Maybe for something, but not for what it was posted to show:
Where's the safety at 2:36 (or anywhere else)?
pj
chgo
I thought the safety was hanging out with the pool crew
he probably told the secret to one of his living buddies
Maybe for something, but not for what it was posted to show:
Where's the safety at 2:36 (or anywhere else)?
pj
chgo
Maybe for something, but not for what it was posted to show:
Where's the safety at 2:36 (or anywhere else)?
pj
chgo
its the right video
pool should be about playing the game and enjoying good times talking about it
some men approach pool like a one night stand, they play and forget what happen
other guys treat it like a long standing relationship with a history of consistency and fun little arguments on pool philosophy.
grady matthews was a user on this forum
Like Grady I feel very fortunate to have seen all these guys play and gamble in the prime of their careers, with Rood being the exception to the latter.
Where to start? I guess with George since I had the good fortune to grow up in Dayton, Ohio where he lived. He made frequent appearances at the Cue and Bridge poolroom in Northtown Shopping Center on N. Main St., a place I used to hang out after school. Several days a week he would come in and get a set of balls and practice on the front table. First maybe six to eight racks of Straight Pool and them maybe a half hour of 9-Ball, just breaking and running racks. I could see he was a very good player because when the other local champs came in they just said hello to him and left him alone. Rarely did I ever see George play anyone. He was already in his late 40's to early 50's and his road days were long since over.
Once in a while a road man would come in looking for a game and someone would summon George to accommodate him. Maybe thirty minutes later he would come in and check with whoever called him (usually Russ Maddox) and get himself introduced to the road man who had been practicing all this time. They would make a game (almost always 9-Ball, but I saw him play Straights once or twice) and George would put together his cue and they would start without him hitting one practice ball. Ten or twenty dollar 9-Ball was the norm and I never saw anyone beat George! Some pretty fair players stopped in there (Ed Kelly, Joey Spaeth, Johnny Ervolino, Teddie Elias, Chuck Morgan, Johnny Overton, Larry Ridgeway) and it always ended the same way. George had the money and a handshake.
An added bonus was that George's old friends, like Luther Lassiter, Eddie Taylor and Don Willis would come by when they were in the area to say hi to him. They would sit there and gab about the old days and never hit a ball. When Fats came in for an exhibition he saw George sitting there and immediately went over and said hello to him. He showed deference to George all day, complimenting him profusely during his exhibition.
Next there's Beenie, who took a liking to me for whatever reason. He let me partner up with him on a couple of occasions even though I didn't have a lot of money to throw in with him. I gave him all I had in my pocket and trusted that we had good action. Twice I won thousands being his partner in a Blackjack game, and at my second L.A. Open I let him set up his Keno board at night and every day he handed me another 500! Billy was a gifted gambler and the smoothest talker I ever saw. He could charm the clothes off your back. He was a very intelligent man with a good vocabulary, who played a good game of pool. Not as good as the top players but he knew what he needed to beat them.
Eddie Taylor I didn't really have a relationship with, other than I admired his Bank Pool skills. To this day I've never seen his equal at that game. He hit just about every bank at warp speed and they all went toward the hole. I was always surprised if the ball hit a point and didn't go in. With Taylor you never expected him to miss a bank! He is the only man I ever saw throw all fifteen balls on the table and bank every one in. That was how he practiced when he appeared at the Cue and Bridge. He would shoot five to ten racks just to get the feel of the table and then he was done. I'm sure I saw him make all fifteen once and maybe twice. He has the all time record for 37 consecutive banks! Thank about it.
Then there's CORNBREAD RED, the man who brought me to putting marks on paper about him. He is by far the most outspoken and confident man I ever met in a poolroom. If he said he was going to beat you and eat you, you'd better run! Red backed down from no man, whether he be a poolplayer or an outlaw. And no one messed with Red either and he went where he wanted to go and played whoever he wanted to play. He was a non discriminatory pool hustler! I saw him back down Steve Mizerak at Straight Pool when Steve was the U.S. Open champion. Steve wanted to play 150 points for $100 and Red asked him how much money he had on him. When Steve responded proudly that he had $1,000, Red told him he would play him fifty points of 14.1 for the $1,000! Steve got scared and left the room. Red is another guy who Fats was careful around, always being respectful when talking about him, and not bragging/lying about beating him like he did with other players.
Red probably had the most powerful stroke in pool back in the days of the slow cloth. He would pound balls into the pocket and drive that cue ball around the table. The bigger the bet the better he played! He did something I never saw anyone else do in a money game. When he reached the hill in a 9-Ball match, he liked to leave himself long and straight in on the last nine ball. Then he would fire the ball in at 100 mph as if to emphasize that he just beat you! I would think to myself why did he have to hit it so hard. It was only later that I realized if was a psychological move to keep you weak.
I lived in a golden era of pool, when the game was populated with so many interesting characters. I was a spectator to greatness!
That's an excellent shot, but I would call it a standard advanced safety that all decent players should consciously be aware of. It has appeared in print, in game play and in that video. I don't think that qualifies as "deep knowledge". Corner-hook safes at one pocket using the corner pockets are similar.
I could hit that shot, but I'd never think of it (until now). Is that deep knowledge?That's a very delicate safety. Pat knows how!
We hear this a lot, but never hear what any of those "secrets" were. Makes me think it's just a popular myth.
The "secret" of top players is that they do the same things we do, just much better.
pj
chgo
Do you believe there is such a thing as "deep knowledge" when it comes to pool?
I mean, stuff not found in books or generally discussed? Certainly not the science. More like the knowledge that great players come to learn after years of study, practice and experimentation, hand down from father to son, hoard, maybe occasionally share amongst themselves, and eventually take to their graves.
What say you?
Lou Figueroa
Do you believe there is such a thing as "deep knowledge" when it comes to pool?
I mean, stuff not found in books or generally discussed? Certainly not the science. More like the knowledge that great players come to learn after years of study, practice and experimentation, hand down from father to son, hoard, maybe occasionally share amongst themselves, and eventually take to their graves.
What say you?
Lou Figueroa
Like Grady I feel very fortunate to have seen all these guys play and gamble in the prime of their careers, with Rood being the exception to the latter.
Where to start? I guess with George since I had the good fortune to grow up in Dayton, Ohio where he lived. He made frequent appearances at the Cue and Bridge poolroom in Northtown Shopping Center on N. Main St., a place I used to hang out after school. Several days a week he would come in and get a set of balls and practice on the front table. First maybe six to eight racks of Straight Pool and them maybe a half hour of 9-Ball, just breaking and running racks. I could see he was a very good player because when the other local champs came in they just said hello to him and left him alone. Rarely did I ever see George play anyone. He was already in his late 40's to early 50's and his road days were long since over.
Once in a while a road man would come in looking for a game and someone would summon George to accommodate him. Maybe thirty minutes later he would come in and check with whoever called him (usually Russ Maddox) and get himself introduced to the road man who had been practicing all this time. They would make a game (almost always 9-Ball, but I saw him play Straights once or twice) and George would put together his cue and they would start without him hitting one practice ball. Ten or twenty dollar 9-Ball was the norm and I never saw anyone beat George! Some pretty fair players stopped in there (Ed Kelly, Joey Spaeth, Johnny Ervolino, Teddie Elias, Chuck Morgan, Johnny Overton, Larry Ridgeway) and it always ended the same way. George had the money and a handshake.
An added bonus was that George's old friends, like Luther Lassiter, Eddie Taylor and Don Willis would come by when they were in the area to say hi to him. They would sit there and gab about the old days and never hit a ball. When Fats came in for an exhibition he saw George sitting there and immediately went over and said hello to him. He showed deference to George all day, complimenting him profusely during his exhibition.
Next there's Beenie, who took a liking to me for whatever reason. He let me partner up with him on a couple of occasions even though I didn't have a lot of money to throw in with him. I gave him all I had in my pocket and trusted that we had good action. Twice I won thousands being his partner in a Blackjack game, and at my second L.A. Open I let him set up his Keno board at night and every day he handed me another 500! Billy was a gifted gambler and the smoothest talker I ever saw. He could charm the clothes off your back. He was a very intelligent man with a good vocabulary, who played a good game of pool. Not as good as the top players but he knew what he needed to beat them.
Eddie Taylor I didn't really have a relationship with, other than I admired his Bank Pool skills. To this day I've never seen his equal at that game. He hit just about every bank at warp speed and they all went toward the hole. I was always surprised if the ball hit a point and didn't go in. With Taylor you never expected him to miss a bank! He is the only man I ever saw throw all fifteen balls on the table and bank every one in. That was how he practiced when he appeared at the Cue and Bridge. He would shoot five to ten racks just to get the feel of the table and then he was done. I'm sure I saw him make all fifteen once and maybe twice. He has the all time record for 37 consecutive banks! Thank about it.
Then there's CORNBREAD RED, the man who brought me to putting marks on paper about him. He is by far the most outspoken and confident man I ever met in a poolroom. If he said he was going to beat you and eat you, you'd better run! Red backed down from no man, whether he be a poolplayer or an outlaw. And no one messed with Red either and he went where he wanted to go and played whoever he wanted to play. He was a non discriminatory pool hustler! I saw him back down Steve Mizerak at Straight Pool when Steve was the U.S. Open champion. Steve wanted to play 150 points for $100 and Red asked him how much money he had on him. When Steve responded proudly that he had $1,000, Red told him he would play him fifty points of 14.1 for the $1,000! Steve got scared and left the room. Red is another guy who Fats was careful around, always being respectful when talking about him, and not bragging/lying about beating him like he did with other players.
Red probably had the most powerful stroke in pool back in the days of the slow cloth. He would pound balls into the pocket and drive that cue ball around the table. The bigger the bet the better he played! He did something I never saw anyone else do in a money game. When he reached the hill in a 9-Ball match, he liked to leave himself long and straight in on the last nine ball. Then he would fire the ball in at 100 mph as if to emphasize that he just beat you! I would think to myself why did he have to hit it so hard. It was only later that I realized if was a psychological move to keep you weak.
I lived in a golden era of pool, when the game was populated with so many interesting characters. I was a spectator to greatness!
Do you believe there is such a thing as "deep knowledge" when it comes to pool?
I mean, stuff not found in books or generally discussed? Certainly not the science. More like the knowledge that great players come to learn after years of study, practice and experimentation, hand down from father to son, hoard, maybe occasionally share amongst themselves, and eventually take to their graves.
What say you?
Lou Figueroa
Yes, there is...
...The problem with pool is that you can often shoot your way out of a bad situation with pure talent/luck, and never learn the actual correct way of shooting. Since the form of the player fluctuates, he may never understand that he simply shoots the wrong shots and instead believe he's in a slump when maybe he isn't...
If chess masters take years to develop their strategies how do you explain these guys
Sergey Karjakin
Gukesh Dommaraju
Javokhir Sindarov
Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu
Nodirbek Abdusattorov
Parimarjan Negi
Magnus Carlsen
Wei Yi
Raunak Sadhwani
Bu Xiangzhi
none over 13 years old , there is a 4 year old who played Karpov and actually was playing a great game despite it being a blitz game which tremendously helped Karpov and the announcer kept distracting the little kid asking him stupid questions. He lost on time duh.
Chess has been opening theory for the last 100 plus years . Endless memorization of opening lines, and then well worn tactics the rest of the game.
Until super computers, most of it was all well known, and well documented.
Now the top players incorporate the computer moves sometimes in their games , just more memorization. {Most of the computer moves are counter intuitive to popular chess theory , that is why they were never developed by humans }
It is not a mysterious ability to continually invent new ideas. Just having a near photographic memory for opening sequences and tactics and the ability to see the favorable "positions' developing, faster than your opponent.
As far as I know there was only one notable exception in the last century , that was Jose Raul Capablanca, he played the game mostly by intuition. He claimed he did not study opening theory at all , but thats kind of hard to believe , even if he only used it as a weapon against the people who did stick to it.
He was 4 years old and had never seen a chess board when he watched his father, a lieutenant in the army and another soldier play 2 games and when they were finished , he challenged his father to a game , after the child beat him 2 games in a row, the father took him to a brain specialist.
Bobby Fischer although a great theoretician, actually played a lot like Capa, he saw positions most others did not see, or if they did , he was already there ahead of them with a trap.
No one said 'secret' knowledge. I'm not saying it's anything that hasn't been discovered.
I’m quoting you out of context. But the OP seemed to clearly be talking about ‘secret’ knowledge with framing the conversation in terms of how it was passed from father to son, hoarded, and taken to the grave.
I think that perhaps contrasts with the idea of specialized knowledge solely earned through quality practice, competition, coming with it, instruction and research. Then again, yesterday’s secrets sometimes become today’s instruction, e.g. spot on the wall.
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As Maurice Daly put it 107 years ago, the worst thing that can happen for a player is to shoot the wrong shot and have it turn out well.... The problem with pool is that you can often shoot your way out of a bad situation with pure talent/luck, and never learn the actual correct way of shooting. Since the form of the player fluctuates, he may never understand that he simply shoots the wrong shots and instead believe he's in a slump when maybe he isn't. ...