Extreme humidity effect on pool match

skipbales

skipbales

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Brags said:
Earl never missed a shot that was his fault lol...always blaming the table...the crowd....the cue...anything.

I was playing in a garage over the winter...not only humid 80% but cold. No big deal...just make the necessary adjustments.

Here is a link about it.
http://billiards.colostate.edu/threads/table.html#humidity
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Those are the effects I experienced. Others were blaming "the table" but I suspected it was the extreme humidity. We have played on that table off and on for years and it never played that way before.

Making the "necessary adjustments" is what my team was able to do and prevail. The #1 team was too dependent on spin to play the game the way the conditions required and lost to the same team we beat as a result.

What is surprising to me is the degree to which it affected our game. Everything was wet. It wasn't just high humidity like I have experienced in Florida, it was like playing in the fog except the moisture was not quite visible.
 
skipbales

skipbales

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
hang-the-9 said:
You have very valid points about playing on all types of equipment making you a better rounded player, as well as making mistakes when you know how the table plays as your fault. I tell my son the same thing. The thing is, it's tough enough having to play pretty much perfectly to win a mach with the handicaps we give up to many players and I am not just playing for myself, the team is counting on you to win. In the league we play in, a win is 14 pts, not APA where making a ball is a point. If we miss a game ball or get bad on it, or mess up shape or scratch or anything, the other player wins that game, and since many of them need to barely get to 20-30 points while we go to over 60, you can put a player on the hill with a single mistake.

So in my earlier post, yes we killed the other team by winning almost every rack. The thing is, we HAD to or we lose. If one of those players wins two racks in a set, they win, we have to crush them. Combine that with the fact that I play as much for my son to play as for me, and that I shell out 2-4 times the money that other players do, and the fact that there is no reason to play where we don't like when we can play where we do like, or at least tolerate OK, that is why I complain about the equipment and will move areas of the league.
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There are two salient point here:
1. The handicap system is based on normal conditions and bad conditions level the playing field favoring the weaker team who gets points either way.
2. There are "bad conditions" and "BAD CONDITIONS". There is one bar in our league with a table that is almost not playable. The ball doesn't even roll consistently slanted. It rolls one way then changes and rolls the other. At some point it isn't pool anymore. It is hard to understand why even a bar would allow drink spills, holes in the cloth, and totally off level tables but If the owner is removed and has no clue, it is what you have to deal with sometimes.

We pick the bar in town with the best equipment for our home base so at least half the time we are playing on only slightly below average equipment. There is not one bar table in our town anyone would rate as "pretty good". :)
 
Island Drive

Island Drive

Otto/Dads College Roommate/Cleveland Browns
Silver Member
underlined comments

skipbales said:
i played in a league match the other night with a swamp cooler blowing right down on the room that will make some shots roll long/some short and others will curve as cue ball finishes it's roll/earl strickland in 4/96 when he ran the package at CJ's in dallas. There was a high ceiling a/c unit....right above the GC he was playing on, earl complained about the effect of the air blowin.. It was a crazy experience. I wanted to see if anyone else has experienced something similar and if i am on the right track in my analysis.

  1. i don't use powder as a norm but was forced to in an attempt to keep my cue from sticking to my hand. Yep
  2. during practice i miscued regularly when attempting to draw. Old cakey chalk, or mud ball, or forgot to properly scuff or prep your tip.
  3. to draw i had to strike very hard slightly below center and achieved only a small response mud ball???
  4. the cue ball "wanted to roll forward". Even a short stop shot was not predictable. Heavier that obj. Balls?
  5. the table played very very slow RAG CLOTH?
  6. we got 3 extra breaks because the other team miscued on the break 3 out of 5 times.
  7. it was hard to get a good spread. Wet/damp/dirty balls RAG CLOTH we only had 2 out of 9 breaks.
  8. the week before this same, low rated, team defeated the top rated team on this table amid complaints of a crappy table. HAPPENS we won our match because we modified our play and just used aim and speed to take what we could get for shape.

i concluded the balls were wet. Not dripping with water but wet enough to defeat the chalk which also was damp. The cloth was damp slowing the balls and killing the action.

Has anyone else had a similar experience? Is it like this playing in high humidity climates with no ac?
Click to expand...
on fast 9' tables it's quite the opposite.
 
Ghosst

Ghosst

Broom Handle Mafia
Silver Member
Brags said:
Earl never missed a shot that was his fault lol...always blaming the table...the crowd....the cue...anything.
Click to expand...

I was in the room with him the night of that podcast and for the TAR match that followed. I can say that, "humidity" came up more than once. Also the table. The crowd. The cue. Sunshine. Clouds. Rain. Deserts. Shane. Excellence. Tempers. Winning. Losing. Quitting. Gambling. The moon. A mysterious green leafy plant. Cigarettes. Alcohol. Commentators. Television. Golf. The internet.

Oddly, I don't recall hearing him admit to missing a shot because he played it badly.
 
B

Brags

Banned
Ghosst said:
I was in the room with him the night of that podcast and for the TAR match that followed. I can say that, "humidity" came up more than once. Also the table. The crowd. The cue. Sunshine. Clouds. Rain. Deserts. Shane. Excellence. Tempers. Winning. Losing. Quitting. Gambling. The moon. A mysterious green leafy plant. Cigarettes. Alcohol. Commentators. Television. Golf. The internet.

Oddly, I don't recall hearing him admit to missing a shot because he played it badly.
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Ya he never does lol...that's Earl.
 
fastone371

fastone371

Certifiable
Silver Member
hang-the-9 said:
I am not quitting the league, just going to an area where the tables are better. Why would I stay and play somewhere I don't have fun playing? I'm not upset the team beat us, I am just not going to waste time and money being annoyed because the table rolls my position a foot off or makes me scratch when I know I was going to hit a diamond off. And it's not just me, I may have stayed in the area, my son does not like playing on very unpredictable tables. I don't NEED to play on crappy tables, why would I? Or anyone? There are 3 pool halls and 5 bars and clubs with better tables I can play in, in the same league, with pretty much the same players. If they beat me on proper equipment so be it, I don't need to play my opponent, outrun the handicap AND fight the table.

The reason I was there in the first place was as a favor to the league operator who needed another team for the summer there. I not only swapped teams 3 times with my son to help him and the league, it's also a double play event with 8 matches a night and we are often short players, so I pay for 4 matches for my son and I to play each set. Every week, in addition to food, drinks, and all the tournaments we play in. It's all double the cost for me. I have fun, he has fun, we play and I'm happy to spend the money. I am not paying $50 a night to be pissed because I know I hit the ball there, but it went somewhere else.
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I could not agree with you more about playing on shit tables. I enjoy playing on nice equipment. I dont like tables with loose cushions, torn cloth, and mismatched balls that are 1/16th inch difference in diameter. One bar on our summer league we played I was *****ing about the space around the table. It is so tight on the 2 long sides of the table I bought a cheap cue and cut it down to about 40". The opponent whos home bar this is said "we are here just to have fun". I had to explain to him that I do not like to play the game when it cannot be played the way it was meant to be played.
 
pt109

pt109

WO double hemlock
Silver Member
skipbales said:
There are two salient point here:
1. The handicap system is based on normal conditions and bad conditions level the playing field favoring the weaker team who gets points either way.
2. There are "bad conditions" and "BAD CONDITIONS". There is one bar in our league with a table that is almost not playable. The ball doesn't even roll consistently slanted. It rolls rolls one way and then changes and rolls the other.At some point it isn't pool anymore. It is hard to understand why even a bar would allow drink spills, holes in the cloth, and totally off level tables but If the owner is removed and has no clue, it is what you have to deal with sometimes.

We pick the bar in town with the best equipment for our home base so at least half the time we are playing on only slightly below average equipment. There is not one bar table in our town anyone would rate as "pretty good". :)
Click to expand...

This is a common thing when a magnetic cue ball is ill-balanced....change whitey.
 
BmoreMoney

BmoreMoney

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
My home room had a chapter to itself in the book " playing off the rail". It was called " The Dew Factor ".
 
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