As players warmed up amid a cacophony of clacking flippers and bonus-point bells, plungers were pulled back and released, sending silver balls springing into rapid routes and ricocheting off blinking bumpers.

Players leaned into the machines, their fingers fast-twitching on the flipper buttons, punctuating this with emphatic body English and jostling the machine to coax the ball in different directions.

Source: For Top Pinball Competitors, Jitters Only Help – NYTimes.com