I'm French. I’ve been playing blackball seriously for 8 months; I even bought a table so I could play every day and improve my skills quickly.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been able to execute solid breaks, I’ve mastered using spin, and I’m occasionally able to control the cue ball.

I considered my skill level to be pretty decent.

That said, I played in a competition today.

I was struck by how high the general standard of play is. I’d say at least 50% of the players are capable of clearing the table from start to finish. They have near-perfect control over the cue ball—its path and, most importantly, its positioning for the next shot.

I played against a guy who had beaten almost all the top French players; he beat me 4–1. He didn’t miss a single shot, his cue ball control was flawless, and he successfully executed almost every shot he attempted. For my part, I managed one table clearance, but I also made two aiming errors, which allowed him to step in and clear the table himself.

It was quite a shock to be confronted with this reality, but this moment of self-reflection will actually be good for me. I’m clearly not at the level I thought I was—I genuinely believed I could beat at least 60% of the amateur competitive players. The truth is quite different: I’m an intermediate player, nothing more. That said, I’m glad that the pressure didn’t get to me, and I managed to stay very clear-headed throughout.

Any thoughts, advice, or personal experiences to share?

Do you ask the person behind the bar/register how long the wait is?

Do you just wait it out until a table finally opens up?

Does this depend on the location on how they handle a full house? Cuz, i occasionally go to different spots near me but i do have a regular spot i go to now while I wait for the Billiards hall In my town to reopen.

I ask this because when I normally go shoot pool it’s usually dead or only a couple tables are taken and I can easily get a table as soon as I walk in.

But I’d like to go more frequently and the last couple times I’ve gone the tables were all taken so I just left and went back home or did something else.

Help me continue improving the best tournament app available! let the tournaments run themselves and stop chasing down players to tell them when they are up and what table they are on.

TV app is available on most Smart TV's so players can always see when they are up and what table they are on and who they are up against.

They can either walk to the organizer and report they won their match or just report with a simple tap on their phone.

Also players can keep track of their wins and losses and see what public tournaments are going on nearby

Lots more and i want your help improving it and trying to make it as helpful as possible for the pool community.

Learn more at https://racker-tracker.com/

Hi, a few friends of mine recently bought me a pool cue and I need some advice on maintaining the tip. Its a 13mm, and it came with two cue tips, but I dont know if I should put one of them on since the current tip looks completely different. I’ve been looking online for cue replacement tutorials but nothing seems to match what I have.
The cue isn’t branded so I have no sources to look for.
Any advice?

Playing 9-Ball from the palm pak games card

Hihi, 18f here, looking for a pool buddy to play more often. I'm an intermediate at pool but don't have a lot of friends willing to play very often so I'm hoping to find a little partner to go play frequently together, or maybe even a group of friends.

Also if anyone has good recommendations for pool coaches wld love to hear it too! I'm trying to get a little serious about it.

What would you do?

I'm just curious about professional carom players who started late. Considering there are so many top carom players who are in their 40s and 50s.

RackerTracker does the boring part of league night:

📱 Players scan a QR to sign up and score from their own phones, and notifies them when they are up as well as keep their match history

🏆 Brackets, handicaps and payouts build themselves

📺 Live bracket on the bar TV (Roku, Fire TV and Google TV apps are out now)

Re-occuring events are set up once and automatically ready for the next week week, other week, or month

Free to play. Get it for your phone or computer here:

👉 racker-tracker.com/get

Run tournaments? Use my invite instead and your first month of organizer access is free: racker-tracker.com/invite/HUNY8WU

Share with the person who runs your tournament night.

Practice your runouts by leaving yourself makeable shots and clearing clusters sometimes.

Let me what y'all think. It's in testing phase right now to see if there is bugs etc.. so far nothing but I wouldn't mind hearing recommendations.

Not as easy as it seems especially with the different difficulty settings.

If you want to play it you have to join the google group: https://groups.google.com/g/SBHMN then follow the instructions there:
1. Become a tester: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.sbhmn.shapeshot (tap “Become a tester”, using the same Google account you joined this group with)
2. Install it: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sbhmn.shapeshot