Non-Gambling Pool Players

Scrunge19 said:
I’ve never gambled or played pool for money. I don’t need the money and I don’t want to potentially take money away from someone who does.

The local guys who gamble at my hall are constantly arguing or having a disagreement about this or that. That’s their prerogative but I’m looking for less aggravation in my life, not more.
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If the ‘time machine’ had actually been invented, I would recommend a trip back to a time/place where nearly everyone played for money, and all argumentative/disagreeable patrons were automatically banned from the premises.
Whether you or your opponent needs the money is irrelevant. It is a way to keep score and focus play, nothing more.
 
billiards_watch said:
Its just super inconvenient. You have to go to the bank to get cash when work allows for direct deposit. Unless you have to go to the bank and cash checks from your customers.

I'm trying to make everything as easy for me as possible. I'm trying to eliminate the hassle of going to the gas station with an electric vehicle. I would never have to go to a gas station and deal with people. Gas stations is where all walks of life meet. Whether good or bad.

If they had lockers at my pool hall then I would definitely leave it there.
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Every supermarket, target, walmart, etc. has an ATM. You don't have to go to a bank or a gas station.
 
when my area had a power outage longer than a week the small town and the area had no gas available at all to buy.
no restaurants and few stores open
and food was cash only or local checks only. they gave away all the ice cream and most of the frozen foods for free as they defrosted.
no gold or silver as the owners dont know what it is worth. and no trades.

it doesnt have to be a world crash but just a month or two which can happen.
 
Biloxi Boy said:
I want to pose this as delicately as possible lest I cause offense. Does the new breed actually have what it takes to gamble in the manner previously associated with pool, a la McCready and Roberts? It is one thing to have capacity and decline as opposed to decline when one lacks capacity.
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That's true and I had many a player that did gamble ask me why I didn't. A super strong socal player named CJ (not Wiley), we would regularly have sessions just playing or playing really cheap where we would just go back and forth all night. He once said, "man, why don't you gamble, you could make tons of money" At the time I was an IT Director for an auto dealership group and I said, "I like having my guaranteed salary and don't really want to risk it gambling".

Does that make me a nit? I don't think so, I think it just makes me smart.

I don't never gamble and I don't wait for lock up nitty shit either. I just prefer to just play the game without the added BS that comes with trying to make a game.

I gambled small with many a player. I've gambled all over the country but never in ways that would've gotten my name spread around. I've played Scott Frost, John Schmidt, Henessee, Jamie Farell, Johnny Archer, Shawn Putnum, Donny Mills, etc etc...

I did fairly well in the Mezz West state tour finishing 12th overall in the first two seasons even though I had already stopped playing at that point. I was literally playing league once a week (they were my tour sponsor) and playing the tour events and that was it.

That was in lieu of playing 6-15 hours a day 6 or 7 days a week before that. Once I took the job working in one place at home all the time and not traveling all over the country or going to school full time, I just didn't have the opportunity to play like that any more. I may be getting to a place where I can start playing like that again. We'll see if I can and if I can play as consistently as I used to when I do.

When I moved to Arizona I was hoping to start playing again, but working in the oil fields pre covid, I was on a rig for two weeks at a time which is not conducive to playing regularly so I would come home and have to try to practice and compete and just couldn't maintain the consistency.
 
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Ended up playing some onepocket last night. Played ok actually, ran the balls nicely and felt good enough about it. Only $20 per rack. Ended up 2 games after a few hours and I am ill plus worn out, so I stopped. You should have heard all the moaning...you can't quit winner blah blah blah. It's one of the reasons gambling at pool sux. At least at the racetrack, the teller doesn't give you any lip. At the pool hall, sometimes you lose even when you win
 
"Quitting" presents a problem with gamblers. I would always make clear how long I expected to play. This was not always a perfect solution, so I would make it clear that, as a "winner", I would be available for a return engagement at a later date. Why wouldn't I want to?
 
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I didn’t see it mentioned in this thread, but Ned Polsky wrote about this in the early 1960s after the Hustler came out. He pointed out that people no longer gambled like they did in the 40s, identifying the exact same reasons people flag in this thread for why today people no longer gamble like they used to (fear of physical conflict, being robbed, dealing with cantankerous old people, tournaments and leagues being safer with less violence, etc).


I suspect if we went to the 1940s, people were complaining that the kids didn’t gamble like they did in the 1920s. And so on and so on back to the beginning of time.
 
SeniorTom said:
I would imagine that a lot of skirmishes arise over not agreeing on the rules of any particular game. How I play 8 ball, for example, might be different than another's rules of play.
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This happens often and different from pool hall to pool hall. They seem to have their own set of rules on how to play. Heck, its been so long I forget the actual rules of 8 ball. Some people play ball and hand on fouls, some behind the kitchen on a scratch and some is ball and hand. Some is still open after making something off the break and some say you are whatever you make. If you make stripes/solid on the break then your next pocketed ball is yours.

I don't even know anymore.
 
Biloxi Boy said:
"Quitting" presents a problem with gamblers. I would always make clear how long I expected to play. This was not always a perfect solution, so I would make it clear that, as a "winner", I would be available for a return engagement at a later date. Why wouldn't I want to?
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It goes without saying, among honorable sportsmen, that quitting at any time is perfectly acceptable. There is never any obligation to offer a rematch either, and no reason to make excuses. ‘Gamblers’ may disagree, thus the difference becomes obvious.
 
I Love it when a player ask to play apa league rule! Knowing they meant ball in hand. But I have won many games when they failed to mark the pocket for 8 ball with a marker. Then they get soooo p@ss off.
 
kling&allen said:
I didn’t see it mentioned in this thread, but Ned Polsky wrote about this in the early 1960s after the Hustler came out. He pointed out that people no longer gambled like they did in the 40s, identifying the exact same reasons people flag in this thread for why today people no longer gamble like they used to (fear of physical conflict, being robbed, dealing with cantankerous old people, tournaments and leagues being safer with less violence, etc).


I suspect if we went to the 1940s, people were complaining that the kids didn’t gamble like they did in the 1920s. And so on and so on back to the beginning of time.
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Hogwash. People don't gamble as much any more, because the populace as a collective whole has less spare money to risk, due to falling wages, out of control inflation, and rising home prices. People are doing well enough these days if they can afford rent/mortgage, plus a car payment.

People seem to find the money to gamble with the whales just fine at Derby.. Where does that money come from? From other backers/whales. Funnily enough, when people have lots of spare money... They gamble.
 
You make a lot of definitive statements, as if they are edicts from on high. This always leads to being completely wrong, about something. I agree with many of your statements about the current situation with the USA economy. The concentration of wealth, in our nation, is disgraceful. It's no longer a question of the one percenters, it's one hundredth of the one percent. As far as how many people gamble, and how much they gamble, it is far more than it ever was. You can't drive 20 miles down the road without seeing a casino, or an ad for one, they are effin everywhere. The government no longer tries to suppress gambling, they promote it, and benefit greatly. Every gas station, and many other locations, sell lottery tickets, scratch offs, etc. Online sports betting has gone off the charts, it is heavily promoted on network TV. I'm just scratching the surface here, there are many other ways to gamble in the current USA. People currently gamble way more than they ever have, they just don't choose to gamble on pool.
 
they dont gamble on pool as with pool it is competing and they can see why they lose.

betting on things out of their control can be justified in their minds as something else.

everyone seems to have much more money than years past, yet cry more when they dont have as much as those that are more enterprising.
 
kling&allen said:
I didn’t see it mentioned in this thread, but Ned Polsky wrote about this in the early 1960s after the Hustler came out. He pointed out that people no longer gambled like they did in the 40s, identifying the exact same reasons people flag in this thread for why today people no longer gamble like they used to (fear of physical conflict, being robbed, dealing with cantankerous old people, tournaments and leagues being safer with less violence, etc).


I suspect if we went to the 1940s, people were complaining that the kids didn’t gamble like they did in the 1920s. And so on and so on back to the beginning of time.
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I had a friend that thought pretty far out of the box, sometimes. He discovered Hustlers Beats and Others and Ned Polski, He had already tried to get in touch with Tevis I believe and Thomas Fensch , the author of Lions and the lambs, Any way , he calls me one day and says I got in touch with Ned Polski! Like he had found Moses. I said ah thats cool , what did he have to say , and he said , not much, it was pretty weird though , I found his telephone number from 30 years ago and it was still valid. A woman answered. he asked if she knew Ned Polski and she said "thats my son
why do you want him , after explaining, she went and got him and he got on the phone and my buddy said , he and his mother acted like they were in some kind of witness protection plan , I wonder what was going on lol. I think he was just weird, most real writers are.
 
they gambled hard and fast at pool until casinos came to most states or within reach of most people. that was the downfall of pool gambling.

that's when the gamblers/ those who provided most of the losing money at the game, found a new way to go off with actually a chance to win big once in awhile.

casinos, video games, and young people being more into social things have kept it from ever being what it was. now it is a lost part of history.

smart big action gamblers of all kinds, also moved to internet and casino poker as that grew quickly. and found easy money for those that could play well. and still does.
 
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