Once you've invested in your first pool cue, you want to take care of it. A quality cue that's cared for will be your faithful companion for years. Caring for your cue starts during your game. You've seen every pool shark worth their chalk pause to file the tip, chalk their cue or otherwise give it a little attention during play. Serious players like Johnny Archer and Chun-Chen Chen take care of their equipment at all times, keeping it in top shape. Well cared for equipment never lets you down.

What should your cue care kit include? It needs a variety of tools to keep your pool cues in the best possible shape. It should have a cue pick, chalk in a variety of colors, shaping cube buffing cube, tip file, tip tapper, replacement tips, shaver, soft towel or cloth, shaft polish or wax, shaft slicker or burnisher, ferrule sander, tip cement, tip clamp, cue bumper replacement and bolt hammer. If you can't afford all of those items at once, stick to the essentials: chalk, file, pick, spare tips and cement. Those few items will get you started while you build your professional cue care kit.

Part of caring for your cue is how you prepare it for play. You never see any pool player worth their salt playing a cue right out of the box. You need to get your tip ready before you do anything else. A fresh tip is square, hardened and slick to the touch. This makes it hard to gain control of your cue ball. Without cue ball control your shots will be all over the table - everywhere but in the pockets. Tuning your tip keeps your shots accurate.

The first thing you should do to your tip is shape it. If you don't have a shaper yet, you can use a cue file, but a shaper cube works best. This basically takes the hard edge away and gives your cue more precise tuning possibilities. With the hard edges, if your stick hits the cue ball at an angle, you lose your shot. With a rounded edge, you have a little leeway with your angle and get more shooting surface for the cue ball stroke.

After you have shaped your pool cue's tip, you'll want to buff it out. This gets rid of any shavings left behind by the file or shaper. Not only do the shavings harm your shot, they can get on the pool table and cause everyone's shots to be off kilter, so you want to do the other players this courtesy as well. The final step is the chalk. You should have a variety of chalk colors in your bag as a courtesy to the table owner. That way you can shoot using a chalk matched to the table and not leave streaks or smudges on their pristine felt job. Most places use green, blue or red felt. Having these in your bag should take care of this issue in the majority of pool halls you will be playing.

Take your first shot with your cue as a practice shot, cue ball only. Test the tip and tip edges, and get a feel for the cue shaft. You may need to give your shaft a buffing if it is playing sticky (sticking in your hands instead of gliding smoothly). If your tip is playing too hard, you may need to use your tip pick to soften it up. A couple of pokes with the pick usually do the trick. After you soften it, go over it with your cloth and then chalk it again. You'll eventually get a feel for what kind of tip shape you need for your optimum shooting style and speed. As time goes on, you'll have everything you need to care for your cue with you in your case.