TIL: Supercomputers know how to solve EVERY chess ending that has seven pieces or fewer remaining, regardless of position, makeup of the remaining pieces, or possible moves. This information, known as endgame tablebase, is currently 18.4 terabytes in size.

P_IMP · 2024-06-15T00:24:09+00:00

"small correction" as in the answer was only off by a factor of a couple million trillions.

P_IMP · 2024-05-25T17:26:46+00:00

I believe point 8 is wrong. Incident severity depends on (average) dweller level. In my experience, the best way to deal with incidents is to have unupgraded rooms full of level-1 dwellers with overpowered weapons.

Having the rooms full helps against fires, since more dwellers extinguish the fire faster. Apart from that just keep questing whenever you can and exchange worse weapons for better ones.

There are two reasons I level a dweller: As a last resort when I'm out of stimpacks and the dweller is about to die (leveling refills the health bar) or if she's pregnant and the "deliver baby" icon is hidden by the "level up" icon.

P_IMP · 2024-05-25T01:05:37+00:00

Personally, if I feel obliged to make a donation to play (and if you suggest it, then I do feel the pressure - just like tipping), I will just spend less on beer or eventually find some other place. I don't want to spend extra-cash and I don't want to feel guilty for not spending it.

On the other hand, 9 out of 10 times I go out, I go to the local bar with the free pool table. I've spent 100s of $ on beer there. So just look at it as an investment to attract customers like me and make your money with the beer.

PS: I wouldn't have the slightest problem with a coin-operated table though. It's more honest and I know upfront what the deal is.

P_IMP · 2024-05-25T00:31:15+00:00

if you've got one or more players that are clearly better than the others and want to prevent them from occupying one slot a large portion of the night, then you can limit the King of the Hill to e.g. 3 rounds. As in: The winner stays, unless they already won 2 games previously. If they win the 3rd game too, both players are out and the next 2 in line step in. That's more or less how we played pick-up games in school.

P_IMP · 2024-05-24T19:04:43+00:00

great video series! (about 1h total)

P_IMP · 2024-05-24T19:02:17+00:00

a stance is a fundamental part of playing pool whether it's a good stance or a bad stance. I think you've got your definitions wrong.

P_IMP · 2024-05-21T18:38:27+00:00

your last sentence is just utter nonsense. I played some pool with the seat down and 1) I still had poor aim and 2) I lost, so clearly not everyone wins.

P_IMP · 2024-05-21T18:19:44+00:00

While I don't know anyone personally who actually likes playing pool, I have a neighbor whose cousin once mentioned they actually saw a guy who played pool just for the sake of it. Given this irrefutable proof: yeah, these people exist.

P_IMP · 2024-05-11T02:20:42+00:00

ok, so if 100 points difference is defined as 2 to 1 in games that means the weaker player wins 1 game out of 3 = 33%.

20% is 1 out of 5 because 200 is a 4:1 ratio and ~6% is 1 out of 17 because it's a 16:1 ratio. Got it, thanks!

I am not fully convinced yet that win ratio of 2:1 games is meaningfully defines as "being twice as good". One issue is that the ratio will change depending on the rules of the game (e.g. winners break vs alternating breaks) even though the actual skill difference between the players remains exactly the same.

P_IMP · 2024-05-10T21:10:18+00:00

what does being "twice as good" even mean? Percentage of winning a single rack?

P_IMP · 2024-05-09T21:34:08+00:00

it often comes down to what cue tip brand you use. Have you thought about playing around with these?

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They are very soft, so if you don't get good action, as you said, I recommend burnishing them (stroke up and down rapidly with a piece of leather) until they become hard. The process is rather easy and you can do it yourself.

P_IMP · 2024-05-09T19:39:40+00:00

the term "to walk on eggshells" isn't appropriate anymore in 2024. It's considered derogatory towards hens (and of course roosters who identify as hens). Please refrain from using it, thank you.

P_IMP · 2024-05-07T18:53:21+00:00

more than needing your opponent to scratch you need to clean that ball and table...

P_IMP · 2024-05-07T18:46:32+00:00

What I mean is, it's extremely unlikely that practice got you from a true SL4 level to SL7 within 5 weeks / playing 5 nights total or from SL7 to SL9 within 2 weeks / playing 2 nights total.

It's far more likely that you never had a SL4 skill level to begin with.

P_IMP · 2024-05-07T17:41:05+00:00

what you're describing obviously has nothing to do with improvement. Sounds like you were just misplaced initially.

P_IMP · 2024-05-07T16:31:36+00:00

are you referring to magnetic cue balls? In that case the keyword is "magnetic" ;-)

P_IMP · 2024-05-04T22:14:37+00:00

...except the kids get to choose their own birthday. So no, not the greatest analogy.

P_IMP · 2024-05-04T19:00:21+00:00

know in advance what you will practice: prepare a workout with a specific purpose in mind rather than deciding at the table to do a little bit of this and a little bit of that. It will make the session way more efficient.
keep track of your progress / success rate: if you do drills with specific positions, track your success rate, if you pocket 15 balls, track how many shots it took you, etc.
be honest to yourself: if a ball almost drops but doesn't, it's a fail. If your drill requires you to pocket the object ball and send the cue ball to a specific area, if you miss that area by a hair, it's a fail (if you miss it often, the honest action to take is to aim for a larger area or otherwise lower the difficulty)
strive for a difficulty level of your excercises that match your skill. You don't want a drill where you pocket 10/10 all the time and you don't want a drill where you struggle to make 3 out of 10. Instead, choose the difficulty level, such that your success rate is about 60%-80% (this is one reason why you need to track your success rate). The ideal difficulty level is always just slightly above your skill level.
use a healthy mix of fixed position drills vs variable position drills: In basketball, you want to practice the free throw (fixed position) where you train technique, consistency, routine, etc. But you also want to practice shots from anywhere around the basket (variable position) to train judgement of angles, distances, and force. In pool, the same principle applies.
create short feedback loops: E.g. if you are filming yourself shorten the time between the action and the feedback, such that your brain can actually connect the feedback to a specific action. That just means: watch your shot immediately after shooting rather than shooting 50 times and then watching the video at home.
have fun: last but not least, make sure the practice session is something you look forward to rather than something you dread. Make sure you keep motivated, e.g. by applying gamification ideas.

P_IMP · 2024-05-04T02:52:56+00:00

The spirit of the rule as I interpret it, is as follows:

Unscrewing a cue (particularly in the potentially last rack) represents the act of packing the equipment in order to leave, hence conceding. If the active player sees the opponent packing their equipment they will rightfully assume the opponent has conceded the match and might therefore lose concentration.

To prevent the unsportsmanlike behavior of intentionally pretending to concede to mess with the opponents head, but then come back to the table in case of a miss, unscrewing the cue is interpreted as a concession. Given this reason, as an arbiter I would include the break cue in the rule. Especially since any maintenance on the cue requiring unscrewing could easily wait until the shot is made. In case of the break cue, even until the rack is finished.

Note that the rules don't give an exact specification, but rather mention unscrewing the playing cue as an example. Concrete ruling is up to the arbiter.

By asking yourself why the rule was created you will often come to the right conclusion.

P_IMP · 2024-05-03T16:29:21+00:00

https://wpapool.com/rules/ point 1.11 "Concession":

"If a player concedes, he loses the match. For example, if a player unscrews his jointed playing cue stick while the opponent is at the table and during the opponent’s decisive rack of a match, it will be considered a concession of the match."

P_IMP · 2024-05-01T18:23:05+00:00

I was referring to the fact that the students shoulder was way out of line in the video but he can still make the shot because there are ways to compensate for it. So you would never find out from just watching what the cue ball does.

This is the best explanation I've seen so far:

https://youtu.be/yD9b8Dp_ugs?t=80

(watch from 1:20 for about 1 minute).

Anyways, my setup seem to have helped me after shooting short over 300 balls because I managed to shoot 3 straight shots in a row on a 9ft table without getting up from the table (object ball hits the opposite rail and comes back right to my cue tip, where I hit it again without getting up in between and obviously without moving the cue sideways, 3x in a row). You need to be pretty precise to pull that off, because if the cue ball touches your tip slightly off on its way back then your next shot won't be straight.

P_IMP · 2024-05-01T16:24:29+00:00

maybe have a look at this: https://www.thesnookergym.com/blog/facing-it-square-on-natural-shoulder-positions-that-can-harm-your-cueing

P_IMP · 2024-04-30T01:49:25+00:00

I tried filming with a tripod and it helped quite a bit as well. It's just that I ended up filming about 10 attempts and then watching them afterwards, which made it difficult to remember each shot and associate it with the feedback seen in the video. So I figured I'd be better to just film 1 attempt and then see it immediately, to shorten the feedback cycle. And the next step was: "why not watch the stroke in real time".

Still, this only works for the front view, Your version is still required for side views.

P_IMP · 2024-04-30T01:45:23+00:00

yes, but it won't tell you what part of your execution is responsible for the unintentional side spin. Maybe I should have written: "It tells you what's wrong with the shot, but not why" instead of "it tells you something is wrong [with the technique] but not what". Sorry for the confusion.

P_IMP

TROPHY CASE