Ron Swanson
Banned
I don't get it. You lot gamble for 12 hours straight, and then brag about it? I dont get it.
Can someone explain it to me please?
Can someone explain it to me please?
long match-ups.
- Thread starter Ron Swanson
- Start date
'Cause we like it. That's why!
2strong4u
Banned
It's about the grind. Standing tall and pushing yourself. I find I play better after several hours. It's automatic, unconscious.
I gambled until 5am most weekly tournament nights this year. It's like a 15 round championship fight. Not everybody can keep their game up for over 10 hours straight. The swings in momentum those last sets can be huge. It definitely makes you a stronger player.
I gambled until 5am most weekly tournament nights this year. It's like a 15 round championship fight. Not everybody can keep their game up for over 10 hours straight. The swings in momentum those last sets can be huge. It definitely makes you a stronger player.
You are kidding right? In a sport like pool it is the only thing that matters, two players playing till one of them breaks. I owned a 24 hour action room and anytime two guys got on the table even average players it was going to be like 6, 8, 12 hours or more.
If it is a good match at the beginning both players think they can win. Playing a few sets an quitting means nothing. For that matter most tournament pool with the race to 9 double elimination means nothing, proves nothing.
Put two players in a room with no time limit and lets see what happens. That is pool in it's purest form.
Last edited:
I can't do anything for 12 hours straight anymore but I certainly would like to tell my story (written in AZ Blingo).
When I was in my early 20's my buddy and I played for 24 hours straight 9 ball one time I was up at one point 25 games so he got back down to 4 games with me ahead he quit and refused to pay me so I said WTH and so he said would you have paid me if you lossed and I won and I said hell no I wouldn't loose anyway and we both laughed and punched each others shoulder in a brotherly way about six times if anyone doubts this story just go to LA and ask around.
By the way, that's a true story.
Well honestly if you don't get it having someone explain it to you won't help you "get it", is there something in life that you're proud of and share with people or do you keep things to yourself mostly?
Deleted, didn't understand post at first.
Last edited:
Are they just bettin on things, or are they playing pool for money?
I will presume it is the latter, so the answer is...
Coz we like to play pool.
C'mon guys. He's saying just play one set and bet it ALL. Be done make your money, or lose it, then go home.
We gamble for 12 hours because we don't want to go home broke playing 20 dollar sets all night (if you are losing) and you want to make more than $100 in a 12 hour session (if you are winning).
We gamble for 12 hours because we don't want to go home broke playing 20 dollar sets all night (if you are losing) and you want to make more than $100 in a 12 hour session (if you are winning).
Ahh, the way pool used to be. Play till you get busted or bust your man.
I grew up in 2 24/7 rooms in md and va. All gone now. Gamblin is short races
and very few of them...sad....as you said, means nothing.
Ron Swanson
Banned
Kinda like winning a short race to 5 and bragging about it...... I don't get that
Ah, but do it year in year out, home and away, and it's a different story. Besides, if it happens, it ain't bragging.
Ron Swanson
Banned
Why do you like it?
And if there are fewer doing it they days, which seems to be what people are reporting, doesn't that indicate you don't like it?
Ron I've given you a lot of hell recently. That's just my nature. You've taken it well and kept coming. You seem impervious to ridicule, sarcasm, insults, hell even me saying your women (British) are ugly and have bad vaginal hygiene.
Why do you keep coming back? Because you like the contest of wills is my guess. You like seeing if you can keep poking in that American bee hive and get us riled up. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe you are just a nihilist @$$hole who likes chaos. But those kinds of guys usually are "hit and run". They don't stay around and keep on keeping on after they've started the fight. I think you like the wearing down, the contest of sharp wit.
We are the same at pool. I've beaten guys who are more talented than me because I've outlasted them. I don't do it much any more because I'm a guy in poor health nearing middle age. But in my youth I'd play 30+ hours regularly just to pass out and do it again. Its about heart, staying power, "eye of the tiger" and all that happy horse$#!+ It's about never giving up when you're down (hey Limey you guys had Churchill for god's sake) and burying the guy when you're up. It's about making the other guy quit because by god I'm never gonna give in! It's about proving something, not to someone else but to yourself: I am what I think I am, I can do this.
Now ridicule if you want. I won't care because you are proving my initial point if you do.
Nevertheless, I will add that most of us gamblers here in the States have never been applauded for our efforts. For us to play a race to 25 alternate break on a seven footer would generate yawns. We don't have a local cadre of guys making up Christmas songs to our greatness singing, "There's only ONE Jack Whelan" or Chris Melling or any gawddamned body else. We play long gambling matches because that's all the fu€k we have left. We don't get worshipped, the best we can hope for is feared presently and targeted in the future. But we love this stupid game, we love to put something meaningful on its outcome and we love to finish it. It ain't a victory until the other guy says, "I'm done."
Last edited:
I forgot to mention that there is a long standing unwritten rule of honor that says that the man who is down must surrender. It is NIT behavior to quit on a man who is down. To declare victory while the other man has not quit is tantamount to b!+ch slapping someone and running, but later saying you kicked their @$$.
Unfortunately we see much of this going on today. NITs are the norm.
Lastly, I must admit that with the sad state of pool in the states today, if one does not gamble long hours, when is one to get a meaningful game at all? You are correct Thaiger Ron, very few are doing it these days. In the 30+ years I've played this game I've seen days of pool warriors battling it out for days for thousands turn into NITs coming into the pool room begging for one set to five games for $20 while asking for the seven out and the breaks. I actually watched the Morley Pool videos with envy recently. As much as I'd like to nuke Great Britain just for the hell of it, you guys sure can make a pool player feel good with your stupid Christmas songs. Hell I'd give 10 percent of my winnings to ever once hear the equivalent of "Come on Ronnie" just once in my life!!
I just wish guys like you realized what you have over there. Maybe then you'd revel in it rather than giving us so much grief. Oh well, go fu(k yourself Limey. And yes I'm pretty drunk right now.
Unfortunately we see much of this going on today. NITs are the norm.
Lastly, I must admit that with the sad state of pool in the states today, if one does not gamble long hours, when is one to get a meaningful game at all? You are correct Thaiger Ron, very few are doing it these days. In the 30+ years I've played this game I've seen days of pool warriors battling it out for days for thousands turn into NITs coming into the pool room begging for one set to five games for $20 while asking for the seven out and the breaks. I actually watched the Morley Pool videos with envy recently. As much as I'd like to nuke Great Britain just for the hell of it, you guys sure can make a pool player feel good with your stupid Christmas songs. Hell I'd give 10 percent of my winnings to ever once hear the equivalent of "Come on Ronnie" just once in my life!!
I just wish guys like you realized what you have over there. Maybe then you'd revel in it rather than giving us so much grief. Oh well, go fu(k yourself Limey. And yes I'm pretty drunk right now.
Last edited:
Absolutely
Pool in its purest form is absolutely correct.
Many people never give themselves the chance to connect with it that way. Those that don't know or wouldn't fathom such a thing have missed out on things they have no idea that exist.
When you are playing a long match in One Pocket for instance the games can take up to an hour at times. If you are playing 20 a rack. In 3 hours time you can lose 60 dollars. Its not enough to maim you, but it hurts when you do something stupid and makes you think more correctly if you multiply that by 8 hours its unlikely you are going to lose all of the games. Even if you do its the best lesson you will ever get for your game. I promise you will go to the table and practice what you know you didn't do well because it will mean something to you.
When you lock up for 5 to 8 hours, Its you, the table and its and the pressure to do right, think right and shoot like you have balls when you have to. There is nothing in the world better for your game. The feeling you get from it, well overrides any consideration about the money. I don't do it unless I know where the money is coming from as long as I do the money is there but that feeling you get. There is nothing like it in the world. It will make you stand straighter, stroke better and improve everything you do. Absolutely pure pool and worth it.
Pool in its purest form is absolutely correct.
Many people never give themselves the chance to connect with it that way. Those that don't know or wouldn't fathom such a thing have missed out on things they have no idea that exist.
When you are playing a long match in One Pocket for instance the games can take up to an hour at times. If you are playing 20 a rack. In 3 hours time you can lose 60 dollars. Its not enough to maim you, but it hurts when you do something stupid and makes you think more correctly if you multiply that by 8 hours its unlikely you are going to lose all of the games. Even if you do its the best lesson you will ever get for your game. I promise you will go to the table and practice what you know you didn't do well because it will mean something to you.
When you lock up for 5 to 8 hours, Its you, the table and its and the pressure to do right, think right and shoot like you have balls when you have to. There is nothing in the world better for your game. The feeling you get from it, well overrides any consideration about the money. I don't do it unless I know where the money is coming from as long as I do the money is there but that feeling you get. There is nothing like it in the world. It will make you stand straighter, stroke better and improve everything you do. Absolutely pure pool and worth it.
How players play will often change as a long set progresses. Some guys get stronger and fall into the zone, other guys start getting weaker.
A few years back I was chatting with Jose Parica and he told me that in a long set "no one" could beat him.
Jose has often been described as a player with a big heart and no doubt that is true but when he said that it also made me realize that Jose's game is so rock solid that he had confidence in prevailing in a long set because he'd start out strong and stay strong and finish strong.
Lou Figueroa
worth bragging about
I can't give you more greenies
I've seen more amazing things happen 12 hours deep when the guys are grinding it out, than I ever have in any short race to 5.
TheThaiger
Banned
I can't give you more greenies
I've seen more amazing things happen 12 hours deep when the guys are grinding it out, than I ever have in any short race to 5.
But how do you stay awake? Surely fatigue makes the game pointless?
Other way around. If it happened it's bragging - if it didn't happen it's lying.
pj
chgo