These are the fringe games within the fringe sport of pool. There is almost zero interest....and that's not ever changing. Even the average person who plays pool regularly will never play these games and can't run a rack of 9 ball. When they go Vegas for league in say the BCA, they won't even go watch the pros for free.
I for one relish the fringe aspects of pool. The gamblers, clowns and pros...the money. What other sport can you play vs the best in the world in a $200 or less tournament?
Pool is better than it has been in a long time. Myself I'm pretty much done....Zero action here=zero reason to stay in stroke. Probably gonna dump the 9 foot Diamond with Littman light....7k cash and I got access to a cart to move it. My cues are going in the box with me so someone can find them in 100 years and wonder just WTH they are.
I said all this over two years ago when we bought our new house. I sold my Diamond and for the first time in over thirty years I no longer had a pool table in my home. Where we live now in Los Angeles, the closest poolroom is about a 45 minute drive away. No thanks! I basically forgot about playing pool and frankly didn't really miss it that much.
A month and a half ago I came to the Philippines for an extended Xmas vacation, which will continue until the end of January. Maybe about a week into our stay here I began to hear about the pool action in Angeles City and was curious about that. Efren had been matching up here (he lives here) and there was action in a couple of places nearly every night. Cool! The next thing I know I'm driving into town, park my car and lo and behold there is a brand new poolroom upstairs right there. Double cool! It's closed and won't open until after 2 PM so I make a decision to go back that evening.
Surprise, surprise, it's really nice inside with modern furniture, good food offerings and two new Star tables. On closer inspection someone did a really good job of installing these tables. Simply beautiful and calling my name - Jay, Jay, come play with me. So I did and now another surprise - the table played as good as it looked, rolling true and banking sweet. I can play here!
And this was just the beginning. Seems there is a pool resurgence in the Philippines with new rooms opening everywhere. No high rental costs to fade here and easy to get a license to sell adult beverages. In the last two weeks I've found two more nice rooms, both of which stay open all night, and tonight I'm going to check out the big action room. Best of all most of them are within a 10-15 minute drive of my home here.
If that's not good enough, from out of nowhere I get a message from Alex Laoingo, the former owner of Stix Billiards in Rancho Cucamonga, CA. He is a very good player (high level shortstop) and he is visiting here right now. He wants to play pool with me. I know I have no chance so I stall him for a few days so I can at least practice a couple of times for an hour or so. My Predator cue feels good in my hands, thank you Joyren who sold it to me eight years ago. It had been getting dusty in the closest here. I know that I can't beat Alex playing even at One Pocket like we did years ago, but I tell my wife if he wants to gamble he will have to give me all the breaks. Then I have a chance. Alex is a nice guy but a stone cold hustler. That's why I like him so much. As a second choice my plan is to tell him if you want to play even, we can play some Banks. I like my chances there much better!
One more surprise, when we get together Alex is really cool. He says we can play One Pocket and gamble a little or just play for the time. Damn, the world has shifted on its axis. We played for the time and it was fun and I was more competitive than I thought. Some local guys are watching us and I ask Alex can we play them a partners game and he says they won't play us, they are below our speed. I'm feeling pretty good now.
The bottom line of all this is that I want to play pool again. For the first time in years! I know that it's good for me and my old body to be walking, bending and stretching. My wife shot a short live video of us playing and posted it on FB. If you want to see old Jay in action go to my page (Jay Helfert of course) and take a look.
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It's the new 760