Your Pool Story: how did you get into Pool?

[Eric.]

My Pool addiction start with my best friend, who passed away 2 days ago. He was my friend for my whole adult life, I met him when I was 20. This is my story, along with a fond memory of my brother.

I didn't start playing Pool seriously until I was in my 20's. Like many, I'm sure, I played casually as a kid. As an adult, I would bang em around a lil when a bar had a table. You know, the stereotypical bar banger.

So, at the time, my buddy Murv was out of work. He liked to say that he "worked for the State". Having a lot of time on his hands, he was playing a lot of Pool. On the weekends, we would hit a poolhall. Naturally, he would drill me cuz I didn't play. But, once in a while, I would win a game. I say "win", but it was more like him dogging it to me. It was never a mercy gift cuz we are both competitive and maybe slightly sadistic.

When the stars lined up, I would actually win 2 racks in a row. It happened rarely, and I was as shocked as he was. Thing is, he would get mad. Honestly, pissed off. He would start slamming the balls into the rack and yell at me, saying "That's it, muthafvcker, that's the last rack you're gonna win!". Well, naturally, I wasn't gonna swallow his crap. I started practicing without telling him. I practiced like a nut, for a year, until I could beat him more than he could win off me. I was hooked.

This is Murv. I love you, my brother.

http:// http://m.buckscountycouriertimes.com/obituaries/bcct/eric-steven-murvay/article_ebf816fc-0133-5a57-8190-38c63cf81ea2.html?mode=jqm


Eric

 

[Fast Lenny]

Sorry to hear about your brothers passing. You have to cherish the memories you have an I am sure there were many. :smile:

 

[Johnnyt]

Back in about 1946 as a 5 year old my Dad use to let me ride with him on his ice route. There were firehouses with pool tables in them (mostly 10' pool with an extra set of billiard rails) in every town on Long Island...about 120 towns.

I can, to this day remember him taking the table cover off a Brunswick 10' table and then turn on the three bright lights to shine down on it. It looked like a football field to me. When he started playing, I just watched and listened as he sank ball after ball. After pestering him for a few weeks he got a soda crate for me the step on to push some balls around. I was hooked solid right then and there. Johnnyt

 

[MCP]

The beginning

Early 70s Times Square Billiards. NYC
The pool hall was downstairs below an amusement center (pin ball etc.)

1-After school one day I walk down the flight of stairs look around --
Tom Cosmo playing 1P

2- I go back a few days later look around and believe it was
Johnny Ervolino Playing 1P.

3- go back a few days later I ask for table 19 in the back. I am hooked.

I play almost every day for a few years and I developed a strong 1p game
Then I stopped playing for 35 years. One day out to dinner with my family and the
restaurant has a pool table over by the bar. My daughter says dad didn't you play once
And proceeds to put my name on the board for the next game.

Once this game is in your blood it's there for good.

MCP

 

[Scott Lee]

Eric...My condolences on the passing of your long time friend! Are you and Suzi going to the Open?

Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com

My Pool addiction start with my best friend, who passed away 2 days ago. He was my friend for my whole adult life, I met him when I was 20. This is my story, along with a fond memory of my brother.

I didn't start playing Pool seriously until I was in my 20's. Like many, I'm sure, I played casually as a kid. As an adult, I would bang em around a lil when a bar had a table. You know, the stereotypical bar banger.

So, at the time, my buddy Murv was out of work. He liked to say that he "worked for the State". Having a lot of time on his hands, he was playing a lot of Pool. On the weekends, we would hit a poolhall. Naturally, he would drill me cuz I didn't play. But, once in a while, I would win a game. I say "win", but it was more like him dogging it to me. It was never a mercy gift cuz we are both competitive and maybe slightly sadistic.

When the stars lined up, I would actually win 2 racks in a row. It happened rarely, and I was as shocked as he was. Thing is, he would get mad. Honestly, pissed off. He would start slamming the balls into the rack and yell at me, saying "That's it, muthafvcker, that's the last rack you're gonna win!". Well, naturally, I wasn't gonna swallow his crap. I started practicing without telling him. I practiced like a nut, for a year, until I could beat him more than he could win off me. I was hooked.

This is Murv. I love you, my brother.

http:// http://m.buckscountycouriertimes.com/obituaries/bcct/eric-steven-murvay/article_ebf816fc-0133-5a57-8190-38c63cf81ea2.html?mode=jqm


Eric

 

[DaveK]

Sorry to hear of your friends passing Eric. My condolences to you and his family.

I too banged balls now and then as a teen and early adult (maybe 35 years ago). A good friend could play a bit and we sometimes teamed up at bars and he would win beer for us :thumbup:

About 20 years ago after the now-ex and I got married we bought a house with a huge basement. Her kids were 8 and 10 at the time and she suggested we buy a pool table to fill the basement and give the kids something to keep them off the streets. Turns out it kept me in the basement practicing, reading books about pool, practicing more etc. Maybe 6 months after getting the table I thought I was pretty good so I invited my old friend over ... He thrashed me .... Of course later he admitted to investing about $100 in table time over the couple of weeks preceding that first visit to my basement ... He hates to lose. So do I so I kept practicing ... For about 20 years now ... Hey Kelly, drop by for a game sometime

Dave

 

[RobertaAgnor]

My condolences on the loss of your friend.

 

[Solomon]

Very short version:

I realized that I was a better than average player in my early teens. I quickly figured out that I could make money gambling.

 

[336Robin]

Very short version:

I realized that I was a better than average player in my early teens. I quickly figured out that I could make money gambling.

I will add to that to complete mine:

So I played people I was likely to beat and I made money.

Then one day I got a job....life changed. I worked for years. I re-found pool. I started to write to record things the way I see them. I retired....that was last week....the rest is yet to come.

 

[Eric.]

Thanks for the condolences.

Yes, Scott, I'll be at the US Open again, hope to see you.

It's funny how the Pool bug can bite people in different ways. Even after your original motivation to play, fades, we still stay with it.

I hate this game, but it's a great game.


Eric

 

[CocoboloCowboy]

Boys Club of America in Miami, Florida. That was about 1955, or was it 1954. Now the Boys Club is the PC Boys, & Girls Club. Not sure if the club I started in is still there, don't care, that was over 60 years ago.

 

[BWColeman]

Its inherited

My dad was a hell of a bar box player , he was a road player in the 60s around the Mississippi Delta . When I was 7 years old , My uncle Mike had bought a bar in West Memphis Ar. I went there one morning with my Dad as he was helping Uncle Mike fix some stuff at the Bar and uncle Mike opened the pool table for me to play around basically to keep me occupied , and I was hooked.

I started to really get interested in the game around 14 , started taking it seriously and begging the Old Man for Lessons , He was not all that excited that his son was following his footsteps let me tell you , ( I Know secretly he was glad but he kept up the Charade to stay on Moms good side ) lol , She was not happy to have a road Gambler for a husband and sure was not interested in her baby boy becoming one lol

By the time I hit my late teens I was playing fairly strong and was one of the better players in my little town , So I started hitting the pool halls in Beaumont Tx about 1/2 hour away , and there I saw pool like I had only heard about , money games for sums that were for me unreal at the time , this was the Mid 80s and pool was strong in SE Texas . I became a pretty decent player and would venture out to Houston to Slick Willies on Westhiemer , and a few other of the big action Halls around Houston. Got stung a few times but we all take our lumps learning this game , I layed off for a long time quit playing in my Mid 20s , life , wife , job all those things that pull you away . picked the game back seriously about 3 years ago , not as consistent as I once was but I will say I play a whole lot smarter than I did 20 years ago , don't see my self quitting anytime soon

The Game gets in your blood , and becomes a part of your soul

 

[Scott Lee]

Eric...I feel blessed I guess. I've never lost my love for this game...in 43 years of playing it! Have fun in Chesapeake. I have a corporate booking in Chicago on the 16th, so I won't be able to make it out this year! When you guys go to dinner this year, don't forget to raise a toast to Rich Rhoades! :thumbup:

Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com

Thanks for the condolences.

Yes, Scott, I'll be at the US Open again, hope to see you.

It's funny how the Pool bug can bite people in different ways. Even after your original motivation to play, fades, we still stay with it.

I hate this game, but it's a great game.


Eric

 

[ShootingArts]

long ago and far away . . .

I found pool and drinking at the same time. I also found that other people would pay for my drinking if I played pool better than they did.

With that kind of incentive there was no holding me back!

Hu

 

[smashmouth]

video arcade/pool room as a kid, always liked pool in fact i've never really met anyone who doesn't

 

[Ak Guy]

About age 8

My Dad brought a small table home, I doubt it was over 5' long, some balls were chipped and the little cues were lousy. I loved it and with in 2 weeks I was beating my brothers friends. I played a bunch of 14.1 and 8 ball, golf, snooker and 3 cushion as a kid in the 2 pool halls in our little town in Iowa. I could beat about any one there on a regular basis and I thought I was really something. Family moved to Anchorage, Alaska in 1965 and I searched and found the pool tables. That's where I met some guys I could not beat and discovered 9 ball and easy money games. A guy named John Duclose would play me out of kindness and I marveled at his shot making skill. That is where I met Mark Griffin and he beat my butt too. When I completed my 4 years of over seas service in 1973 came home and never picked up pool again. After about 40 years a friend from work asked me to shoot at the local pool hall. He is a good friend and kicked my butt all over the table. He moved back to Michigan and the pool hall closed down. Woe is me. I still love the game and I'm actively looking for a good 9' table. I had Pat Diviney make me up a couple of cues and he is making me another now. I am hooked for life and would like nothing better then to get Mark and my buddy on a table and beat their butt. Probably wistful thinking on my part so don't bet on me!
















growing up and at age 14 I picked it up again in

 

[TATE]

What motivated me to get good at pool was, when I was a teenager, losing a bet to a guy at an Oakwood apartments clubhouse. He beat me in 8 ball and I had to do 20 pushups in front of the room full of people. This, of course, took place in front of a hot girl I was trying to impress.

I went back and traded a '67 BSA 441 Victor for a Valley bar table, put it in my parent's garage and disappeared for six months.

I used to miss that hot girl, but now, damn I miss that BSA!

 

[Colonel]

Ex road player father owned a pool hall. From the time I was old enough to get to the table I was on one but he made me set up varying drills, patterns & shots from the time I was 8 until I was 11 before he let me play any type of game. Started me then playing 3 ball, then 6 ball, then 9 ball. His friends and former road partners also gave me a thorough education at straight pool, banks, one pocket, moves and a course in rack mechanics. At 14 he had me in action and at 17 I took my first road trip with several of his friends. From that point to here it's been my greatest love in life, this game is like that, it gets a hold on you & I still love it as much today as the first time I struck a ball.

 

[oldplayer]

in my first year of college, 1965, a buddy invited me to go with him to the local pool hall. it was in a small town, Homewood,ala.....went up some old wooden stairs to the second floor and there it was.....wooden floor pool hall with 8 Brunswick 9 foot tables and a snooker table. he introduced me to the game, the owner, and the "house player". we spend the day shooting around balls, mostly 8 and 9 ball. I was hooked and went back the next day and made a friend of the house player. he was in his mid 20's and sadly can't remember his name. he more or less took me under his wing and we spent the next few months playing nothing other than bank pool and straight pool. from there we went to 9 ball.....to this day, I do not need a system for banking, I just give it a look and, bam, in the hole....with my second and third houses I had a pool table and that was for 15 years straight. still hooked to this day. :grin:

 

[tim913]

My dad was a great player back in his day, he's 95 now. When he met mom he gave up the 'heathen' life and settled down to raise 5 boys. He still went out for a couple of hours on a Saturday afternoon, but since he didn't frequent bars anymore, it was to a local bowling alley that had 9' GC's in the back room. I started going with him each Saturday starting at about the age of 7.