Last night I got to play on a Diamond table for the first time. A friend I made through the forums on AZB invited me over to his house to play a little. I was most intrigued because he has a 7′ Pro-Am in his basement. I was really excited to try it. Diamonds are notorious for banking short and having deep shelves which means you really have to hit the balls pure for them to drop. During my warmup stage, I noticed immediately just how FAST the cloth is. I think he has 760 on it now because he mentioned wanting to get the 860HR cloth the next time; perhaps it’s the regular 860 at the moment. Regardless… the table was super fast. And the rails… my god! The rails were soooo springy the CB bounced off 6″ when I would expect it to die after contact (I’m used to GCs). I did notice it banking short when hitting short-rail banks – especially with speed, and even some long-rail banks when hit with speed. But, to my surprise, the 3-rail “Corner 5” path was textbook perfect! With and without speed/spin!
Overall, I was really impressed with the table. It had the under-rail system and was QUICK and pretty quiet, even in the confines of a basement room where sound bounces around more. The wide/flat rails proved to be more of a comfort than a hindrance, which I wasn’t sure how I’d like that. I don’t like bridging off the rail (does anyone?), but was especially skeptic of them at first. The balls rolled true and given the 4.25″ pockets, I was surprised at how well I pockets balls, even at speed. We shot a number of different stroke shots, including Earl’s “Donkey Shot” (though neither of us could do it like him, of course) and just getting the CB all the way back down table was quite fun!
Although that table has “ruined” me for most of sub-par tables, I can’t wait to play on it again. More importantly, I can’t wait till I get one of my own. Now, I just need a house with a 25×15 open room so I can get the 9′ pro-am with the black diamondwood rails. lol Where’s that winning lottery ticket?