Was super excited to try the Alec Bradley Maxx today.  I had set aside enough time to enjoy this monster stick during a walk a few miles from the house.    

  The Good:  It's a beautiful stick.  Dark oily wrapper, very well constructed, Cool Band which looked and smelled great.    That's about all I could say positively.   No matter what I did, I could not get a decent draw.  This thing was so tightly rolled, it was literally impossible.   I tried every trick in the book to get this thing going and when I did get a decent draw, it would die seconds later.  Cutting a little shorter didn't help. Poker didn't help, rolling massage - nope.  It wasn't due to RH or anything else. Simply a bum stick that was rolled too tight.   I've had better luck sucking a Wendy's Frosty through a straw.   

Like you, I've had the occasional bad stick but this was Very disappointing to say the least.    Well there's always tomorrow!

 Honestly....it's about the "tool"....so far...( knocking on wood ) I have not had one cigar that I couldn't correct.  It's how you use the tool.....insert and without twisting and pull straight out with twisting as well....the hook will grab the plug and out it comes leaving a channel inside where the draw is almost perfect.

98% of the time, that works. It worked for me last night and saved a cigar where I could feel the knot in the tobacco. But there have been a handful of cigars that, no matter how much twisting and pulling I did, just couldn't be saved.