Was Bugs Rucker onto something when he....

fan-tum

fan-tum

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
...(as I've read) didn't carry his own cue to tourneys, rather he'd borrow one from someone. Arnold Palmer used to have dozens, maybe more putters, and he'd rarely use the same one from day to day. Whatever felt good that day, you might say. Maybe you can get too complacent using your usual cue, whereas a different cue would bring in a different mindset, something that would reduce, rather than increase tournament jitters.
 
I can swap to and from rather easily, as long as I'm not going from maple to LD or vice versa.
 
Could be true... I think most players have experienced playing unexpectedly well with borrowed cues and house cues, but certainly not everytime.

I think playing with a different cue makes me to focus on the feel, hit and weight of the cue and helps keep my mind from wandering off and thinking about external things like the opponent, score, etc.
But for the dough, I would rather have a cue that I know and trust because confidence is everything.
 
seems to defeat the purpose of having a personal player. i have always thought the reason for having a personal player was that it was an extension of your body and mind. it allows you to concentrate and focus on the matter at hand, winning.
 
thintowin said:
seems to defeat the purpose of having a personal player. i have always thought the reason for having a personal player was that it was an extension of your body and mind. it allows you to concentrate and focus on the matter at hand, winning.
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Never heard that before.

Personally, I just like using a clean cue with a good tip, most of which are not hanging on the wall of most pool rooms.
 
thintowin said:
i have always thought the reason for having a personal player was that it was an extension of your body and mind. it allows you to concentrate and focus on the matter at hand, winning.
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What? :confused:

It's just a pool cue...
 
Part of the difference

I was told that most old pool rooms took great pride in their wall cues and they were straight and had good tips.

Today, the wall hangers are refuges from a salvage yard.

That's the difference. You are comparing apples and oranges.

Ken
 
i believe ive read that bugs didnt carry a cue because he didnt want his family to know he was a pool player and gambler.....:eek:(true story)
 
Ken_4fun said:
I was told that most old pool rooms took great pride in their wall cues and they were straight and had good tips.

Today, the wall hangers are refuges from a salvage yard.

That's the difference. You are comparing apples and oranges.

Ken
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I used to work in a pool hall as a kid and all the way up through high school and I learned to repair the cues and keep them in good shape. This was back in the late 60s/early 70s. There were a lot of cues hanging in the racks that I grabbed and played money games with, but I did have a "favorite" that I doctored up and kept stashed behind the bar.

Our pool hall didn't allow people to bang stuff around...we booted you out if you couldn't operate a pool stick properly.

That doesn't mean we didn't have bangers and amateurs and normal wear and tear on the cues. It just meant we didn't allow Tom Cruise wannabees to be twirling our sticks and flipping them around. He could play the jukebox if he wanted though.

We also didn't allow people to sit on the tables and when you played you had to keep one foot on the floor. We didn't care what your rules were...you played by ours or you were tossed out.

I wish more pool halls operated that way. I was in Hawaiian Brian's playing a couple weeks ago and there were 3 or 4 late-teen guys and girls playing on a table across from me. They all were bangers and the guys started just stabbing the sticks all over the table banging the balls back and forth to each other like hockey or something. After a few minutes, I spoke up and told them to cut it out or I would have their asses thrown out.

Aloha.
 
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bbb said:
i believe ive read that bugs didnt carry a cue because he didnt want his family to know he was a pool player and gambler.....:eek:(true story)
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It's might be one of the reasons. They knew very little about his prowess on the table until his induction into the Banks HOF. I think the other is he used them as "currency". Lots of folks gave him cues, and he just sold them knowing he can just use a house cue.

But yeah, back in the day, some of cues on the wall actually had good tips on them and were straight.
 
Grady Mathews told me years ago that he gave Bugs a plain 4 point Paul Mottey once and that Leonard Bludworth gave him a cue at one of his Legends of One Pocket tournaments.

Both were sold pretty quick and money "sent home" according to the story. Tommy D.
 
Straightpool_99 said:
Personally I can't play a lick with mushroomed tips, screw on tips, grimy shafts and extremely warped cues, but I wouldn't be too bothered with some slight changes in my own equipment. For example one of my shafts used to be slightly warped (snooker cue) but it didn't really change my play a lot. I just turned it to the right position and I was good to go. Had it been severely warped the story would have been different.
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There is nothing at all wrong with warped cues, in fact quite the opposite. No need for english, follow, or draw adjustments, just rotate cue until you find your desired spot on cue ball and you are good to go.
 
fan-tum said:
...(as I've read) didn't carry his own cue to tourneys, rather he'd borrow one from someone. Arnold Palmer used to have dozens, maybe more putters, and he'd rarely use the same one from day to day. Whatever felt good that day, you might say. Maybe you can get too complacent using your usual cue, whereas a different cue would bring in a different mindset, something that would reduce, rather than increase tournament jitters.
Click to expand...

It's true that it's not the cue, it's the player, but it's a little ridiculous to change cues on a daily basis. To be good at pool, you need to be as consistent as possible. You can't do this when every cue plays differently, and you are always adjusting to the way the cue hits, rather than being able to focus completely on the shot.

This doesn't mean that you can't pick up a random cue and play decent with it. You just aren't going to reach your potential, nor will you be as consistent.

When you play with one cue for years, it really does become an extension of your arm. You no longer have to put any thought in to compensating for deflection, squirt, and swerve, and speed control is automatic.
 
It never bothered Keith McCready when he borrowed a cue. He just wanted one with a fairly flat tip. Always played great with whatever.
 
railbird99 said:
It's true that it's not the cue, it's the player, but it's a little ridiculous to change cues on a daily basis. To be good at pool, you need to be as consistent as possible. You can't do this when every cue plays differently, and you are always adjusting to the way the cue hits, rather than being able to focus completely on the shot.

This doesn't mean that you can't pick up a random cue and play decent with it. You just aren't going to reach your potential, nor will you be as consistent.

When you play with one cue for years, it really does become an extension of your arm. You no longer have to put any thought in to compensating for deflection, squirt, and swerve, and speed control is automatic.
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I'm with you in this camp. A great player can play with anything but if they played with the same cue, they might play just a touch better in the long run. It also might be a psychological thing, as when you buy a new cue your game seems to jump a ball for a few days. Just keep changing cues and use this psychology to your advantage :)
 
I read somewhere that Efren's cue came up missing at the airport so he went to the tournament got a cue off the wall and won.
 
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