After looking over this chain of posts, I have a few observations to add.

I'm not a novice to the chop cup. I've performed it for 50+ years, under all possible imaginable conditions -- on stage, in the path, close-up, surrounded, in the rain, in a windstorm -- you name it.

First, doing the routine with an ungimmicked cup is basically showing off to yourself. Why bother? If you handle any cup as if it is ungimmicked, then the audience will perceive it as such. You don't need to let them go through a long phase of examination of the cup. That slows the presentation down. Just bring the cup out and do the routine.

Second, you will learn more about the cup and ball by performing it than you will by reading about it or watching videos about it. Explore the cup. Explore the ball. Make your moves consistent. Make sure that every move you make has a purpose and a meaning. This is what makes your performance smooth and gives you built in misdirection.

Don't bang your cup on the table. It serves no purpose. Don did it so the spectator would blink when he loaded the ball. Or so he told me.

Come up with something different. It doesn't have to be radical. It just has to be memorable.

One hint -- when you are exploring the cup and figuring out your final loads, think of things nobody else would use. I have several boxes of loads I have tried. I finally settled on billiard balls -- not rubber billiard balls or wooden billiard balls -- honest to Pete billiard balls. Once I figured that out, the front end of the routine built itself.

The main thing is to practice, practice, practice and perform, perform, perform.

Practice the routine until it becomes boring. Then practice it until it becomes beautiful.

Obrienmagic this is a routine I worked on during the quarantine playing With what I found in the kitchen :

https://youtu.be/lOwdiqoJMUY

And this is something less impromptu but still gimmickless :

https://youtu.be/hDB7rQqGI0c

Back to the original post on suggestions for learning material. I've found two sources which I thought were the best starting sourced.
First is the routine by Larry Jennings in his book "On card and coin handling". It seem strange to have a book on cards and coins with a Chop Cup routine but it is a classic.
The second is "The Chop Cup" book by Mark Wilson. Both are still available if you look for them.

I may actually frame these 2 sentences and put it on my desk.

*****Very much a large YES to the above!*******

This has an Al Schneider ring to it...

Julie

I like the part with the shot glass and the silk hanky.

Oh, and I wanted to mention that you can make up your own routine if you want. One of the neat things about magic.

This video made me think a little differently about the Chop Cup

https://vimeo.com/6782769

Very interesting video I must say.