Cheating in pool is just as good as playing fair

Playing racquetball and I was running up towards the front wall to get in defensive position when my opponent hit the ball early, high and right into my body (jam shot). I tried to get my racket down in time, but I wasn't quick enough. The ball hit me right in the kneecap. BUT, the ball bounced off my kneecap right back to the front wall for a nice winner. My opponent (thinking it hit my racket instead of my knee), said "good hands". I said thank you.

Of course, me and my buddy would play five or six games at a time, and we weren't betting a dime. I cheated just for a chuckle and told him about it later (he remembered the shot). When I play my wife pool, I often do the kind of goofy things the guy in that video was doing. Again though, all in good fun. Cheating in any kind of serious pool match is for low-life degenerates.
 
I would swear on the grave of my parents that I've never cheated at pool, but that doesn't mean I haven't been subjected to it. Each of the following happened to me:

Putting the Game Up Twice
There was an opponent of mine that would win a game, move a bead, take a bathroom break, and then come back and move another bead. Until I took exception, he would get away with it.

Shooting After a Dry Break
There was an opponent of mine that, in a tournament, opened the match with a dry break, but continued shooting. After he made the one and the two, I noticed that all the other balls were still on the table. He ran out. In the next rack, he broke dry again, and again tried to continue shooting, but this time I took exception.

Some opponents need to be watched!
 
I would swear on the grave of my parents that I've never cheated at pool, but that doesn't mean I haven't been subjected to it. Each of the following happened to me:

Putting the Game Up Twice
There was an opponent of mine that would win a game, move a bead, take a bathroom break, and then come back and move another bead. Until I took exception, he would get away with it.

Shooting After a Dry Break
There was an opponent of mine that, in a tournament, opened the match with a dry break, but continued shooting. After he made the one and the two, I noticed that all the other balls were still on the table. He ran out. In the next rack, he broke dry again, and again tried to continue shooting, but this time I took exception.

Some opponents need to be watched!
There is a perfectly valid question to ask just such an opponent.
Would you like one lump, or two...with your tea?
😉
 
I would swear on the grave of my parents that I've never cheated at pool, but that doesn't mean I haven't been subjected to it. Each of the following happened to me:

Putting the Game Up Twice
There was an opponent of mine that would win a game, move a bead, take a bathroom break, and then come back and move another bead. Until I took exception, he would get away with it.

Shooting After a Dry Break
There was an opponent of mine that, in a tournament, opened the match with a dry break, but continued shooting. After he made the one and the two, I noticed that all the other balls were still on the table. He ran out. In the next rack, he broke dry again, and again tried to continue shooting, but this time I took exception.

Some opponents need to be watched!

I was 15 years old and played against a 35 year old man in the final. The winner would qualify for the Spanish Championship. It was hill-hill and the tournament dragged on tremendously, it was after midnight and I had a school day the next day. I closed my eyes for a split second and that's when my opponent committed a foul, he accidentally touched the cue ball with his tip before he made his actual shot. I didn't see it and he just carried on as if nothing had happened and he won. After the match was over, several people came up to me who had seen his cheating from different angles and asked me why I hadn't said anything. Because I hadn't seen it, why didn't you say anything? "Because it's none of our business"

Simply pathetic. I've never cheated in my life and I never will. If I commit a foul in a tournament and nobody sees it, then you can be sure that I will give you ball in hand.
 
What about when playing 8 ball and your opponent shoots the wrong ball type? Sometimes you gotta roll with it if it benefits you…….they cheated first.

As I understand it, it's your choice to call a foul on them and get ball-in-hand. If not, and they shoot a second ball of the same type then they automatically have those balls.

Not usually cheating -- just a mistake. Roll with it as you please.

Me, I'd prefer ball-in-hand versus giving them an opportunity to run out or play a lock up safety.
 
There's cheating, which we all know what that is and then there's this very large gray area that exists due to decades of varied rules and varied expectations. Is the sitting player the referee or not? Is the game a "gentlemen" sport where one is expected to call fouls on themselves or not? Is it practical to have the same expectations for players in a singles tournament as you would in a team event.

Honorable people can actually have differing opinions on what's expected of the players in this gray area. I'll give just one example: You're in a team event where the expectation is the sitting player acts as the referee. So you're shooting but your opponent is on the sideline a good distance from the table, joking around with his teammates. You proceed to shoot a shot involving a close hit and you know it's bad. Do you "act" as the referee and call the foul on yourself, and by extension your team? I honestly would not call it bad. Now if the hit was properly observed and I was questioned on the hit, I would give my honest answer.

There are other quasi-integrity issues that a philosophy or ethics class could spend an entire semester on and I'm not sure they would come to any clear conclusions. It's all because the rules and expectations have not been clear for decades. It's not necessarily because everyone is out to cheat you.
 
Better to be honest about being a POS than to be a lying POS I guess. Also, i noticed I’m obviously not the only person completely unsurprised by this admission by OP. Always klassy.
 
... Putting the Game Up Twice
There was an opponent of mine that would win a game, move a bead, take a bathroom break, and then come back and move another bead. Until I took exception, he would get away with it. ....
A different way to deal with that is to move the bead back, and then tell him when he returns, "Don't forget to move your bead."
 
I was always a bit disturbed at how, pros who do ’exhibitions‘ usually include in their routine, that cliched trick shot where the initial contact splits the obstructing balls, and the shaft quickly pokes thru & pockets the money ball (giving impressionable young players bad ideas). Same with the rail-frozen ball ‘push-shot’ (spin-in) trick. I suppose though, if you learn how to cheat, you are thus ‘forewarned’ when victimized.
 
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