Earl Strickland vs. Alex Pagulayan at SML

[wahcheck]

Thanks

He does indeed drops his elbow on a lot of shoots including very soft speed shoots. He has a very beautiful stroke in my opinion, and I love his game. Another picture showing the "mighty Earl" with a different form--he had his back leg bent and his front leg straight.

By the way, thanks for the great pictures of the players and Canadian scenery, especially BANFF...it sure makes me want to visit the area...and I agree with you....Earl has always seemed to have the most effortless natural and beautiful stroke....it's like someone said once before...seems like he was born to play pool........

 

[Koop]

Here are some pictures of Banff. I saw a Bear standing in a river, a bunch of big horn sheeps eating by the side of the road as I drove by, and some white tail deers in the jungle. I also went to downtown Banff and spend a lot of time shopping, which was a lot of fun...
The scenery is so unreal! The pictures really do not do the place justice.
For those of you who did not make it to Calgary this year, I would whole heartedly recommend that you try to play next year, and at least try to spend some time in Banff, which is only a two hour drive away from Calgary into the Rocky mountain, before you head back home.

I have to go there someday. What a beautiful place. Thank you for the pictures.

 

[X Breaker]

I have to go there someday. What a beautiful place. Thank you for the pictures.

Yes, and everything in Banff is quite inexpensive contrary to what I expected. It would be a shame to go to the Calgary and not visit Banff in my opinion. It is also a great spot for skiing and snowboarding.

Here are some pictures with Earl and Alex discussing about the rack--all three pictures were taken before the same game--it was winner racking for his own so Earl was trying to be very careful about keeping the back balls tight on the rack. It was Alex's turn to rack.

In the pictures, you can see Earl tapping the front balls, then the middle balls, and finally, the back balls of the rack with the cue ball.

The last picture shows Earl shooting with his upper body over the table and his elbow up in the air with his back leg up in the air...

 

[recoveryjones]

I have to go there someday. What a beautiful place. Thank you for the pictures.

Banff and the Rocky Mountains are some of the most beautiful pieces of scenery you will ever see on the face of the Earth. Spectaculiar lakes,mountains,rivers,waterfalls and wildlife mixed in with clean unpoluted air make this area a photographers dream.

Your pictures are great,however,you are right that they don't really capture the beauty that needs to be experienced in person.RJ

 

[recoveryjones]

It's kind of amusing when you see PRO LEVEL players doing things which go against general accepted methods such as basic form, stance, and stroke...and yet they continue to run racks despite .... could it be that whatever is natural and comfortable, along with the talent they possess, overrides the apparent faulty actions? You see Efren do a lot of things which may go against general accepted form or methods, but it works for him....

I used to compare pool fundamentals to snooker and in doing so saw many flaws.Now, I don't see flaws anymore becuse in my opinion they are two totally different games.As long as that cue is delivered straight,true and smoothly on that final stroke and the ball goes into the pocket,screw "the general accepted form or methods." RJ

.....must get snooker out of my mind when trying to play good pool.

 

[JustPlay]

It's kind of amusing when you see PRO LEVEL players doing things which go against general accepted methods such as basic form, stance, and stroke...and yet they continue to run racks despite .... could it be that whatever is natural and comfortable, along with the talent they possess, overrides the apparent faulty actions? You see Efren do a lot of things which may go against general accepted form or methods, but it works for him....

It just goes to prove that as long as you put the balls into the hole everything else is just symantics! As you see the title of alot of these threads, alot of players OVER analyse every single little thing. As Wade Crane always stated (as well as others) Paralysis by Analysis!


Great Pics of Calgery!! Thanks

 

[X Breaker]

As I was watching the tournament, I remembered a dear friend, Harold Danielson, who passed away last year. He was the tournament director of the Western Canadian Championship a few years back in Calgary. It would certainly have been an even better experience visiting Calgary with him.

Richard

 

[JAM]

...Here are some pictures with Earl and Alex discussing about the rack--all three pictures were taken before the same game--it was winner racking for his own so Earl was trying to be very careful about keeping the back balls tight on the rack. It was Alex's turn to rack.

In the pictures, you can see Earl tapping the front balls, then the middle balls, and finally, the back balls of the rack with the cue ball....

The photos were absolutely awesome! Wow! Thanks for providing the story in pictures, Nipponbilliards. I really enjoyed them.

I especially like the second one in the group of four with Earl tapping the balls, trying to get the "perfect rack," while Alex is standing by with a big smile on his face!

http://azbilliards.com/vbulletin/upload/attachment.php?attachmentid=5913

JAM

 

[fxskater]

This is a big SCREW YOU to all you damn albertans running your mouth off about having better players than BC. Where is Tyler and Edwin? If you look at the Top 4 you will see BRADY a kelowna, BC player and Mike V, a vacouver, surrey player.

A little more about Brady.

Brady is a TOP WORLD CLASS talent. He competed on the Snooker tour in the UK in the Late 80's and actually did fairly well reaching a world ranking somewhere in the low 30's. In a search i found that he was a quarter finalist in the 1986 IBSF World Championship. Unfortunately, (this is through word of mouth not direct conversation with Brady) it is incredibly hard to make it on the UK tour if you are not a UK player. I have heard all sorts of stories second hand about UK fans doing absolutely irreproachable things to OUT OF COUNTRY players. Cue stealing, messing with tips, and basicly everything you could think of to insure failure for out of country players. Anyways, Brady has been playing for 9-ball for a while now and still competes regularly in canadian snooker events. He has been winning every 9-ball event he Plays in and 3rd place is pretty impressive in this field. In the last few years he has been hot and cold with enthusiasm for the game, but it seems hes definetly enthused now. He also is a VERY GOOD poker player.

YOU GOTTA SEE HIS STROKE!! SMOOTH LIKE BUTTA.

I just can't figure out why he hasn't been even MORE successful.

 

[Celtic]

Who said Alberta has better players then BC? I have never read that anywhere. Of all the provinces in Canada that can compete with Alberta BC ranks easy with Horsfall, Potier, Vidas, Kruger, Torangano, Gollan, and many others shooting great pool. I would say Alberta is even with BC if you made 2 teams of 5 players ala mosconi cup and did provincial battles.

 

[fxskater]

Noone said anything on here about Alberta Players being better. I didnt mean to piss you off, those harsh words i used were a joke. anyways i think in a border battle style tourney BC would dominate. I dont know enuff about the other provinces though. I live in a Area where 90% of the people come from alberta and every time you talk to anyone about pool you get the whole 'Alberta's Better' thing going on. Basicly all albertans have the 'Alberta's the Holy Land' attitude around here, but strangely enough they all choose to live here . Anyways, i just needed to JAB you guys about BC's great performance in this tourny.

 

[X Breaker]

The photos were absolutely awesome! Wow! Thanks for providing the story in pictures, Nipponbilliards. I really enjoyed them.

I especially like the second one in the group of four with Earl tapping the balls, trying to get the "perfect rack," while Alex is standing by with a big smile on his face!

http://azbilliards.com/vbulletin/upload/attachment.php?attachmentid=5913

JAM

JAM:

Thank you. I am glad you appreciate the pictures.

I hope you and Keith could make it down next year. It would be such a treat for the fans on the west coast.

The whole racking ritual happened right after the toss and lasted about 5 minutes before the game started.

It is impossible not to love Alex for the way he handles himself in this kind of situations.

Attached is a picture showing the A-side match at 10-5 for Alex with Alex running out his last rack.

Richard