I wonder if anyone other than myself noticed the top three finishers in the 10-ball tournament at Emerald Billiards in New Iberia, LA this weekend were all using (supposedly) production cues? 1st Place, Johnny Archer (Scorpion), Runner-up Thorsten Hohmann (Lucasi Hybrid), and Third Place, Shane Van Boening (Cuetec). Who do they think they are, and what's this world coming to
???
Maniac (getting ready for the deluge of postings stating that the above mentioned players cues really are not production cues)
I noticed that as well. As a matter of fact, I was going to post something similar and never got around to it. Whether they are "stock" production models will surely get debated.
I have had cues from every extreme ($2 cue from Taiwan to $2,000 cues by Richard Black) and played well with all of them. I am sure the Black cues played a hell of a lot better than the ones made out of chopsticks, but I've won thousands with all of them.
90% of pool is in the player's capabilities, not the cue. The main thing I always loved about a "personal" cue was that I could tailor it to my tastes within reason. I could choose the weight, shaft diameter, taper of the shaft, and the type of tip (to include the shape of the tip...dime, nickel, etc.).
I started working in a pool hall as a kid in the 60s and I learned to maintain and repair cues and tables long before I was legally even allowed to be in the place. Long before I could afford a two-piece cue of my liking, I would take a house cue and "fix" it to my liking. I would find one of the weight I wanted, taper the shaft to my liking, replace the ferrule if I wanted a shorter one or a longer one, or a black one, or a white one, and I would try every type of tip that we had in stock. I used every type of cue in the cue racks...from 11 oz snooker cues with 9 or 10mm tips to 22 oz cues with almost 15mm tips and everything in between.
No matter what cue I owned, when I got used to it, I won way the hell more times than I ever lost when I played for the money. I'm not going to say I was the best player in the world or even the house we may be playing in, but I went away with the opponents money at a win/loss ratio way the hell above 75%. There were tons of people who may have been able to beat me, but when we "matched up"...even or either me giving the spot or receiving it, I managed to come out with the money.
I'm not using this post to talk about "me"...I'm just trying to post my "opinion" on the subject. I saw Efren Reyes and Jose Parica play in the Philippines way before they ever came to the U.S. and they played with cues that weren't worth $2 in anybody's money. They were running racks on tables that had concrete beds instead of slate. The pool halls had tin roofs and no air conditioning. The cloth was as thick and slow as flannel pajamas or either worn so thin that it was as slick as ice in some spots. They still kicked ass and ran racks. Would they have been as good as they are now if they had learned with equipment with today's specs? Who knows? All I know is they were "comfortable" with the equipment that they were playing with at the time.
I have recently been watching quite a few of Earl Strickland's matches when he was sponsored by Cuetec and using one of their "stock" $95 cues and he shot the best pool in the world at the time. Would he have shot better with a Balabuska in the tournaments or cash games that he had? Who knows?
Just to test my theory out, I purchased a Cuetec cue from a member here to give it a whirl. It may or may not play the way I am used to with my shooter at the moment, but I'm sure I can play equally well with it if I give it a chance and get used to it. I'll let you know when I get it and have a chance to try it out.
