Luck and pool

S

Slh

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Giorgio Margola, an italian professional pool player has this sentence on his homepage:

"Io credo nella fortuna, non nella sfortuna.
Sembra un paradosso, ma non credo che,
pur perdendo un incontro praticamente vinto,
lo sfortunato sia io. Mi piace pensare che
sia stato fortunato il mio avversario."

Translation:
"I believe in good luck not in bad luck.
It seems a paradox, but I don't think that, even if I lose a match almost won, I'm the unlucky ( one?). I like to think my opponent is the lucky one".

Probably I did some translation mistake, my apologize. If somebody can suggest some correction I appreciate it.
What do you think about this sentence and pool? When you lose do you think your opponent got lucky?
 
I have to smile to myself when some one tells me I was lucky..If only I could play as well as lucky does...
No..I'm either out played or my mistakes catch up with me :p
 
Damn straight. No, I really don't care if he got lucky. Bad beat stories are for losers.
 
Exactly. I've watched and played enough to realize everyone gets lucky. But the less mistakes you make the more often you will win. Whatever my opponent has done will never effect my outcome when I am at the table. It is up to me to overcome any situation that my opponent has left me with. And if I fail then it is up to me to come back and play harder and better. Anything else is sour grapes
 
As the skill of the opposition increases so does the need for luck. You will be lucky if they miss a shot they shoot at. You will be lucky if they leave you a kick safe, a return safe or a jump if they shoot you safe. You will be lucky when they break dry. That's what luck is at higher levels... Not fluking balls in or 3 ball combos or unintentional safeties... You could be the best player in a tournament and without some luck you might not make it into the money.

Luck is when something unforeseen happens in your favor that defies odds and probabilities. Efren is on to something as is Margola... Efren always says he got lucky when he wins. To some point even tho he is the Magician he is right. At some point he got to the table with a chance and made the most of it. Once he got control his skill had a lot to say about the outcome but that doesn't change the fact he had to get lucky.

You can either beat yourself up and blame bad luck for your loss or look at it as the winner was the player that got luckier. That doesn't mean you don't have to work hard... Just remember every time you shoot a shot there is a chance for your opponent to get lucky... Try not to shoot the ones you only make half the time or your opponent automatically starts off with 50/50 chance of getting lucky......
 
Slh said:
Giorgio Margola, an italian professional pool player has this sentence on his homepage:

"Io credo nella fortuna, non nella sfortuna.
Sembra un paradosso, ma non credo che,
pur perdendo un incontro praticamente vinto,
lo sfortunato sia io. Mi piace pensare che
sia stato fortunato il mio avversario."

Translation:
"I believe in good luck not in bad luck.
It seems a paradox, but I don't think that, even if I lose a match almost won, I'm the unlucky ( one?). I like to think my opponent is the lucky one".

Probably I did some translation mistake, my apologize. If somebody can suggest some correction I appreciate it.
What do you think about this sentence and pool? When you lose do you think your opponent got lucky?
Click to expand...

Pool is life, the table is well lit and for everyone to see clearly. Everything you do at the pool table happens all day long in every day life.
Pool is just another gateway to????????????????????? your next lifes challenge.
 
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The Renfro said:
As the skill of the opposition increases so does the need for luck. You will be lucky if they miss a shot they shoot at. You will be lucky if they leave you a kick safe, a return safe or a jump if they shoot you safe. You will be lucky when they break dry. That's what luck is at higher levels... Not fluking balls in or 3 ball combos or unintentional safeties... You could be the best player in a tournament and without some luck you might not make it into the money.

Luck is when something unforeseen happens in your favor that defies odds and probabilities. Efren is on to something as is Margola... Efren always says he got lucky when he wins. To some point even tho he is the Magician he is right. At some point he got to the table with a chance and made the most of it. Once he got control his skill had a lot to say about the outcome but that doesn't change the fact he had to get lucky.

You can either beat yourself up and blame bad luck for your loss or look at it as the winner was the player that got luckier. That doesn't mean you don't have to work hard... Just remember every time you shoot a shot there is a chance for your opponent to get lucky... Try not to shoot the ones you only make half the time or your opponent automatically starts off with 50/50 chance of getting lucky......
Click to expand...

Very well said! So many of us want to blame luck as the reason we lost that we forget when we got lucky to win. Luck is not just about pocketing a ball here or there, or that accidental safety. There's so much more to luck and Renfro hit the nail on the head.

Hopefully people start realizing that you can't win a tournament without a lot of luck. Skill will get you so far, but luck will carry you over the finish line!

I want to be as skillful as I possibly can, but I want luck to be my best friend, because I will need it by my side!
 
The truth about luck

What other than bad luck explains a stray ball bumping whitey into a pocket?

Happens to certain people all the time. Luck is measured on a bell curve. Most players fall in the middle. Equal numbers are divided into the sides. Why do you suppose some gamblers win the lottery twice?

In the long view, however, I see it differently. Everything that happens once you set the cue ball in motion is your responsibility. Failure to see an outcome is no excuse.
 
almost zero luck in pool

There is some luck on the break, sometimes. It isn't truly luck but it is the result of more interactions than we can reasonably expect to anticipate. After the break there is no luck involved. Sometimes there are unintended consequences and some player's styles lend themselves to unintended consequences more than others but there is no real luck.

Once we take control of what happens on the table and accept that luck, good or bad, isn't the cause of the results we become much stronger. Realizing that some player's style led to more unintended consequences, good and bad, was a large step in my early understanding of the game. These people "get lucky" a lot more than most but they "get unlucky" a lot more than most too. Once you recognize a person is playing this style it is easy to give them many more high risk shots and let them beat themselves.

Hu
 
The Renfro said:
As the skill of the opposition increases so does the need for luck. You will be lucky if they miss a shot they shoot at. You will be lucky if they leave you a kick safe, a return safe or a jump if they shoot you safe. You will be lucky when they break dry. That's what luck is at higher levels... Not fluking balls in or 3 ball combos or unintentional safeties... You could be the best player in a tournament and without some luck you might not make it into the money.

Luck is when something unforeseen happens in your favor that defies odds and probabilities. Efren is on to something as is Margola... Efren always says he got lucky when he wins. To some point even tho he is the Magician he is right. At some point he got to the table with a chance and made the most of it. Once he got control his skill had a lot to say about the outcome but that doesn't change the fact he had to get lucky.

You can either beat yourself up and blame bad luck for your loss or look at it as the winner was the player that got luckier. That doesn't mean you don't have to work hard... Just remember every time you shoot a shot there is a chance for your opponent to get lucky... Try not to shoot the ones you only make half the time or your opponent automatically starts off with 50/50 chance of getting lucky......
Click to expand...

sorry but i don't think this is luck. So if my opponent miss a shot, am I lucky? In that situation my opponent made a mistake I don't see why I'm lucky. Or he play a safety and he leave me a kick safe.... simply the safety wasn't perfect, i understand that you can't always play lock-up safeties. I consider myself lucky when my opponent breaks and the cueball got kicked in the pocket, or when he gets a kick ( bad contact) or the cueball path changes because the table is not perfectly on level. Simply things you can't predict.
So when you leave your opponent a kick-safe you consider yourself unlucky?
 
Here's a quote from golf (Gary Player) that can also be applied to pool:

"The harder you work, the luckier you get."
 
There cannot be good luck with no bad luck. It is basic logic.

If you were 'lucky' then your opponenet has experienced the opposite. Call it what you will, but you can't use lucky without unlucky being an option.

For every action there is an equal reaction, for every high there is a low, lefty loosie, righty tighty yin and yang...pick your cliché.
 
The odds in any pool game for anyone to get lucky is close to even in the short run and maybe 100% even (50/50)on the long run. It is not like playing the lotto 1 in zillion ratio to win that is pure luck.

Efren also says i play good i win, the decision we make the shots we take regardless how they came about are our own responsibly we make them or miss them, same applies to the other side

Someone mention the break, you get good rack, good clean balls, and break same way every time there will be consistency in the outcome. Or change the way you break, no luck about it.
 
Black-Balled said:
There cannot be good luck with no bad luck. It is basic logic.

If you were 'lucky' then your opponenet has experienced the opposite. Call it what you will, but you can't use lucky without unlucky being an option.

For every action there is an equal reaction, for every high there is a low, lefty loosie, righty tighty yin and yang...pick your cliché.
Click to expand...

It all comes down to your outlook. If I shoot a ball that I make 90% of the time I will miss it 10 times in 100... If I make it was I lucky? If I miss it was I unlucky or was my opponent lucky that 1 of my 10 misses happened while he was playing me....

For every winner there is a loser? For someone to have good fortune against you must your experience bad fortune?

I do not dwell on bad luck... I prefer to work hard and hope good luck stays in my corner. I could sit in my chair and hope my opponent gets unlucky or I can sit there hoping I get lucky and get another chance...

I do not root against my opponent. I may vilify them in the heat of the match but I will not root against them. I want them to play great. I want to win by playing greater...

It's my zen... It's what keeps me focused and ready... If I sit there thinking how unlucky I am I will do absolutely nothing for my psyche and my chances to keep up the fight until the final bell rings... If all it took to have heart was logic it would be a lot more common than it is.....

If I leave someone a kick safe do I think I got unlucky?? Never... I think they got lucky I didn't execute better because it was definitely my intent........
 
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