Allen Hopkins was born November 18, 1951, in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He is a powerful American professional pocket billiards (pool) player, professional billiards color commentator and BCA Hall of Fame inductee. He promotes numerous annual pool occasions and continue to play being a qualified contender. At seven years old, after viewing many tournaments on tv, Allen commenced to play pool on a small table his mom and dad bought for him. As an amateur, during the age of twelve, Hopkins ran a prodigious 110 balls and even took this skill to experiment with against developed men. By age 17, he proceeded to go professional and went on fifth place in the 1969 US Open Nine-ball Championship.

Around 2002, Hopkins triumphed in the Denver Ten-ball Open, defeating Earl Strickland, Filipino champion Jose Parica, Corey Deuel, David Matlock, and faced Shannon Daulton in a very thrilling double-hill finals. In 2008, he was inducted to the BCA Hall of Fame via the Billiard Congress of America.

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During the final day of the US Open 10 Ball Championships in Las Vegas, no one can deny that it was truly a very tensed day. It was truly filled with matches that are all wonderfully exciting! The competition for the fourth place was pitted by Francisco Bustamante and Shane Van Boening.

It was Lee Van Corteza who faced Van Boening for an opportunity to the finals. The match was so close too but it was Lee Van who came away with the triumph and put Shane in 3^rd place. During the final match, it was very apparent with the gestures of the two players that both were being very cautious. After an hour and a half, both were warned to make the game progress quicker.

In the end, it was Lee Van Corteza who ruled the game and won a total of $20,000 prize money. His entry to this year’s US Open 9 Ball Championships was also paid.

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You may have probably stumbled upon this question in your mind once, but just like me has simply ignored it. So now, let us confront this interesting yet disregarded question about billiards. What is the difference between pool and billiards?

Nowadays, you would notice that they can be interchanged and end up being defined the same. But if we would take it on the technical definition, there are some differences. Billiards is when you play with smaller balls. There are only three balls being used namely the red, yellow and white. The two latter colors are the ones which can act as strikers. Billiards is also known to be the pool but without the pockets. Simply said, billiard is a form of pool.

They may have their own differences, but the two are fairly grouped to be as one for they are referred to be known as cue sports. It just depends on which variety of game you would choose to play.

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One of the first questions being asked by pool beginners is how to shoot frozen ball to the rail. It is relatively easy to answer if you know how to consider two important things on pool game namely angle of approach and the use of English. If you have a sharper angle approach, it is more difficult to make an accurate shot. To make it clearer, take the straight shot as having a large target that goes smaller as you shot angles out. Aside from this, the distance of the target ball to the pocket also contributes to the difficulty of the shot. The running English is also important because it can make a straight shot by having contact to the rail and object ball precisely at the same time or ahead with the cue ball. The answer to this problem is more practice. So can you share your experience with this particular shot?

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Have you tried engaging to a game of pool and ended up having a hard time with neck pain. This condition happened if your pool stance is improper that you cause unnecessary pressure to some tender areas of your body including your neck. So how will you avoid this from happening? Remember that when you shoot, your arms should not be contributing to your neck strain. Whenever you practice or join a tournament, you should not let any portion of your either arm to be rigid even a bit. You need to learn how to relax hand muscles as well as the shooting arm from the elbow down. This is not an easy task and this will make you a highly skilled player as you also consider in the process your bridging arm and hand squeeze. Tight ones may cause undesirable tension that will later on develop to pain of the neck and shoulder areas. If you want to have a true fun, better start taking good care of yourself.

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Some will say that the technique that is most appropriate for the pool game depends from one person to another. I would not agree more, just like on where to grip the pool cue during the game. You must identify first some factors that may affect where you should grip it like the length of the pool cue and the pool cue balance point as well as your height. Let’s define some terms first. Balance point is where the cue stick will teeters on its own while you hold it with an index finger. Once you identified these, it would be easier for you to find the best gripping point. Your height also will set some changes but generally, grip the pool cue at least 6 inches away from the balance point going towards the butt area. The shorter you are, the closer you are to the balance point. The type of shot to be executed can also affect your grip as well as the position of the pool balls on the table. Can you share your own experience?

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First, what is cowboy pool? Well, this hybrid pool game is simply called as the cowboy. It is a combination of English billiards and intermediary game thirty-eight but maybe you will agree with me that it is just like pocket billiards. So what can we expect from the cowboy pool? Don’t be surprised to see only four balls on the table during the game which consists of the cue ball and numbered balls 1, 3 and 5. However, this is still considered as an amateur game. The idea of the game is to reach 101 points to win. The scoring is different because it depends on the caromed and pocketed object balls. If a player made a foul during the game, he will lose all the score he had and the other player will have the control of the cue ball. The balls can also be repositioned to the starting position after being sunk. These are just few differences? Have you tried it?

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I already discussed how essential is your back during a game of pool or billiards. Did you agree with me? Now, I will be talking about another kept secret that involves you head. Think your head as a key that you don’t want to twist in the lock. If it is still unclear to you then let me elaborate this. The idea is to set your head in place without scrunching it down tight. When you set it, forget about it by leaving it high and not low on the stroke. If you have seen professional pool players carving chin scars that does not mean that you should do the same. It happened because their heads are so low to the cue to prevent distractions and fall in line to the next back surgery. What you need to do is to shoot with your head at least a foot above the cue which is also good to see balls far away or when over viewing cut angles. You better consider also the amount of twist you do to your head that can strain your neck.

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If you are going to play billiards and you want to keep your shots as its best then you need to start keeping a better pool stance. So why is that important? It is a secret weapon against other pool players that I will discuss in general terms. These stance secrets will aid you to your pool game as soon as possible. Start by standing lower to the table so you can aim better on lengthy shots without stressing your back. You can also stand higher for a better table position play which means finding difficult angles on thin hits. You can also stand with head lowered and eyes raised in head to have more focus and concentration. You can also have an open stance with feet far apart from each other for additional stability and balance. Lastly, you can have a narrow stance so you can redirect the shooting arm with ease. What can you say?

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