yes

Steve thanks for posting those two situations. It is always good to get inside the mind of a highly skilled player as yourself. I do understand your points on each of those problem balls that came up but like you stated the angle was off just a bit. I know that many times I will leave them be b/c of the slight angle and try to get back to them later in the run. Sometimes, that right path just does not come out as you want it too. That was the main point that Ray Martin was stating in his video as he was teaching. "When your plan does not fall like you want it too, re-think another plan to achieve your goal. It looks like to me, that is what you did and was very successful at it. There is no doubt in my mind that we all were watching a player that can run over a 100 balls at any given time.
Good luck to you in the future.
Mike
 

3andstop

Focus
Silver Member
Great play Steve. It was a real pleasure to watch. Also my thanks to stevekur1 for going through the effort of posting it. Thank you.

Steve, I'd like to ask you a generic type question. I don't know quite how to word it, and I'm not sure there is even an answer for it, but here it is.

Your second shot, I believe it was the 6 ball. A very steep angle, thin cut, you bridged a very long bridge. Possibly because you were uncomfortable with the pocket opening, but I thought it amazing that on a shot like this where accuracy is so critical, you were able to execute with such a long bridge.

I see this many times. Thorston does it quite often. Not only on cut shots, but many shots. A long bridge from the rail. is this something you naturally feel ok with or is it something specifically practiced? All that wiggle room between the bridge and the CB seems clumsy for me, but as I said, I see it so often.

I wonder if you could comment on these type of long bridge off the rail choices as opposed to a shorter bridge on the bed of the table.

thanks.
 

Steve Lipsky

On quest for perfect 14.1
Silver Member
Great play Steve. It was a real pleasure to watch. Also my thanks to stevekur1 for going through the effort of posting it. Thank you.

Steve, I'd like to ask you a generic type question. I don't know quite how to word it, and I'm not sure there is even an answer for it, but here it is.

Your second shot, I believe it was the 6 ball. A very steep angle, thin cut, you bridged a very long bridge. Possibly because you were uncomfortable with the pocket opening, but I thought it amazing that on a shot like this where accuracy is so critical, you were able to execute with such a long bridge.

I see this many times. Thorston does it quite often. Not only on cut shots, but many shots. A long bridge from the rail. is this something you naturally feel ok with or is it something specifically practiced? All that wiggle room between the bridge and the CB seems clumsy for me, but as I said, I see it so often.

I wonder if you could comment on these type of long bridge off the rail choices as opposed to a shorter bridge on the bed of the table.

thanks.

Hey 3,

I doubt my hand could have fit on the table in any sort of a comfortable manner, so I think it was sort of necessary for the long bridge here.

As a general rule, I'd rather take a longer bridge off the rail than a shorter one on the bed, but it has to be within reason... It only has to do with comfort in taking the shot - I'm just not comfortable with tight bridges. In other words, I'm not saying I think longer bridges are more accurate - I'm just saying I will be more accurate when I am comfortable.

That said, I have always had quite a bit of space between the end of my cue tip and the cueball on my practice strokes, no matter where my bridge is. It's nothing I planned, it's just how I learned... I've tried to shorten that gap up, but I can't do it comfortably. I always feel like I will foul the cueball if I try it.

- Steve
 

dmgwalsh

Straight Pool Fanatic
Silver Member
Smooth run.

Nice play, Steve. You rarely go into the balls unless you have to. It was nice seeing you move around and clear balls out that opened up other balls.

I noticed that 10 ball in the first rack. Had it not been there you could have played the 2 instead of the 10 and gone up table to clear out the rest. It looked like there was one ball too many down by the rack.

I noticed on most of your break shots you came up a little on your stroke after the shot. That must have been because you were putting more into them than usual in an effort to get those bad boys open.

After solving that last difficult rack and making the tough break shot out of the kitchen it's too bad you missed that relatively easy cut with the rack open.
 

Eric.

Club a member
Silver Member
Well done, Steve-o.

For those that don't know Steve, he is truly a straight pool beast (and one of the most humble guys). Kind of like the days of yore, when you walked into a NJ poolroom and some local guy gets up and runs a 100 on ya...well thats Steve.


Eric >consider yourself "knocked", Steve :wink:
 

ForumGhost516

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Guys Steve really is a great guy and a hell of a player. He really does call back to a time when gentleman played the game we all love so much. It was an honor and a pleasure to have him play in the challenge.
 

Roy Steffensen

locksmith
Silver Member
Real nice run, steady rhytm and great pocketing skills!

I noticed that you kept leaving a ball on the other side of the table in almost every rack, and I remember you mentioned this in another thread like 1,5 year ago or something. Why does it really bother you, it seems to work just fine for you.
 

JohnnyP

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Steve:

Man, did you hit those break shots hard. Takes a good eye, a good stroke, and a lot of confidence. Either that or no respect for your opponent. :)

The cue ball goes airborne on some of your breaks. Is that from a lot of follow, or are you hitting down slightly on it, causing it to hop?

I have been having a problem seeing the shot, over cutting to the left, undercutting to the right. I was shooting with my head turned so the dominant eye is on the shot line.

Your head is looking straight ahead. I tried that last night and had way more fun.

Thanks for the lesson.
 

wrldpro

H.RUN 311/Diamond W.R.
Gold Member
Silver Member
Hey Guys,

Steve gave me the honor of posting this video of what i call a Perfect 85, when he got through the third rack i really thought he was going to nail a Perfect 100.

i was scoring a match on the adjacent table, trying really hard not to watch stevie as he ripped through rack after rack so i wouldnt shark him.

Like Charlie aka Forumghost516 called Stevie "The Mission", after you watch this footage you will understand why !

I Started the video from the begining so you can see it unfold, Steve was playing Bob Maidhoff in the 1st round of the Final 8.

Sit Back, Relax & Enjoy the Show !

http://www.vimeo.com/10393269

Steve

Maybe stevie can give us all a sort of player review with CueTable on some of his thoughts !!!

Congrats.on the run Steve.I for one know how hard the tables were playing with the tight pockets and super slick fast felt.I would say that all runs would be 40-50% higher on a gold crown with simonis(so around 110-130balls) as I am not sure how you see it but thats my opinion.I saw so many times after break shots there was no shots to shoot for alot of players.I really wanted to see you win the event and you were certainly the crowd favorite in your matches.
 

Steve Lipsky

On quest for perfect 14.1
Silver Member
Real nice run, steady rhytm and great pocketing skills!

I noticed that you kept leaving a ball on the other side of the table in almost every rack, and I remember you mentioned this in another thread like 1,5 year ago or something. Why does it really bother you, it seems to work just fine for you.

Thanks Roy, and everyone else. As to the lone ball issue, I consider it a problem because it can often cause otherwise-tight patterns to unravel. I guess in these racks I dealt with them reasonably, but in others they have led to problems. I really feel that if I take more care to remove them earlier, my play will improve.

I should note that I won't have these balls to deal with quite as often as you see in this video. Though I often hit breakshots hard, I usually don't hit them as hard as I did at the expo. I had seen too many people get safe after their breakshots, including me, and I just didn't want that to happen. One of the drawbacks is some balls went uptable a little too much.

JohnnyP, I don't think I was shooting downwards into the break balls, but the ones that go airborne seem to all be hard topspin shots. Probably something to that.

Bobby, thank you sir. Garnering the respect of one's peers is always a great feeling. You have mine.

- Steve
 

sausage

Banned
Steve:

what i found interesting in that first rack is that the ball "down table" was not far "down table" yet it still made for a messy pattern at the end which you handled quite well.

when you hammered those break shots, you tended to turn your cue into the rack. is this an unconscious quirk or something designed?

since my greatest run-stoppers are missing my break-balls, i'd like to get into your brain as to exactly what you are thinking during breaks.

tim
 

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Steve Lipsky

On quest for perfect 14.1
Silver Member
Steve:

what i found interesting in that first rack is that the ball "down table" was not far "down table" yet it still made for a messy pattern at the end which you handled quite well.

when you hammered those break shots, you tended to turn your cue into the rack. is this an unconscious quirk or something designed?

since my greatest run-stoppers are missing my break-balls, i'd like to get into your brain as to exactly what you are thinking during breaks.

tim

Well this is highly embarrassing, lol. I would suggest NOT doing that with your arm hahaha.

;)

- Steve
 
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