For better or worse -- pool is now my primary passion

If I HAD to choose between bass fishing and pool, I'd go with bass fishing in a heartbeat. I love being on/in the water as much as a person could. I think I must have been an otter in another lifetime :thumbup:!

Pool would be my next choice.

My other hobbies include bowling, hunting, target shooting, reloading, ATV'ing. I have a lot of hobbies and never really tire of any of them (well, until recently when I ended my 40-year run of motorcycling).

Life is GOOD!!!

Maniac

Pool rules. It keeps us coming back for more and more. There is nothing like a good pool playing session.
My other interests include Muscle Cars, Off Road Jeeps , Collecting Jazz Records/CD's. But the best thing I ever bought is the GoldCrown. Before that I had a Gandy Hustler.
Thanks to AZbilliards.... I connected with Scott Lee, Bob DeTurk(table repair) and I might have Roger H. Taft Custom Woodworking make a box for my Grado HeadPhones. LIfe is good...(my pool is fair but getting better)

I really did not know how much of a passion I have for pool until about 5 years ago. I had played alot when I was younger and learn the game in the town rec room. That was like almost 40 years ago.

Then, about 5 years ago, the kids were raised to a point where I had alot of time on my hands and needed to get out so I got my Adam, and started playing the local tourney's. Did ok for someone that just re entered the game.

What I discovered was the same fascination with running balls, making shots that I had 40 years ago.

That has not changed in the last 5 years.

I was re reading the Spirit of Aikido this weekend. I had forgotten the Aikido is not for self defense, but for the develop of a person's body, mind, and spirit. Pool has taken on this aspect to me. My pool playing is not to win the most games or matches, but to push me to my limits in shot making. Of seeing what is just in front of me and dealing only with that.

I play very few tourneys, but I am at the table alot doing things one would never do in a tourney. This is where the real fun is in pool. I can express my true self in the shot. It is this freedom that brings me to put in time on the table. My mind is not restricted my games rules or set systems/technique allowing for the free flowing of ideas of what I can do with the balls on the table.

When I do play in the local tourney's, being a unknown, most do not take this 57 year old guy serious. That only lasts the first game. Because of the freedom learned in practice, I see alot more than the other person. Most are not ready for a extended safety battle. Most are not ready for someone that can do three combos in a role and then bank the 8 for the win all the while thinking they left me hooked. Not some ole guy. I love it. Last 9 ball tourney, guy said "You know banks".

So, I say go for it and give em hell...

I finally got a table in my home after being a casual player for years and years and being frustrated that I wasnt ever playing enough to get good.

Now I play at least an hour every, day and I'm still frustrated that I'm not playing enough to get good. :grin: But I have progressed enough to peer into the world of possibilites that currently lies beyond my reach.

It is an endlessly fascinating, complex, and beautiful game that deserves to be played with equal amounts of art and precision.

One day I hope to be able to do this great game justice.

I'm 43 and my health is poor too, bad back, so I just finally started getting serious about pool also and got my own table a GC1. So I get where you're coming from.

My all time favorite hobbies were motorcycling, quads, sandrails, boating, well just give me something with a motor really but having a bad back has really put a kink in most of that stuff.

The best part of fishing (or crabbing) for me always was the boating, could care less about fishing itself that was just an excuse for boating.

I still ride motorcycles but I ride like an old fart now, avoiding bumps and cruising rather than carving corners and no more dirt riding or sand dunes.

9BallPaul said:

For most of my life, trout fishing has been my addiction. Pool, yes, but fooling those trout with feathered frauds made my heart beat like nothing else. My other love was bicycle riding. In 1981 I embarked on a cross-country bike trip from Astoria, Ore., to the Atlantic Ocean east of Philadelphia.

But now I'm 63, retired, in precarious health if not poor health, and pool dominates my activities. And my thoughts, mostly. I'm not complaining.

Thanks to AZB, I've been able to choose wisely when buying a home table and cloth (Simonis of course). And I found a McDermott cue that suits me to a tee. I splurged on Kamui chalk, tip and tip tool. Don't regret it for a second.

So thanks AZ members for educating me about equipment, pool history, and rooms around the world. My own contributions have been limited to stuff I saw back in the old days, but I've taken more than I've given.

This is a great forum.

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Let me know when you're in stroke...maybe you'll actually show up next time to make good on all your challenges.

Dropping #22 midge on directly on the nose of a brown the size of a railroad tie and landing him with a 3wt and 7x tippet is an art.

Dropping every ball in a rack and leaving yourself the shape you need to continue runs is also an art.

If you break it down, there are many, many similarities between pool and fly fishing. The form, the mechanics, the read, the placement, and the presentation.

Only you have less of a chance of being attacked by mountain lions, bears, or buffalo while shooting pool. (Yeah, I had buffalo surround me when I was on the Firehole River. Not a good feeling.)

Now if building cues was as easy as tying flies......

9BallPaul said:

You're an incredible annoyance. Why you're allowed to post on this forum is a mystery to me. I've never challenged you to a game, a match, a session, anything. I could not be less interested in playing you. In fact I don't want to meet you.,

You dislike me because of my liberal politics as expressed on the NPR forum. So what? Your side was the loser George W. Bush and his insane war in Iraq. I argued the other way. Who was right?

Why don't you go sulk in private and leave all of us alone? Comprende, amigo? Gracias.

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Oh how quickly we forget...I don't dislike you because of your politics. I dislike you because you like to challenge every one in the world and then you back down like a little girl.

Do you remember this thread?
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=216123
You bet larry 10grand that he couldn't last 10 seconds waterboarding. Larry accepted your little challenge and you disappeared.

Then this thread...
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=143733&highlight=9ballpaul&page=37
Which you offered the bet AGAIN. But you keep offering this bet to people who live thousands of miles away from you. I figure, I'm 10 miles away from Golden...so I'll take your little bet. Again...you disappeared. Larry even said he'd back me so you'd still be getting his money.

Then my favorite thread...
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=215783&highlight=9ballpaul
Lol you started a new thread specifically calling out bamadog to play some 9ball for a "satchel of cash" (whatever that means). What is it with this strange ability of yours to offer bets to people living a thousand miles away??? Bamadog declined, but I accepted!! I'd even go to Hank's, your supposed home room. You disappeared again.

Finally...
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=218922&page=3&highlight=9ballpaul
I specifically said that I wasn't calling you out. I was just letting you know when I'd be at Hank's with my "satchel of cash." You never showed. But at some point you called me...at Hank's...to ***** about how I shouldn't call you out on a public forum. I thought that was cute considering how often you do it.

None of this has anything to do with politics; just your inability to make good on the bets you offer.
This verbal b1tchslap has been brought to you by Drew

Drew,

I realize you have a vendetta to pursue, but it really doesn't fit into this thread.

Lol

So now 9BP, you're saying your challenges were 'extravagant exaggerations'
(the definition of hyperbole) are you? And when you were called on them, you refused to answer 'yes' or 'no' directly (the only 2 acceptable answers), except to people thousands of miles away?

I think Drew has a few valid points to his argument, and you, sir, are drowning in your own self induced quagmire...

9BallPaul said:

I'm not the first top player to be driven off this forum by nits.

It's like being nibbled to death by ducks.

My pals know how to reach me and where to find me. For ducks like Drew, meet me in the action room this year at the DCC. If you're worth my time, you'll be invited upstairs.

I've got a top-floor suite rented for two weeks. Greg Sullivan will be installing a 9-foot Diamond Pro-Am in the private drawing room. Bring satchels of cash.

You interested, Drew?

I'm off for an AZ vacation. Later, alligators....

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lololololol

Sure, I'll look for you at dcc
Although I'm not sure why we have to meet up in a different state...Hank's, Felt, Rackem, Matchups all have tables. Or you can check out my territory at Jason's or Antiques. How about waterboarding? You still betting 10grand on that?