Thanks John, I understand. I never thought you did anything like that but I heard him out.
$10,000 One Pocket Challenge: Lou Figueroa vs John Barton
- Thread starter ShootingHank
- Start date
Thanks John, I understand. I never thought you did anything like that but I heard him out.
Well, people are NOT divided when in the pool room. Only on the net and ONLY because of the people who have chosen to denigrate those who are enthusiastic about learning and teaching aiming systems. Without those people the aiming system conversations would have been boring and confined to those who who were interested enough to explore the topic.
I can tell you that I have never ever had an aiming system argument in the pool room. I have had people who have said ah that's just nonsense and I don't need an aiming system but not one person has ever denigrated me in person over them, not even Lou. And a few of the people who dismissed them came back later and said I was right and there IS merit to them. One of them did this through a lesson with a pro where the pro indicated that he uses the light reflection method to aim.
So as harsh as a relatively few people have been about aiming systems on the internet in the poolrooms and at shows in my experience everyone has been pretty cool.
https://youtu.be/kbKmpmsT3bw
I did challenge it. Yes, you CLAIMED that I was coached. Ed never told me that he saw such coaching. But Ed asked Dennis to sit somewhere else, removing someone who was sitting on my side and cheering me on.
I just didn't know at that time that the shot that YOU said was a bonafide top level shot was the one that you felt proved the coaching. The shot that was universally derided after the match.
The logic failure here is ridiculous. John was is accused of having been coached by a top level player and shot a shot that no top level player would ever shoot but it proved he was coached.....
So us little guys are not suppose to know top level shots?
All I had to do is read this:
LOL, Good triumphs over bad over aiming technique disagreement. It was always insane crusader.
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And that is something I deeply regret as I have said many times. Look it's really simple, people were trying to screw with my business. Unlike Jack I had at that time 15 families dependent on my business. Now it's 26. I don't take that responsibility lightly.
Jack and I are friends and we will remain friends. That whole episode was NOT started by me though. It was started by a thread titled "Design Thief Exposed". I took that accusation very personally and it cut extra deeply because Jack was my friend and someone I looked up to.
So I am NOT wrong for defending myself. I was very wrong in some of the ways I went about it.
No, you won't. You will find one such occasion where I 'dropped a dime' on someone and that was it. On another occasoin I threatened to make a website detailing the assault on a senior citizen that a financial advisor's clients could see in retaliation for that person threatening to come to China and cause trouble because that person speaks Chinese. In the end though I decided that this was not the way to go about it and dropped that stupid idea.
The rest is me calling people to talk it out and bury the hatchet. Only a few agreed to do that and reneged on their agreement and you are one of them.
We can and as I said I was proud that Lou called the shot a top level shot. Only it wasn't a top level shot and absolutely not one that any top level player would tell someone else to play in that situation.
So let’s just cut the shit here. I’m finally out of the house and in God’s country and don’t have time to pursue this stuff. When is the rematch and what’s the game? I’m thinking Lou should give 9-7 on his break and 9-8 on JB’s. Lou should be able to outrun it and JB probably thinks he has the nuts. Am I wrong?
I wish I wanted to play him. But that ship has sailed and sunk.
This mom stuff sounds like bullshit. Any mother would get freaked out by some internet weirdo trying to get in touch with their son, but I seriously doubt JB was disrespectful to her.
Scrunge19
Registered
I think there are two roads they can go down.
1. Agree to have a rematch in a few months once things open up and travel becomes more accommodating. It doesn't have to be for crazy money (recent events and all), but enough that both guys will show up and be incentivized to win. This gives each of them plenty of time to get in form so there are no excuses or anything like that.
2. They both move on with their lives and stop barking at each other over the internet. You're both 50+ year old men for god's sake. It's embarrassing.
Outside of those two options, there really isn't room to argue or make excuses over a match that took place years ago. Cheating accusations, excuses about not being on form or tired when the match happened, etc. all don't matter after the match has been played and a winner found. If every team in the AFC except the Browns forfeits their season and the Cowboys end up beating them in the Superbowl, no one makes excuses for the Cowboys winning. They just call them world champs. So either play a rematch if you don't think the previous match was a true showing of how you two match up or accept the previous result and move on.
I am not barking at Lou. I have zero desire to play him. If he says he will post his 50k to my 10 and spot me 10-2 i will not play. I have promised myself to never give this guy another shot at my money even if i have the dead nuts.
To everyone thinking that this is barking to get a match it isn't. I wouldn't even be here if a friend had not alerted me to the other thread about me.
I am fully accepting of the result. I got beat. I played like shit and lou was steady and he did play better one pocket than i did. But in my opinion it wasn't stealing. But whether it was stealing it not i accept that i lost to the better player during those two days. I am fully at peace with it and other than the occasional thread like this his name doesn't even cross my mind. It was an experience and i am not unhappy that i did it.
But in no way at this point in my life do i have the tiniest desire to play him again. I don't. I really don't.
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I am going back to find the shot in question. I will say this, if Lou was laying down then he is the best lemon player on earth. For real. And if you think I was being coached given that I was playing MOST of my shots in less than 20 seconds after Lou shot and a lot of them were bad shot choices regardless of whether I executed them or not then you're as delusional as he is. What I think is that it was embarassing for a player like me to be anywhere close to him in games to a four-hour-a-day-practice person. Watch the match, like REALLY watch it and you can see that I wasn't doing that bad but I was dogging a lot of opportunities to win just about every game we played.
I have played a lot of one pocket and good players don't give me as many chances to win the game as Lou did. If he or anyone else wants to say that he was laying down for 10k I will say that he and you are completely and totally insane.
I played like shit a lot of the time but I was hanging in there despite that. There is a very good reason Lou and backers ducked me. An in-form John Barton would have been much harder to beat.
I have played a lot of one pocket and good players don't give me as many chances to win the game as Lou did. If he or anyone else wants to say that he was laying down for 10k I will say that he and you are completely and totally insane.
I played like shit a lot of the time but I was hanging in there despite that. There is a very good reason Lou and backers ducked me. An in-form John Barton would have been much harder to beat.
This is the game that contains the shot that Lou says proved I was being coached. It is so so so laughable. The claim he makes that I went over to consult with the coach for a long time before the shot the shot is completely untrue. Watch it.
Watch me play and see how quickly I go to shoot. Watch the shot selections and tell me HONESTLY if this matches what you expect from a top tier player coaching me?
And for real watch this guy play - honestly rewatching this it makes perfect sense why Lou was never any kind of an action player. I will give it to him that he had more sense than me to realize that he sucks as a player and couldn't possibly match up with any expectation of winning against anyone slightly stronger than either of us.
https://youtu.be/NOk5pZQSh-k?t=6762
And, I did win this game. I was on seven and went back to five and still won the game. Lou had the opportunity to close it out and win 9-5 and he couldn't get there. So I don't want to hear anything about how much better he is. He is a an average hack who found an angel backer to get him into the biggest game of his life. IF I had wanted to be coached I could have brought someone and worked out signals like they used to do it in the old days. I certainly wouldn't have needed to get coaching from a local player who I had just met a few times in the pool room. Dennis helped me out a little and was on my side cheering me on. He wasn't coaching me. I am positive he was continually shaking his head and wanting to yell at me because of the shots I was taking.
Watch me play and see how quickly I go to shoot. Watch the shot selections and tell me HONESTLY if this matches what you expect from a top tier player coaching me?
And for real watch this guy play - honestly rewatching this it makes perfect sense why Lou was never any kind of an action player. I will give it to him that he had more sense than me to realize that he sucks as a player and couldn't possibly match up with any expectation of winning against anyone slightly stronger than either of us.
https://youtu.be/NOk5pZQSh-k?t=6762
And, I did win this game. I was on seven and went back to five and still won the game. Lou had the opportunity to close it out and win 9-5 and he couldn't get there. So I don't want to hear anything about how much better he is. He is a an average hack who found an angel backer to get him into the biggest game of his life. IF I had wanted to be coached I could have brought someone and worked out signals like they used to do it in the old days. I certainly wouldn't have needed to get coaching from a local player who I had just met a few times in the pool room. Dennis helped me out a little and was on my side cheering me on. He wasn't coaching me. I am positive he was continually shaking his head and wanting to yell at me because of the shots I was taking.
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https://youtu.be/NOk5pZQSh-k?t=7089
Lou takes his shot and freezes me to the end rail. I shoot my shot in less than one minute after Lou shot his. What you can't see is that I was NOWHERE near Dennis during this whole sequence. I simply took a little extra time to try to figure out what to do. And I thought I did good thing. Lou thought I did good thing although NOW he claims he said it was the wrong shot. No one else did.
So if THIS is the shot that convinced Lou I was being coached then I have to say that he is beyond delusional. Any competent one pocket player would have TORTURED me given the many opportunities Lou was handed. Watch the match and you can see that I threw it away. My stance and form was horrid. Looking back now I can't stand to see myself standing that way and am actually surprised that I was able to make any shots. Thanks CTE - proper aiming and shitty form only serve to result in highly inconsistent play.
Lou takes his shot and freezes me to the end rail. I shoot my shot in less than one minute after Lou shot his. What you can't see is that I was NOWHERE near Dennis during this whole sequence. I simply took a little extra time to try to figure out what to do. And I thought I did good thing. Lou thought I did good thing although NOW he claims he said it was the wrong shot. No one else did.
So if THIS is the shot that convinced Lou I was being coached then I have to say that he is beyond delusional. Any competent one pocket player would have TORTURED me given the many opportunities Lou was handed. Watch the match and you can see that I threw it away. My stance and form was horrid. Looking back now I can't stand to see myself standing that way and am actually surprised that I was able to make any shots. Thanks CTE - proper aiming and shitty form only serve to result in highly inconsistent play.
I played so bad that he should have been freewheeling. What's the odds of a hundred ball runner dogging a spot shot this badly? With all of the animosity you would have thought he would want to win 9-0 for the maximum message to be sent.
https://youtu.be/TIu5HeYrbLQ?t=7306
https://youtu.be/TIu5HeYrbLQ?t=7306