Hi Eric,
From what I hear, you play a very nice game, and it would be a pleasure to get together with you if we ever meet up. Congrats on your wife. I saw the pictures on the CCB, and I sincerely want to say that she is really a nice looking girl and you two look great together.
Thanks Chris. She is definately the better half. Next time you're in NY or me in LA?
The pockets have a very shallow shelf, otherwise this table would be really tough. I've played on other tight tables that were monsters and unexpectedly and unfairly rattle balls that a properly made table will drop. It's hard enough to play pool, you don't need a table that won't hold a down the-rail -shot or a thin cut. This is the difference between properly cut rails and shims.
Good point on pocket cuts. I believe that with small pockets, you have to have sharper angles in the corners. If you quad shim a standard GC rail, the angle of the corner rails points "out" making it a trap table.
On my table, basically if you clear the point, the ball drops, but you have to clear the point clean or it will get thrown out.
IMO, it's good practice to play to "that side" of the pocket on any table.
The table originally came with over 5" monster buckets from Olhausen and a grade B slate. Ernesto didn't have much to work with but did a great job with it. With the original pocket size, I developed a very sloppy game. There is so much damage that large buckets do to a players game. To break these bad habits, it took me many, many months, I would say about a year, to develop the accuracy I needed to really play on this table.
If you or anyone is interested in the changes I made to improve my accuracy, let me know and I'll list them. It was mostly stance, grip, and playing more angle on my patterns.
I'm interested in hearing what adjustments you made.
Chris