Rhea the new Chapter, without Gene

I wish I would have tried this back when I had a chance, living at home with no responsibilities. Now it is too late. It is not like you signed a contract to do this forever. If it gets too bad she can always go back home and get a job. Looks like she is living out her dream and nothing is wrong with that. The only thing is you can't do this forever and you must know when to quit and go back to a normal life before it is too late. You will never have anything if you try to stay with it too long. Just hope you haven't burnt all of your bridges so you can go back to a normal life. Sooner or later you will get tired of living out of a suitcase or get busted and you must know when to lay it down. While you are at it have as much fun as you can.

TATE said:

In reality, none of us know what will come tomorrow, but I prefer to have a plan.

Rhea, you need to sit yourself down and form a plan. If the road is your dream, at least give yourself a chance to succeed. You have no support net right now. Gene's right - get a job, save up some money, get better. Build yourself a support network of people who care about you and not about your cash.

Gene thinks you have what it takes to succeed in the world - use it by acting responsibly toward your own future. Maybe 20 years from now you will look in the mirror and thank the person you see in it today.

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Another thing that Rhea should consider is what MANY road players do:

Find a city that you LIKE, make friends, move in with friends, get a job, help pay the bills, play pool, win tournaments, have fun.

JoeyA

JoeyA said:

Another thing that Rhea should consider is what MANY road players do:

Find a city that you LIKE, make friends, move in with friends, get a job, help pay the bills, play pool, win tournaments, have fun.

JoeyA

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Good pointers.
Some one also said in this thread that i really like and i paraphrase "Find a job in a pool room". May be even try to be the "house pro".

Wish I could of met Rhea 30 years ago.

We would of made a great team.


We would of been rich, famous, broke, in prison, and or dead.

I have done all these things before. Yeah, died a few times too.


Now, I just stay home and feed cats. If I didn't have cats to feed, I'd love to take off for a couple weeks to play. I don't think you could teach me anything, but I have a lot to teach you. So much to learn about people, the real world and reality.

First thing is----do you want to be a pool player or a hustler? There is a big difference.

Rhea is a adult and shouldn't be treated here like a 14 year old. I hope Rhea has a huge bankroll because right now she loses way too much for being on the road. She's starting out with too many negatives. At least if you have a car and go broke you have a place to sleep.Johnnyt

mcsock said:

About 40 years ago, I bounced around the county gambling (mostly horses and poker) for a living. I can not say it was not fun, but very stressful. I only lasted at it about 2 years, Making 1k one day losing 95% of it the next day. A lot of ups and down. Seemed like I was alway flush or broke, nothing in the middle.
My only advice, Watch who you join up with as friend, traveling partner, etc. I got ripped off twiced by bad choices. Do not befriend many, trust even fewer.

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That's the problem with any zero-sum type living, e.g. gambling....If you wanna be a winner, you are, by nature, forced to hang with losers.

Compare that to productive living where you are, by nature, forced to hang with winners.


Jeff Livingston

chefjeff said:

Do you know Rhea personally, her desires and motivations?

Jeff Livingston

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No, but she gives us quite a story and unless you have been hiding under a rock the last 50 years, you will without any medical training realize that this person needs help with her addiction.
A person who bets 3 years of her life on a game of pool, have some serious issues...
I`m not disgarding that everything has a cost/benifit ration and that scale varies from person to person, think of athletes, astronauts or gold miners to name but a few professions.
Now if Rhea had a carrot (or rather a real gold bar) dangling infront of her it would be fine, but living hand to mouth in USA in 2013, being a woman in some pretty shady places and without and savings to fall back on is not in any way, shape or form a good situation to be in. She might as well have a bullseye target on her back.
If Rhea loves pool, she should get a job, buy a table, practice, take lessons and if everything works out, she should start compeeting.
But from what she tells us, it is clearly the gambling that gets her off, pool is just the vehicle she chooses to do so.

Kim Bye said:

If Rhea loves pool, she should get a job, buy a table, practice, take lessons and if everything works out, she should start compeeting.

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Back up plans? Pfffft....Why in the world would you post this common sense crap. This is the INTERNETZ AZ Billiards FFS!!

Everyone wants to judge, live and let live. If she is not hurting anyone then so be it, not everyone wants to live in a cage like slaves in a dressed up jail cell just yet. You gotta get out and live a little bit before you settle down, Rhea just is not ready to settle down yet. I love how people on the internet want to tell you how to live your life and are not even living life. In the words of John Morra, "These people don't even know they are alive.".

If Rhea was my daughter I would be worried sick about her. I am not getting down on Rhea, she obviously has chosen to take this road, BUT I would not be able to sleep if I was her Dad. Good Luck Rhea I honestly hope that you will come through this period of your life healthy and well!!

chefjeff said:

That's the problem with any zero-sum type living, e.g. gambling....If you wanna be a winner, you are, by nature, forced to hang with losers.

Compare that to productive living where you are, by nature, forced to hang with winners.

Jeff Livingston

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Very well said. That's wisdom right there...

Fast Lenny said:

Everyone wants to judge, live and let live. If she is not hurting anyone then so be it, not everyone wants to live in a cage like slaves in a dressed up jail cell just yet. You gotta get out and live a little bit before you settle down, Rhea just is not ready to settle down yet. I love how people on the internet want to tell you how to live your life and are not even living life. In the words of John Morra, "These people don't even know they are alive.".

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Agreed.

My only issue with everyone in society is if they make money and are successful, its them. But if they havent planned for the future its my responsiblity (as a tax payer) to take care of them.

I have just finished putting two daughters through college and paid every nickel of tuition, and they completed it debt free. If I was someone "lived and let live" and didnt have any money, my kids would have gone for free.

Can you see the rub?

Ken

jaetee said:

Very well said. That's wisdom right there...

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Yeah, from Jeffy as well. Who'd a thunk that?

Ken_4fun said:

Agreed.

My only issue with everyone in society is if they make money and are successful, its them. But if they havent planned for the future its my responsiblity (as a tax payer) to take care of them.

I have just finished putting two daughters through college and paid every nickel of tuition, and they completed it debt free. If I was someone "lived and let live" and didnt have any money, my kids would have gone for free.

Can you see the rub?

Ken

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I agree totally, I detest people who live off the system wanting a handout. I would have people tell me how when they were young they were on welfare and how bad they had it. When I was a kid and poor we did not get welfare as my parents were too proud so I know what its like to have it rough with no electricity, no heat and hot water, no phone, no cable, holes in your shoes, and sometimes an empty belly. Whenever I think I have it bad then I think back to some of my really low times and appreciate things more, it has and can be worse. I read this article yesterday and sent it to my son, he thinks he has it bad because he has more then all of his friends except for one who has a 50 inch TV in his room, I wish I had it bad like him as a kid, he only has a tablet, iPhone, desktop computer, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360, flatscreen TV and whatever else at 12 years old. I guess we just live in materialistic society these days.

http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2013/invisible-child/#/?chapt=1

To the original poster of this thread - didn't you work at Ride the Rail for some time as well? I didn't catch that in your history.

I love how people on the internet want to tell you how to live your life and are not even living life. In the words of John Morra, "These people don't even know they are alive.".

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Thats a possibility Lenny.

We start out with our parents shaping us to the best of their ability. School, Military training, Media, and so on. Living is a life shaping experience.

As much as we are individuals, we also possess certain common traits that we all share.

Maybe common sense is one of them. Maybe a bit of compassion for your fellow man is another.

I am a bit of a saver. if I see something that is broken, I look at it and see if I can fix it.
If I see a piece of material, maybe I can us it in the shop down the road rather than toss it.

Thats a natural instinct for people that are posting. From Rhea pretty much spilling her guts, people view her as having at least part of her life that is broken. They are trying to fix a broken person.


As much as it matters, to Rhea anyway, people are offering advice based on years of living. It seems to fall on deaf ears and soon people will forget about Rhea and get on with more important issues in their own lives.

If I tell you not to touch a piece of metal because I just finished grinding it and it is hot, you do it anyway, well, thats an experience. Probably because I have done it more than once, I can tell you not to do it.

In the grand scheme of things and Internet life, if Rhea should step off a Grey Hound, into the Twilight Zone and disappear, never to post again, I seriously doubt that many will give a second thought.

Shes had her fifteen minutes of Internet fame. Obviously any sound advice has fallen on deaf ears. If she doesn't care, why should anyone else, right.

But she is alone in the world and wants someone to care. Thats why she is typing Iliad
blog posts. If she didn't want someone to take note of her life and care, she would just stop posting and go do what she intends to do.

Too much living to be done without caring overly on how someone else chooses to ruin their life.

Myself, I am thinking more on how many fish I catch tomorrow, rather than if Rhea can catch a fish in a pool hall.

Ken_4fun said:

Agreed.

My only issue with everyone in society is if they make money and are successful, its them. But if they havent planned for the future its my responsiblity (as a tax payer) to take care of them.

I have just finished putting two daughters through college and paid every nickel of tuition, and they completed it debt free. If I was someone "lived and let live" and didnt have any money, my kids would have gone for free.

Can you see the rub?

Ken

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No. The rub will happen when your daughters' friends have their student debt forgiven by the taxpayer as our "investment in education" also known as "buying votes."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

BasementDweller said:

I know I don't know her but one thing about all of her threads jumps out at me. In all of the stories written about her playing...all of her early experiences with pool...all of the gambling sessions...all of the wins and losses...NO WHERE did I see the story of how she fell in love with POOL!

That story was never told, she only seemed interested in the gambling. From the very beginning. That's very telling to me.

Now, if she wants to go out and gamble at pool so be it. That's fine but let's not pretend like this is some story about a player who's only desire is to become a champion player, because there is a big part of the story that hasn't even been mentioned and that's the simple love of the game. I think all champion players fall in love with the game first.

Maybe I missed that part.

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that's because it's not about pool.

Rhea is 40-ish. 6ft-ish. and can kick most of yáll's asses in the parking lot.
Gene supplied the income & the knowledge, which paid the bills & hopefully paid it forward. Rhea can go back to $100K/yr (gross) ASAP - and will be fine.

we all have our reasons. and we are all "grown-ass adults".

JoeyA said:

Another thing that Rhea should consider is what MANY road players do:

Find a city that you LIKE, make friends, move in with friends, get a job, help pay the bills, play pool, win tournaments, have fun.

JoeyA

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I haven't got past the find a city that you like part yet.