My 2 cents? Even low deflection shafts have massive deflection the length of the table. Try shooting a ball out the jaws of the corner pocket from 3/4 the table away with 2 tips of shpin and stroke it hard. Just before you shoot, look where your cue is pointing relative to the pocket. I don't care if you have a predator or what... even low deflection is massive -- especially on new cloth where the friction doesn't revert the CB to the stroking line. Bottom line, it's nice to be able to stroke ROUGHLY down the line you're sighting... sheesh.