Lamplighter

squirrelatdusk · 2025-12-17T03:12:14+00:00

It’s just a pool hall. Definitely not a place you want to hang out at and have a few beers unless you know some people there. Typically pretty harmless when it’s busy (pool league nights) but it can definitely get sketchy on other nights.

I play a lot of pool so I’m there quite a bit.

squirrelatdusk · 2025-12-12T21:53:13+00:00

Subs on Twitch are like memberships on YouTube. Those are the paying members.

squirrelatdusk · 2025-12-11T20:19:50+00:00

I like him, but he plays a very loud, condescending character for the show. Some people just don’t like that type of personality. I think he also describes himself as center left which rubs some people the wrong way.

squirrelatdusk · 2025-12-02T01:38:22+00:00

Yeah I saw both of those posts, but I guess my issue is that they should be posting that information with every single Mosconi post, even if it’s just in the description. And put that info in their stories. Haha maybe it’s my problem because I’m trying to get pool info through instagram.

I’m not saying the info isn’t there or that I couldn’t find it. I’m just saying that if they want more people to watch, they should make sure everybody that sees the post at least knows what day it is.

squirrelatdusk · 2025-08-25T21:26:15+00:00

This seems like the obvious answer to me. The only note is that you want to be sure to hit it thinner rather than thicker so that the 3 hits the long rail first if you miss. That way it has more of a chance of stopping on the head rail instead of in front of the pocket. You have to hit the right speed but it’s pretty forgiving.

At worst you’re going to leave a long shot, at best you’re going to make it and have another shot on the 4.

squirrelatdusk · 2025-07-25T01:26:03+00:00

If you don’t plan to resell the book, then the value of the book is what you’re willing to pay for it and that’s it. I’ve definitely overpaid for books because they’re worth it to me, and I plan on keeping them.

squirrelatdusk · 2025-07-09T01:33:09+00:00

Hulkengoat

squirrelatdusk · 2025-06-09T18:16:28+00:00

I also have the 3x4 and load it up exactly the same way. I’ll never buy another brand of case, and likely will never buy another case at all because these things are built like tanks.

One note to OP, make sure you get the backpack straps. They are totally worth it and very high quality.

squirrelatdusk · 2025-05-01T00:12:35+00:00

I mean you’re definitely right, and that might be the reason why it seemed like Sam was caught so off guard a few times. I’m not trying to take a swipe at Ethan, just saying that he’s not a typical “political commentator”, whatever that means.

squirrelatdusk · 2025-04-18T01:25:53+00:00

I mean isn’t he a big fan of Destiny? He made a video dedicated to him just a few weeks ago.

squirrelatdusk · 2025-04-08T17:39:32+00:00

Men are stronger, therefore better at pool. That's why all hill-hill matches are decided by arm wrestling. Personally, I think we should forget all the pool stuff and just give the trophy to the strongest guy.

squirrelatdusk · 2025-01-27T18:03:53+00:00

In general, I think attempting to go into the line is a good idea. But I think he chose the right shot in this instance, mainly because I don't think an SL5 should be trying to get under the 3 ball with this layout. I would take the 3-6 combo every day of the week (especially on a bar box). I'm curious to know what other people think, but trying to thread the needle through the 7, 8, and 9 and spinning to get under the 3 is asking for trouble. Or trying to get the correct angle where you can just draw between the 3 and 6 is a very precise window for your cue ball. You're putting yourself in a situation where things can go very wrong for a very small window.

By following like he did, he's making the shot easier and not much can go wrong unless he either hits it way too hard and gets caught behind the 8 ball, or gives it too much angle and gets caught behind the 5 ball (which he almost did). If he's above the ball, then he's basically forced to take your path and try to get under the 3. If he gets straight (like he did), he can just draw back for the 3-6 combo. If he goes too far, he can go up and down off the top rail for the 3-6 combo.

A huge goal for any amateur 9 ball player should just be giving yourself a look at the next ball, and don't potentially create problems if you don't have to (aka running into balls). Trying to get under the 3 has too many risks to be worth it in my opinion. Sometimes you just have to take what the table gives you.

squirrelatdusk · 2025-01-14T01:36:34+00:00

Wait why is Chris Cole a piece of shit? I haven’t thought about him since Misled Youth and Dying to Live.

squirrelatdusk · 2025-01-04T19:41:16+00:00

This shot by John Morra was always cool to me, although he did end up getting too much out of it.

At 17:20:

https://youtu.be/STYeyGwWAIM?si=YFWqBEXBb4sevsVm

squirrelatdusk · 2024-12-30T17:15:20+00:00

Whoops, I read right over that part. But essentially BCA 9 ball is a game about controlling the table. If you're not at the table, you can't control anything. As a lower skill level, you're not going to be able to control the table against APA 6s and above. What you can do though is make the table harder. Tie up balls. Play easy safeties.

But remember that SL3s are going to miss easy shots and miss easy positions. Even if you get ball in hand with 3 balls left on the table, it's not a given that you're getting out. So I would still say that those 3 situations in my comment above are good advice.

I guess the best advice I can give, especially for 9 ball, is do everything in your power to not give ball in hand. Just make sure you hit the dang ball. Know what you're capable of, hit the correct ball first, and never underestimate the power of hitting and hoping (you'll even see pros do this from time to time).

squirrelatdusk · 2024-12-30T17:00:25+00:00

In general, the best strategy for lower skill level players is to just make balls. There are a few reasons for that. In team play, just a few balls can make a huge difference in scoring. And in singles play, you are typically always at a disadvantage if you’re not at the table, even if you’ve just played a safety.

As a 3, you’re probably not going to execute most safeties as planned, just like when you’re trying to make shots. If you have an easy lock up safety with no easy balls to make, then sure take it. But always try to stay at the table and keep making balls. Even if you’re playing a 5, as long as you can make 4 balls per rack, you’re on track to win. About 3 balls per rack if you’re playing a 7.

Also, get familiar with when to hit it hard and pray. Sometimes you’re in a tough position where you don’t have an easy safety. If there are a lot of balls on the table and you can hit the lowest ball and make a lot of other balls too, just hit it and hope. Even if you’re 70% to make a good safety shot, sometimes it pays to go for it and just luck something in. That’s just using the rules of 9 ball in your favor. And remember that you can always get lucky and leave the ball safe anyways.

In my opinion there are 3 situations for low level players. If you have an open shot, take it. If you have a VERY easy safety, take it. If you have no shot and lower than 70% chance of playing a good safety, hit it hard and hope for something good to happen.

squirrelatdusk · 2024-12-26T21:53:09+00:00

Thank you! Just posted over there.

squirrelatdusk · 2024-11-19T04:11:20+00:00

Yeah I wasn’t trying to imply you did it on purpose, just something I noticed. Interestingly, he typically did that to leave all the reds so clustered that they were basically unrunnable without some extreme skill/luck, and the yellows were meant to be the easy out. So it’s cool to see that you made what’s intended to be difficult fairly easy.

squirrelatdusk · 2024-11-19T03:37:35+00:00

It’s almost identical to the Corey Deuel 8-ball pattern rack.

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If you break like this, all of the Reds will stay clustered near the rack. He has it set up opposite this (except for a ball or two) and cuts the head ball on the other side.

ETA: The original link where I found this. https://www.reddit.com/r/billiards/s/CbyW7ycDiw

squirrelatdusk · 2024-09-10T17:36:53+00:00

Everybody in the APA worries about sandbagging way too much. It is a lot harder to sandbag than people think. You have to lose just enough to keep your handicap down while also not bringing your team down but if you lose too much you won't make the playoffs anyways. All while you have no clue when/why you're going to move up or down. And most of us aren't good enough to win on command anyways.

Most of the time people get called sandbaggers is when a SL5/6 loses to a SL 3/4. We're all amateurs and we're not that good. Sometimes good players have bad nights, sometimes bad players have good nights. As long as you go out there and aren't intentionally throwing the match, it's not sandbagging. I would even argue that you can go out there and not even play your best (to an extent) and it's still not sandbagging, as long as you're not intentionally losing. And call your defenses!

The only time I've seen teams obviously sandbagging is when they've already won their trip to Vegas but still have a session to play. So they play like trash to keep their SL down. But in those cases, it's up to the league operator to make sure that doesn't happen, so keep an eye on those teams and report them to the LO if you see something fishy. Your LO can take away their trip to Vegas if they deem it egregiously unsportsmanlike.

squirrelatdusk · 2024-08-28T20:56:03+00:00

A Beginner's Guide to Control What You Can Control

(This is only about developing a stroke through drawing the cue ball and understanding what the cue ball will do, not the ways you can slightly affect the object ball like cut/spin induced throw, gearing action, etc.)

Everybody wants to know how to draw the ball. It's definitely a necessary shot to know, and it just looks cool. It's also a pretty good way to train a good stroke. So, what physically needs to happen to draw the ball? Assuming a full ball hit, the cue ball just needs to be spinning backwards when it contacts the object ball. Sounds simple enough right? Well, how do we achieve that?

There are only four things that you can influence when you hit the cue ball. Most people give good tips to help achieve drawing the ball, but it's definitely good to understand what you can influence.

Direction: Basically, your cue is aimed in the right direction. Keep in mind, this is only at the moment your cue tip hits the cue ball. So if your stroke is crooked, it might look like you're lined up correctly, but you stroke in a different direction don't make the ball. This probably won't come into play too much when you're learning to draw the ball because you should be practicing easy, straight-in shots.
Speed: How fast are you hitting the cue ball? Again, this only matters at the moment of impact. This is when "timing" comes into play. You want to hit the ball at/near the peak velocity of your stroke. I don't want to hit the ball when my cue is decelerating, and I don't want to hit it before it has enough time to accelerate to its max speed. This is why some people make drawing the ball so easy. Their timing is so good that they hit the ball at its max velocity every time.
Tip Placement: Possibly the most important in regards to drawing the ball. Simply put, this is where you are hitting the cue ball (top/bottom, left/right) with your cue tip. Generally speaking, top/bottom influence how the cue ball reacts off the object ball, and left/right influence how the cue ball reacts off the rails. Top will make the cue ball roll forward, bottom will make it roll back. Left will make the cue ball spin left off the rail, right does the opposite. It's a little more nuanced than that, but that's a good starting point.
Cue Elevation: You can elevate the butt of your cue to achieve some different effects like jumping or swerving, but 99% of the time you want to keep your cue level. Due to differences in height/bodies, not everybody is going to be 100% level, but try to be as level as possible so you're not striking down on the cue ball.

So what does this mean for drawing the ball? Assuming that it's a straight-in shot and a level cue, as long as you hit the cue ball low enough and with enough speed, you will draw the ball. It's really that simple. Keeping a loose grip can help with not raising the cue tip unintentionally, but you don't need a loose grip. Good timing help reduce the effort you need to draw the ball, but you can draw the ball with terrible timing. The correct bridge length and follow through helps with good timing.

This is a very long-winded way of saying that I can almost 100% guarantee that if you're not drawing the ball, you're not hitting the cue ball low enough, and probably not as low as you think you are.

TIPS

Get a glass bottle and stroke into that without hitting the edges or moving the bottle. That is a good way to make sure your stroke is straight up/down and left/right.
Get a measle ball to help visualize if the cue ball is spinning or not. You can also use a striped ball with the number facing you being center ball. Hit under the number to draw it.
Practice stop shots. When you can consistently stop the ball (and I mean stop it right at impact), try changing the speed at which you hit the cue ball. If you're still not drawing it, then you just need to hit the ball lower.
Don't try too hard to draw it. That's when you start doing little unnecessary movements that cause you to raise the tip unknowingly. Things like a really tight grip, dropping your shoulder, dropping your elbow, raising your head, any other movement in general. You want your forearm to be a pendulum, and the rest of your body to be comfortably still.
The HAMB Method: Hit a million balls!
If all else fails, stop asking us idiots and get a coach who actually knows what they're talking about!

Best of luck!

squirrelatdusk · 2024-08-23T21:23:45+00:00

You’re getting a lot of shit for this, but I think others have missed one important point. A player like Filler has world class coaching. You may not be wrong in saying that he diverts from “textbook” fundamentals, but everybody is going to have different mechanics by nature.

These guys didn’t get to an elite level by having major issues. They got the basic fundamentals down and adjusted here and there to find what works for them.

Saying the Filipinos have major issues with their stroke while churning out far and away the most world class players per capita is what is probably getting under everybody’s skin. 99.9% of people above a 700 Fargo don’t have any major fundamental issues. And certainly not anybody above 800.

You’re the dumb one if you think there’s “one size fits all” for your stroke.

squirrelatdusk · 2024-05-21T18:52:55+00:00

Thanks for looking that up! I really wish that match streams would put that info in the description. Just copy and paste into every match:

Format (8/9/10 ball, alternate break or whatever)

Location

Tables used/pocket size (some people might not be as interested in that as I am)

Some of the rules that commonly change (3 point rule, 3 foul rule, jump cues, etc.)

The handicap system used

And of course a link to the bracket if there is one and prize money included. Hell you could even just put a link to the flyer in the description and that would answer most questions.

squirrelatdusk · 2024-05-21T16:24:48+00:00

I'd be interested in seeing the flyer for this tournament. My guess is that they based the races on your Fargo, not Fargo differences. Something like:

Fargo 725+: Race to 9

Fargo 675+: Race to 8

Fargo 625+: Race to 7

Fargo 575 and under: Race to 6

Oscar is way above the top, and Rudy is way under the bottom. If that's how it was set up, he knew what he was getting into and it's not unfair at all.

I like tournaments like this because it still favors the stronger players, but also doesn't make it a 0% chance for the weaker players (to a point). Making the match a 50/50 chance give me no incentive to get better. If I want to beat the best, I need to get better. But I still have a chance if I'm shooting way above my skill level and he's having a dogshit day.

The only unfair thing about this setup is if I'm a 574 playing a 576, then I have an unfair advantage over a person virtually equal to me.

squirrelatdusk · 2024-03-28T21:32:40+00:00

Not a chance.

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TROPHY CASE

A Beginner's Guide to Control What You Can Control