Pool Cue News and Review

I’m sure you’ve all seen it before. It gets more TV time than any pro pool player and for the past few years has been by far the most popular cue ball on the market. Even so, I figured I’d share my $.02 on the ubiquitous Aramith Pro Cup (aka Measles) Ball.

So, why spend 30 bucks on a cue ball you might ask. There’s really only one reason: feedback. When you play with a regular cue ball and use English, you get very little visual feedback. Sure, you can see the general trajectory of the ball, but you can’t see any spin. The measles ball shows you how much spin you’ve intentionally or unintentionally put on the ball. It also happens to be an Aramith ball, so you’re getting the highest quality cue ball on the market.

That being said, if you’re really cheap, you don’t need to spend that kind of scratch on a cue ball. You could buy a standard Aramith cue ball and go ghetto style on it, coloring in big red dots on the ball. This will give you the same feedback, but the real feedback you get will be from all the other pool players who see your homemade ball and call you a cheap tool until you submit and get a real measles ball.

In all seriousness though, if you want to get better at playing pool, you really should pick one up.