Do players that play pool for a living (without any other income) do okay?

J

justinb386

Banned
I am curious if there are very many unknown hustlers left here in america, who keep a very low profile, and just go around to the little bars all over, and make a living maybe by gambling and winning these little tournaments here and there?

I ask, because I know if they won any big regional events, then they would become known, and it would be hard for them to get action anywhere.

I wonder if there are any guys like fast Eddie from The Hustler left in america, and many players left that just play pool for a living (without a job, or any other income coming in)?

I see the money earnings from all of the pro players that play in all of the big events, and go all over playing in the biggest yearly tournaments, and they seem to make a good living playing pool, but I wonder about the unknown players (if very many unknown players play for a living), and if they do okay for themselves, or if they really struggle to make a living by just playing pool?

Are there players that do not get in any of the big annual tournaments, because they actually make more money (then the known pro players) by not being known?

I guess the days of hustling are over, now that we have the internet and all of this technology, so it is impossible to keep a low profile, and so is trying to make a living by just playing pool (no matter how good they are).

But I still wonder if there are any players (that might be even stronger then SVB for example) that are still able to stay unknown.
 
I have met about 30 people in bars that have an uncle who paid for college by hustling pool.

Seriously, I doubt there are very few, if any, that make a decent living from bars and such. It seems like it is hard enough to get $5 a game action at most bars.
 
Post

Have you ever seen a ninja...?No,because they are undetectable! If there was a strong pool player sneaking around unknown we would not know of him or her because they are unknown......if nobody knows you, nobody knows you exist therefore you'd be unknown.

Get my point?




Rob.M
 
dontlitethat said:
Have you ever seen a ninja...?No,because they are undetectable! If there was a strong pool player sneaking around unknown we would not know of him or her because they are unknown......if nobody knows you, nobody knows you exist therefore you'd be unknown.

Get my point?




Rob.M
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Kind of like a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, inside of a small pouch on the belt of Sho Kosugi?
Chuck
 
oh you've seen a ninja...

dontlitethat said:
Have you ever seen a ninja...?No,because they are undetectable! If there was a strong pool player sneaking around unknown we would not know of him or her because they are unknown......if nobody knows you, nobody knows you exist therefore you'd be unknown.

Get my point?




Rob.M
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Oh you've seen one, you just didn't know it WAS one. A ninja that is. A pool hustler... is much less likely.

Actually I know one person who just goes around and plays the weekly tourneys and matches up way below his level and he does alright. Nothing I'd consider a good living though.

Besides, regardless of how good you can do short term, there's no future in it. You can't qualify for credit, have no medical, no 401K, no job history.

I did that at one time. I managed a pool hall during the day and then me and the owner would go around to all the weekly tourneys at night and match up for low $ action. You could survive doing that in the early 90's but just barely.

I lived in a studio apartment that cost me $300 a month and gas in Cali was 1.05/gallon.

Jaden
 
Bruce Lee who had a dominating break couldn't hold up to the pressure

Yes indeed.....even Bruce Lee wasn't mentally tough enough to make a living playing pool - maybe he needed to use some TOI. ;)

10675657_821412191234045_5794514473579766918_n.jpg


Chuck Fields said:
Kind of like a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, inside of a small pouch on the belt of Sho Kosugi?
Chuck
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And ninjas don't sleep in their cars and constantly ask if they can hold your money for you.
 
I don't think it is very likely that such a person exists any more. The way prices are for things now vs. back in the day for things such as hotel rooms and food, make it very difficult. I suppose one could speculate that someone living in a cheap apartment with room mates eating big mac's, could go around to all of the local bar tournaments and possibly scrape by. This is if everything goes perfect, winning each tournament and such. This scenario wouldn't work well with gambling though, because if you have a home base like that, it's difficult to stay "unknown". I don't know, maybe I'm more just rambling on now.
 
dontlitethat said:
Have you ever seen a ninja...?No,because they are undetectable! If there was a strong pool player sneaking around unknown we would not know of him or her because they are unknown......if nobody knows you, nobody knows you exist therefore you'd be unknown.

Get my point?




Rob.M
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The Shadow knows!
 
I've known a few guys that have grinded local tournaments, play low $$$ sets with a big advantage, and staked to closer $$$ games. It's just isn't very consistent money and a tough way to make it work. But, I know several that use it as a part time income stream.
 
justinb386 said:
I am curious if there are very many unknown hustlers left here in america, who keep a very low profile, and just go around to the little bars all over, and make a living maybe by gambling and winning these little tournaments here and there?

I ask, because I know if they won any big regional events, then they would become known, and it would be hard for them to get action anywhere.

I wonder if there are any guys like fast Eddie from The Hustler left in america, and many players left that just play pool for a living (without a job, or any other income coming in)?

I see the money earnings from all of the pro players that play in all of the big events, and go all over playing in the biggest yearly tournaments, and they seem to make a good living playing pool, but I wonder about the unknown players (if very many unknown players play for a living), and if they do okay for themselves, or if they really struggle to make a living by just playing pool?

Are there players that do not get in any of the big annual tournaments, because they actually make more money (then the known pro players) by not being known?

I guess the days of hustling are over, now that we have the internet and all of this technology, so it is impossible to keep a low profile, and so is trying to make a living by just playing pool (no matter how good they are).

But I still wonder if there are any players (that might be even stronger then SVB for example) that are still able to stay unknown.
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Yes, they are out there. The ones I've met aren't worried about the rent money, they are doing it for the thrill. I classify them more as "bet makers" rather than hustlers. They prey more on people with gambling problems rather than searching out the best players. They can score quite big like that and they keep it moving.
 
Rhea! Although not sure if that is "doing OK".

There is quite a bit of money to play for with some people, just need to find someone that makes good money, likes pool and/or likes to gamble.

I watched pro and other top players play for thousands or quite a few hundreds with so-so players with spots. I'd guess a good player can pick up enough action to make 30k a year on gambling just with the richer non-pro players assuming they can get a $1,000 set or a few smaller sets a week and win most of the time. Not counting those challenge matches that the real top players get invited to or get stacked for, I'm talking about just making games in a good room, based on what I see around Snookers in RI.

That combined with winning 1-2-3k in the larger local tournaments every month may be enough to pay the rent and buy food. If you cash in a good weekly tournament, once again going by the Snookers $20 entry one, you can get $2-300 a week in extra income a week which is not that bad for "extra" money.
 
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The pool halls are full of people who have no other income than what they win at pool. Of course most of them still live rent free with their parents.
 
$1,000,000 - we lived like millionaires, better because we could do what we desired

Times have sure changed. When I was a full time "Road Player" it was expected to average at least $1000. per day. I would meet up with one of my partners and we'd usually spend a month or so together. If we didn't get back with $15,000 apiece we did poorly.

Back then it was normal to win $20,000+ in a night, my best three years grossed close to $1,000,000 - we lived like millionaires, and better because we could do what we wanted, when we wanted - controlling our own destiny.

This isn't possible for many these days, although I still have friends that make 100k+ and could make more, but they pick and choose which months they play seriously. The expenses have doubled so the profit margins are far less than in the 90's.


In 1982 Wiley placed second in the Missouri state Championship and won the National High School Championship in Chicago. But it was a year later, during Christmas break in his senior year of high school, that he embarked on a three-week adventure that would change his life: his first road trip to hustle pool. Traveling with a pair of seasoned road players who he says “could sell anybody anything,” he hit Kansas City, Topeka and Wichita, Kansas, and Ponca City, Oklahoma; the trip was such a rip-roaring success that there was no turning back for him. “I learned that there was a life in this,” he says. From age 18 to 25 he worked the road full-time, living out of a motel, a hotel, or a motor home. (In 1987, so he would have a base, he rented an apartment in the Dallas suburb of Carrollton. Why Dallas? It was pretty, equidistant from the coats, bubbled with high-stakes pool, and has “the most gorgeous women I’d ever seen.”)

Like all roads players, Wiley planned his days as if he were on a cross-country vacation—only instead of selling his sights on, say, the Grand Canyon, he sought hotbeds of pool activity, or spots. In fact, he always carried a little black spot book, in which he had scribbled information extracted from an underground network of other hustlers: It had the names of players he should play, where they played, how well they played (their “speed”), and their betting patterns. “I really enjoyed the freedom of it all, of waking up whenever I wanted, of going wherever I wanted, and controlling my own destiny,” he says.
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