Opinions regarding a former top pro playing in and dominating a Poolroom‘s weekly handicapped tournament?
- Thread starter ChrisinNC
- Start date
If you put the blame on yourself then who(m) is left to blame...
The old cue you're playing with...?..., lol
I am going to play this 40% 4 ball no matter WHO's at the table with me, and then head for the 5/9 dead in. If you allow the fact that you are playing Filler, Ouschan, Shaw, FSR, SVB, Bergman or any one of the Ko brothers into your head - at match time, then you are making your 40-percenter jump to a 60-percenter for sure. So you are your own worst enemy. Just process that when you are putting your cues away and your tail is between your legs. Your 2nd scenario says the guy is old, bad eyesight and can't shoot but you believe you are a "slight favorite." This one makes me laugh. Was this 5pm match held in the Whispering Pines Manor Nursing Home clubhouse last Thursday? Cuz at 7pm, it's pill and bedtime.
The long and the short: I am surrounded in weekly training / sparring by 600-740's and we all practice and play tourneys pretty much the same. Lights out. No bullshit. One goal. I guess there is no right or wrong and I certainly won't tell anyone how to play. That would be pretty arrogant. We are not enemies here on this forum and no need to belabor the topic any further to the point of boring the readers. We are just different.
You do know that there are a real lot of former pros that fall into this category, don't you? They can still play because of their knowledge, despite their fading eyesight. Shot making is the first skill old age robs us of. They can still play; they just miss more than they used to.
Now THAT is something you said I do believe is true. I was at my father's clubhouse one evening before he passed, at 97. In addition to his weekly Tue night co-ed 8-ball "torture fest," he played in a men's-only 9-ball on Thurs. At 93, he was still taking money off those old geezers and all games were on 9' Gandys. He played all his life and passed the passion on and into me. I joined in one evening just for fun, thinking I was "all that," only to be near-throttled by this 87 year old. Yes, a former semi-pro and instructor, and sure, it's 9-ball, but this guy had his act together and me, coming off 3 consecutive 16hr shifts, wasn't the sharpest sword. I barely won. I still remember when he plugged in one 3-railer and a few thin cuts WITH position. I was shocked. I was humbled. I one day, as all of us will be, one of those 'ol geezers. It's a life-lesson and also gives me hope that if I DO make it that far, I will still be on a 9' somewhere playing some young stud in tight clothes with cool hair, and taking his 10 dollars.
I recall hearing Danny Diliberto was still hitting 100 ball runs when he was 80.Now THAT is something you said I do believe is true. I was at my father's clubhouse one evening before he passed, at 97. In addition to his weekly Tue night co-ed 8-ball "torture fest," he played in a men's-only 9-ball on Thurs. At 93, he was still taking money off those old geezers and all games were on 9' Gandys. He played all his life and passed the passion on and into me. I joined in one evening just for fun, thinking I was "all that," only to be near-throttled by this 87 year old. Yes, a former semi-pro and instructor, and sure, it's 9-ball, but this guy had his act together and me, coming off 3 consecutive 16hr shifts, wasn't the sharpest sword. I barely won. I still remember when he plugged in one 3-railer and a few thin cuts WITH position. I was shocked. I was humbled. I one day, as all of us will be, one of those 'ol geezers. It's a life-lesson and also gives me hope that if I DO make it that far, I will still be on a 9' somewhere playing some young stud in tight clothes with cool hair, and taking his 10 dollars.
InsertCleverNameHere
Well-known member
You're absolutely correct, running out is always best. The issue comes when you might not run out. Now, if winning isn't your main goal, I would agree again; no need to think or use any kind of strategy...just try to run our regardless of how slim your chances are.
InsertCleverNameHere
Well-known member
I get it. You sometimes incorporate a strategy that is counterproductive to winning. I guess that's still considered a strategy. We agree!
That allowed me to give 8 ball lessons. Well after I paid for mine. I tried to play My 9 ball game at 8 ball and Rodney Ward, Jim's son. (With a little coaching ) got his money back and then my allowance as well. I had him stuck around 40 at 5 a game playing 9 ball and Dad told him to change the game to 8 ball at 10 a game. I paid for that lesson. Money well spent though.
In my improving years I'd intentionally match up with another that I felt was ''just'' a little better than I.
But only Once a year.....
I found it helpful in learning where my game suffered and needed attention.
I'd never do this with a scum bag, a player with good moral character would be my choice.
Nice thing when you ask em, they never say No.
That allowed me to give 8 ball lessons. Well after I paid for mine. I tried to play My 9 ball game at 8 ball and Rodney Ward, Jim's son. (With a little coaching ) got his money back and then my allowance as well. I had him stuck around 40 at 5 a game playing 9 ball and Dad told him to change the game to 8 ball at 10 a game. I paid for that lesson. Money well spent though.
I liked getting nine ball players into the "too easy" eightball game. They found it almost impossible to play safe in the target rich environment they weren't used to while I was able to play the much tighter safeties required when you did have to play safe.
I learned a new safety that required perfect speed control watching Corey playing Efren in the semi's I believe of the DCC One Pocket. Looking at the table Corey appeared had. Anything he did was going to leave Efren a shot and of course leaving Efren a shot was almost leaving him the game and in this case the match. The cue ball was frozen to one long rail, an object ball on the other long rail the same distance from the pocket.
With the gentlest of nudges on the hot TV table Corey rolled the cue ball across the table to the object ball nudging it out of position and touching the rail and the object ball with the cue ball. Corey had played a perfect one ball safety on Efren's side of the table!
A side note, Corey had gotten that far by slug racking himself every break! Apparently no rule against it on your break, he would rack then with the rack still over the balls blatantly pull the last two rows back creating a large gap in the rack with the expected results. Nobody ever protested that I saw.
Hu
Trucker1989
New member
My first question is why you would be concerned with someone else's tournament and room?? My second question would be, are you playing in that tournament? Now on to my opinion's. I would think if someone had an opportunity to play a former top pro in any sport, and like you pointed out, should "relish" that opportunity. Now onto whether it's fair or not and handicapped correctly. In most local/regional tournaments you have players just starting to a seasoned player that pushes a 650+ Fargo, and they hide their skills as well to keep their odds better, so it's never fair. The "pro" is known and isn't trying hide it. You see I play in this room/tournament weekly, and the "pro" has had his ranking raised every week. The number of racks he has to win to get the win is extremely tough for anyone, even him. I personally have beat him in this weekly tournament, due to the handicap and a couple of mistakes that he made at the wrong moment. I personally haven't heard anyone complain about the "pro" playing in the tournament, but I'm sure some of the regular winners might not like it as much as some of us lower-level players. If lower skilled players approached it with the same attitude as the people you claim are complaining at this pool room, then anyone that doesn't have a 90-95% chance to win shouldn't donate their $25 to play weekly. The only people that I can see having a problem with it would be the ones who have the advantage to win most nights when the "pro" isn't there, so now they have to face someone with more skills than them and earn the money. I will also say he's more than willing to help anyone that wants help and has an open mind. I myself paid for a private lesson and have met him just to play on several other occasions and received "free" lessons on those occasions as well just because. My last opinion goes back to my first question. This isn't your room or concern if you aren't putting up your $25, so to even bring this up on a forum seems more like you could be envious of this room having him in their house and not in your house. Just my opinion!
This thread has been dead for a month, so it’s curious to me why you would even bring it back up again? I never mentioned the name of the Poolroom, the Player, or the Poolroom owner, out of respect for their privacy, which means 99% of the people here who read and responded to this thread have no clue as to the people involved.
No, I don’t play in the tournament, but a number of our regular players that play in our tournaments play in that tournament and have complained to me about the situation, which is why I was curious how some of those neutral observers on here felt about it.
When a player has won 90%of their matches over numerous tournaments in what is supposed to be a fairly handicapped tournament, any good TD with any sense of fairness knows that something is not right and needs to be corrected.
This player has not played in this tournament recently, after having played in it regularly for the previous 3+ months. Whether it has anything to do with me starting this thread, I have no idea, but I have a hard time believing that would indeed be the case.
Something needed to be done, and apparently it has been, either by the actions from the Poolroom owner / TD in order to keep from potentially losing some of his longtime tournament regulars, or by the player himself realizing maybe it was not appropriate for him to continue playing in and winning this tournament as much as he was.
Regarding the tournaments at our Poolroom, which I run, I always listen to feedback from our players as to their opinions regarding our tournament, different players rankings, how the tournament is run, etc. I may not agree with them but I will hear them out and give them my reasons for why I do it the way I do and why players are ranked as they are. I am open to considering alterations including the rankings of all players, if I feel changes are warranted for the fairness and integrity of the tournament and all of our players.
It is not easy running tournaments and particularly attempting to fairly and accurately handicap all the players for a handicapped tournament. I have tremendous respect for this room owner who has successfully owned and operated his non-alcoholic poolroom and run weekly tournaments in a small town location for nearly 40 years. I am sure this issue would have eventually been dealt with and corrected by him without any outside interference. If that is/was the case here and he feels I crossed the line by starting this thread in regards to how he runs his tournaments and how he’s dealt with handicapping this particular player, I will discuss and apologize to him when I next have the opportunity.
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Threads don’t have a shelf life. Often times people will be searching about and find something 10 or 15 years since the last post that they find interesting and post a reply. I actually like seeing that.
Now one month old ain’t shit and your thread is controversial. So you should be happy you’re getting action!!
Threads don’t have a shelf life. Often times people will be searching about and find something 10 or 15 years since the last post that they find interesting and post a reply. I actually like seeing that.
Now one month old ain’t shit and your thread is controversial. So you should be happy you’re getting action!!
I too like the old threads coming back to life. Reading the posts of old friends again brings back fond memories.
Hu
Flakeandrun
Well-known member
In response to the thread title... "Let him cook"