Are some players born to scratch?

9BallPaul

9BallPaul

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In my early days in Denver, I knew a player we called Itchy. Seemed like every time the guy turned loose the cueball, he would scratch. In the most unlikely of ways. Balls would collide across the table and then skitter toward his cueball, knocking it in the nearest hole, as if by magic.

Itchy was not an inelegant player. He worked hard on his game and could run his racks, but of course he got out of line, just as any of us do. And whenever he did, and he turned Whitey loose, the result was totally predictable. Plop.

For this reason, he never gambled for more than a few bits per game. He fully understood the curse that hovered over his game. In his behalf, I must say the he accepted his fate graciously.

At the same time, Itchy had wonderful luck on the local slot machines.
That's pretty much how he financed his pool -- by beating the worst bet in a casino, and beating it consistently. The slots fed him constantly.

I'm a big believer in numbers theory, and I think the more you play the more your results will tend toward the average. And yet there are people in the world who make me wonder. Is there such a thing as luck, or is it all predetermined?

Anyone else have such thoughts?
 
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I believe some people are luckier than others when it comes to that kind of stuff for sure. I might be one of the best flukers in the world haha.
 
luck

I have to believe in luck. Some people live a charmed life, can fall in a barrel of cow flop and come up with a huge diamond. Others get hit by blue ice falling out of the sky. I knew a guy that won raffles, sweepstakes, you name it. He had a substantial additional cash flow from these ridiculous long shots. In the last five or six years he had won a pick-up truck, on two separate occasions!

My luck runs on the bad side but some days it is ridiculous. I was having one of those days at the New Orleans Fair Grounds. By about the sixth race it was obvious I couldn't win a bet on a boat race. The horses left the gates on the backside and one fell going into the far turn a long ways off. The guy beside me with a pair of binoculars to his eyes was screaming "which one is it?" I barely looked up, "the three horse." After things were sorted out it was of course the three horse. The guy wanted to know how I knew. "Easy, that was the one I bet!"

On a pool table I was a little luckier, always helps when I can make my own.

Hu




9BallPaul said:
In my early days in Denver, I knew a player we called Itchy. Seemed like every time the guy turned loose the cueball, he would scratch. In the most unlikely of ways. Balls would collide across the table and then skitter toward his cueball, knocking it in the nearest hole, as if by magic.

Itchy was not an inelegant player. He worked hard on his game and could run his racks, but of course he got out of line, just as any of us do. And whenever he did, and he turned Whitey loose, the result was totally predictable. Plop.

For this reason, he never gambled for more than a few bits per game. He fully understood the curse that hovered over his game. In his behalf, I must say the he accepted his fate graciously.

At the same time, Itchy had wonderful luck on the local slot machines.
That's pretty much how he financed his pool -- by beating the worst bet in a casino, and beating it consistently. The slots fed him constantly.

I'm a big believer in numbers theory, and I think the more you play the more your results will tend toward the average. And yet there are people in the world who make me wonder. Is there such a thing as luck, or is it all predetermined?

Anyone else have such thoughts?
Click to expand...
 
i am pretty at good making whitty!!!!!!!!!!!!!! but cannt make a sentance????
 
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Well, normally I'm a believer in numbers and percentages evening out in the long run also, BUT I think there are some people that really do have luck (good or bad) way out of proportion to everyone else.

I used to play with this guy from my local poolroom, he wasn't too good, maybe a C minus player. Anyway this guy had luck like you wouldn't believe, he almost never left you a shot when he missed regardless of the game 9-ball, 14.1, it didn't matter. there'd be just the 8 and 9 on the table and he'd miss and more often than not he'd hook you behind the 9, and trust me he wasn't cleverly hiding his speed, he was a banger and send the cueball flying twice around the table and hook you. People thought I was exaggerating until they played him and then they would have this utterly mystified look on their faces saying "oh my god, it doesn't seem possible that anyone could be this lucky time and time again!"

If you were playing him for money, you had to adjust for the luck factor (I'm very serious!) I had to give him a couple of games on the wire less than I normally would to a player of his speed. The really infuriating part was that he didn't think he was any luckier than anyone else! He was oblivious. This went on for years and years! So yeah, I believe some people have a tendency towards luck.
 
Just as numbers theory says that the more people play, the more they fall in step with the norm... it also says that there is a statistical bell curve for 'scratch-itis'.. and some people will fall into the tail end of that curve (scratching all the time when it's unlikely) and some will fall into the the other tail (avoiding a scratch in situations where they didn't even see it coming or know how to dodge it).

Somebody somewhere is either going to be or to know one of those 'tail end' people. And "lucky" or "unlucky" are just labels we give to people who fall into one of those tail ends.

Just don't get sucked into thinking it's beyond your control or that you're destined to scratch or whatever. We used to have a guy on here, I think his name was Dr_Cues_Protege or something... would always whine about how he's the unluckiest guy in the world, never made a ball on the break and got hooked even if he did. Made it sound like he was a huge victim. Man, that shìt was annoying.
 
I use to scratch a lot. Then I learned how to control the ball. If you think your gonna scratch, you probably will. It's avoidable. Great story. I am new here to the forum and enjoy just about every post. Thanks
 
I'm sure the English Billiard players wish they had this problem.

I don't believe that players are cursed. If your constantly scratching you need to start thinking about the route of the cue ball. You shouldn't be colliding with a million balls, and if you are colliding with them you should understand how the cue ball will react off of them.
 
there is a guy here that we call "bump shape" scott for obvious reasons from the nickname...lucky mofo!!!
 
it's all fate.......... you're either born the "head" in life or "tails"...........and most everyone knows there's no such thing as a fifty-fifty flip. I don't care what anyone says.......no matter how well you control whitey, every now and then you're forced to let it loose. And for some folks, it usually doesn't work out too well.
 
thers is a guy in my town who can play B+ pool but once he scratches. hes a D and he cant stop the scratches. so he just unscrews and quits for the night.
 
The mystery is solved

I've discovered from another poster that old Itchy from Denver is still playing pool, and posting on AZB! Amazingly, his handle is LWW -- most of you wouldn't know him because he posts only on the Off-Topic board, and every one of his posts reflects his moon-bat politics. He's much too terrible a player to risk offering opinions on the pool boards.

Yes, there he is, Mr. Hard Luck himself (LWW stands for Loser With Warts) and now posting on AZ. Wish he could give me some more red rep, but he's got a limited supply. And I've given him all the green I can get away with.

Good to have you back, Itchy. Sorry about your sorry pool game.

Wanna play some?
 
I believe that the stronger you become in pool the less luck you will need and or will get. This also works in reverse for the weaker players. Some people may be fortunate to have the rolls go there way more often than others unintentionally. And that can get annoying.
 
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