Pro players and cues?

Professional players would not play with a cue that doesn't give them the best chance of winning. Pros don't wander around looking for sponsors. It's usually the sponsors that contact the player. Sponsorship offers come from a lot of manufacturers. A lot of players are playing with cues that cost thousands of dollars. I know a pro that used to play with a $700 Schon. Once he turned pro, Schon offered to sponsor him and gave him an $8000 cue. He still plays with his $700 cue.

There's a company named Miura that makes golf clubs. Years ago (although they might still do this), professional golfers with sponsorship deals that did not like the cues that their sponsor offered would go to Miura, who would make them a set of custom, forged clubs, then stamp that golfer's sponsor name on them. Obviously, when someone asked what kind of clubs they used, they did NOT say they were using Miura's. They lied through their teeth and said they were using off-the-rack clubs from whomever their sponsor was.

I believe that there could be a lot of professional pool players doing the same thing. Now I don't mean to say that there's some special cuemaker out there that makes spectacular cues that all the pros are running to, just that many players are very particular about what they play with, and more than likely are having the cues their sponsors give them modified in some way.

I'm sure there are plenty of players that don't care a whole lot about their cues and can use whatever someone hands them, and I'm sure there are plenty that are using off-the-rack cues, especially if they use one of the "high tech" brands, i.e. Predator, OB Cues, or any of the "hybrid" shafts. But I bet the majority of the players who don't use these high tech brands are using cues that have been modified in some way, or could even be full out custom cues with their sponsor's name stamped on them.

As far as how the players feel, I'm sure most are doing whatever they think is best to put money in their pocket. That's not dishonest, IMO, they are just doing what they can to make a living. It's not like most of these guys are out there getting rich. If you lose a couple of matches because of a cue you don't really like, but make it up and then some because of a sponsorship deal, I think that's an acceptable trade off. But I think in reality they are playing with something in the middle. Maybe not their favorite cue in the world, but a modified version of their sponsor's cue that plays more like they want it to play. As to the particular question of whether or not their sponsors cue was their absolute favorite playing cue, I'd be surprised in that's true for even 1 out of 20 sponsored players.

The problem with a question like this is if you asked a bunch of pros about it, they're probably almost always going to say they're using off-the-rack cues, regardless of if they are or not. They're not going to risk losing their sponsorship deals. I supposed you could attempt some sort of anonymous poll, but I'm sure a lot would still lie in fear of their sponsors finding out somehow.

I'm sure 90% of these pros would not be shooting with the sticks they use if they were not getting paid to use them or getting them for free. I have collected a few cues, but only shoot with a couple of them...mainly my Mezz and Viking. My Viking is very inexpensive, but I just like the cue. I actually picked up the Mezz for a very good price barely used for $150 or I would have never bought it. It's one of the basic sticks and hits nice, but the retails for around $400.

As I have just recently found out, there are some very good cues out there now for under $120. There are a lot of bad ones as well, but if you know what to look for and where to look, you can even find some for under well under $70 brand new.

BS walks, money talks!! You can bet on it, that they will take the sponsorship..... Up to a point, and that being the amount that we are talking about. It would take an awful lot of money to wear something that would be associated with the Red Sox for me, but money is nice. It is a lot nicer being miserable in a Mercedes versus a Ford!

Never with most of them But mods are kinda rare they dont win squat playing compared to what the sponser pays them