Earl "The Pearl" Strickland!

[Holden Chinaski]

He's nuts, he's employed just about every gimmick in the book to try and help his game, "finger extenders" that were actually rolled up pieces of card with Elastoplast around them that didn't actually extend anything, yellow glasses that helped you "concentrate better", a cardboard ring he used to use on his bridge hand around the cue for the break shot, weights on his arms, legs ass and ankles... and his current gimmick is playing with a standard length cue that has a 12" extension screwed into the end, so around 72" total length.

He's entertaining but mental, gets a bit old hearing him complain about people moving on his shot when they clearly didn't and saying "everyone's against me" when they're not..Its like he wants to put excuses out there early in the game he can then fall back on if he loses.

His gimmicks are hilarious. That big cue of his is grotesk, i can't believe he can pot a ball with it. I've also seen him play with giant headphones so he could play in silence. :-)

[narl]

His gimmicks are hilarious. That big cue of his is grotesk, i can't believe he can pot a ball with it. I've also seen him play with giant headphones so he could play in silence. :-)

Knew I forgot something, he has earplugs with ear defenders over them, and still claims he can hear people whispering.

[DeanH]

Knew I forgot something, he has earplugs with ear defenders over them, and still claims he can hear people whispering.

nah, they are in his own head

[Holden Chinaski]

nah, they are in his own head

You're probably right! lol

[vmax4steve]

Love that last clip. We've all wanted to do that at some point, I'm sure there a few forum members who have.
Sure he's a sore loser and actually shows it in the moment rather than take it backstage or take it home while pretending to be a "sporting ambassador". As for those british Mosconi Cup crowds, bunch of ill mannered drunken arseholes and Sky should really get a grip and deal with them after all pool is like snooker in that it needs silence and no movement in the audience for the players to perform at their best.

[Predator314/2]

He's nuts, he's employed just about every gimmick in the book to try and help his game, "finger extenders" that were actually rolled up pieces of card with Elastoplast around them that didn't actually extend anything, yellow glasses that helped you "concentrate better", a cardboard ring he used to use on his bridge hand around the cue for the break shot, weights on his arms, legs ass and ankles... and his current gimmick is playing with a standard length cue that has a 12" extension screwed into the end, so around 72" total length.

He's entertaining but mental, gets a bit old hearing him complain about people moving on his shot when they clearly didn't and saying "everyone's against me" when they're not..Its like he wants to put excuses out there early in the game he can then fall back on if he loses.

The yellow shades weren't designed for Earl to use to concentrate better. Different colours possess different sensory qualities and can affect how you are. A study was done where they painted prison walls pink and the prisoners were a lot calmer. Why do matadors use red cloth and not any other colour? Red gets bulls angry. Blue is meant to be soothing.

He only uses the 70" cue on the 10 footers I believe, but his original cue length was 64" I think. He is tall and has quite long reach so he needs the longer cue anyway.

That cardboard ring around his thumb was designed to lessen the grip he put on the break cue as other players gripped less and got better results. And to his credit, it worked for him!

Earl has experimented with weights not only in pool but golf as well. At the end of the day while they may be a bit gimmicky, at least he is thinking out the box. Every other sport does, yet most pool and snooker players act like cavemen who have not got the ability to progress or try anything new.