A road player once said to me, "this is like robbery without a gun". He was referring to the ease at which he was able to take off the fair players around the city we were. The top players he stayed away from and didn't bother trying to match up with. He asked me not to ID hm and a I didn't and I felt complicit in his "robbery". I was a mark as well, he got me for 2k "stake" money to go ply his trade out in Vegas at the BCA Nationals.
Hustling is sleazy. It's also clever. In society we put value on the trickster. We admire the man who gets over on people and the system even as we revile him for stealing as well. I don't think that there isn't a one of us who at times in our lives has not felt a little satisfaction from exploiting a loophole or figuring out some workaround that wasn't entirely "legal".
Then again I also think that people are mostly honest and not trying to get over on everyone they meet. Mostly because society couldn't really function if it wasn't that way but also because individually it's way easier to be basically trustful of people you know and people you meet than to be generally distrustful. Thus by being trustworthy you don't have to be in a state of constant wariness looking for opportunities to screw someone over and watching out for being screwed over.
That said there are places where hustling is expected and a pool room is one of them. Any place where gambling is happening there are going to be people trying to get the edge. Otherwise it's just going to be called fondling money as it's passed back and forth. The goal of gambling is to be the one to walk away with the money and in a true gambling scenario the odds are 50/50 which means over time the only loser is the participants and the only winner is the house which takes a rake from the activity.
So the fact is that everyone who participates with any thought of winning actually thinks that they have the edge. And those who KNOW that they have the advantage, not just an edge, are not gambling. They are stealing BECAUSE the other side thinks that they are gambling. And every action that the one with the advantage takes to cement that advantage is what hustling is.
And those actions are sleazy. They are also clever and dangerous. Which is why just about every pool player who has gambled has secretly aspired to be a hustler. And then most of us grow out of it with the understanding that we can have both admiration and disgust at the lifestyle but know it's not in us or for to live that way. I speak for myself literally and probably for a lot of of others as well.
Hustling is sleazy. It's also clever. In society we put value on the trickster. We admire the man who gets over on people and the system even as we revile him for stealing as well. I don't think that there isn't a one of us who at times in our lives has not felt a little satisfaction from exploiting a loophole or figuring out some workaround that wasn't entirely "legal".
Then again I also think that people are mostly honest and not trying to get over on everyone they meet. Mostly because society couldn't really function if it wasn't that way but also because individually it's way easier to be basically trustful of people you know and people you meet than to be generally distrustful. Thus by being trustworthy you don't have to be in a state of constant wariness looking for opportunities to screw someone over and watching out for being screwed over.
That said there are places where hustling is expected and a pool room is one of them. Any place where gambling is happening there are going to be people trying to get the edge. Otherwise it's just going to be called fondling money as it's passed back and forth. The goal of gambling is to be the one to walk away with the money and in a true gambling scenario the odds are 50/50 which means over time the only loser is the participants and the only winner is the house which takes a rake from the activity.
So the fact is that everyone who participates with any thought of winning actually thinks that they have the edge. And those who KNOW that they have the advantage, not just an edge, are not gambling. They are stealing BECAUSE the other side thinks that they are gambling. And every action that the one with the advantage takes to cement that advantage is what hustling is.
And those actions are sleazy. They are also clever and dangerous. Which is why just about every pool player who has gambled has secretly aspired to be a hustler. And then most of us grow out of it with the understanding that we can have both admiration and disgust at the lifestyle but know it's not in us or for to live that way. I speak for myself literally and probably for a lot of of others as well.
