2011 October | Game Room Thoughts

Oct

Kelly’s Hot Game Room Thought: Jumping Balls

A few days ago I had a customer in my showroom who is an avid pool player. He came in with a very good question – he was in search of a Jump Cue and wanted to know what the differences were between them and whether it was worth the money to buy one and if it was, was it worth the money to buy a top end one. These are all excellent questions and really made me think about it.

First lets address the issue of why to buy a jump cue. If you find yourself regularly having to jump a ball, this would be a good investment for you. Although you can jump a ball using a regular playing cue, using a jump cue will make it easier. The cue itself is shorter which makes the balance point better when you have jacked the back end up past your shoulder. If you are using a regular cue, the back end of the cue will make the balance point more in the back, which will make it hard to make the shot. As well, the shaft tends to be stiffer and the tip tends to be harder, both of which will help when executing the jump shot.

Now on to whether it’s worth it to buy one at all. I personally had a jump break cue, which worked out well for me because I didn’t often want to make the jump shot. A jump break cue is a 3 piece cue which not only features a regular joint, but the butt end also has a joint (usually a quick release) in order to make your break cue shorter. At the time, there weren’t many jump cues available and the cases didn’t offer a place to store the butt end of the jump cue – so some people would loose them or end up carrying them in their hand. Cue cases have changed recently to accommodate for jump cues, so this isn’t an issue any more!

Now that you have maybe decided you need a jump cue, let’s discuss what kind you need. What I recommended to my customer is to consider how often you will actually use this type of cue. Do you jump a ball once a game? Once every match? Once a month? Once in a blue moon? Depending on how often you find yourself in the jump situation will give you some insight on what kind of jump cue to buy. Perhaps purchasing a jump break cue will solve all the problems. In that case you may not even need to buy a new cue case! If you have decided to go ahead with the purchase of a jump cue, deciding if you should buy a low end or high end one is your next decision. If you aren’t in the jump situation very often, you might get away with a low end jump cue and save your money to put towards a new high-end playing cue (which is used much more often) or cue case. If you decide to go with a high end cue, I would highly recommend getting together with someone who is experienced with jumping balls and getting them to give you some pointers on the correct execution of jumping a ball!

Don’t forget that at the end of the day, you will actually have to learn how to not only jump the object ball in your way, but also pocket the object ball you were going for and get shape on your next ball!

To get some ideas on trick shots you can learn, you should check the out Venom Trickshot DVD. This is a highly entertaining DVD and Florian Kohler executes some excellent shots!

Oct

Kelly’s Hot Game Room Thought: The Value of Good Rubber

This past weekend the Hot Shots Trio went to Nashville to the Olhausen factory for sales training and to get product knowledge. Scott & I went to the Sales Training in San Diego back in 2005, so it was interesting to see how much has changed and how many things have stayed the same.

One thing that hasn’t changed is the quality of the products that Olhausen makes. One of the biggest factors when I sell an Olhausen pool table is pointing out that they offer the best warranty in the industry. The warranty includes the rail rubber, which no other pool table manufacturer in the world offers. Accu-Fast Cushions are formulated from a pure gum rubber base that doesn’t contain any of the inexpensive clay or silica fillers in import cushions used by other manufacturers. This means that eventually you will have to replace the rubber cushion on any other table, but not on an Olhausen. They back it by a 100% lifetime warranty. In the past 15+ years that Olhausen has been offering the Warranty on the cushions, they have never had to replace the rubber on one rail. Not once. Pretty incredible if you as me!

To give you a bit of information about Accu-Fast Cushions, they are 100% surface bonded to the rail. All import rubber features a “groove” in the back of the cushion. The reason for that is that antique tables were made with a “relief groove bead” that the cushion sat on, making it 100% bonded to the rail back then. It turned out it was easier to make the sub-rail flat but they left the groove in the cushion. These days, the groove is filled in with glue which reduces the bonded area up to 40%. This means that eventually the glue dries out which means that either the cushion will fall off the rail or that you may have whats called a dead cushion response.

A dead cushion response means this: have you ever played on a pool table, and when you hit the cue ball to the rail, it either doesn’t bounce back at all or the way you think it will? If this happens, it is time to replace the cushion rubber. The average table will have to have the rubber replaced every 3 to 5 years, depending on usage. This will happen on any table except an Olhausen. All Accu-Fast Cushions are 100% American Made and are the only cushions that can be backed with a true Lifetime Warranty. The costs associated with replacing the rubber could be anywhere from $450 to $800, depending on the job. Don’t forget, you will also have to replace the rail cloth at the same time, which means you will also have to replace the bed cloth so that everything matches. Imagine having to do that every 3 to 5 years. Now imaging owning an Olhausen and never having to think about it!

Oct