The pool table has been dismantled so the cloth can be replaced and the pockets tightened. I have to wait until Friday to play again. Woe is me.

For a year and a half I've been saying that the pockets on my table got wider when I had the Artemis rubber installed.

I was right.

The pocket facings that were installed were 1/8" and the old ones were 1/4" facings.

So there.

Truman banked 13 in a row while beating Shannon Daulton Saturday night.
After watching him shoot Friday and Saturday I felt the tournament was his
for the taking. Apparently he decided not to take it and lost twice on
Sunday.

Straight-In Lou wrote...
> My. First Smorg reappears, then Ghosst, Blackjack, and now Paul. Who've I
> missed? They're coming out of the woodwork, I tell ya.

Poking my head out of the woodwork long enough to contribute to this topic.
Below is from a conversation I had with Fred back in March. The important
part is the last paragraph. My game still hasn't recovered, but the memory
of those two days in February keeps me trying.

Forgive my whining:

Meanwhile, I suck. In the middle of February I lost my job and the next day
my sister found a lump in her breast. To keep my mind off these issues I
played pool. Some combination of my mood, lack of sleep, sore arm, etc.
combined to drop me into flat out no exaggeration top level pro mode. I had
made a slight, simple adjustment to my stance, one that I didn't pay much
attention to, that threw me into alignment like never before.

I was playing the ghost, getting ball in hand after the break, and stringing
5-packs together like it was nothing. Pool was fun fun FUN again. The next
day I went to The Bank Shot and was STILL playing like a pro. I was even
able to make what I call "one-pocket cuts" (thin long cuts while controlling
the cueball with speed and spin) with no effort, and beat a top local player
in one-pocket all day long, mostly by running out at every opportunity. The
guy wanted to take me to Oliver's (another pool room) and back me against
anyone there.

Then Truman Hogue came in and started practicing banks on another table.
Inspired, I started practicing my own banks and found that this new style of
mine wasn't suited to bank shots. I reverted back to the banks stroke I've
been developing for the past few months, thinking that the slight adjustment
I'd made to my regular stroke earlier would be easy to recall since I'd used
it for the past two days.

I was wrong. Way wrong. Whatever it was I'd done apparently wasn't as
simple as I'd thought, since I've spent the past month struggling (I mean
REALLY struggling) to run even one rack of nine ball. My magical alignment
is gone, and any attempt to manually align myself destroys my speed control.
I'm missing so many long straight in shots you'd never know I've been
shooting dozens of them as practice nearly every day for 15 years.

What I'd noticed about my magic stance was a slight opening of my right arm,
around the armpit. What I unfortunately failed to notice was things like
head position, bridge length, right shoulder tension, left arm position,
blah blah blah.

So I went from being one of the best players I've ever seen to a pretty
lousy banger overnight, just because I failed to properly take notice of
something really special that had happened with my game. You can bet that
if I ever get it back I'll damn sure pay attention then. I just hope it
doesn't take another 17 years.

My sister's lump turned out to be nothing

Tony Mathews wrote...
> This question was asked by a few posters in the past. I once heard a
> generality uttered that shafts with high squirt draw the ball better than
> shafts with low squirt. I don't think that this is true.

Interesting. I have a practice shot that uses maximum straight draw, and I've found it to be easier with my original Schon shaft that with my 314 shaft. I've been assuming that the difference was due to the Schon shaft being stiffer, or that the tip on the Schon shaft is a little softer. Perhaps the squirt thing has something to do with it. Or I could just be a crackpot.

frank howe wondered...
> What are the advantages for the lefties? The statement got me thinking
> and I couldn't think of any.

I really doubt that this is what Ron meant, but lefties are generally right brain dominant, which for a pool player would seem to make lefties more likely to be FPs. And of course everyone knows that FPs always have the advantage. :-)

Bob Johnson wrote:
(Blah)
> Has anyone else noticed this, or tried it?
> Do you know anyone who simply lines up, takes aim,
> adjusts, and fires with no practice strokes at all?

I was taught that practice strokes are evil. You're supposed to be
aligned correctly when you first bend over the shot. Practice strokes
can often convince you that you're lined up correctly when you're not.
Another bad thing about them is that if your practice strokes reveal
some flaw in your alignment most people are likely to simply adjust
their grip, arm angle, etc. when what they should be doing is standing
up, stepping completely out of the shot, and starting over.

My position has softened over the years, however, as I now feel that
practice strokes are helpful in getting a proper feel for the speed of
the shot-to-be. I usually take one practice stroke without even
looking at my stick then fire away, trusting that my alignment is good.

I think all that applause has really got to grate on the ladies. I mean,. at some point you have to start expecting them to make certain shots, and applauding after all those ducks takes all meaning from the applause.

Allison shoots a jump-three rail kick shot. The crowd goes wild. Allison shoots a stop-shot hanger from 1 foot away. The crowd goes wild. Allison dogs an easy shot. About half the crowd goes wild anyway, since they weren't really paying attention to the shot but they're completely conditioned to applaud at least once every 30 seconds.

These are professional pool players, not Special Olympians. I think we should give them some quiet in which to work, and save the applause for when it means something.

tom simpson wondered...
> On the other hand, if I replace the pro [on ESPN broadcasts],
> how could I avoid smacking Mitch?

Just begin every sentence with "That's pretty stupid, Mitch. Folks, what Mitch meant to say was..."

Or take all his catchphrases (All-important lag for the break, Beautiful Brunswick Gold Crown Four table, is really making a statement, etc.) and repeat them so often they lose all meaning. Oh wait, he already does that himself.

What I'd really like to see is, right after Mitch does his play-by-play of the guy racking the balls with the Sardo, when he says "...and there you are. A perfect rack of nine balls," I'd like to see the pro say "That's pretty stupid, Mitch. Folks, what Mitch meant to say is that while the Sardo rack certainly racks the balls well, it's killing the game of 9-ball. Notice how they've had to start racking with the nine on the spot to keep the corner balls from going in all the time. What Mitch also meant to say is that if ESPN had any balls whatsoever they'd at least acknowledge that they've done this instead of just pretending nobody will notice."

Patrick Johnson wrote...
> Imagine the table surface is vertical and you're trying to balance the
> object ball on the cue ball, which is stuck to the end of your stick.

Just be careful not to imagine the table tipping over and crushing you.