Advice for ADHD Player vs Slow Player

GideonF

GideonF

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
My buddy just asked me the following:

“what's your advice for playing against someone really slow? my adhd makes me lose interest and focus really fast watching slow players”

Now I don’t have ADHD and I’m fairly slow myself, so I’m not the best person to give advice. Anyone here have experience or good advice?
 
I don't have ADHD but in my experience if you're paying attention to their speed or most anything they're doing, you're in the wrong mindset. I'm watching the cueball to soak up the speed of the table or just relaxing and biding my time.

Maybe get a fidget spinner type toy or watch the cueball of a nearby table.
 
i used to gamble some with a true snail. only reason was he was a pure sucker. when he'd go into his 'crawl mode' i'd walk around in circles just barely in his periph. vision. He knew deep down he played too slow and he'd always dog it. For the most part i avoided slow players like the plague.
 
Honestly, I usually start looking at my phone (sometimes I'll even play my Virtual Pool game, haha) .

It keeps my mind busy rather than getting frustrated at the slow play. I keep track of what's going on at the table in my peripheral vision and watch the actual shots, but I don't need to stare at the table for the 3 minutes they take to decide what they're going to do before each shot (I hate slow play so much!!). If I don't find something else to occupy my mind it drives me crazy and makes me frustrated which ends up hurting my game. So purposeful distraction is the answer for me.

When playing non-slow players I rarely look at my phone during a match and prefer to focus on the table.
 
It’s one of the reasons I prefer action, you can decide who you make a game with. As Gar referred to, sometimes it’s tempting to play a “deliberate player” if it’s easy action. It all depends on if the juice is worth the squeeze to you.
 
do the same to him. just sit in your chair for a few minutes every time you need to shoot. let the t.d. come over and ask if there is a time limit . if not take all day. be a frank taberski.

if the t.d. says to speed up just say you intend to play at the same speed as your opponent.

maybe then will tournaments not let slow players enter or punish them with fouls.

when gambling i quit a slow player if he wont raise the bet a lot. play fast or triple the bet. my time is worth money to me.
 
I have talked about this a few times, try a search on my name as the user and "gentleman Joe"

Joe was in his seventies, maybe eighties. While he played pool slowly, in all fairness he did everything else slow too. I was a teenager. I was beating a handful of people that were beating Joe but he had the Indian sign on me! I would sit on the edge of a barstool, jump up when it was my shot, and rush things missing the shot or shape. Then the torture again while Joe crawled around the table and his shots never left the bevel going in a pocket!

I spent a few months figuring out how to beat Joe. No bar stool, lean back in a chair. Mindset shift from eagerly awaiting my shot to mildly interested observer. I didn't move out of my chair until after the table settled and Joe walked away. That worked and Joe rarely took a game after that, never a session. When I list my very short list of mentors I include Joe. Not that he wanted to be but he cost me hundreds, one small bet at a time. He taught me how I could beat slow players and I made thousands, maybe even low tens of thousands, playing slow players in the next decade or so. Sure helped when I started playing one pocket too!

Hu
 
ShootingArts said:
Joe was in his seventies, maybe eighties.
Click to expand...
As a teen, I'd go to a grocery store and shoot pool on the small table for a quarter. I enjoyed watching Ta-Tee (an old man who's would be brought over to get out the nursing home) play a 12, maybe 14 year old kid. The kid would let the old man win, but you could see the old man could play back in his prime. The games were slow but well worth the watch.
 
CajunPopeye said:
I have adhd pretty bad. I'm 55 and unmedicated. I'd probably sip my drink and listen to the jukebox. If smoking was allowed inside, light up a menthol too.
Click to expand...

If speakers are close you might put something punishing on the jukebox! Somebody played "Those good ol' Butterbeans about 47 times. Once wasn't bad, six times an hour was painful before the night was over. I was singing along by midnight, pure torture for everyone else, I am tone deaf.(grin)

I think my first answer is best, join them.

Hu
 
I will add this: when i was playing a lot of pool the use of 'chemical inspiration' was quite common, even with champion-speed players. . It was VERY rare that you had to fade a slow player. Seemed like everyone was a tad 'above the speed limit'. ;)
 
Last edited:
garczar said:
I will add this: when i was playing a lot of pool the use of 'chemical inspiration' was quite common, even with champion-speed players. . It was VERY rare that you had to fade a slow player. Seemed like everyone was a tad 'above the sped limit'. ;)
Click to expand...

Some friends were coating the roof of a large shopping center with a miracle goop to stop leaks, heal the sick, raise the dead! They got ahold of some speed pills and the brooms were flying since you swept this stuff on with a lightweight broom. I was talking to the man who owned the company when his son came up. "We are really getting it today, aren't we?"

"Brooms are flying, but none of you are moving your feet!" I looked at the entire crew. They were sweeping ninety miles an hour but their shoes and feet all had been well painted with the roofing goop. Reminded me of how a friend described a racehorse. A local lawyer had been there when the first foal from a test breeding for Secretariat hit the ground. The mare was nothing at all, just an old mare that happened to be in heat at a convenient time. The lawyer whipped out a quarter million and when the foal was old enough he brought it home. Early testing revealed an awful fact. As my friend put it gently, "that foal can't run fast enough to scatter it's own crap!" Roland was always the tactful one!

Hu
 
put this tee shirt on and see if he gets the hint...😂
still your turn 2.jpeg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top