Cell phones ringing during a match????

BillPorter

BillPorter

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
One of my pet peeves in the pool hall is having my oponent spend long minutes on his cell phone while playing a match with me. Now it's not so bad when they simply take the call, tell the person they are in the middle of a game, and hang up. It's when they get multiple calls within a half hour or so and sometimes spend 5 minutes or more in conversation while you stand there waiting for them to shoot. Maybe someone should invent a jamming device that prevents cell phone signals from getting through.
 
Our local APA rules consider it a timeout if you accept a call. Twice is a foul. Not a bad idea.:)
I know what you mean though...I have a friend I play often. It seems that whenever I start to catch a gear, he has to make a call for a moment & run outside for 10 minutes...while he hears what his wife had for lunch. Last time it seemed a bit excessive so I just turned the balls in and was playing someone else when he returned.:D
 
I'm the same as you Bill... I don't mind if you get a call, and say you'll give them a call back. Or even if you take the call while it's my turn, I miss or play safe and you put the person on hold... take your shot, and let me back at the table... that's fine.
But making me wait so you can talk about tomorrow's tps reports? no. Not likely... because when it's my turn, I'm going to disappear for 30 minutes and come back saying I had to "make a phone call"

If it's a friend, fine... I'll go get a beer up at the bar or something, maybe get interested in the menu or watch tv for a bit. No biggy
 
BillPorter said:
One of my pet peeves in the pool hall is having my oponent spend long minutes on his cell phone while playing a match with me. Now it's not so bad when they simply take the call, tell the person they are in the middle of a game, and hang up. It's when they get multiple calls within a half hour or so and sometimes spend 5 minutes or more in conversation while you stand there waiting for them to shoot. Maybe someone should invent a jamming device that prevents cell phone signals from getting through.
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Maybe we should all buy them for use at the pool room.

http://www.phonejammer.com/
 
BillPorter said:
Rep points for you! Wow, I didn't even know there were such things.
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They are in use all over Europe in Movie theaters, live theaters and places where phone might be a disturbance. I was under the impression they may be illegal in the USA because the phone companies wanted to run up everyones per minute charges. I know that was true several years ago. Dont know if Congress finally stopped taking bribes from ATT, Verizon, and Sprint and listened to the public.
 
Same here Bill. The very few friends I play pool with are considerate and they make it short or tell the person they will call back.

Most cell phones users however are not considerate. They answer a call anywhere at any time and it can be very disruptive. Some are so loud everyone gets to hear their conversation like it or not. I really don't want to hear others verbal garbage. Those people are rude and have no clue what being considerate even means.

At my work I can tone those conversations down or tell that person to leave it they don't comply. The time will come when cell phone users understand its a privilege not a right to use their phones. The more they abuse that privilege more restrictions will be enforced.

Rod
 
BillPorter said:
Maybe someone should invent a jamming device that prevents cell phone signals from getting through.
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The best jamming device is a runout. He will need a blue tooth to talk and rack at the same time!

The guys that get me are the ones who use a walkie talkie function from the rail. I am not distracted by the sound, just bothered by the bad manners. Hang up the phone or step in the box.
 
One of my teammates spends half of the night on the phone. He once won two games in a row by setting the phone on the rail while shooting (running out), and picking it back up while the other guy racked. He then lost a game, and finished off his last by setting the phone down again....never hanging up, but also not making the other guy (opponent) wait. It was kinda funny in a way though....his mind was clearly not on the game, and he still won 4 - 1.
 
Penalty

I think I read that during the World Snooker tourney in London this year...a cell phone was confiscated from a spectator and the spectator was escorted out of the building.
 
Bill,

A friendly game between two players with no money on the line, it is just a rude interruption.

If it is a gambling match up, well, you could certainly discuss cell phone usage from the beginning. If you wait until during the match, it will be more difficult to address the problem, if it occurs.

I've seen players just set the cell on vibrate or turn it off and just take a break later to check messages. Even then, it could take awhile to answer all the voice mails.

During tournaments, it is very different. I announce at every tournament that the house rule is NO CELL PHONES. Spectators and players are told to either turn them off or put them on vibrate. If a players cell rings while in a match, it is an automatic loss of game off the wire. If the race is to 6, the offending player now has to go to 7.
 
Tom In Cincy said:
Bill,

A friendly game between two players with no money on the line, it is just a rude interruption.

If it is a gambling match up, well, you could certainly discuss cell phone usage from the beginning. If you wait until during the match, it will be more difficult to address the problem, if it occurs.

I've seen players just set the cell on vibrate or turn it off and just take a break later to check messages. Even then, it could take awhile to answer all the voice mails.

During tournaments, it is very different. I announce at every tournament that the house rule is NO CELL PHONES. Spectators and players are told to either turn them off or put them on vibrate. If a players cell rings while in a match, it is an automatic loss of game off the wire. If the race is to 6, the offending player now has to go to 7.
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I would rather that I only had to go to 5 instead of my opponent going to 7.

And I have a simple rule: All cell phones off while playing unless you are calling to get more money to continue playing.
 
If you are playing someone that has a bluetooth on their head, insist that they take it off. You would be surprised how easy it is to get advice on runouts via a bluetooth. I have seen this a few times.

"coach" sits near the bar area and watches the game with a bluetooth on
"player" recieves advice during his/her match

i have seen it with my own eyes in progress.
 
I've reversed it on them before. Wait patiently until they are done talking and give them the nice and loud " since you took your break I'm taking mine now, I got a growler that's knocking hard" then you go into the bathroom and pretend to take a shit for about ten minutes
 
Varney Cues said:
Our local APA rules consider it a timeout if you accept a call. Twice is a foul. Not a bad idea.:)
I know what you mean though...I have a friend I play often. It seems that whenever I start to catch a gear, he has to make a call for a moment & run outside for 10 minutes...while he hears what his wife had for lunch. Last time it seemed a bit excessive so I just turned the balls in and was playing someone else when he returned.:D
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That's a bunch of junk. Ten mins? That's ten minutes that their team, your team, and you have less to sleep that night.

I don't know about you, but our league nights for some reason seem to get longer and longer. Maybe I'm just getting older.;)
 
Phone Jammers in USA

cueandcushion said:
They are in use all over Europe in Movie theaters, live theaters and places where phone might be a disturbance. I was under the impression they may be illegal in the USA because the phone companies wanted to run up everyones per minute charges. I know that was true several years ago. Dont know if Congress finally stopped taking bribes from ATT, Verizon, and Sprint and listened to the public.
Click to expand...

Sidenote: A year or so back I read an article that some college has developed an infrared... broadcaster, for lack of better word... that will block digital cameras from recording, like in a movie theater for instance.

The Phone Jammer:
They're illegal for public use in the states because the FCC decided it so. Some places can apply for a license to broadcast a radio signal along the same wave length. (that's what these jammers do.. essentially they confuse cell phones by sending random information to all the "cell" frequencies in the area)
Since they're literally broadcasting radio waves, they need a radio operators license... not to mention a very very specific license.
Something tells me that a tournament director isn't going to learn morse code for the regulars.
 
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