Couple basic questions for you

You don't need to reach a certain level to get your own cue. Get one now, it will help you. As long as you think you want to take the game seriously and improve, having your own stick will help you. It doesn't have to be a lot of money, even $100 for your first stick is OK. The benefit of having your own cue right away is that it allows you to play with the SAME stick every time, rather than having a strange and unfamiliar house cue in your hand every time you play. I think this is important for a beginner. In fact, I wouldn't advise spending much more than that on your first stick since you are likely to upgrade or change your preferences once you're in the game a little while-so why invest a lot of cash in your first stick?

There are plenty to choose from and you can find them on this board.

"rackem" sells import cues that are straight and actually pretty nice looking for $100. Look him up in the members list and shoot him a PM. Here's a link to one of of his offerings: http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=134142

There are other guys around here that can help you out as well.

Just play with enough house cues so that you have decided on what weight feels comfortable to you, then go out and get a cheap stick for yourself.

On break cues, don't worry about that now. Many guys who have been playing for years still just grab a house cue to break. I wouldn't even worry about a break cue until you have found a playing cue you plan on staying with for a while, and that probably won't be your first stick, so a break cue is a purchase you can easily put off for a while.

Hope this helps.
 
Ok thanks.. I'll look at those cues.

Do you know the answer to my FARGO question earlier on the first page of this thread??

I'm dying to know before I start counting scores of that
 
Also i have a question on the game FARGO. I get how you get points (1 point for random, 2 for rotation) but what happens if you miss a ball? Is that a penalty?
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The "penalty" is that's the end of that rack.

pj
chgo
 
JDP12 said:
hey all- just thought I would say hello, first post and all.

I just started playing pool seriously about a month ago, and play as much as time allows with school. I've been playing with a cue that came with our pool table, a Brunswick.

I'm nowhere near good enough to be needing a dedicated cue, but I just thought I would pose this question because my birthday is coming up in a few months...

When would you consider oneself good enough to need to buy a cue?
Is a break/jump cue really needed in the beginning? I'm guessing not...but was just wondering.

So just wanted to pose those two, I consider the first more important of a question than the latter.

Thanks,

JDP
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There is no necessary skill level for owning a two piece cue. In fact a decent cue will actually have a positive impact on your game. A well balanced cue makes it significantly easier to develop a straight stroke.
 
J.T.450r said:
I agree with all the above posts.. This is a little off topic but anyways you might want to pick up a book on billiards basics or surround yourself with good players I say this because alot of us wish we could go back to the beginning and change our bad habits (stroke, stance, routine) now might be a good time to learn the proper bridge stance stroke ect. before it gets to hard to change bad habits without getting worse first.
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So... let's talk about the bold.

Be very careful when looking for these players. Pool does a strange thing to the ego if one is not careful. I've seen many a C proclaim A and get robbed blind due to their own confidence in the lies they've convinced themselves of. I also tell this because I'm shoot at a local bar every once in a while when I'm broke or I feel like I want to feel the forgiveness of a generous 8 ft with looser pockets, or because I enjoy playing for things like Irish Car Bombs. :thumbup: (Not to mention the fact that they recently got new cloth on the tables so it's no longer unbearable to play.

Anyhow. I spend a lot of time lurking on here and watching videos on Youtube. I've figured out the true definition of a good player (or at least something close). This made finding a good instructor a better experience. Unfortunately, for my poor pal, this was not the case. When you play in a little pond and only use the fish in that little pond as your standard, it can mess you up a bit. Sure those Koi can go on 3-4 ball runs and are pretty good matches, but they are nothing compared to the bass you can find in the whole lake (if that makes any sense :o). My friend is starting to pick up ideas from these guys such as, "Don't play so slow, the slower you play, the dumber you look." or "Saftey play is for *insert vulgarity here*." even things like "English is soooooo useless."

Just be very careful if you take the surround yourself with good shooters route. It can be harmful to your development.

And remember if they say things like,
"Straight pool and one pocket are pretty much the same game."
or they tell everyone that you are their prodigy after playing with you only once and other things along those lines, take extra caution.

Okay, maybe it's not THAT bad... then again... anything is possible, I've seen all these things. But, don't worry, as long as you keep up around here, and watch a lot of pros play, and also the great instructional videos out there (Monk, iPAT, etc.) you'll learn right from wrong in no time.

Good luck and can't wait to hear your triumphant stories of progress, especially your first break and run. I just got mine a week or so ago and it feel grrrrrrreat!
 
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OK thanks for the advice.... Hopefully I'll run a rack soon :D

I was playing last night against some friends who had absolutely no idea how to play pool... Funny that the whole idea of who you surround yourself with was brought up....

They wouldn't let me play anymore after a couple games because then their "hit it as hard as you can strategy" wasn't working out for them...

But they let me back in and it was really interesting and challenging to play a game where the opponent just hit balls and didn't really care about making them, it really kept me on my toes and thinking about what to do next.
 
Fargo

JDP12 said:
OK, so I've basically gathered here that a cue right now isn't an instant necessity, but one I should be looking at relatively soon.

What about the break? Should I just get a fairly cheap one- I think i recall someone posting about some that run around 60 bucks or so?

Also, can anyone answer the question I posted on the FARGO game??
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Here are a couple of links for you that should answer all your questions about the game Fargo.

This is Mike Page,the inventor of Fargo, explaining and demonstrating the game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHj6KUw8xzE

and the rules
http://pro9.co.uk/html/RulesFargo.php


Steve

here you can find a score sheet with rules
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=135294&highlight=fargo+rules
 
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Yeah, it's kind of a fun feeling when your skill level passes all the buddies you used to play with. I can't imagine playing with the guys who got me into pool originally. It'd be senseless slaughter. But there is a danger of having a hard time getting a game.

In terms of watching who you play with... I think the biggest danger you'll have (aside from gambling when you shouldn't be) is getting bad advice from wannabes. Like... I tend to think I'm full of good advice. But I'd spit on the advice I was giving to people 4 or 5 years ago =) I mean, some advice you get on how to shoot and what to do will be good, but a lot of it will be bad, and how will you be able to tell the difference? Basically, you should be wary of anyone who doesn't run at least one rack of 8 ball or 9 ball every session. Those are the guys who will tell you to snap your tip down and flick your wrist to get draw, or try full table banks instead of a long cut.

That's why I'm a big fan of books, because generally you're not going to find bad advice in the major pool books out there. There might be one or two minor things to quibble with but mostly it's gonna be solid gold.
 
CreeDo said:
Yeah, it's kind of a fun feeling when your skill level passes all the buddies you used to play with. I can't imagine playing with the guys who got me into pool originally. It'd be senseless slaughter. But there is a danger of having a hard time getting a game.

In terms of watching who you play with... I think the biggest danger you'll have (aside from gambling when you shouldn't be) is getting bad advice from wannabes. Like... I tend to think I'm full of good advice. But I'd spit on the advice I was giving to people 4 or 5 years ago =) I mean, some advice you get on how to shoot and what to do will be good, but a lot of it will be bad, and how will you be able to tell the difference? Basically, you should be wary of anyone who doesn't run at least one rack of 8 ball or 9 ball every session. Those are the guys who will tell you to snap your tip down and flick your wrist to get draw, or try full table banks instead of a long cut.

That's why I'm a big fan of books, because generally you're not going to find bad advice in the major pool books out there. There might be one or two minor things to quibble with but mostly it's gonna be solid gold.
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SPeaking of books, every time I go into book stores I never find anything on pool. Or if I do it's far away from the sports section and in the games section. I'd like to think it's a sport. Football and basketball players may argue with me, but I'd like to say their jock straps are a little to tight.

Anyhow, I am guessing buying online would probably the best and almost the only route to take, no?
 
Formula7 said:
SPeaking of books, every time I go into book stores I never find anything on pool. Or if I do it's far away from the sports section and in the games section. I'd like to think it's a sport. Football and basketball players may argue with me, but I'd like to say their jock straps are a little to tight.

Anyhow, I am guessing buying online would probably the best and almost the only route to take, no?
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Any Barnes and Noble I've been to in the last several years always has pool books. In the games section, yes. Also, as DoubleD said, used book stores can be a gold mine of stuff, if you look and/or ask for stuff you can't find. Unfortunately, they are few and far between in SC. I did find a book I read about in the early '80s at a yard sale yesterday:thumbup: "Billiards Accuracy" by Marvin Chin.
I've collected, bought, sold, traded, books for over thirty years. I found my current copy of McGoorty in a used books store. Found a book on Backgammon that I'd been looking for about twenty years.
 
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LOL, yea my friends aren't very good.

Granted I'm by no means good at all yet. I can play pretty good, but I still miss my share of shots and haven't ran a rack yet.

Until I'm running racks I really won't consider myself to be good.

I miss easy shots that I should make and aren't too good at table long shots. My philosophy is basically going to be practice as much as i can. I haven't done FARGO yet... but my score would suck... maybe like 5-8 a rack.

Thanks for all the great support and tips I've gotten from all of you
 
The pool book situation in most stores pisses me off. This is a sore spot for me. Borders puts pool books... not with sports... not with games... but in GAMBLING. Next to poker etc.

You can see their thinking, but for god's sake ...they just need to think like a normal human being. A customer is going to think game or sport long before gambling... if he EVER thinks to look there. DURRR. I move the entire set of pool books (all five of them, zzz) to the games and sports sections every time. I think at some point they finally got the hint.

Waldenbooks simply didn't have a single book, I guess I should be thankful.

Order online, start with the 99 critical shots in pool by ray martin. I've seen it as low as 11 bucks on amazon.
 
yea that is annoying... when I go to the library its the same thing- they are all next to poker books.


Also, I have a curiosity question for you... about English..and bridges..

How often do you use it? Do you use it to make shots at all? I try and avoid using it...but I find it a pretty helpful tool when having to make severe cut shots.

is this a bad thing to use english to make shots? Am I relying on it too much and not on aiming?

Also regarding bridges...I find myself using the open bridge more because I cannot really get a good solid bridge with a closed bridge. I've read alot about the closed bridge being the better bridge, but is there anything wrong with the open bridge if it works? Or should I learn to use a closed bridge early on
Just wondering...
 
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