EDIT: Dear AZBilliards was admittedly a bad title for this post. As a resource, AZBilliards is amazing and I have nothing but good things to say. This post was meant to be directed to the pool community as a whole and not AZBilliards directly. My mistake
Thank you for ruining pool for me. Obviously this isn't meant for everyone in the community, but it is meant for a vast majority of you.
I started playing pool about 3 years ago. Joined an APA league and jumped in full force. It was fun. I met new people, I learned new things. I went out each week, had a couple beers and had some real fun.
But then, something weird happened. I found this site. It had a wealth of info...results, interviews...and then I found the forums. At first I was amazed...so many people discussing every single aspect of pool...from equipment to aiming to why pool isn't growing. I used to visit the site every day...trying to soak of info and tips and follow my favorite players.
I didn't know it then, but that was the downfall of pool for me. I started wanting to play better players...play on better equipment. At first it was awesome...but quickly things changed.
I started having "situations" with higher ranked players. They started telling me that I shouldn't be playing with them because I haven't "earned my time." Discouraging to say the least.
I kept reading the forums...reading the bashing of the league that I started in and still play in...the APA. I read so much that I, myself, started disliking the APA and all that they stand for. So I decided to leave it and play in the BCA...a local league here that was amongst the best ones in the area. I played...and I lost...a lot, but I didn't let that hold me back. I kept playing...I kept playing in higher ranked tournaments...I got slowly better.
The one thing I picked up from my time playing with the higher ranked players is the negativity. Nothing is ever right for them. They get mad cause lower ranked players get weight against them. They get mad cause lower ranked players pay lower entry fee's. They get mad because bars don't add money to their tournaments, or don't add enough money. In a word, entitlement.
I grew frustrated with the whole pool scene...started hating it. I didn't quit, but I didn't play very much at all. Then I realized that it all stopped being fun. So I went back to where pool was fun...and went back to playing in the APA and my friends...all of the sudden, I loved pool again.
There is a class system in pool. The APA is the lower class...the "99%" if you will. We are looked down upon because we play on inferior equipment with inferior rules for league operators who are in it for the money. Beer drinkers that play in bars with loud music and rowdy people. We play with handicaps because we aren't good enough for the "real" pool world. Meanwhile, the 1% are out there...playing on their diamond tables with their added money tournaments while they sip ice water and not support the rooms that add this money. It's entitlement at it's best.
"Pool players" feel like room and bar owners owe them the world. The nicest equipment with the nicest cloth. Massive amounts of added money and get rid of all the music and karaoke and people that make the room the money so they can play in quiet. Basically trying to get rid of players like me.
Please don't tell me or players like me that this isn't happening. I've experience this first hand here in Phoenix. I've been ridiculed for playing in the APA. I've been told by A players here in Phoenix that I shouldn't be playing them because I haven't earned my time like they have. Big time players like Scott Frost mocked me because they had to play me in a 9 ball tournament and made fun of me because "I had the gall to ask him to split quarters," for a tournament match.
Hell, I've even been turned away from a tournament because I'm not good enough. And when I do get to play, it's very uncomfortable. The higher rated players make me feel like it's a priviledge to play them. I shouldn't feel this way...but that's what you do.
In a nutshell, get over yourself. You can have your game...because that's all it is...a game. Or have you forgotten that? I will stick with the league that is ruining pool...even though it brings more and more people into it each year. I will stick with the inferior equipment and inferior rules and the loud music and beer drinking because I love where I play and want to support them as much as I can.
I want to go back to a place where the only complaining I hear about is the guys complaining that the wife barely let them come out to play tonight, not some entitled douche bags discussing the ins and outs of their $30 chalk or how this room sucks cause it has Valley's.
GFY...Yes I'm bitter, you ruined the game for me and a lot of others out there, but I'm going back to where it's fun...and will continue to teach my kids my horrible stroke and pool knowledge so they can have fun with this wonderful game. But I will never teach them to become a "pool player" because I don't really wish that on anyone anymore.
tl;dr - Pool used to be fun, I got serious like everyone here said I should and hated it. I'm going back to the APA.
Thank you for ruining pool for me. Obviously this isn't meant for everyone in the community, but it is meant for a vast majority of you.
I started playing pool about 3 years ago. Joined an APA league and jumped in full force. It was fun. I met new people, I learned new things. I went out each week, had a couple beers and had some real fun.
But then, something weird happened. I found this site. It had a wealth of info...results, interviews...and then I found the forums. At first I was amazed...so many people discussing every single aspect of pool...from equipment to aiming to why pool isn't growing. I used to visit the site every day...trying to soak of info and tips and follow my favorite players.
I didn't know it then, but that was the downfall of pool for me. I started wanting to play better players...play on better equipment. At first it was awesome...but quickly things changed.
I started having "situations" with higher ranked players. They started telling me that I shouldn't be playing with them because I haven't "earned my time." Discouraging to say the least.
I kept reading the forums...reading the bashing of the league that I started in and still play in...the APA. I read so much that I, myself, started disliking the APA and all that they stand for. So I decided to leave it and play in the BCA...a local league here that was amongst the best ones in the area. I played...and I lost...a lot, but I didn't let that hold me back. I kept playing...I kept playing in higher ranked tournaments...I got slowly better.
The one thing I picked up from my time playing with the higher ranked players is the negativity. Nothing is ever right for them. They get mad cause lower ranked players get weight against them. They get mad cause lower ranked players pay lower entry fee's. They get mad because bars don't add money to their tournaments, or don't add enough money. In a word, entitlement.
I grew frustrated with the whole pool scene...started hating it. I didn't quit, but I didn't play very much at all. Then I realized that it all stopped being fun. So I went back to where pool was fun...and went back to playing in the APA and my friends...all of the sudden, I loved pool again.
There is a class system in pool. The APA is the lower class...the "99%" if you will. We are looked down upon because we play on inferior equipment with inferior rules for league operators who are in it for the money. Beer drinkers that play in bars with loud music and rowdy people. We play with handicaps because we aren't good enough for the "real" pool world. Meanwhile, the 1% are out there...playing on their diamond tables with their added money tournaments while they sip ice water and not support the rooms that add this money. It's entitlement at it's best.
"Pool players" feel like room and bar owners owe them the world. The nicest equipment with the nicest cloth. Massive amounts of added money and get rid of all the music and karaoke and people that make the room the money so they can play in quiet. Basically trying to get rid of players like me.
Please don't tell me or players like me that this isn't happening. I've experience this first hand here in Phoenix. I've been ridiculed for playing in the APA. I've been told by A players here in Phoenix that I shouldn't be playing them because I haven't earned my time like they have. Big time players like Scott Frost mocked me because they had to play me in a 9 ball tournament and made fun of me because "I had the gall to ask him to split quarters," for a tournament match.
Hell, I've even been turned away from a tournament because I'm not good enough. And when I do get to play, it's very uncomfortable. The higher rated players make me feel like it's a priviledge to play them. I shouldn't feel this way...but that's what you do.
In a nutshell, get over yourself. You can have your game...because that's all it is...a game. Or have you forgotten that? I will stick with the league that is ruining pool...even though it brings more and more people into it each year. I will stick with the inferior equipment and inferior rules and the loud music and beer drinking because I love where I play and want to support them as much as I can.
I want to go back to a place where the only complaining I hear about is the guys complaining that the wife barely let them come out to play tonight, not some entitled douche bags discussing the ins and outs of their $30 chalk or how this room sucks cause it has Valley's.
GFY...Yes I'm bitter, you ruined the game for me and a lot of others out there, but I'm going back to where it's fun...and will continue to teach my kids my horrible stroke and pool knowledge so they can have fun with this wonderful game. But I will never teach them to become a "pool player" because I don't really wish that on anyone anymore.
tl;dr - Pool used to be fun, I got serious like everyone here said I should and hated it. I'm going back to the APA.
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