Mike on the Felt

Mike on the Felt Mike on the Felt™ — pool tools built at the table. Amateur pool player in Jacksonville, FL, documenting the journey to a better game.

Rotation Pool Scorer is out now on iOS and Android. Pool Match Journal, for tracking your matches, is next.

09/06/2026

If you play K-Ball, I built you something.

Rotation Pool Scorer keeps score ball by ball, offline, with no account. I made it because my paper scoresheet couldn't keep up with the game — and no other app scores K-Ball. It works for American Rotation too.

It's out today on iOS and Android. Free to try, $4.99 for unlimited matches.

Big thanks to Max Eberle - Professional Pool Player for making the game visible in the first place — if you found K-Ball, you probably found it through his channel.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/rotation-pool-scorer/id6780028774
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.michaelmanuele.arscorer
Web: https://mikeonthefelt.com/rotation-scorer/

Watch the launch video on YouTube: https://youtube.com/shorts/hxByx1BpoQ0

09/04/2026

I spent six days at the US Open in Frisco, and the whole thing came down to one shot.

At 12-10, Robbie Capito had a chance to close it out. He missed a makeable combo in the corner, and the entire room shifted. Francisco Sanchez Ruiz came all the way back and won it 13-12.

Six days of watching the best players in the world, and my biggest takeaway wasn't some impossible shot. It was everything before and after the stroke. Decide aim, speed and spin while I'm still standing. Then stay down through the delivery.

That's what I'm taking home to work on.

08/27/2026

The best reminder I got at the US Open this week wasn’t about stroke.

Before getting down on the shot, line, speed, and spin need to be decided. Once I’m down, the job is to deliver the cue—not keep changing my mind.

I still catch myself trying to solve the shot after I’m already over the ball. That is what I’m taking home to work on.

Matchroom Pool

08/24/2026

Tomorrow I leave for my second US Open Pool Championship.

Last year I attended in Atlantic City. This year the event is in Frisco, Texas—the first time the US Open has been held in Texas.

After spending six days at the Florida Open, I’m going in with a better idea of what I want to watch for: not only great shots, but the preparation before players get down, the position choices they see, and how they recover when the plan changes.

I’ll be sharing what I find all week. If you were inside the room, what would you want to see?

08/20/2026

League night. Two shots I absolutely make on a normal night. Missed both. Not because they were hard — because my head was somewhere else and it showed up the second I got down on the ball. Then one shot where I slowed down, gave it my full attention, and it went in like it was always going to.

The reset isn't a technique fix. It's a presence fix. One shot at a time, all the way in.

More at mikeonthefelt.com

08/17/2026

I played the Florida Open in 2025. This year I went back without a cue in my hand — brought a tripod instead of a case and spent six days in Orlando doing nothing but paying attention.

Three things I'm taking back to league night, and none of them are technique changes:

When a pro misses in practice, they put the balls back and shoot it again. Sometimes four or five times. I've spent years "practicing" by playing, and playing is not practicing.

They look at the shot from two lines, not one — the pocket line from behind the object ball, and the shot line from behind the cue ball. I'd been walking one line, which means on every cut shot I was guessing at half the geometry.

A safety is two balls, not one. Hide the cue ball and place the object ball, in the same stroke. And a ball left out in open space is a harder target to kick at than one sitting near a rail — the rail gives your opponent a path to work with.

I wrote the full reflection here: https://mikeonthefelt.com/blog/florida-open-reflection/

08/14/2026

I spent last week at the Florida Open watching Tyler Styer, and one thing kept repeating. He'd power up, make the ball, and the cue ball would still finish exactly where he wanted it.

Tuesday night I had the same idea on the seven. I wanted to stay in the middle of the table for the eight. I hit it too hard, the cue ball ran past center, and the eight was long. I missed it.

The pot was never the hard part.

08/10/2026

Pool doesn't really have a home crowd. It's usually quiet, and polite, and people clap for whoever plays well.

Sunday in Orlando was not that. Shane Van Boening against Alexander Kazakis in the Florida Open final, and almost everyone in that room wanted Shane to win. This is what it sounded like when he made the last ball.

He won the whole event without losing a single match.

Matchroom Pool

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