Opinions regarding a former top pro playing in and dominating a Poolroom‘s weekly handicapped tournament?

As I’ve said earlier, I totaly agree. The onus is completely on the TD to correct the handicap, which up to this point he has chosen to side for this celebrity player over all of his regulars, which is too bad. To clarify, it is not my Poolroom or my tournament, I was just looking for feedback.
just tell us who it is please! There are few "celebrity" pool players- so it must be a big-time player
 
I think the best situation for learning how to play with pressure is to play in tournaments where you are about in the middle of the pack. You can learn techniques and shots from the better players and work on winning when you should from the weaker players.

A 400 will learn nothing about actually playing by entering the US Open.
Being someone closer to the 400 end of the spectrum than most of the rest of y'all (hell, I'm probably lower, I suck, lol) I agree with this.

I don't have an issue playing someone much stronger than me, happens a lot. It's fun to see the really good player doing his thing, up close. Tho I've never played anyone pro speed, we have a 650 who plays in our league, and our weekly chip tourneys, and he's fun to watch. Obviously far stronger than most everyone that plays in our little corner of the world. (And gracious. And he gets extra handicapped in the chip tourneys).

Addressing the issue in the original post, if I was a regular player in a local tourney, and someone WAY beyond the regulars started showing up every week, I think I could understand being put off and less willing to donate to that one guy. But that's just me, and my financial situation. It is probably still pretty cool to have a pro show up to play every week.

It's no doubt a tough spot for the room owner.
 
Uh oh! I am back and triggered (again 😉). Uh where was I.? Oh yeah , " The taste of blood excites me." Is a favorite quote. Spoken by a workmate that played professionally basketball. 🤷‍♂️ go figure. Have you noticed how the basketball players use their elbows?
Fortunately action on the pool table can trigger the same...without the blood. Shrug.

I can understand the basketball player having a liking for blood. Our high school PE and pick-up basketball games were far rougher than football and no pads. I played forward on pure aggression being only about six-one. Three people would go up for a ball, one would get it, two would be rolling around in pain on the floor. I had boxed a little and after an elbow or two coming my way it wasn't unknown for somebody to encounter a fist to the short ribs or breast bone when nobody could see a short uppercut in the crowded conditions. A few BS fouls called got much the same results. Hey, I needed a breather anyway!

I was OK playing football but I miss our idea of basketball.

Hu
 
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A few BS fouls called got much the same results.
Well the point I was going for had to do with tough competition, with the taste of blood being a metaphor.
However going down the off topic branch I have created.(imagine that 😉). My workmate was also named Greg and played basketball in Portugal. At 6'4" I am pretty sure he played forward. He said that starting out he had to create a reputation by getting thrown out of games.
His name soon became El Loco Americano. It helped get him Space just like the swinging elbows when he had the ball.
In pool a reputation can get you extra shots.

There hope that gets us a little closer to the topic. Well the crybaby that doesn't want a retired pro allowed. Should man up and test himself on the field of friendly strife. A defeated attitude going in is self full filling. 🤷‍♂️
 
Of course in the bar box world I resided in the threat of violence was often employed as a shark. A small Samoan (just under 200 lbs) got the taste of blood excites me, well the threat of lesson. Jumped into our $10 ring game and was acting physical aggressive. It was my break. I broke and ran a pair just to show him how much he scared me. 🤷‍♂️
 
Being someone closer to the 400 end of the spectrum than most of the rest of y'all (hell, I'm probably lower, I suck, lol) I agree with this.

I don't have an issue playing someone much stronger than me, happens a lot. It's fun to see the really good player doing his thing, up close. Tho I've never played anyone pro speed, we have a 650 who plays in our league, and our weekly chip tourneys, and he's fun to watch. Obviously far stronger than most everyone that plays in our little corner of the world. (And gracious. And he gets extra handicapped in the chip tourneys).

Addressing the issue in the original post, if I was a regular player in a local tourney, and someone WAY beyond the regulars started showing up every week, I think I could understand being put off and less willing to donate to that one guy. But that's just me, and my financial situation. It is probably still pretty cool to have a pro show up to play every week.

It's no doubt a tough spot for the room owner.
If you get a chance to see an event where pros play, like big opens in your state, it's a great experience. I watched them play some at the Big Dogs Midwest Expo. It was a cool experience. At that time Kristina Tkach was just starting to be on the radar and was in the open division on the 7 foot tables. Between my matches on the I watched her play quite a bit. It was an eye opener. I didn't know who the heck she was but it was easy to recognize a real player when you saw one.

Up until that point in real life I had only seen local good players, bar beating killers or the guys who were instructors and such, but they just seemed like they had a hitch in their game when getting their stance/fundamentals. Like too focused on perfection to get into the flow, practice table mentality in competition type thing... She basically played top notch with great fundamentals but looked smooth doing it. Like each shot/stroke was the same and got into stance smoothly.

That's when I realized you didn't have to have a game full of hitches and looking at your feet to do fundamentals right. I probably sound like an idiot, but in my area it's pretty tough to casually run into a good player like that. We do have some good players but mostly self taught or hardened through years of nightly action... it's hard to learn much from them by watching as they have no "tells" so you don't know if they know what they are doing or not. With someone like Kristina you can tell she is an excellent player without all the ego stuff you get in battle hardened nightly gamblers of the past.
 
If you get a chance to see an event where pros play, like big opens in your state, it's a great experience. I watched them play some at the Big Dogs Midwest Expo. It was a cool experience. At that time Kristina Tkach was just starting to be on the radar and was in the open division on the 7 foot tables. Between my matches on the I watched her play quite a bit. It was an eye opener. I didn't know who the heck she was but it was easy to recognize a real player when you saw one.
I was fortunate one evening at our local room to have Mike Dechaine come in and spend much of the night there, on one of our league nights. He did challenge matches, and a bunch of proposition shots, and such. It really was fun to watch him do his thing.
 
I talk about this here:

Tin Man, you sure know how to make the guilty feel guilty!😅

That's a great segment. I try not to let my ego get out of line, but of course that's probably just my ego thinking that! Thanks for posting the clip, it definitely gives me something to study. I try not to make stories about myself in my own mind but it happens. Like when one is forced to make 2-3 insanely difficult shots in a row, your opponent or some bystander says "wow nice shot!" and then I miss the easiest shot of the rack... I absolutely hate when someone says good shot, because I start believing it. I'd rather be clear minded like it's not even me doing it. I guess it could maybe be like meditation, recognize the thought and let it pass. Trying to ignore it sure doesn't work.

I've never even heard of the concept of the competitor cycle before. It just goes to show how it is when you don't know you don't know. I didn't even know it was something to know. :) Thanks again!
 
This thread started out hypothetical, now people want to make it personal. What someone thinks about it doesn’t really matter, unless you’re the TD or you play in it.
 
This thread started out hypothetical, now people want to make it personal. What someone thinks about it doesn’t really matter, unless you’re the TD or you play in it.
First day on the internet?

It was never hypothetical, it's something that's on-going.

Precedence can affect all of us, not that this is a court of law
 
Tin Man, you sure know how to make the guilty feel guilty!😅

That's a great segment. I try not to let my ego get out of line, but of course that's probably just my ego thinking that! Thanks for posting the clip, it definitely gives me something to study. I try not to make stories about myself in my own mind but it happens. Like when one is forced to make 2-3 insanely difficult shots in a row, your opponent or some bystander says "wow nice shot!" and then I miss the easiest shot of the rack... I absolutely hate when someone says good shot, because I start believing it. I'd rather be clear minded like it's not even me doing it. I guess it could maybe be like meditation, recognize the thought and let it pass. Trying to ignore it sure doesn't work.

I've never even heard of the concept of the competitor cycle before. It just goes to show how it is when you don't know you don't know. I didn't even know it was something to know. :) Thanks again!


Believe it or not, ego is your best friend! When you put your money up to play in a tournament you have just as much right as anyone to win. Ego is what tells you that you can!

One way I evaluate competition is a quick pass around the venue. Maybe eighty percent of competitors are saying they can't beat three or four monsters in the event. Might be true, but what I have learned is that these people are also very unlikely to beat the people genuinely trying to beat the monsters. Just a quiet walk around often lets me eliminate seventy or eighty percent of competitors. Now the numbers are small enough to work with.

One thing, never say anything negative about yourself. I went to the extreme of taking negative words out of my everyday vocabulary for a few years or so. Might have sounded a little stilted when I had to say something negative at work. It was an unintended consequence but I found myself much more popular even at work. I was at my doctor's office a few days ago and his nurse commented I was so calm and laid back she couldn't even picture me getting angry or upset about something. Funny, but a nice impression to give!

Easier said than done but building our mental game will pay huge dividends. That does include not coming across as understating our abilities. False modesty is as deadly to our unconscious as real modesty. Those of us that desire to are winners, whether it be past, present, or future. Always keep in mind that you are there to win and it will happen. Not every time but a lot more often than when you are writing yourself off against the top of the field.

Remember, you are there to have fun and winning is more fun than losing!

Hu
 
Tin Man, you sure know how to make the guilty feel guilty!😅

That's a great segment. I try not to let my ego get out of line, but of course that's probably just my ego thinking that! Thanks for posting the clip, it definitely gives me something to study. I try not to make stories about myself in my own mind but it happens. Like when one is forced to make 2-3 insanely difficult shots in a row, your opponent or some bystander says "wow nice shot!" and then I miss the easiest shot of the rack... I absolutely hate when someone says good shot, because I start believing it. I'd rather be clear minded like it's not even me doing it. I guess it could maybe be like meditation, recognize the thought and let it pass. Trying to ignore it sure doesn't work.

I've never even heard of the concept of the competitor cycle before. It just goes to show how it is when you don't know you don't know. I didn't even know it was something to know. :) Thanks again!
Thank you boogie.

I rarely talk mental game because in my experience people drastically undervalue it. Possibly because most mental game advice is rather obnoxious and ineffective.

I do have a mental game system that I believe is effective in that it really looks at the roots of where our negative emotions stem from. It helps me recognize when I'm in the wrong mindset, identify what thoughts or stories are keeping me there, and provides me strategies to let those go (you're right that ignoring them doesn't work which is what most people try) while refocusing on more effective stories. I'm not saying this makes me a genius. I've just dogged it so many times I eventually started to see the patterns of how it played out, why, and some ways that don't fail as spectacularly.

Anyway, this is obviously not a thread about mental game. I guess I just wanted to say thank you for the positive feedback. It helps to know that something I say lands with someone. Keep fighting the good fight. We'll never stay in the right mindset all of the time but if you can regroup more quickly when you're down and handle the swings maturely with good humor then you're in a small minority of champions.
 
Thank you boogie.

I rarely talk mental game because in my experience people drastically undervalue it. Possibly because most mental game advice is rather obnoxious and ineffective.

I do have a mental game system that I believe is effective in that it really looks at the roots of where our negative emotions stem from. It helps me recognize when I'm in the wrong mindset, identify what thoughts or stories are keeping me there, and provides me strategies to let those go (you're right that ignoring them doesn't work which is what most people try) while refocusing on more effective stories. I'm not saying this makes me a genius. I've just dogged it so many times I eventually started to see the patterns of how it played out, why, and some ways that don't fail as spectacularly.

Anyway, this is obviously not a thread about mental game. I guess I just wanted to say thank you for the positive feedback. It helps to know that something I say lands with someone. Keep fighting the good fight. We'll never stay in the right mindset all of the time but if you can regroup more quickly when you're down and handle the swings maturely with good humor then you're in a small minority of champions.

The mental game is one of the few places we still have a lot to talk about. The best way to make a shot is usually pretty cut and dried. The best mental preparation and mental management during a match, always more to be said. Not only that, people can have radically different ideas and all be right!

Reading about a great old billiards player, he believes hating your opponent while playing is a key to success. I disagree, wasted energy. Plus I am playing friends, maybe family, and strangers in a tournament. I don't want to generate feelings of anger or hate at any of them even for a few minutes. For me, all are just obstacles to be gotten past as quickly and easily as possible. Different mindsets and while I have read of a good many people recommending hating their opponent, I am half Sicilian, hate is a blood feud, not something I can turn off and on.

Hu
 
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