I'm of the opinion that pool is a skill and players have barely scratched the surface. So, who you beat doesn't have to be the one true metric. Most of the way sports is done is the going skill level and may the best cheater take the crown. So why waste the time trying to go through everybody?
Journey to join the Pro tournaments ?
- Thread starter vincett
- Start date
Vincett you made it plain that you weren't willing to walk the path 99.99% of pros have had to walk for the last hundred years and more. You had gotten damned good advice from people that know. Maybe you were too dumb to heed the advice, maybe too arrogant. Either way, you made it plain you didn't want to pay the dues that everyone else has had to pay. At that point, a lot of people lost interest in helping you.
Might teach him everything at the same rate my mentor was willing to charge for instruction over fifty years ago. Ten a game. Adjusted for inflation of course! Truth is that I could lay out a path for him to try to become a pro. Give him every bit of information I know. It wouldn't matter, he would ignore it all. He wants to be a pro player but he says he needed somebody to hold his hand and lead him to the pro tournaments! He managed to find AZB. With a little effort he could find the front page which has all the information he is asking for.
One of the more important things, you have to know how to compete. That is a skillset in itself and a major one. He is going to have to have a major reversal in attitude to learn to compete. Until then even if he was the greatest shotmaker ever he wouldn't be able to play with the pro's. IF you want to run with the big dogs you have to get out from under the porch as you and almost every poster in this thread well knows.
I really think he needs to put up his money and play in a couple events top heavy with world class players. Then he can decide for himself if he is willing to put in the effort required to try to run with them. Watching for a year won't give the education sitting in a chair for an hour when facing a top player will.
While he whines and snivels at my later posts after he showed his true colors he ignored and ignores my first post full of good advice, post twelve. It wasn't what he wanted to hear. I started to just link to Ringo Starr's song, "It don't come easy." Covers things nicely regardless of the endeavor. I knew a man that decided he wanted to shoot benchrest competition. Being wealthy he bought all the top of the line toys. The first time he went to the range he met Tony Boyer and his wife. Tony's wife is in the hall of fame. At the time Tony had over ten times the points needed to get in the hall of fame and was at the top of his game. They both offered help and mentorship. Most benchrest shooters would have walked a mile on broken razorblades for that chance! Ron quickly found out that while mentoring would make things a lot easier, you still had to work hard and learn. He quit benchrest before the new even started wearing off of his toys.
I told vincett the truth, I told him what he wanted to hear, he didn't like either one. I still think he ought to hook up with Geno. He wants magic, Geno promises magic. Should be a match made in heaven!
Hu
Might teach him everything at the same rate my mentor was willing to charge for instruction over fifty years ago. Ten a game. Adjusted for inflation of course! Truth is that I could lay out a path for him to try to become a pro. Give him every bit of information I know. It wouldn't matter, he would ignore it all. He wants to be a pro player but he says he needed somebody to hold his hand and lead him to the pro tournaments! He managed to find AZB. With a little effort he could find the front page which has all the information he is asking for.
One of the more important things, you have to know how to compete. That is a skillset in itself and a major one. He is going to have to have a major reversal in attitude to learn to compete. Until then even if he was the greatest shotmaker ever he wouldn't be able to play with the pro's. IF you want to run with the big dogs you have to get out from under the porch as you and almost every poster in this thread well knows.
I really think he needs to put up his money and play in a couple events top heavy with world class players. Then he can decide for himself if he is willing to put in the effort required to try to run with them. Watching for a year won't give the education sitting in a chair for an hour when facing a top player will.
While he whines and snivels at my later posts after he showed his true colors he ignored and ignores my first post full of good advice, post twelve. It wasn't what he wanted to hear. I started to just link to Ringo Starr's song, "It don't come easy." Covers things nicely regardless of the endeavor. I knew a man that decided he wanted to shoot benchrest competition. Being wealthy he bought all the top of the line toys. The first time he went to the range he met Tony Boyer and his wife. Tony's wife is in the hall of fame. At the time Tony had over ten times the points needed to get in the hall of fame and was at the top of his game. They both offered help and mentorship. Most benchrest shooters would have walked a mile on broken razorblades for that chance! Ron quickly found out that while mentoring would make things a lot easier, you still had to work hard and learn. He quit benchrest before the new even started wearing off of his toys.
I told vincett the truth, I told him what he wanted to hear, he didn't like either one. I still think he ought to hook up with Geno. He wants magic, Geno promises magic. Should be a match made in heaven!
Hu
I don't and you probably wont find any for the same reason that you won't find videos of professional golfers, boxers, football players, baseball players, etc waiting for their competition to start either, waiting and preparation is a part of all sports, everyone who competes at a high level deals with it. If you don't like waiting waiting for matches pool aint the sport for you. But you better believe that all pros spent time waiting and matching up, what exactly do you think "paying your dues means", you cant seriously not know this stuff.
Im sure Gorst played in a lot of Jr competitions before he started competing in professional tournaments. The easiest way to play in "professional" pool is to find where the other pros are entering and pay your money to enter those same tournaments. Pool is tricky because there is no real NFL or MLB for pool. Matchroom is working on it and its getting there, I dont know the requirements for Matchroom, you might have to meet certain qualifications to enter, I think they limit entries. The best you can do is play in tournaments where other pros enter but there is that waiting thing again.
On skill, Gorst (duh) had a small pyramid table in his childhood home.
Alpha Pool League is a league for individual players, not teams. It is a social league, i.e. some good players, but many not so much. Always a good time. Handicaps even things out. Unlike other leagues, everybody who shows up gets to play. You can find us online.
You said so, several times that you don't want to wait at a tournament to play and want to find some pro event where all you do is play, or waste time not playing in a tournament vs getting ready to play in one. That is not going to happen unless you just match up one on one with someone.
This is a sign of not wanting to play, since there is no tournament where you do not wait for matches. It's very easy to play in a "pro" tournament, most are open to anyone that shows up, but it is not so easy to play in one where you are not waiting around for a match. You don't think the top pros wait for matches like everyone else?
Yes, I play there on both 8/9 balls with 7 footers. The reasons I dont play much in open tournaments there is because each match up takes about 30-40 minutes, just sitting and watching other players
It doesnt take me anywhere. I see no forward directions going on from just playing these events. I spend more $$ on waiting and ordering drinks
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Here ya go man! Now's your chance to step up and test your metal...
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I quit playing tournaments coz of the lack of actual playing.Yes, I play there on both 8/9 balls with 7 footers. The reasons I dont play much in open tournaments there is because each match up takes about 30-40 minutes, just sitting and watching other players
It doesnt take me anywhere. I see no forward directions going on from just playing these events. I spend more $$ on waiting and ordering drinks
That's how it goes.
Know that many folks have come here to ask the same you did, usually with the same long-term outcome: they don't have the stick-to-it do realize the goal.
I know a lot of pro players, some pros by measure of skill and some by titles won and almost-won, many by both measures.
Pros of all types leveraged their abilities with psychotic obsession with their sport. They devoted uncountable energy to being the best, not to being a pro. They didn't initially play to be pros, they became pros after finding themselves capable of competing at the top level.
We can only find the people who came here looking to turn pro and disappeared have disappeared because they lack the skill or the devotion required to attain true pro status. Lacking both is pretty easy too.
'pro' pool doesn't pay well for most either. There are thousands of guys out there who play great pool that can't make liveable earnings at it.
Badpenguin
Well-known member
Believe it or not, there are people that play in professional tournaments who are not pros, who apparently do it for the love of the game and perhaps for the experience. They have the time and resources to do it. What other sport would you ever get to play against the top professional players? None of them.
Bernard Walker and Robert Hart come to mind, not to mention, occasionally, our very own Bob Jewett.
Bernard Walker and Robert Hart come to mind, not to mention, occasionally, our very own Bob Jewett.
@vincett IDK your background...and how much or little you have followed the pro scene. For the sake of argument, lets assume little.
Every few years a promoter comes along and tries to have a "pro tour". It has always failed, whether after a few months or a couple years. That's why there is not really a good calendar of events to follow. That's why I put it in quotes.
Currently, Matchroom is the promoter leading the "pro tour". We all hope they buck the failed trend of the prior promoters, and thus far, it looks like they are on the right path.
The other umbrella organization is the WPA. The WPA does not host events, but they partner with independent promoters who do, and will list the independent events on the WPA website calendar. The level of events they list are pro level, not local stuff.
If you join both of their websites, follow their calendars, and follow them on FB, you will be privy to all the pro events upcoming. Also if you stick around the forum here, you will pick up on upcoming big events just from reading.
The 3 MR sites are:
matchroompool.com
The WPA site:
wpapool.com
Every few years a promoter comes along and tries to have a "pro tour". It has always failed, whether after a few months or a couple years. That's why there is not really a good calendar of events to follow. That's why I put it in quotes.
Currently, Matchroom is the promoter leading the "pro tour". We all hope they buck the failed trend of the prior promoters, and thus far, it looks like they are on the right path.
The other umbrella organization is the WPA. The WPA does not host events, but they partner with independent promoters who do, and will list the independent events on the WPA website calendar. The level of events they list are pro level, not local stuff.
If you join both of their websites, follow their calendars, and follow them on FB, you will be privy to all the pro events upcoming. Also if you stick around the forum here, you will pick up on upcoming big events just from reading.
The 3 MR sites are:
Home - Matchroom Pool
matchroompool.com
World Nineball Tour live scores
Follow the World Nineball Tour live scores & rankings in real time.
www.wntlivescores.com
The WPA site:
Calendar|WPA Pool
wpapool.com