It's strange no matter how far you stray from pool, you always come back to it.
Some of you may remember me posting from back in 2006 - 2008 era. I was never a huge poster, and didn't start threads that had diagrams of pool tables with suggested outs or questions. I generally tried to post interesting stories of the night before, often with "ethical" debacles and debates that happened in the pool hall the night before.
Two of my personal favorites.
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=43345
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=51689
I'm not going to go all the way back to the beginning, but I'll say when I joined the forum I was an average "B" player by San Diego standards. As an Ex pool "addict" I will say I enjoyed (enjoy) the forum immensely, but quickly found (at least in my area) that the internet world and the world in the pool hall don't exactly "line up."
When I used to post, gambling was kind of frowned upon, and there was some since of nobility nodded towards the tournament players. God help you if you hustled someone out of a couple of bucks they'd want to use your cues as a bat to beat you over the head with. I guess that's fine, but in every pool hall I ever played in (which was quite a few) I have never once seen this chivalry in the game that was always talked about on here, point in fact it has always been quite the opposite. Where I played in San Diego, all the players were always looking for any kind of angle, and the way you measured victory wasn't trying to "prove you're the best" in the "spirit of competition." It was something else entirely.
When I was coming up you basically had to "Pay to Play." If you wanted to learn the best way was to see if you could get a better player to play cheap sets with you, and try to learn as much as you could during those sets. Tournaments were an even cheaper way of accomplishing that goal with a much wider variety of players to learn from. Ultimately though, like life, nothings free. I never much considered it gambling as I did paying them for their time.
I'm not sure if others feel this way, but I always felt the "gambling" opened up a whole new dynamic to the game. The psychological pressures, and even the conversation that is spoken through the game and the bets without ever saying a word. I learned so much about life and people gambling late night in pool halls, that I consider the experience and the wisdom gained nothing short of invaluable. There is no substitute for the kind of wisdom that can come out of pool halls, and old pool players.
I got a bit side tracked there, so I will circle back. In January of 2008 life dropped the bomb on me. My dad passed suddenly, and my entire life changed. No more free office space in the old mans building, now all of a sudden I was paying for the building. I ended up delving into work and pretty much quit playing pool altogether. I should also note, that I've always been a recreational drinker, but during these years I was looking for answers in the bottom of a bottle every time that clock struck 5.
The week my father died, I sold my table and ditched my house I was renting immediately. I took my girlfriend that was living with me and we moved into this apartment on the side of my parents house to look after my mom. It wasn't long before the girlfriend became my wife. To keep with the natural order of things a little while after that the Stork started making his flight from where ever he comes from to deliver my daughter Sierra.
Things became very clear that while I wanted to look after my mom, we had a space issue in this tiny apartment, with 2 dogs, and now a baby. I looked around North County San Diego and it became very apparent with the economy dropping and my business tanking there was no way I could afford a house there.
Strangely I had a hobby website (A forum just like this one except about performance boating) that was starting to blow up, and I decided to purchase a house out here in Lake Havasu City to focus on that it see where it takes us.
Fast forward to early 2014, and I haven't played serious pool since 06/07. I now have my daughter Sierra (2), a son named Daniel (1), and another daughter on the way. I haven't been in an actual pool hall since way back, and other then occasionally banging them around on a bar box with some cue that has a press on tip once a year, I honestly haven't played at all.
So you'll remember in early (Jan) 2008, my father passed. I don't know why I do it, because it seems so ridiculous, but around the anniversary of his death every year I'll go out drinking. Now when I say drinking imagine "olympic level" drinking. The kind where you wake up the next morning and say "Man I wish I wouldn't have done that."
This year I was out drinking and well on the way to making an ass of myself when I got the bright idea that me and a buddy would head down to the local pool hall. (We only really have one in this small town) It just so happened that it was league night so most of the local players were there.
I walked in and with nothing short of Keith Mcgreedy (joke) style arrogance made my presence known. It didn't take long to figure out who "the guy" was. The local "home town favorite." The locals warned me "You don't want to play him, he plays with pro's!"
To put it plainly I would've won asshole of the year award in this place, but none the less the drunken plan worked. I had guys lined up to play starting with "him." Now don't get me wrong, I have no problems admitting when I'm in the wrong, or when I've been a *****. This guy though, holy weepin jesus what an idiot.
He came over and proceeded to tell me how he's the best, and on and on.. I told him I haven't played in years and if he's really pro level I think I'd need some kind of weight? In 60 seconds or less we settled on him giving me the seven out. (Yes you read this correctly.. From me kicking open the doors and "who wants to play" to this guy spotting me the 7 out, sight unseen in approximately 2 minutes of negotiations)
We play, and he gets up a couple of games. The locals are smiling, and there was even a high five or two thrown in there. (God I hate league players that think this is a team sport) That lasted a few minutes until the set ended and I won. To say the locals were none to happy is a bit of an understatement. I ended up playing another guy a race to three in eight ball heads up, and walked out the door about hundred richer then I walked in between the two sets (less beer costs).
So the next morning I wake up and the "man I wish I wouldn't have done that" deal starts to kick in. There was no need to be that arrogant, or that much of a *****. I even went so far as to call the bartender and apologize if I was outta line. (remember the locals weren't happy about home town favorite losing so I figured I'd smooth some feathers). I gotta tell you though, it felt pretty good playing a little bit and coming home with some cash even if it's just a little.
So now it's march (2 months after) and I went out with some friends the other night. Guess who I run into.. Apparently he's still very upset about the loss or the night, I dunno. This guys nose is open though, and he's on tilt (read that as angry). So I have some choices here with regards to that, that will make some interesting threads in the future.
So in the meantime, that little experience gave me the itch to get back into the game. My wife knows I want to start playing again, so yesterday she walks in with her cell phone and says "This pool table is for sale, and it looks pretty nice"
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=356467
I call the lady up and ask her how much she wants for it. She says 500.00 for everything, including the cue rack and cues etc.. I figure it's worth that sight unseen so I say "sold" and make the arrangements. Went over and gave her the money and the table is in absolutely great shape, but the playing surface (felt / cushions etc..) need a work over.
So now I'm sitting here waiting for the local billiard shop to call me to schedule the pick up / delivery of said table to my house, and I'm back in the game for 800.00 bucks. (Pre Table mechanic coming out and upping this thing to hard time table standards).
When I left pool.. I had 2 or 3 different cues being made by different mfg's. I also had a kid that I sold one of my KD cues too making payments. (Which I'm pretty sure I just found on e-bay in thailand for 1300) http://www.ebay.com/itm/KD-Kent-Dav...553?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5662170259
I walked away from it all.. I'm kind of half ass wondering how the phone calls are going to go when I call them up and say "Remember me?" Any chance we can pick up where we left off? Truthfully I don't expect anything out of it, since it's been years, but ya never know. Kent Davis is a long long time friend of mine (I actually worked for him for a brief period when he did construction and I was trying to be a pool player), so I expect I'll end up having him make me something here shortly.
In the meantime I have my trusty ole Schon. A Joss sneaky, and a Pechauer that I bought for my wife years back.
There's the story.. Not sure if you found it interesting, entertaining, or a waste of time. Ultimately though, it's just another story of no matter how far you stray, if it's in your blood you will always come back to it.
Some of you may remember me posting from back in 2006 - 2008 era. I was never a huge poster, and didn't start threads that had diagrams of pool tables with suggested outs or questions. I generally tried to post interesting stories of the night before, often with "ethical" debacles and debates that happened in the pool hall the night before.
Two of my personal favorites.
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=43345
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=51689
I'm not going to go all the way back to the beginning, but I'll say when I joined the forum I was an average "B" player by San Diego standards. As an Ex pool "addict" I will say I enjoyed (enjoy) the forum immensely, but quickly found (at least in my area) that the internet world and the world in the pool hall don't exactly "line up."
When I used to post, gambling was kind of frowned upon, and there was some since of nobility nodded towards the tournament players. God help you if you hustled someone out of a couple of bucks they'd want to use your cues as a bat to beat you over the head with. I guess that's fine, but in every pool hall I ever played in (which was quite a few) I have never once seen this chivalry in the game that was always talked about on here, point in fact it has always been quite the opposite. Where I played in San Diego, all the players were always looking for any kind of angle, and the way you measured victory wasn't trying to "prove you're the best" in the "spirit of competition." It was something else entirely.
When I was coming up you basically had to "Pay to Play." If you wanted to learn the best way was to see if you could get a better player to play cheap sets with you, and try to learn as much as you could during those sets. Tournaments were an even cheaper way of accomplishing that goal with a much wider variety of players to learn from. Ultimately though, like life, nothings free. I never much considered it gambling as I did paying them for their time.
I'm not sure if others feel this way, but I always felt the "gambling" opened up a whole new dynamic to the game. The psychological pressures, and even the conversation that is spoken through the game and the bets without ever saying a word. I learned so much about life and people gambling late night in pool halls, that I consider the experience and the wisdom gained nothing short of invaluable. There is no substitute for the kind of wisdom that can come out of pool halls, and old pool players.
I got a bit side tracked there, so I will circle back. In January of 2008 life dropped the bomb on me. My dad passed suddenly, and my entire life changed. No more free office space in the old mans building, now all of a sudden I was paying for the building. I ended up delving into work and pretty much quit playing pool altogether. I should also note, that I've always been a recreational drinker, but during these years I was looking for answers in the bottom of a bottle every time that clock struck 5.
The week my father died, I sold my table and ditched my house I was renting immediately. I took my girlfriend that was living with me and we moved into this apartment on the side of my parents house to look after my mom. It wasn't long before the girlfriend became my wife. To keep with the natural order of things a little while after that the Stork started making his flight from where ever he comes from to deliver my daughter Sierra.
Things became very clear that while I wanted to look after my mom, we had a space issue in this tiny apartment, with 2 dogs, and now a baby. I looked around North County San Diego and it became very apparent with the economy dropping and my business tanking there was no way I could afford a house there.
Strangely I had a hobby website (A forum just like this one except about performance boating) that was starting to blow up, and I decided to purchase a house out here in Lake Havasu City to focus on that it see where it takes us.
Fast forward to early 2014, and I haven't played serious pool since 06/07. I now have my daughter Sierra (2), a son named Daniel (1), and another daughter on the way. I haven't been in an actual pool hall since way back, and other then occasionally banging them around on a bar box with some cue that has a press on tip once a year, I honestly haven't played at all.
So you'll remember in early (Jan) 2008, my father passed. I don't know why I do it, because it seems so ridiculous, but around the anniversary of his death every year I'll go out drinking. Now when I say drinking imagine "olympic level" drinking. The kind where you wake up the next morning and say "Man I wish I wouldn't have done that."
This year I was out drinking and well on the way to making an ass of myself when I got the bright idea that me and a buddy would head down to the local pool hall. (We only really have one in this small town) It just so happened that it was league night so most of the local players were there.
I walked in and with nothing short of Keith Mcgreedy (joke) style arrogance made my presence known. It didn't take long to figure out who "the guy" was. The local "home town favorite." The locals warned me "You don't want to play him, he plays with pro's!"
To put it plainly I would've won asshole of the year award in this place, but none the less the drunken plan worked. I had guys lined up to play starting with "him." Now don't get me wrong, I have no problems admitting when I'm in the wrong, or when I've been a *****. This guy though, holy weepin jesus what an idiot.
He came over and proceeded to tell me how he's the best, and on and on.. I told him I haven't played in years and if he's really pro level I think I'd need some kind of weight? In 60 seconds or less we settled on him giving me the seven out. (Yes you read this correctly.. From me kicking open the doors and "who wants to play" to this guy spotting me the 7 out, sight unseen in approximately 2 minutes of negotiations)
We play, and he gets up a couple of games. The locals are smiling, and there was even a high five or two thrown in there. (God I hate league players that think this is a team sport) That lasted a few minutes until the set ended and I won. To say the locals were none to happy is a bit of an understatement. I ended up playing another guy a race to three in eight ball heads up, and walked out the door about hundred richer then I walked in between the two sets (less beer costs).
So the next morning I wake up and the "man I wish I wouldn't have done that" deal starts to kick in. There was no need to be that arrogant, or that much of a *****. I even went so far as to call the bartender and apologize if I was outta line. (remember the locals weren't happy about home town favorite losing so I figured I'd smooth some feathers). I gotta tell you though, it felt pretty good playing a little bit and coming home with some cash even if it's just a little.
So now it's march (2 months after) and I went out with some friends the other night. Guess who I run into.. Apparently he's still very upset about the loss or the night, I dunno. This guys nose is open though, and he's on tilt (read that as angry). So I have some choices here with regards to that, that will make some interesting threads in the future.
So in the meantime, that little experience gave me the itch to get back into the game. My wife knows I want to start playing again, so yesterday she walks in with her cell phone and says "This pool table is for sale, and it looks pretty nice"
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=356467
I call the lady up and ask her how much she wants for it. She says 500.00 for everything, including the cue rack and cues etc.. I figure it's worth that sight unseen so I say "sold" and make the arrangements. Went over and gave her the money and the table is in absolutely great shape, but the playing surface (felt / cushions etc..) need a work over.
So now I'm sitting here waiting for the local billiard shop to call me to schedule the pick up / delivery of said table to my house, and I'm back in the game for 800.00 bucks. (Pre Table mechanic coming out and upping this thing to hard time table standards).
When I left pool.. I had 2 or 3 different cues being made by different mfg's. I also had a kid that I sold one of my KD cues too making payments. (Which I'm pretty sure I just found on e-bay in thailand for 1300) http://www.ebay.com/itm/KD-Kent-Dav...553?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5662170259
I walked away from it all.. I'm kind of half ass wondering how the phone calls are going to go when I call them up and say "Remember me?" Any chance we can pick up where we left off? Truthfully I don't expect anything out of it, since it's been years, but ya never know. Kent Davis is a long long time friend of mine (I actually worked for him for a brief period when he did construction and I was trying to be a pool player), so I expect I'll end up having him make me something here shortly.
In the meantime I have my trusty ole Schon. A Joss sneaky, and a Pechauer that I bought for my wife years back. There's the story.. Not sure if you found it interesting, entertaining, or a waste of time. Ultimately though, it's just another story of no matter how far you stray, if it's in your blood you will always come back to it.
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