Are high dollar sets killing the small action in the pool room??

mikeyfrost

mikeyfrost

Socially Aware
Silver Member
This is my first thread so be gentle anyways....

I'd like to get some thoughts together on what people think about sets $500 and up are doing to the action in the pool room? I'll tell you why I ask this in the following paragraph.

I back a couple guys and play some myself in Fayetteville,NC at Kingstreet Billiards. I'm maybe a low B player at best but if the game is right I will get in the box. Anyways I tend to make bets whether playing or backing that always seem to end up at a few hundred a game 9 ball or 1k and up ahead sets. Sometimes I win sometimes I book losers like most of us right. Well right now I want to get someone in the box with Lil Keith, he's been crushing local shortstoppers lately and it's good to see him playing well again but the folks in the pool room think that the betting is apparently getting out of hand. Not the owner but the players. It has kinda created a domino effect where bad players want to match up 50 a game and it's making things harder on the local hustlers that like to shoot 20 bucks at you to make 400 if they win. I know the economy sucks and lay offs are normal now but I think a person should have the right to bet what they want if they like the gamble. I do see how this is kind of messing with peoples equilibrium state they are used to. It's kind of taking the focus off of good matchups and making it more about bank rolls which cant help this sport we love but money pays the bills. I agree if you are local champion level you wouldnt play 10 a game but if you are not a champion any action is supposed to be better than no action. This is getting long so I'll stop but I'm interested to see whats going on in the rest of the pool rooms.
 
Me and a couple guys were talking about this exact same thing a week or two ago. So we've made a point since then to openly play some $5, 10 games. Infact ive been playing a guy $2 a game 1pkt just for something to do. Even had a $1, $2 ... 10 ball game on a 9ft table with 4-5 guys that ran for awhile.

Seems a few guys have it in their mind they dont want to play unless they can bust you.
 
deanoc said:
keep it up,high action encourages action.

best wishes dean
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That's the way I always saw it. Any time I saw a race to 5 for a thousand and up to ten thousand it always seemed to boost the action throughout the hall. It would make games of as low as a dollar a game to twenty and higher a game.

I always laughed to myself seeing two 50+ year old men woofing back and forth like they were in high school to make the bet as high as possible. One I remember is two guys in there 50's woofing where the bet started at $100 a game and escalated to a race to 5 for $10,000 in a matter of five minutes.
 
I hear you fellas...what I feel like is happening is people want to book more locks and bet it up. The good games arent happening as much anymore and I'm sorry but when you can't make 3 balls in a row and you are woofin at someone cuz they only want to bet 10 bucks a game you just dont want to play at all plain and simple. It's also around tax time which is what I forgot so ppl are gambling away their refunds. I think cheap action will be back when people are broke again. More money makes it more interesting but people going busted is never a good thing.

Keep it coming everyone I like this thread.
 
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What is happening is that there are two distinct eras of the pool world. The old timers, that just love the game and probably play $20 sets with anybody that they like. The newer guys are hardcore ruined by seeing all of this high dollar stuff. Poker?! Millions of dollars and the lure of easy money. The information highway hasn't helped. NOONE can steal any more. I mean, maybe a buck or two, but now everyone wants a full resume'. If they won't give up a resume', you can come on here and find out about just anything you want to know. Prices are up, pool popularity is down. $20 bucks won't cover a tab any more. I attribute the rise of the leagues as a cheap way to play better competition. If you are a beginner, and play in a league, you don't have to "Pay to Play" like we did coming up. There's still cheap action out there, just take your resume', the last ten people you played, the outcomes, amounts, when, where, kind of cue, length of time playing, etc, etc.
 
i still go by the words of my late friend Bobby Legg, you always play to win,money is just a way to keep score, dont matter if its $50 or $5000 a set
 
mikeyfrost said:
This is my first thread so be gentle anyways....

I'd like to get some thoughts together on what people think about sets $500 and up are doing to the action in the pool room? I'll tell you why I ask this in the following paragraph.

I back a couple guys and play some myself in Fayetteville,NC at Kingstreet Billiards. I'm maybe a low B player at best but if the game is right I will get in the box. Anyways I tend to make bets whether playing or backing that always seem to end up at a few hundred a game 9 ball or 1k and up ahead sets. Sometimes I win sometimes I book losers like most of us right. Well right now I want to get someone in the box with Lil Keith, he's been crushing local shortstoppers lately and it's good to see him playing well again but the folks in the pool room think that the betting is apparently getting out of hand. Not the owner but the players. It has kinda created a domino effect where bad players want to match up 50 a game and it's making things harder on the local hustlers that like to shoot 20 bucks at you to make 400 if they win. I know the economy sucks and lay offs are normal now but I think a person should have the right to bet what they want if they like the gamble. I do see how this is kind of messing with peoples equilibrium state they are used to. It's kind of taking the focus off of good matchups and making it more about bank rolls which cant help this sport we love but money pays the bills. I agree if you are local champion level you wouldnt play 10 a game but if you are not a champion any action is supposed to be better than no action. This is getting long so I'll stop but I'm interested to see whats going on in the rest of the pool rooms.
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I wish I lived there!!!!! I live in Indiana and play at a pool room where you have to beg somebody to play you for 10 dollars and then have to give up the absolute nuts. It is freaking rediculous. I could only dream of walking in the pool room and somebody saying..."Hey, you want to play 10 ahead for 500" and then make there offer of a spot or whatever. It is completely unheard of where I play. The funny thing is, a lot of them will go off to people that are from out of town and have no chance to ever get a nickle back. Another one of their famous moves is to play somebody for 5 or 10 a game and get their nose open and go off to somebody they couldn't win 50 dollars from, literally. I think I am intentionally going to blow a big number in order to get people gambling, just have to decide whose week I want to make?? Sorry for the rant, but you live in a pool heaven compared to what I'm used to, but of course North Carolina has always been great. Mothers was the absolute nuts, but that's a story for another day!!
 
8&snap said:
i still go by the words of my late friend Bobby Legg, you always play to win,money is just a way to keep score, dont matter if its $50 or $5000 a set
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Yes, Bobby Legg was a good player, I watched him play on the bar box when I was young, and he could gin it up and played hard no matter what the dollar amount, unlike myself who gets so lazy and bored playing 10 dollar one pocket that I want to lay outside in the street.
 
If we get action for 1000 0r 2 where im at it just creates more...I see people who dont even gamble sweat a big match and be bettin somethin by the end of it....The more action the better in my opinion...People aint bettin the sun is comin up in the mornin where im at...Tell em keep gamblin...
 
mikeyfrost said:
This is my first thread so be gentle anyways....

I'd like to get some thoughts together on what people think about sets $500 and up are doing to the action in the pool room? I'll tell you why I ask this in the following paragraph.

I back a couple guys and play some myself in Fayetteville,NC at Kingstreet Billiards. I'm maybe a low B player at best but if the game is right I will get in the box. Anyways I tend to make bets whether playing or backing that always seem to end up at a few hundred a game 9 ball or 1k and up ahead sets. Sometimes I win sometimes I book losers like most of us right. Well right now I want to get someone in the box with Lil Keith, he's been crushing local shortstoppers lately and it's good to see him playing well again but the folks in the pool room think that the betting is apparently getting out of hand. Not the owner but the players. It has kinda created a domino effect where bad players want to match up 50 a game and it's making things harder on the local hustlers that like to shoot 20 bucks at you to make 400 if they win. I know the economy sucks and lay offs are normal now but I think a person should have the right to bet what they want if they like the gamble. I do see how this is kind of messing with peoples equilibrium state they are used to. It's kind of taking the focus off of good matchups and making it more about bank rolls which cant help this sport we love but money pays the bills. I agree if you are local champion level you wouldnt play 10 a game but if you are not a champion any action is supposed to be better than no action. This is getting long so I'll stop but I'm interested to see whats going on in the rest of the pool rooms.
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What a great first thread you have made!

I have always thought that the greed shown by many of the players in my town has ruined the action for most players. Somewhere along the line, a few people got on an ego trip and decided that "Busting that mfer is the only thing that matters". When people take all of the cash that a person has, that person either quits playing pool altogether or in most cases, it puts them and all of the other people that they gamble with out of action temporarily and that can be for a while in some cases.

So, yes, I think t he big dollar sets have a negative affect on the amount of action in any pool hall. The stock market crash that is happening right now will make things even worse. There will be more broken in cars, more stolen cues, more armed robberies, and yes, less action than in previous years.

I'm going to start playing for dinner. :D

JoeyA

JoeyA
 
I agree JoeyA....even today I overheard guys talking about changing their daily 10 dollar a game action to something big and play less with each other. Makes no sense to me at all. Guys won't get in the box for under 500 a set and yeah thats good from time to time but what it does is make the rest of the days boring. I dont like for it to be all about the cash but then again cash is king. Dinner bets are among my favorite bets right up there with yard work bets in the summer time. When this game stops being about fun people normally will stop playing.
 
mikeyfrost said:
I agree JoeyA....even today I overheard guys talking about changing their daily 10 dollar a game action to something big and play less with each other. Makes no sense to me at all. Guys won't get in the box for under 500 a set and yeah thats good from time to time but what it does is make the rest of the days boring. I dont like for it to be all about the cash but then again cash is king. Dinner bets are among my favorite bets right up there with yard work bets in the summer time. When this game stops being about fun people normally will stop playing.
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YARD BETS? Corvette is king for yard bets. :D
JoeyA
 
I agree $take Hor$e that line does sound familiar but it was off the top of my head. I spited myself again because tomorrow night we got another big match set up at King Street. Apparently it is not an epidemic maybe it's cuz a local champion is back in action things are going off big right now. Either way next pool hall I invade biggest bet for at least 6 months is 10 a game. In case anyone was wondering I win more than I lose so this is not coming from someone who just books losers and goes off. Just scoping out the action around the rooms and what's going on with the players.
 
Well i dont think it's so much the High Dollar sets are killing the action its the fact that alot of the time you see someone who will play 10 or 20$ sets all day long, but then someone try's to high roll them and wants to play for 50 or 100$ sets.

And basically what the person is doing, is trying to get the other guy out of thier comfort zone so they dont play as well and think more about the money than thier pool shooting.

Expecially with the ecomomy like it is, and money being tight for most people they will think more about the money than anything else.
 
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