Action gone bad

C

chicagomike

Play with an Ed Young cue
Silver Member
...So my brother asks me if I wanna go to his bar league championship night. He says everyone in the league is getting paid and there might be some action. So I say ok, figuring it will be nice to spend some time with my bro and play some pool for a while.

We get there and the bar is pretty full with both tables going. One for the championship match and the other for challenge play. My bro and I are partners and we keep the table for 8 or 9 games and lose. Now a guy in the league comes up to me and asks if I wanna be his partner in a scotch doubles match for $50.00 a man. I say ok, but the guys we're playing want a spot because they now I'm a good player. We agree we go to 5 and they go to 4...settled.

Well this match goes on for over two hours...they start out playing pretty well, but then the booze kicks in and they start to tank; they're doin' shots, they aren't sure if they are solids or stripes, they're bs'ing with everyone at the bar, and arguing with each other. We finally win the set 5-3 and they are pretty hammered. My partner and I get paid, and now it begins......

Of course one of the guys on the other team now wants to play me singles, a race to 2 for a hundred...but I say no. Figuring it's not worth the bs and the problems it's surely going to cause.

Well, he doesn't like that and starts telling me I don't know how to play and carries on like he is 3 years old. About that time another older guy asks me if I wanna play some 9-ball for 20 a rack. I tell him no also because if I say yes to him the other guy is gonna go crazy.

So the senior citizen (no offense to the older gents) starts taunting me, saying, "Oh I hear your some kind of national champion." I say, "Well I am", cause everyone there nows I am a master player and have done pretty well in some big tournaments...By now I'm getting sick of all the drunks and am feeling like things are really gonna get ugly.

And they do...now everyone seems to have a beef with some other guy. Everyone is calling everyone out. Everyone wants to bet the world, though I don't think any could afford it, and the fists start to fly.

People are getting hit, ducking, falling, yelling...it's pretty chaotic. Finally the main mouth gets pinned to the ground and I decide it's time to leave. I exit the bar as multiple squad cars are racing to get there...also,due to the nature of my job it would not be a good idea for my name to be involved in police reports of that nature.

Anyway, as is usually the case...i just wanted to spend some time with my bro and shoot a little pool. Would any of you Azers have bet it up for the hundred dollar sets, given the situation?..just curious.
 
Nope, asking for more trouble than you already had. Soon as I read the word "bar", I thought to myself, uh, oh. Personally, I would never play 8 ball for money, would never play doubles for money, and never play drunks in a bar for that kind of money. No offense, but NO!
 
Pushout said:
Nope, asking for more trouble than you already had. Soon as I read the word "bar", I thought to myself, uh, oh. Personally, I would never play 8 ball for money, would never play doubles for money, and never play drunks in a bar for that kind of money. No offense, but NO!
Click to expand...

Pushout...I agree.

It was a bad move and it helped me remember why I don't gamble in bars...nothin' but trouble. The last bar fight I was at was about 17 years ago when my buddy caught a pool cue in the forehead over who's quarter was on the table. Besides playing for a drink I cannot recall the last time I played for cash at a bar.
 
No I would leave. Generally when you start hearing the talk getting aggressive someone is about to loose it. It's not worth the possible consequences.
 
Doesn't matter "what the nature of your job" is, having your name in a police report is never a goodt thing. Sounds like you got out of there just in time, glad you escaped physically and mentally unharmed.
 
It's too bad. It sounds like it could have been a lot of fun and maybe a good score, but ya gotta trust your instincts.

And it sounds like you did!

Kinda gets back to the "gamble only with folks you know" rule.

So what are ya spotting me? :D
 
WHEEEEEEW!!! i though this was gonig to be another "stiffed thread"

Grinding it out in bars is a really tough way to make an easy buck

Me personally, I would take a slightly tougher game and play in a pool hall(where making someone post is more easily excepted) without all the drunks than take 20 a rack off some old drunk (who most likely was a regular at the bar and any disagreement that happens if he loses everyone is gonig to take his side)

Good choice IMO
 
I would have done the same thing bud. I carry a .40 anywhere I go these days and if I don't know you or someone I am with does not know you I won't put anything up unless we can take the gamble someplace else. If the booze is flowing I personally just leave anyways. To many drunks really gets under my skin unless I am in the pi the it's all fun and games..

Did you get your brother out ok too?
 
chicagomike said:
...So my brother asks me if I wanna go to his bar league championship night. He says everyone in the league is getting paid and there might be some action. So I say ok, figuring it will be nice to spend some time with my bro and play some pool for a while.

We get there and the bar is pretty full with both tables going. One for the championship match and the other for challenge play. My bro and I are partners and we keep the table for 8 or 9 games and lose. Now a guy in the league comes up to me and asks if I wanna be his partner in a scotch doubles match for $50.00 a man. I say ok, but the guys we're playing want a spot because they now I'm a good player. We agree we go to 5 and they go to 4...settled.

Well this match goes on for over two hours...they start out playing pretty well, but then the booze kicks in and they start to tank; they're doin' shots, they aren't sure if they are solids or stripes, they're bs'ing with everyone at the bar, and arguing with each other. We finally win the set 5-3 and they are pretty hammered. My partner and I get paid, and now it begins......

Of course one of the guys on the other team now wants to play me singles, a race to 2 for a hundred...but I say no. Figuring it's not worth the bs and the problems it's surely going to cause.

Well, he doesn't like that and starts telling me I don't know how to play and carries on like he is 3 years old. About that time another older guy asks me if I wanna play some 9-ball for 20 a rack. I tell him no also because if I say yes to him the other guy is gonna go crazy.

So the senior citizen (no offense to the older gents) starts taunting me, saying, "Oh I hear your some kind of national champion." I say, "Well I am", cause everyone there nows I am a master player and have done pretty well in some big tournaments...By now I'm getting sick of all the drunks and am feeling like things are really gonna get ugly.

And they do...now everyone seems to have a beef with some other guy. Everyone is calling everyone out. Everyone wants to bet the world, though I don't think any could afford it, and the fists start to fly.

People are getting hit, ducking, falling, yelling...it's pretty chaotic. Finally the main mouth gets pinned to the ground and I decide it's time to leave. I exit the bar as multiple squad cars are racing to get there...also,due to the nature of my job it would not be a good idea for my name to be involved in police reports of that nature.

Anyway, as is usually the case...i just wanted to spend some time with my bro and shoot a little pool. Would any of you Azers have bet it up for the hundred dollar sets, given the situation?..just curious.
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if he agreed to a race to 4 and let your brother hold the dough i'd have played that guy.

i think you should have played the older guy. i don't really care what kind of a fit the other guy would have thrown.
 
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I would have stuck to the challenge table format and not accepted a challenge match (too much potential for trouble!). And no, I certainly would not have accepted the hundred dollar challenge. I'd have bought those guys a drink on the money they lost and left immediately.

My number one rule when I used to play in bars a long time ago was to never win too many games or too much money. I would dump before I attracted attention. And the number two rule was to leave by 10:00; earlier if they all were starting to get sozzled.
 
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Egos and alcohol! LOL

I don't even take my cue into the only bar that I occasionally visit anymore. Theres nothin' more annoying than some egotistical f'in drunk who thinks he's 10ft tall, bulletproof and a pool playin' champion! They all wanna play for a $100, most usually one game and one game only and they're going to try every ignorant sharking technique they can to seperate you from your money. The worst part is that the majority of the time, if you win that all important $100 game, your going to get stiffed or have to put up with even more shiznits from the lush! To make my long story short...IT MOST DEFINATELY ISN'T WORTH IT!

Have a great Friday folks! :grin:
 
chicagomike...Typical bar pool crowd. IMO you made the right decision...other than just going there to have a little fun with your brother. I'd have stayed out of the first match, and just stayed with the challenge table concept. Nothing good ever comes from gambling with drunks.

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com

chicagomike said:
...So my brother asks me if I wanna go to his bar league championship night. He says everyone in the league is getting paid and there might be some action. So I say ok, figuring it will be nice to spend some time with my bro and play some pool for a while.

We get there and the bar is pretty full with both tables going. One for the championship match and the other for challenge play. My bro and I are partners and we keep the table for 8 or 9 games and lose. Now a guy in the league comes up to me and asks if I wanna be his partner in a scotch doubles match for $50.00 a man. I say ok, but the guys we're playing want a spot because they now I'm a good player. We agree we go to 5 and they go to 4...settled.

Well this match goes on for over two hours...they start out playing pretty well, but then the booze kicks in and they start to tank; they're doin' shots, they aren't sure if they are solids or stripes, they're bs'ing with everyone at the bar, and arguing with each other. We finally win the set 5-3 and they are pretty hammered. My partner and I get paid, and now it begins......

Of course one of the guys on the other team now wants to play me singles, a race to 2 for a hundred...but I say no. Figuring it's not worth the bs and the problems it's surely going to cause.

Well, he doesn't like that and starts telling me I don't know how to play and carries on like he is 3 years old. About that time another older guy asks me if I wanna play some 9-ball for 20 a rack. I tell him no also because if I say yes to him the other guy is gonna go crazy.

So the senior citizen (no offense to the older gents) starts taunting me, saying, "Oh I hear your some kind of national champion." I say, "Well I am", cause everyone there nows I am a master player and have done pretty well in some big tournaments...By now I'm getting sick of all the drunks and am feeling like things are really gonna get ugly.

And they do...now everyone seems to have a beef with some other guy. Everyone is calling everyone out. Everyone wants to bet the world, though I don't think any could afford it, and the fists start to fly.

People are getting hit, ducking, falling, yelling...it's pretty chaotic. Finally the main mouth gets pinned to the ground and I decide it's time to leave. I exit the bar as multiple squad cars are racing to get there...also,due to the nature of my job it would not be a good idea for my name to be involved in police reports of that nature.

Anyway, as is usually the case...i just wanted to spend some time with my bro and shoot a little pool. Would any of you Azers have bet it up for the hundred dollar sets, given the situation?..just curious.
Click to expand...
 
Yup, sounded like a soft spot, or at least one with some fresh action, but all the danger signs were there.

8-ball

Bar Tables

League

Bar.


I won't play 8-ball unless I know the guy is a "pool player" not some league hack, or bar bum who's going to make up rules and thinks "Best two out of three" is a long set. The beauty part is, if he qualifies for 8-ball, 99% of the time, he won't want to play it! :thumbup:

Yeah, I know high level 8-ball can be like 14.1 meets 1-pocket, I just don't enjoy it, at least not for cheap stakes against Bar flies. $5 8-ball in bars is flailing around trying to amuse yourself with some crazy banking, kicking, cluster busting, run out. I don't have the patience to play "right" for those stakes in some dive.

I quit doing the "bar-scuffle" thing when I was 23, I stick out, I look like LEO or a Lawyer, so even if I found a "game" they think I'm the fuzz.

Bar tables suck. Too close to everything, dirty balls, pitchers of beer spilled on the table so there's "rough" and "fairway" like a crappy muni golf course.

And if you found a PERFECT table, with the perfect, well heeled rube, looking to go off, there's not enough to separate yourself in short sets, with quarters lined up and closing time coming.

Not that you asked, it just dredged up all my thoughts on bar box 8-ball.

Peace out.
 
Sounds a little like you stuck him up and he was pissed about it. Win a set and not playing again at least to give him a chance at his money back is wrong on your part even if it was a crazy atmosphere. If I were you I woulda chopped the money you won if you were only gonna quit. I hear you that it was a bad situation but if u were gambling and got paid at least you were getting gambled. To not show some gamble in return probably upset them.
 
TxSkin said:
I would have stuck to the challenge table format and not accepted a challenge match (too much potential for trouble!). And no, I certainly would not have accepted the hundred dollar challenge. I'd have bought those guys a drink on the money they lost and left immediately.

My number one rule when I used to play in bars a long time ago was to never win too many games or too much money. I would dump before I attracted attention. And the number two rule was to leave by 10:00; earlier if they all were starting to get sozzled.
Click to expand...

Funny, but I did buy the guy a drink on the money that he lost...i figured it was sportsman like.
 
gwjackal said:
I would have done the same thing bud. I carry a .40 anywhere I go these days and if I don't know you or someone I am with does not know you I won't put anything up unless we can take the gamble someplace else. If the booze is flowing I personally just leave anyways. To many drunks really gets under my skin unless I am in the pi the it's all fun and games..

Did you get your brother out ok too?
Click to expand...

My brother had actually left already before the match started...to meet a girl(good enough reason). But I knew a couple people in the place.
 
mikeyfrost said:
Sounds a little like you stuck him up and he was pissed about it. Win a set and not playing again at least to give him a chance at his money back is wrong on your part even if it was a crazy atmosphere. If I were you I woulda chopped the money you won if you were only gonna quit. I hear you that it was a bad situation but if u were gambling and got paid at least you were getting gambled. To not show some gamble in return probably upset them.
Click to expand...

I know what you're saying and normally I will give them a chance, but my partner's girlfriend had shown up and he was gonna leave anyway...and i wasn't gonna play a singles match.
 
chicagomike said:
Would any of you Azers have bet it up for the hundred dollar sets, given the situation?..just curious.
Click to expand...

I know me and my buddy would have tried to take all the money we could have in that situation, but then we probably would have been in the middle of the melee ducking pool cues, dodging beer bottles, grabbing the stake money off the light, and running like heck for the door.

Sounds like a pretty rough bar you were in if that got going. Tend to avoid places where the stuff can escalate like that if I can help it, although often that is where the money is.
 
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