To be honest, I don't recall ever getting very excited in tournaments. Even after winning a tournament I pretty much would shake my opponents hand that would be it. The action matches were what would be fun for me. After winning a big gambling match or game I might do a fist pump with a "YEAH BABY " or something along those lines but never anything too too crazy............ except this one time!
Guess it would have been around the late 90's or so. I was around 20ish. I was playing old Eddie Bow Legs races to 7 for a $1000 in 9 ball. A little back story on 'Pl Eddie Bow Legs - he was a cantankerous old far that loved talking sheet lol. He used it as a shark move to try to get in your head and off your game. I never really let him get to me because the pool rooms I came up in there were 1001 shark moves and I had already pretty seen them all. Just as already llc example of some of the things he would say would be " kid, you suckered so bad you don't even deserve to have your own pool cue " , or maybe something like " kid, you ought to take this money your playing for and go get a hooker cause at least that way you be having a good time " lol, etc, etc.
So, back to our match - he won the first set something like 7 to 5, talking smack the whole way lol. First game of the second set he broke and was on a run. Shooting on the 8, he missed and cue ball was heading right for the corner pocket with speed - looked like a dead scratch at first. Well the cue ball hit the titty, rattled a bunch of times and came to rest right on the lip hanging half off in the pocket. No idear how it DID NOT scratch but it didnt. The 8 ball came to rest dead square in the center of the table. The 8 ball and the cue ball ended up being DEAD STRAIGHT. After looking at the shot for quite some time trying to decide what to do with it, I decided I was firing at it ( as I often do lol ) . So DEEP in the pocket I jack up my cue so I can get the needed draw on it to get shape on the 9 ball ( which BTW was located in the middle of the foot rail - which was right by the pocket I am shooting out of and the 9 ball was frozen too lol ). I stroked it may be 3 or 4 times and fire the 8 ball in dead center pocket about 100 MPH , and yup you guessed it.........draw the cue ball back dead center pocket and scratch out of the very pocket I am shooting out of ( no titties for me

, scratched like it had eyes lol!
So I am now down 0-1 this second set race to 7. Honestly, I couldn't let it go and ended up getting down 1-6. With ,your ol Bow Legs on the hill, I made an incredible out and got myself really fired up and determined ( and all the trash talking he was doing didn't hurt either. I turned to my boy and said " if I win this set I am gonna do cart wheels are around the pool hall! ". I certainly did not run a 5 pack that's for sure but rather a lot of ducking with some awesome safties, a couple unbelievable outs, a full table 9 ball bank with the cue ball frozen to the foot rail with the 9 on the head rail and before I knew it it was all ties up hill and I had all but silenced the Old Legs. I don't recall exactly what the hill-hill put was, BUT I do remember pumping in the final 9 ball with force and how good it felt!
True to my word, I did in fact do cart wheels all up and down, back and forth the length of the pool room ( which was Jack & Jills BTW for those of Yale that remember the place ). When I pumped in the final 9 ball for that set the place went wild because there was a ton of side action on our match between my crew from Glen Burnie and all the Dundalk Boyz that came over with Eddie Bow Legs ( Don't know the exact dollar amount but there were like 10 side bets so I'm sure the rail action was heavier than what I was playing for but I didn't have any of it, I was good with the G I was playing for and I had all of it. I will admit doing the cart wheels as I did was way over the top but I was just so excited that I won and it didn't really have anything to do with the $1K- it was that I finally shut the old man up lol! That was an isolated incident as most of the time it would be just the fist pump as I mentioned earlier.