Flex said:
JAM said:Back in the late '70s, early '80s, the action was prevalent, much more so than today. Quite a few sharpshooters flew under the radar, by their own choice, and traveled across the country, back and forth again and again, in pursuit of games of stake.
I remember one road player I knew well who used to go on the road several times a year. He would NEVER enter a pool room or bar with his own personal cue. This would be considered a "knock." He always played with whatever house cue there was on the wall. A good road player not only played well with inferior equipment, but he usually would have a proficiency for all games of pocket billiards, to include snooker.
I got a chuckle when he told me that he had to buy himself some cowboy boots to hustle pool in Texas at that time. He said if he walked into any joint in Texas with sneakers or running shoes, that that most definitely would be a knock.
The house cue, though it may not have been a favorite of the pool hustler's, it usually was the norm in the good old days of American pool. It's kind of funny when you think about how many of today's players whine and complain about their tips not being shaped right or their shafts are dirty or they need to get a new Irish linen wrap because the old one is gritty and soiled.
The great American road warriors of yesteryear were a rare breed of pool players, and to be able to play pool as well as they did with inferior equipment speaks volume about the true caliber of their play.
JAM
Hail Mary Shot said:JAM, ever tried using a cue without a tip and a ferrule? or a badly warped cue? these are the sort of things that all players of today should be complaining about. gladly, I'll be contented enough to play a cue as long as there is a tip on it or atleast straight enough for you to pocket some balls.
truthfully, I shoot better with a house cue rather than my personal cue and I don't have any idea why.
When I was playing pool every single day and night, it was at a neighborhood gathering spot in Maryland. We had quite a few regulars there who'd show up on a daily basis to shoot pool on the one and only bar box in the joint. 
mailman said:Most of the hustlers I have seen will use one of the crappy old bar cues long enough to see what everybody's "speed" is and figure out what kind of game he wants to make. Unless the guy is REAL WELL known in the joint, you NEVER see a fancy custom come out of a decent to fancy case.
More than likely, he will go out to his car and bring in some beat-up looking old cue or a simple Sneaky Pete, either of which is calculated, by its appearance, not to scare off his mark. The ones I definitely look out for are the guys who bring in a simple old BEM Joss or Meucci with no points, no ringwork, a simple linen-wrapped handle and the cue is totally discolored and full of dents, the butt bumper is missing and there are chunks of plastic missing from the butt sleeve from banging the cue on the floor.
On the other hand, when I'm on the road for any kind of trip, I will scope out the POOL HALLs (not the bars) to see what kind of "talent" they have. I will find a few guys who "think" they know what they're doing and eventually will match up with a couple of them. However, I do not make the match while I'm still there.
What I do is to wait a few hours or maybe a day, then come back carrying my "hustler," rent a table by myself and, soon enough, one of the smartasses will come over looking for the "easy hit." Their supposed "knowledge" kills them every time. When you see th picture below, you will understand.
My "hustler" is one of those old mid-1960's $6.95 K-Mart cues. It's the kind with the handle that is HAND-CARVED by Phillipinos. The butt is made out of the cheap, light-weight Phillipino walnut and originally came with a cheap Phillipino ramin shaft with a screw-on tip.
Of course, I've changed it a little bit. A 1-1/2 oz. weight bolt was added to bring it up to decent weight. The ramin shaft has been replaced with a very fine, highly-figured ash shaft made to my own specs -- the original joint pin and collars were saved and reused on the shaft replacement to make it look as original as possible. The tip is a Moori Medium.
I picked the ash over the hard rock maple because it can easily be mistaken for some other kind of CHEAP shaft and adds to the overall "funky" appearance of the cue. When I drop my beat-up old $9 cloth cue-case on the table, then haul out this cheap-looking cue in a decent class pool hall, they all trip all over each other to see who will get to my table first.
This little sweetheart, which I call my "Pinoy Eliminator," plays really nicely the way I have it set up. It has made me a bunch of money and lost me very little -- not because I am a very good pool player, but because I have been smart/lucky enough to attract the "right" customers ...
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Flex said:
Hello Jam!JAM said:LOL!
Back then, they didn't have any wooden house cues. They were all metal cues, and for whatever reason, I shot my best pool with that metal cue.
Chester Morris, a trick shot artist and cuestick peddler, came to the tavern one day and was selling cue sticks out of his trunk. I purchased a sneaky pete from him with an ivory ferrule, and having a cue of this caliber was pretty cool. However, it was that metal cue that I seemed to always go for when I was trying to hold the table for a spell. Beating them guys out of a brewskie or a dollar was the best pool high.
As the years went by, I was, in fact, considered one of the best players in the joint, and I thought so, too; that is, until I was introduced to the pool room, the 9-foot tables, and the road players.
I really enjoyed pool when I was playing on the Busch League. I was a 6 out of 7, and on a bar box with a big cueball playing 8-ball, that metal cuestick was my favorite weapon of mass destruction!
JAM
Flex said:
