What got you interested in pool?

It started when I was about 6 yrs old, my dad became the owner operator of a pool room. I was always better than the other kids my age and that motivated me to keep playing. 55 yrs later I don't compete much anymore due to my remote location (hate playing in bars), but I play nearly every day on my home table. Very therapeutic.

A friend introduced me to bar room 8ball. The four of us used to play regularly for some time. After a couple of years we met new friends, shared our love for the game with them, and you soon had 10-15 of us gathering in a bar every week to play. Naturally, this interest in the game didn't last, as most of the group either gave up pool or decided to play once in a blue moon. A few of us remained loyal to the game, however, as we have kept playing to this day, and hopefully, many more years to come

Kiwis11 said:

Right after I saw the movie "The Hustler" in 1961. My dad bought me my 1st cue a Brunswick Master Stroke for Christmas and I was hooked. A couple years later I found a very old Brunswick Willie Hoppe in a trash pile and sent it to AE Schmidt in St Louis to have it rebuilt and a new shaft. I still have both of those cues today...although I don't play with them. I play with a 1999 Russ Espiritu.

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The Hustler got me, too. If you're between 65 and 70, it probably got you, too. I played as a kid and then not again for over 40 years. I recently retired, resumed my adolescence and play almost every day now .

I started playing in college when a good friend of mine suggested we go to the recreation area my college had. They had two pool tables and we picked up the cues and started banging balls around.

A little while later a guy showed up and started finessing balls into pockets with slow speed (called pocket speed but at the time I thought he was just tapping them and magically commanding then into the pockets). I knew right then that I wanted to learn what he knew, what he obviously practiced a lot to be so precise!!!

Long story short, we've been friends for 20 years now, played on league together and as my game has grown we've split into different teams but I still think back to that first time and the amazement I had at how soft he hit those balls to make them go in pockets!!!

To this day, and to his dismay probably, one of my greatest achievements was beating him straight up in a pool tournament. No lucked in balls for the win, no scratches on the 8 for him to lose, I just beat him in a high pressure situation by hitting the balls softly and magically commanding then into the pockets!! Only times I hit the balls "hard" were on break shots and the one full ball jump shot after a great safety by him to try and lock me up on the 8. Made the ball and went on to win the match!!!

That first day, the softly rolling balls of a great shot, cemented my love for this game that will live until the day I die!!!

ddg45 said:

Thanks for the comment hang-the-9. You're right...it was the friendly, helpful advanced players who made me feel welcome as much as the game itself that brought me back, and now I'm hooked.

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Was a similar situation for me. I played a half-decent game back in my late teens and early 20s at the local bar, and occasionally played when a table was available wherever we happened to be on any given night. Never much thought to position, just lining things up and smacking them around. I'm 58 now, and about a year ago, at a local bar with a couple tables, a couple guys came in with their own cues in cue cases and just dominated everyone else playing there that night. My competitive side made me play them a few times, and they crushed me too. But then they started offering little bits of advice, like keeping the cue level, not shooting every pocket hanger, and to start thinking about where the cue was going after making my shot. It was a revalation, and thanks to those, and more than a few others that shared things to help improve my game, I'm hooked now too.

T'was back in 1965, and I was working with a friend as a helper on central air installations here in Southeast Texas ... After work on day he asked if I would like to go play pool with him and a friend ... Sure I said ... "What's pool ... ?" (I had never been exposed to playing pool other than that episode of 'Beverly Hillbillies' where pots were passed over the table with the sticks ... I'm sure that went over my head completely ... !~)

We drove out on Railroad Avenue and went to Cardinal Billiards ... There were about 14 or more tables there and my friend and his other friend declares that we were going to play cut throat and explained the rules ... That's pretty simple I thought ... My friend broke the balls and after he missed, I poked at a ball and missed ... They then started shooting in my balls ... all of my balls ... I got to sit and watch ... Boring ... !~ This went on for almost and hour and I suppose that to say pocketed about three balls in total would be about it ... I hated this game ... We left and I never played pool again ... !~

Until ... one day I made my way back to that pool room and played by myself ... I got to where I could pocket two or three balls at a time ... It was starting to be interesting and even fun ... !~

On one day there I inquired about a job and was hired to rack balls for the patrons and collect the dime for 9 ball and 15 cents for 8 ball ... I also had too do menial work (empty and clean the spittoons (yeah, there were spittoons there) , sweep the floors and take out the trash, etc ... When I was off I got to play a lot of people that went there including the college kids from nearby ...!~

I started to get better and it got to where many were having a hard time beating me with the exception of and old man who I always played lineup straight pool (where the balls that are returned to the table are lined up below the spot , or as close as possible) ... The old man was very good and I learned a lot from watching how he moved and his shot selection, etc ... There was also a college student there who was exceptionally good ... !~

(Side note here: Cardinal held a contest where players were to play continuous pool until no one was left standing in order to win a lifetime pass to play free pool ... We were given a 10 minute "break every hour for bathroom and to get soda, chips, candy etc ... After playing over 45 hours, the pool balls started looking taking on strange shapes sort of like geodesic or something like that ... Anyway, we were at over 57 hours into it and I as others had during the contest took a catnap and we were supposed to be awakened by the manager of the room ... No one woke me up and it was over ... I had lost to another kid ... He had been awakened, but I had not ... Damn ... !~)

I left Cardinal and went to work for another pool room across town and just kept getting better ... After a time I went to work for another room just down the road from Cardinal, and the tables there were beautiful Brunswick Centennial's and played so superior to all the others ...

To shorten the story, the guy who worked at my new job location and I played 9 ball for two dollars a game for a while, and one day after I had just took him down for another time he broke down his cue and said "I can't play you anymore ... I have not seen anyone get that good in 6 months ... There is no way I can play you anymore ..." !~

I finally got to the point where I didn't hate the game any longer ... I loved it ... !~:smile:

I went to Miller time billiards in Davenport Iowa as a youngster maybe 5-7yrs old, I was next door (same building) at a bowling birthday party. That first look I had seeing endless rows of thousands of tables lol I sat there for hours watching and sipping my orange crush and later that year Santa brought me a sears table for the basement. It wasn't till my middle school yrs when I seen a Minnesota fats demo with a huge crowd. I was hooked!

University of Houston 1988, looking for something to do, I found the student center and became almost instantly hooked.

I started to spend all my spare time and some not spare time at Slick Willies on Westheimer, my love quickly grew. I couldn’t get enough.
The level of the players that filled that place still amazes me.
Bogies on 1960
What was the place downtown, LeCue?
Many others

My skills didn’t develop near as quickly, I started out terrrible and progress rather slowly.
I wasn’t one of those “I picked up a cue and just knew how to make balls” people.
But I couldn’t get enough of the game.
If there was a hard tournament to be played in, I was there, donating of course, but always staying thru the last match.

I moved to Arlington, TX in 1991 and became a regular at Rustys in Arlington.
They used to have a Midnight Madness Tourny that started at mIdnight on Saturday night limited to 32 players and it filled up fast. They played on just 4 to 6 tables and it would regularly last until 6-7 am Sunday morning, Took me months to win just one match. I was dead money. But, I almost never missed a final.
And the action in that room was incredible. Money flowed like water.

CJ’s place in Dallas was another one that had to be seen to be believed.
I was there when Earl ran the 10 racks.
I was there to see Efren play Amarillo Slim one pocket for a stupid amount of money.
The Fire Cracker Open would bring the photos in the magazines to life, everyone was there.
Buddy
Kieth
Earl
Johnny
Tony Ellin
Efren
CJ of course
And countless others

I finally started to want to get better, I had joined a league and had improved some. Actually thought I played pretty well.
Then I realized, the more shot I was the better I drunk
I quit...drinking.
Didn’t miss it at all, and certainly didn’t miss the 60-80 dollar a night bar tabs.
Started to really work on my game, not just watch the others that were great and seem to have been for most of thier lives.
I started to really improve, started to make some real advances in my game.

Honestly now, at age 48, I am playing the best I ever have and I still cant get enough of the game.

I was a civil rights worker in Cambridge, MD in 1964, and was talked into going into the pool room on Pine St. run by the Elks Club. I made a straight in shot on the 8 ball in my first game, and I was hooked for life, though now I only play 8 ball at gunpoint.

1961. I had 2 friends that had JC Higgins tables. Played and loved it.

WestElder said:

The Hustler got me, too. If you're between 65 and 70, it probably got you, too. I played as a kid and then not again for over 40 years. I recently retired, resumed my adolescence and play almost every day now .

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Funny, although I once played at Ames just before it closed for good, I never saw The Hustler until some time in the 70's. Loved Gleason and the George C. Scott character, but otherwise the movie left me cold. I liked The Color of Money better because of Keith's Grady Seasons character, though IMO a truly great pool movie has yet to be made. Maybe if they made a movie out of McGoorty or Playing Off the Rail.

My dad's father used to run a pool hall. As a result, we had a pool table in the room above the garage. At a very young age I would watch my father play so of course I wanted to play. I would walk around the table and stand on a 5 gallon bucket for each shot.

Fast forward a few years (now age 12) my buddy had a table and we would spend hours every weekend playing pool until our late teens.

At 18, my father (Cop) went with me to the DMV to get a fake ID that said I was 21. All I wanted to do was join a pool league. I told him I would never drink, I just wanted to play the game. (never drank a single beer.) I did very well. I told him I thought I could do it professionally and he said..."the balls roll different every night and for that reason, there ain't enough money in it son"

On my way to the 88 US Open in VA I was hit by my first drunk driver and couldn't attend. I did eventually meet The Miz, Mike Sigel and Luther Lassiter in his home town of E-City years later.

Fast forward years years later and my buddy who I played pool with on his table asked if I would store his table in my house for which I said ...yep. It's a 50+ year Vally Coin Op box table that I played on as a young child.

I would play maybe 10-12 games a week on the table and always obliged if someone wanted to play if we had people over.

A new bar has opened down the street that has a couple of nice tables and as a result, it has rejuvenated my interest in the game playing with people who play pretty well.

Now I play about 30-35 games of 9-ball and 8-ball on my table a night. I'm thinking about a refelt and cushion.

Obsessed again...not sure where to go from here!

Girls!! where I come from,if you couldn't play pool....you didn't get laid!!