Robby Foldvari

Can you tell me about where you first started to play and what made you take up cue sports?

I started playing regularly when I was 11 when my dad made me a 5ft X 3ft table from some spare wood and some ripped cloth which a table manufacture could not use. We set it up outside and had a variety of balls and sizes. I suppose I started playing as I saw Pot Black and enjoyed to play, I continued to play more when I stopped playing Australian Rules football after breaking my collarbone around 16 years old..

You have spent a lot of time overseas to play competitions. What were the best and the most difficult competitions you have played in?

There is no doubt the best competitions have been The World Professional Championships at Snooker and Billiards, The atmosphere in theater venues for match play is incredible. The billiard tournaments in India have attracted the most publicity where there have been 30 reporters at a press conference with full page newspaper coverage and live TV. They were also the most difficult as at one stage there was a lot of advantages to the home Indian players, one of which was to overcome Delhi Belly, I remember being ill before a match on a number of occasions, on the other side of the coin the hospitality with parties and help to the players was second to none

What do you think makes a good player, great?

They must love their cue sport with a passion, practice very hard and correctly, not settle for second best, while not deluding themselves why they won or why they lost matches. Great character and self belief are a must.

What would you say are the top three skills a person must have to win in competition?

Self belief, good technique and concentration are just 3 of many.

You seem to be a master in all billiard sports, what would you say is the best one?

To be the best at any billiard sport is “simple” ha ha, don’t make any mistakes and play positively.
All the games have different skills, although English Billiards covers all the skills as there are more variety of shots to know to be the best, snooker needs the most accurate cueing, while 9ball needs pin point cue ball control

What type of cue do you use and what do you think makes a good cue?

I have my own brand cue, hand made. Ash shaft, ebony butt, 17.5 oz with a thickish shaft, over 10mm which is quite unusual. For 9 Ball I use a predator and my snooker cue because it is thicker than the average snooker cue.

What are your plans for the future?

I am running a The World Cuesport Billiard Academy in Melbourne and hope that I can coach people to reach their personal best in their chosen cuesport.
I also want to continue performing exhibition trickshots for various organisations.