I'm not necessarily talking about your biggest score or your biggest gambling accomplishment, but what's the best gambling situation you've ever been in? Ever been in a game where there was no way to avoid walking out of the pool hall a few hundred richer than you entered?
This thread is inspired by my experience last night. It was one of the most unexpectedly fortuitous occurrences I've experienced.
So I walk into the pool hall. The best player who comes in there on a regular basis (we'll call him Kevin) is talking, and sort of woofing (although he's a real sociable guy with a very friendly way of woofing) at these two guys who don't speak a lot of English, but seem interested in making a money game happen. They want to play partners 8-ball.
This guy Kevin is nothing if not ridiculously confident, and I'm not even sure he turned his head to see who I was, but he pointed to me and said, "alright, I'll play you some with this guy as my partner". Thus, I was in the game.
We walk over to a table, and Kevin says to me discretely: "Play with a house cue. You play good, and I'll play like a dog." So we play at $10 a man per game for a while, and we're even, but it's clear that when Kevin comes off the stall these two have no chance at all. They jack the bet to $20 a man per game, and pretty soon we're up 2 games. They jack the bet to $40, and Kevin comes off the stall.
Kevin's a run out 8-ball player, and I'm pretty much just standing there holding my cue and collecting money. Occasionally I'll have to shoot, but it's almost always an easy out when I come to the table, and I'm playing pretty well, which means well enough to complete the easy outs they leave me, and feel like I'm contributing to our team. $300 (each) later, our opponents quit.
For me, a big score playing for money is maybe $100, because I'm totally unwilling to risk losing much, and so I can't play for much unless I'm already up. To walk into the pool hall and find myself immediately in a game where I can't lose, against opponents with a lot of money in their pockets who don't seem to know they can't win, where I don't even have to shoot very much because my partner is running out so much, and all I had to do was be standing there at the right moment and say "sure, I'll play"? Ridiculous.
-Andrew
This thread is inspired by my experience last night. It was one of the most unexpectedly fortuitous occurrences I've experienced.
So I walk into the pool hall. The best player who comes in there on a regular basis (we'll call him Kevin) is talking, and sort of woofing (although he's a real sociable guy with a very friendly way of woofing) at these two guys who don't speak a lot of English, but seem interested in making a money game happen. They want to play partners 8-ball.
This guy Kevin is nothing if not ridiculously confident, and I'm not even sure he turned his head to see who I was, but he pointed to me and said, "alright, I'll play you some with this guy as my partner". Thus, I was in the game.
We walk over to a table, and Kevin says to me discretely: "Play with a house cue. You play good, and I'll play like a dog." So we play at $10 a man per game for a while, and we're even, but it's clear that when Kevin comes off the stall these two have no chance at all. They jack the bet to $20 a man per game, and pretty soon we're up 2 games. They jack the bet to $40, and Kevin comes off the stall.
Kevin's a run out 8-ball player, and I'm pretty much just standing there holding my cue and collecting money. Occasionally I'll have to shoot, but it's almost always an easy out when I come to the table, and I'm playing pretty well, which means well enough to complete the easy outs they leave me, and feel like I'm contributing to our team. $300 (each) later, our opponents quit.
For me, a big score playing for money is maybe $100, because I'm totally unwilling to risk losing much, and so I can't play for much unless I'm already up. To walk into the pool hall and find myself immediately in a game where I can't lose, against opponents with a lot of money in their pockets who don't seem to know they can't win, where I don't even have to shoot very much because my partner is running out so much, and all I had to do was be standing there at the right moment and say "sure, I'll play"? Ridiculous.
-Andrew
