Have any road players actually been outed on AZB?

jeffj2h · Mar 28, 2016

Frequently the topic comes up in discussions (here and elsewhere) of why there are so few, if any, anonymous road players traveling and making a living gambling anymore. One of the reasons often sited is that today everyone has a camera on their phone and it's too easy for someone to take a picture of a player, post it to the internet, and in minutes know the identity of the player.

That sounds plausible, but I've been a frequent AZB viewer for over four years and I've never seen a single such thread.

Have I just missed them? Or were they all in the early days of AZB a dozen or more years ago? Or was this never an AZB phenomena and was more of a thing on rec.sport.billiards back in the 90's? (but back in the 90's who had a camera in a pool hall?)

cleary · Mar 28, 2016

Yea, I was. Now I walk in a pool room and they scatter.

sixpack · Mar 28, 2016

jeffj2h said:
Frequently the topic comes up in discussions (here and elsewhere) of why there are so few, if any, anonymous road players traveling and making a living gambling anymore. One of the reasons often sited is that today everyone has a camera on their phone and it's too easy for someone to take a picture of a player, post it to the internet, and in minutes know the identity of the player.

That sounds plausible, but I've been a frequent AZB viewer for over four years and I've never seen a single such thread.

Have I just missed them? Or were they all in the early days of AZB a dozen or more years ago? Or was this never an AZB phenomena and was more of a thing on rec.sport.billiards back in the 90's? (but back in the 90's who had a camera in a pool hall?)

I've seen a few but not in the last several years. It seemed like they all kind of started out with "This guy was in our pool room and he looked like.... anyone know who he is?" Sometimes with a picture but usually just a description.

Then usually the OP got roundly called out for being a poolroom detective etc... But also usually someone posted who it was.

I think the reason we don't have these threads as much anymore is partly that nobody is really anonymous anymore so there aren't any notable road players that are unknown. You can just do a google image search and find almost anyone who plays pool.
The other part of the equation is that there are a lot of people in Facebook pool groups now and that type of question is probably more convenient to post to a Facebook group.

sixpack · Mar 28, 2016

Just to add. The last one I remember was last year or so before the Mezz West States tour where there were threads wondering who the Russian guy in Sacramento was. It was Vilmos. There might have been one about Edgy as well. He was here in my area and I know a lot of people were curious but the Filipinos here knew who he was so everyone was filled in pretty quick.

pocket · Mar 28, 2016

there were these three monster players...

boogeyman · Mar 28, 2016

pocket said:
there were these three monster players...

...and one of the monsters was this big dude who never spoke...

Banks · Mar 28, 2016

boogeyman said:
...and one of the monsters was this big dude who never spoke...

Call me a knocker, hater or whatever.. his name is Hodor, but i forget where he's from.

pt109 · Mar 28, 2016

boogeyman said:
...and one of the monsters was this big dude who never spoke...

That certainly wasn't New York, who talked a lot....as New Yorkers do.

...unlike his road partner Arizona, who ain't sayin' much at all now.

Perk · Mar 28, 2016

Quite a few years ago it there was a picture with Gary Abood winning a tournament on AZ...he had a bag over his head.....that was sort of funny.

SUPERSTAR · Mar 28, 2016

I don't know about road players being "outed" per se.
But I know of a couple people in "far from home" games having their action knocked way before I knew AZB even existed, back on the billiards digest forums.
I'm sure there might be a couple of knocks on RSB as well.

Black-Balled · Mar 28, 2016

Perk said:
Quite a few years ago it there was a picture with Gary Abood winning a tournament on AZ...he had a bag over his head.....that was sort of funny.

C'mon, man! Wheres the pic?

Black-Balled · Mar 28, 2016

And there are absolutely folks whose quick rise was realized before they could put it to nuse.

RiverCity · Mar 28, 2016

Black-Balled said:
C'mon, man! Wheres the pic?

Here ya go.....

Black-Balled · Mar 28, 2016

That perk. Nothin but a disappointment to me.

TATE · Mar 28, 2016

jeffj2h said:
Frequently the topic comes up in discussions (here and elsewhere) of why there are so few, if any, anonymous road players traveling and making a living gambling anymore. One of the reasons often sited is that today everyone has a camera on their phone and it's too easy for someone to take a picture of a player, post it to the internet, and in minutes know the identity of the player.

That sounds plausible, but I've been a frequent AZB viewer for over four years and I've never seen a single such thread.

Have I just missed them? Or were they all in the early days of AZB a dozen or more years ago? Or was this never an AZB phenomena and was more of a thing on rec.sport.billiards back in the 90's? (but back in the 90's who had a camera in a pool hall?)

Long ago there were a couple that were Id'd online, but then the people who did so were insulted by others for "knocking" their action and most people stopped doing it.

BmoreMoney · Mar 28, 2016

Perk said:
Quite a few years ago it there was a picture with Gary Abood winning a tournament on AZ...he had a bag over his head.....that was sort of funny.

Gary broke Dundalk when he was here. Then he broke his host and rolled out in the middle of the night.

M.G. · Mar 29, 2016

Yeah, let's out them so they have to find honest work :grin-square:

JAM · Mar 29, 2016

One year at the Super Billiards Expo when it was held in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, Keith was having a good run on the action table, winning 20-some games in a row on three different occasions. It was sweet, and we came home with 15 large.

In the middle of this fiasco at the action table, in walks a young blond-haired kid. Keith comes over to me and says, "Do you see that blond kid over there? That's Jesse Bowman. He's the best bar table player in the country right now. Bet on him every time he's at the table." As a professional courtesy, Keith quit playing at the action table because he knew Jesse was on the road and a long way from home.

I managed to get a picture of the kid, and I disguised him a bit when I posted about the action table that year.

ExilePreacher · Mar 29, 2016

.............

M.G. · Mar 29, 2016

JAM said:
... and I disguised him a bit when I posted about the action table that year.

Why

Have any road players actually been outed on AZB?

AzB Silver Member

Honestly, I'm a liar.

AzB Silver Member

AzB Silver Member

AzB Silver Member

AzB Silver Member

Banned

WO double hemlock

AzB Silver Member

I am Keyser Söze

AzB Silver Member

AzB Silver Member

AzB Silver Member

Attachments

AzB Silver Member

AzB Gold Mensch

AzB Silver Member

AzB Silver Member

AzB Silver Member

Attachments

Equal Opportunity Gadfly

AzB Silver Member