Three-cushion Carom Billiards From the book “ Carom Billiards: Around the World Patterns Patterns ” Group A: Short Leg into Long Rail, Group 1, Shot A1b Starting layout For this shot, this is how the balls are laid out on the table. With the cue ball at the lower left corner of the table, the other balls are up-table, near opposite side rails. The layout below shows how the shot was played. The Shot To make this shot work, the cue ball kisses off the red ball at a very thin

A Pool Instructor’s Journey – Build the Foundation Fellow pool enthusiast – let me take the time to share my background as we begin this journey to continually improve your skills. My name is Tanner Pruess and I was born in South Dakota, a haven for bar-table pool. Growing up with a long line of established pool players in my family tree aided to a decent game at a very young age. The biggest catalyst that turned me into a top rated amateur was attending a clinic hosted by R

Roku is another high quality chalk manufactured by Kamui. It was released in July 2018. I had an opportunity to get a pre-release version of this chalk back in April, which is the basis for this review. The pre-release version I reviewed is exactly the same as the official production released version of the chalk. The Roku chalk is another in the line of premium chalks. These premium chalks such as Kamui Roku or Great White are quite a bit more expensive than standard chalks

The Kamui brand has always stood for excellence in quality and craftsmanship. The new Kamui Roku is a new line of chalk on the market that is turning heads with looks of interest and skepticism. The chalk it self has a new look and feel to it. The new Hexagon shape that Kamui has chosen just feels right in your hands. The chalk feels a lot stiffer and harder to apply; it takes many swipes or brushings to apply it correctly. Once applied the chalk sticks to the tip with a diff

Bill Smith “Mr3Cushion” has been one of the top players in the country for all of his 40 year career as a professional 3 Cushion player. He can teach as well as he played and brings us a great opportunity to this great game. The SECRET of the Half-Ball The Half-Ball Aiming System THE KEY FACTOR in my game’s acceleration over the years is what I’ve learned regarding the achievement of maximum effect and speed with the help of my late mentor and best friend Ernie Presto. Peo

Allowing headphones during league or tournaments has become a bigger conversation among tournament directors and pool players. It wasn’t that long ago a few players were using headphones during practice, and even fewer were using them while playing league or during a local tournament. However, in recent months there has been a striking upswing in use. It appears that more players are seeing a benefit to their game by blocking out peripheral noise and getting into the “zone.”

Sometimes we face a shot with a tentative spirit. In our mind we remember missing that shot. Missing that shot has become a perception and we turned that perception into our mind set. From our mind set we act, we think and we perform. Practice is designed to erase our faulty perceptions about a missed shot. But we have missed too many shots, and even in practice we miss those shots. How do we develop a confident stroke? There will always be that shot that sticks out in our m

I just sat down with the guys of Gaijin Custom Cues, and they want to make a cue to suit you. Robby, Marshall, and Josh are just typical southern guys with a love of the game of pool and non-traditional design. They have a simple philosophy, each of us has a natural stroke and the closer a cue is taylored to the player, the closer the player can stay to the stroke they were born with. Armed with this simple idea, Gaijin Customs was formed. Multiple veneers in the points in v

It seems like often the best things in my life come to me unexpectedly. When I was in college the local music shop had a bass guitar that I loved. I would go and visit it and sit to play it several times a week for months. While saving up my money to take it home. One day, as expected, I went in and it was gone, to another home no doubt. Years went by when my then girlfriend were out one night at a local watering hole that happened to be featuring a live band. Low and beh

When I first walked into Mafia Mike’s pool hall, a semi-circle layout of tables, evenly measured out in a big open space, thriving with light and vigor a pool Oasis — the place was alive and thriving with people playing pool. It was like coming home. I felt at ease — at one with the game. The pool arena exudes pool, and opens up into a room awash with green. Mafia Mike’s pool hall is rated 4.5 out of 5 stars on Google — but I rate it a 5. It’s a small place, but has a big

Nick Varner’s Hall Of Fame No other player dominated professional pool in the 1980’s quite like Nick Varner. In fact, in 1989 alone, Nick won 11 professional events, which is currently recognized by many as the greatest single season ever recorded in professional pool. During his heyday, Nick won eight World Championships in various pool disciplines. He traveled to the Philippines and is one of the few to defeat Efren Reyes on his home turf. Many pool experts consider him to

A cold breeze and the sputter of snowflakes marked a cold February afternoon back in 2007. Robert Walker, a close friend, hosted a monthly 9-ball tournament at The Billiard Café’. It was a small, old time pool room nestled in the heart of Lancaster, Kentucky’s city square. Even though the pool room was small, local talent was big! Players like Mike Patton, Landon Shuffett, Mike Blevins and Robert Frost lined the room. They were all regular suspects in quest of the monthly

The Monk Willie said, “Don’t Miss” if you want to win more games. Players talk to me about missing the winning shot, the key ball or the shot that will open up the run for them. They miss the shot and then see how the table has opened up and they could have run out easily. They complain that they will make a great shot only to miss the next one and there is always that guy in the audience who says, “gee, the same guy shot that one”. When the value of making the shot increase

Hello everyone, This month, we are going to analyze a very interesting follow shot. This shot was recently added to the world championship of Trick shots and is classified as a 10/10 in difficulty. I have to say it is actually both very useful and pretty. Unfortunately, also quite hard. Anyway, this shot definitely finds some applications in the game of 9-ball, and if any of you encounter the same type of shot in a game and make it, it will probably become a great highlight!

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary to Facebook, always remember that pool is the buzz! Yes indeed! Pool players worldwide are uniting, networking, and getting the word out about the game we all love, “Extra! Extra! Read all about it!” And the word is spreading, and people are listening — and we may be entering a new enlightened age of billiards, where all saunter through the kaleidoscope universe cyberspace of billiards pontification, proliferation, pool

The Tao flows through all things, and is the underlying current that electrifies CJ Wiley’s pool game — guiding him towards a greater meaning and purpose in life — the life of a consummate martial artist, and professional pool player. “Lao Tzu, in the Tao Te Ching explains that the Tao is not a ‘name’ for a ‘thing’ but the underlying natural order of the Universe whose ultimate essence is difficult to circumscribe due to it being non conceptual yet evident’ in one’s being of

Jacoby custom cues have a long-standing relationship with innovation and most of all above average customer service. The introduction of the jump cue over the last 20 years has really changed the face of the industry. Now every other company has a form of a jump cue. Some of them have a specific. Like Marty Carry and Dr. Popper as well as the Black Magic. Those are all in my opinion specialty cues. Now Jumping is a somewhat easy shot whereas perfecting the aim is the diffic

Pool is a game of ups and downs. Most pool players experience a slump at some time or another. Slumps occur when you play below your expected ability for a prolonged period of time. Most pool players do not know why they are playing badly, so they tend to look for solutions in all the wrong places. Sometimes this causes the player’s performance to drop even more. Often, the player falls deeper and deeper into despair. Pool players are often unable to break free from the chai

For pool players, we live in a day and age where there’s a plethora of varying products for the billiards enthusiast to choose from. We have low deflection shafts, phenolic tips, jump cues, break cues, cue extensions, billiards gloves, layered tips, etc. With all the gear to select from, it can be hard to determine what’s the best choice for the individual. In most cases (pun intended), players are proud to show you what’s in their cases. Many players I’ve seen have expensive

Knowing the 4 main variables that affect bank shots such as contact point, force, English, & collision induced throw are one thing, but training your muscle memory is another. This drill provides my excellent practice routine covering virtually every type of common bank shot on the table. There are 135 total reference shots here. Not only do you train your muscle memory for pocketing different bank shots, but you also must get shape on the next ball. Diagram 1 shows each pos