Could you be a pro player?

JB Cases said:
Luxury this is too easy. You need to be putting a smiley in once in a while.
Click to expand...

I had a nice little drinking binge the past couple of days but I don't regret anything and I still stand by any betting offers I have made.

I mean seriously when a guy makes a long list of an all around competition and at the end includes penis length followed by most ejaculations in a 10 minute period how can someone not know the guy is going for a little bit of humor there?

I'm still waiting to bet big on that last one somehow and take it down.:smile:
 
Luxury said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stDX6aNPpQY&feature=youtu.be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIIzlJfvt38

Here are two videos I made. My name is Lee Baldwin and I'm 38. I admit I am way too cocky on this forum for most people's liking but I am legit. There are many things to make fun of me about and I make fun of myself all the time but I've had a ton of proven success in everything I've put my mind to and I put my money where my mouth is.
Click to expand...

Oh by the way, in the second video with all the fire I have to point out that is real fire. In my all around bet I included yo-yo and magic. I use an elaborate yo-yo trick in one of my pool shots and magician's flash paper to make the fireballs in the pool shots.

The last trick in the I am the Walrus video is a trick I invented and I use magician's was to attach the fishing line to ball. You can make fun of my voice or my looks or that I like magic but you can't call me boring. :)

I made that elaborate all around list after being called insecure. My point was that a guy with so much talent and success in life can't possibly be insecure.
 
Luxury said:
Oh by the way, in the second video with all the fire I have to point out that is real fire. In my all around bet I included yo-yo and magic. I use an elaborate yo-yo trick in one of my pool shots and magician's flash paper to make the fireballs in the pool shots.

The last trick in the I am the Walrus video is a trick I invented and I use magician's was to attach the fishing line to ball. You can make fun of my voice or my looks or that I like magic but you can't call me boring. :)

I made that elaborate all around list after being called insecure. My point was that a guy with so much talent and success in life can't possibly be insecure.
Click to expand...

If you are not insecure, why do you put so much effort in proving yourself...

Like these lyrics for instance:
A real gangsta-a$$ ni**as don't flex nuts
'cause real gangsta-a$$ ni**as know they got em

Secure ppl got nothing to prove...and btw..that was not a video from a match...just saying...peace out...
 
JC said:
So when you do drink beer, what brand is it?

Have you ever played in the Western BCA regionals down in Lincoln City?

JC
Click to expand...

I missed this until now. That is hilarious. Blue Moon. Not Dos Equis. lol.

Yes I played twice in Lincoln City a few years back. I'm a BCA 9 and played on a team full of 9s as well. Both years we got into the money and both years I had by far the best winning record on our team.

I'm no where near pro level however.
 
okrad1337 said:
If you are not insecure, why do you put so much effort in proving yourself...

Like these lyrics for instance:
A real gangsta-a$$ ni**as don't flex nuts
'cause real gangsta-a$$ ni**as know they got em

Secure ppl got nothing to prove...and btw..that was not a video from a match...just saying...peace out...
Click to expand...

I have a friend that filmed me in a match recently. Would you like me to see if I can upload it?

I put forth a lot of effort to prove people wrong but only after they have called me out. Make sense? BTW, if that is you in your Avatar then I'm sure you could spot me the orange crush.
 
Luxury said:
I have a friend that filmed me in a match recently. Would you like me to see if I can upload it?

I put forth a lot of effort to prove people wrong but only after they have called me out. Make sense? BTW, if that is you in your Avatar then I'm sure you could spot me the orange crush.
Click to expand...

Of course it's me in my avatar...

It still does not make sense to me, but that's me, why would someone claim that he's not insecure, and then try to prove people that he "got ze skillz", have a "great life" etc..

Because of what? Boredome? Loneliness? Idontcareanymore? Probably insecurity

First claim confidence, then acts by the blueprint of insecurity, weird right? Not really...actually typical behaviour...
 
I don't argue semantics. Your definition of insecurity is different than mine. No biggie. In fact you can have it. I'm insecure about some things. I think everyone is.
 
Depends on what you considered "practice"... also I think 2 years is doable for me, but not likely.
 
Unless anyone wants to bet that I can't prove any of my claims I think my job is done here.
 
Luxury said:
Lol if anything I'm overconfident. Not insecure at all.

Here is my all around bet for $10,000

Some of these would win by a decibal meter from crowd participation. No friends in the audience.


Bonus ball
Tennis
Karaoke
Batting cage
Driving range
Pitching (speed)
Basketball (horse)
Football distance throwing
Poker
Good looks (25%)
Badminton
Volleyball
Pinball
Yoyo
IQ
Mma
Magic
Guitar
Arm wrestling
Penis length
Most ejaculations in a 10 minute period

Do I still seem insecure to you?

I'm one of those golden boys. I never talk like this in public but this is the beauty of the forums. People can get stuff off of their chest.
Click to expand...

I will raise all of those and take your bet with the additional categories added:

Rock skipping
Midget tossing
Tight rope walking
River dancing
Snow shoeing
Sleeping
Hiccuping
Jousting
Thumb wrestling
Hand standing

If you accept. Let me know

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
 
Neil, if you are defining a "pro player" as someone playing in pro tournaments with a chance to cash sure I probably agree...but if the definition gets tighter parameters I think we all over estimate our abilities trying to put our potential in the top % for playing pool. It is so much tougher than people think whether it is the physical aspect, the mental aspect, the killer instinct aspect, the $ part, the lifestyle, or other variables that need to be considered.

I have a couple of buddies that tell me to try to go for it. They are loyal...naive, but loyal. You could put in all the hours in the world, get the best training money can buy, and at the end of the day still not be a pro...it really does come down to how a pro is defined I would say, but like every game/sport there is a very small % that can actually do it.
 
bstroud said:
I may be a good example for you to study.

I started to play pool at about 4 years of age.

At 14 in the summer I began to play 13 hours a day. I played in the student union at SMU. I had several mentors that were better players that would show me things.

At 16 I was playing better that all those that had helped me. I knew it was time to look elsewhere.

I found a few other pool rooms in Dallas with better players. I learned to gamble. I liked it. I improved to the extent that I was the best player in Dallas.

I wanted to learn more. I started to travel to other cities. I played many players and sometimes a player would help me for awhile.

Then I would move on.

At 17 when Eddy Taylor asked if I would go on the road with him I jumped at the chance. I learned a lot. After that trip I returned to Dallas and played and gambled every day for almost two years. I only got better.

U J Pucket asked me to go on the road with him so I went. I learned a lot more. He was one of the best hustlers that ever lived. He could find money in a wasteland.

After that trip I started to travel across the US alone using different names wherever I went. People just gave me their money. I thought it was heaven.

Many of the players were much older than I was. Sometimes in the pool rooms I would see older players or hustlers hanging around. They had no money. They had no home. Sometimes they slept on the flour. Some did drugs. I just stepped over them to get to the table to play and gamble.

I did see them however and begin to think about what was going to happen to me when I was there age.

As I played better and got to be well known it became harder to get a game that I could win at. The soft games were all gone and the tournaments really paid little or nothing.

I could get a job (horrors) and make small money or I could come up with a bright idea.

Timing was on my side and I saw an opportunity to start a cue making business with my friend Dan Janes. We started Joss Cues and business went well.

I still played a little pool but it was no longer my main focus.

For the next 45 years I seldom played but made a lot of money making pool cues. The business was very good to me.

A couple of years ago my eyesight began to get really bad so I stopped making cues. I thought I would go through the rest of my life not being able to drive let alone play pool or make cues.

I still wanted to play pool but my eye doctor said no chance.

This year technology caught up with me and I was able to have a string of eye surgeries that has restored my eyesight. The first thing I did was to start to play pool seriously.

I play 6 to 8 hours a day and at 72 continue to improve.

Throughout my life I have played and beaten and some times lost to the best players around. Hall, Siegel, Miz, Hopkins, Henderson, Watson, Mathews, and many others.

I didn't play in tournaments because the odds of breaking even, let alone making money, were simply no good.

So now. You want to become professional pool player? My advice, depending on your age would be to move to England and learn to play Snooker. If you were very good you could make a living. If you were great you could become rich and famous.

As much as it hurts me to say it "you will never be able to make a good living and provide for a family playing pool in the US."

The best you could do to hold on to your dream would be to do like I and many other players have done. Find a pool related idea or business that will keep you in touch with pool and provide a living.

Pool is the Greatest game ever invented and when you play at your highest level there is no feeling like it. I still remember great shots that I made under pressure 50 years ago. You will too if you pursue it to the highest limits.

Bill S.
Click to expand...

I think you have a great pool history and great stories and insight.

I also think you have great big brass balls.

what's the latest estimate for the completion of the "Design Your Dream" Cue?

best,
brian kc <--- plaid-elephant hunter
 
This is a really hard question to answer. Too many factors and variables involved.

As an example I think I got the most recent story;

I have been playing pool now for exactly 2 and a half year. Two and a half years ago I didnt really even know how to hold a cue, didnt even know what pool was but the little clips I would watch on ESPN when I was bored shifting the channels on my TV. I moved to the Raleigh NC area, right in the center of a bunch of pool halls and went to a pool hall played pool a couple of times and got recruited to play on the APA, so I started as a SL4 like everyone, quickly moved down to a SL3 but my competitive spirit just wanted me to get better so I did, by the end of the session I was a SL5. Pool was a hobby until a bunch of people told me that it was not possible for me to make it from SL3 to SL7 within a year, so of course I had to go a prove them wrong lol; which I did, and that was about the time I fell in love with the game so I kept trying to improve and get better. Yes, I have been putting a lot of hours every day into training, taking lessons, gambling, playing tournaments, playing league, watching matches, reading everything I could get my hands into, so pretty much pool is on my mind almost the whole day. Fast forward now I am a SL9 on APA. I am an A player in some tournaments, a B player in some others.

I live in an area where there are tons and tons of good players, the competition is pretty good, and there are many players out of state that come to play here.

I used to think it could be done, make it to a pro speed in the period of time. But now I am not so sure any more. At my best I have played pro speed (I broke and ran the whole set in a tournament match about a month ago race to 7), but the average game is not close to pro speed. I used to think I was close to it because I was misjudging my true playing ability, but at the end of the day the more that I practice, and the better I get the more I realize I am really far from playing consistently at that speed. Also, the better I get it takes me now twice as much work to get half as better than when I started. My goal now is to play the top players on the state without any weight in the next 2-2 1/2 years and not get murdered. So check up with me in 2 1/2 years lol.
 
oshua86 said:
This is a really hard question to answer. Too many factors and variables involved.

As an example I think I got the most recent story;

I have been playing pool now for exactly 2 and a half year. Two and a half years ago I didnt really even know how to hold a cue, didnt even know what pool was but the little clips I would watch on ESPN when I was bored shifting the channels on my TV. I moved to the Raleigh NC area, right in the center of a bunch of pool halls and went to a pool hall played pool a couple of times and got recruited to play on the APA, so I started as a SL4 like everyone, quickly moved down to a SL3 but my competitive spirit just wanted me to get better so I did, by the end of the session I was a SL5. Pool was a hobby until a bunch of people told me that it was not possible for me to make it from SL3 to SL7 within a year, so of course I had to go a prove them wrong lol; which I did, and that was about the time I fell in love with the game so I kept trying to improve and get better. Yes, I have been putting a lot of hours every day into training, taking lessons, gambling, playing tournaments, playing league, watching matches, reading everything I could get my hands into, so pretty much pool is on my mind almost the whole day. Fast forward now I am a SL9 on APA. I am an A player in some tournaments, a B player in some others.

I live in an area where there are tons and tons of good players, the competition is pretty good, and there are many players out of state that come to play here.

I used to think it could be done, make it to a pro speed in the period of time. But now I am not so sure any more. At my best I have played pro speed (I broke and ran the whole set in a tournament match about a month ago race to 7), but the average game is not close to pro speed. I used to think I was close to it because I was misjudging my true playing ability, but at the end of the day the more that I practice, and the better I get the more I realize I am really far from playing consistently at that speed. Also, the better I get it takes me now twice as much work to get half as better than when I started. My goal now is to play the top players on the state without any weight in the next 2-2 1/2 years and not get murdered. So check up with me in 2 1/2 years lol.
Click to expand...

I can tell you for a fact that there are people in this thread who would have bet their house, cars and kids that NO ONE could go from zero to running 7 packs in 2.5 years, especially without a pro to guide them personally.
 
JB the 7 pack is more of a fluke, everything was going right for me that night, getting the rolls, the break was working phenomenal, the stars were aligned, i had a breakfast of champs etc lol... Wish I could, but I cant take all the credit, I have had (and spent a lot of money) getting professional instruction in the past two years, anywhere from local and ex pros to world champs like Earl Strickland and Ray Martin and every one in between.
 
JB Cases said:
I can tell you for a fact that there are people in this thread who would have bet their house, cars and kids that NO ONE could go from zero to running 7 packs in 2.5 years, especially without a pro to guide them personally.
Click to expand...

You can tell for fact? Are you prone to over stating things a bit? I wouldn't be one to make or take that bet. Huge difference between running 7 racks on a 7' barbox in APA league to playing at a world class level. Not taking anything away from the fellow who did that, his improvement is a huge testimony to his natural talent and work ethic. Very impressive on his part, no doubt. And you know what, he could be one of those guys with all those ingredients I spoke of. Perhaps if he sticks to it, he could be one of those world class people in 3 or 4 years down the road.
 
oshua86 said:
JB the 7 pack is more of a fluke, everything was going right for me that night, getting the rolls, the break was working phenomenal, the stars were aligned, i had a breakfast of champs etc lol... Wish I could, but I cant take all the credit, I have had (and spent a lot of money) getting professional instruction in the past two years, anywhere from local and ex pros to world champs like Earl Strickland and Ray Martin and every one in between.
Click to expand...

It's not a fluke. Of course it's the best you have achieved at the moment. The point being that where you are in your game allowed you to make the best of the rolls and finish the racks. Were you any less of a player than you are then you would not have been able to achieve it rolls or not.

But still, going from zero to SL9 in 2.5 years is something that a lot of folks here would have said was impossible.

I fall on the side of believing that man's limits are not known, especially for things like playing pool.

And yes, SL9 is still far away from pro speed but it's a very respectable level of skill and means you are not at all helpless on the table. It means whereever you go you will be one of the better players around and capable of beating anyone in any given short set.

If you keep up the pace I predict that you are playing shortstop speed soon.
 
nobcitypool said:
You can tell for fact? Are you prone to over stating things a bit? I wouldn't be one to make or take that bet. Huge difference between running 7 racks on a 7' barbox in APA league to playing at a world class level. Not taking anything away from the fellow who did that, his improvement is a huge testimony to his natural talent and work ethic. Very impressive on his part, no doubt. And you know what, he could be one of those guys with all those ingredients I spoke of. Perhaps if he sticks to it, he could be one of those world class people in 3 or 4 years down the road.
Click to expand...

I have only played a handful of times on bar boxes. the 7pack was on a tournament match not apa match. But apa here is played on 9ft tables. Matter of fact I was really surprised that they play apa in vegas and most of the country in 7ft tables. It really makes me wonder how is the skill difference between people of the same handicap that play league on 7ft every week vs the ones that play on 9ft tables.
 
nobcitypool said:
You can tell for fact? Are you prone to over stating things a bit? I wouldn't be one to make or take that bet. Huge difference between running 7 racks on a 7' barbox in APA league to playing at a world class level. Not taking anything away from the fellow who did that, his improvement is a huge testimony to his natural talent and work ethic. Very impressive on his part, no doubt. And you know what, he could be one of those guys with all those ingredients I spoke of. Perhaps if he sticks to it, he could be one of those world class people in 3 or 4 years down the road.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I am pretty confident that there are few folks who would bet large that no one is going from zero to 7 packs in 2.5 years.

How do you know it was a barbox? He said a tournament set and APA plays on any sized tables.

What ingredients? Desire, dedication? Opportunity?

You see now you are making my points. Research shows that WORK ETHIC is a HUGE factor in skill levels. The very best in any field worked harder, MUCH harder than their peers to reach that level. According to the research that is, don't want you to think that this is just my opinion.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top