Evaluating Pool Cues

It doesn’t matter if you’re playing on some truly world class billiards and pool tables and it doesn’t matter if you think you could play the game at a world class level of skill and talent, you just aren’t going to play your best possible game when you play with pool cues that are low quality. Your talent and training definitely matters but it’s not the only important point deciding how your game goes, as the pool cue you play with is probably just a hair less important. The other points are probably going to be the same with you and your competitors. You’re all playing on the same exact billiards and pool tables. You’re all playing with the same exact billiards balls as everyone else. You’re probably playing with people who are at about the same skill level as you. However the cue you choose to play with is unique and can set you apart from the pack, for good or for ill.

Pretty much anyone who has played pool in their life will have gone through the process of heading to a public space like a hall or bar where they’re going to play, cutting past the billiards and pool tables to head to the cue racks and then trying to figure out which of the remaining cues offer the best quality and chance of success. But not everyone knew how to choose the best possible cue in that moment.

Before anything else you want to make sure the cue you’re going to play with has a good tip. You want the best tip you can find, as close to perfect as is available in your billiards and pool tables hall. It’s generally impossible to find a truly perfect cue tip but that doesn’t mean you can’t take a few minutes to find the best one available. Not every billiards and pool tables hall has equipment that’s been properly taken care of but don’t be lazy in your selection. You definitely want to look out for cracked tips and tips the bend weirdly one way or the other. Chipped tips are also problematic and can create issues in your game you wouldn’t otherwise have. You also want to make sure you don’t use a pool cue that has a tip which has bee flattened. After you find a cue with a good tip you can check out a few other characteristics of it.

The tip of your cue is only the first quality indicator you want to evaluate, and after you find a cue with a good tip you want to make sure it feels light enough in your hands. There’s no reason to play on billiards and pool tables with pool cues that feel leaden or hefty in your hands, any sort of weight is going to be a problem when making your shots. Ideally you want to find a pool cue that is very light in your hands and the best cues are going to barely even feel like they’re there. The more weightless the cue you play with, the better you’ll play.

After you decide which of the cues is the lightest in your hands you want to evaluate whether it’s the right size for you or not by its length. Some people like to play with cues that are shorter and some people like to play with cues that are longer but most people like to play with a cue that lies in the middle ground. It’s easy to find an ideal length cue by just standing it up on the fat end of its handle so it stands up vertically. Once it’s in that position in front of you see where the tip of the cue is in relation to your face. If the tip of the cue is around your chin’s height then you have a good sized cue. The height of your chin is ideal in proportion to the length of your arms.

And last but not least you need to make sure you’re playing with a pool cue that’s as straight as possible. This isn’t something you can really tell on your own with just your eyes. Instead you want to lie your pool cue on one of the billiards and pool tables and roll it back and forth. Doing this will reveal any wobbles or other imperfections in the straightness of the cue. Run this test a few times to get the straightest cue you can find so it hits evenly.

You need to make sure all of these qualities and characteristics check out when you buy pool cues from billiards and pool tables stores as well. This will be easier to do when buying then when simply using whatever’s around in the hall you go to. You won’t have to worry about wobbly cues or cues who have tips that are cracked and chipped and broken when you buy your cues new and not used. You really only need to make sure the materials are good quality and it’s the right length for you. If you’re buying your cue from a brick and mortar billiards and pool tables store this can be determined the same way as mentioned before, and if you’re ordering from an online billiards and pool tables store you can just make this measurement yourself and then only get a cue that is the same basic length as your measurement.

There’s no reason to be lazy when it comes time to pick out your pool cues. The quality of your pool cue is going to often determine the quality of your game so go ahead and insure you get the right one.