nee nee nee nee, nee nee nee nee....
(Twilight Zone)
(Twilight Zone)
Do you know of players who had such Natural Talent, that they could have been a World Champion?
- Thread starter 9ballscorpion
- Start date
I knew Pete well. I staked him a few times in Virginia. He was remarkable ! He could play with both hands.I watched him the first I meet him. I asked him after the match what handed he was. He said he didn't know. Whatever hand the cue was ib was the one he used on the next shot ! Never saw that in my 50+ years in pool ! He was a gas to hang with ! He was so smooth , I could watch him for hours ! Sadly he went to the dark side and cashed out way to soon. RIP
SVB did win the WORLD POOL MASTERS twice against top players around the world, SVB had trouble traveling oversees as to what he could eat. I think he's figured it out now. SVB !!!!!!!
I don't know who you were watching, but I saw a drugged out mouthy kid that played okay. I played him in the early 90's. After 3 hrs I lost $120 to him . I couldn't win. So I took a friend of mine (6ft 3 chubby 20 year old named Randy Stock of Virginia. Not only did Randy beat Hill, but he gave him the 8 and beat him again. I never saw Hill improve and went to the dark side, I believe did some jail time. This guy was never even close to a player. I say him for a couple of years in Glenn Bernie. Not a player, Just a mouthy punk.
Randy Stock played "Jam up" back in the day. The Hill that you met was a shadow of the original. You can come out and talk trash, but Hill destroyed Coaltrain and many other great players before he turned sixteen. His father would leave him at the pool room on Friday night and pick him up on Sunday morning (true story). No excuses, but not everyone has a great life.
When I met him he was 13 and was clean, sober and wanted to be a world champion. In the 90s the U.S had a drug epidemic (no excuses), but many people suffered. This kid Hill was just that, a kid. You had no problem playing a child for cash and sound like a sore loser.
Respectfully,
9ballscorpion
Active member
Wow, so he hated the game, but played it just because he was great at it, and could make a good living at it.
I said what I saw ! What he was before I have no knowledge . If I was a sore loser , why would I say I lost to him ?? Pretty dumb. My $120 loss turned into an $800 + win split 2 ways ! I'l do that every day ! I never heard about that kid till Glen Burnie room in 1990-91-92.
Comparing the World Pool Masters to a Major is pretty ridiculous. The field is solid, but many of the elite don't even get in, as each country get's just one player. In the last one, JL Chang, possibly the world's best rotation games player, wasn't even invited, with Taiwan's spot toing to Ko Pin Yi.. For its first twenty years or so, the event has had a field of 16 and to win it took just four wins in a race to eight format. I'd suggest that it's harder to win a Eurotour title than a World Pool Masters.
Actually, in her interview for the AZB magazine, Emily Frazer made a point of the fact that events like the World Pool Masters and the World Cup of Pool were not drawing the most elite fields possible and that the selection methodology needs significant revision.
World Pool Master wins are good wins, and in Shane's case, his best overseas wins, but let's not overstate the difficulty level in winning a sixteen player invitational that routinely leaves out half of the world's best ten players.
I remember Bobby. Strong player. Your mention of him reminded me of another player from that area. Robbie Hudson. I think he could have been something to had he possessed the mental strength. Cocaine, bad marriage and bad ethics ruined him. Setting his thousand dollar leather coat on fire on a pool table in Kennesaw, GA because someone stole his coke didn’t help either. He ended up with a really bad reputation. Shooting air barrels and such. But for a short period he was shooting about as good as anybody in the Atlanta area I’d say. Last I heard he was a car salesman. Got religion. Last I saw him he got his head handed to him by a kid named Anthony Green and then didn’t pay. That was about 7 years ago and I’m pretty sure he’s banned from that pool room now. Damn shame, like I said I think he could have been something.
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Ok. I don't know who you are, but it appears you don't like Shane. So, I would say that all the players you think play better than Shane are not lining up to to play him races to 100 for the $$$,$$$ ! If a match like that comes off, you and I can cam with each other on the side. Just a thought.
Apparently, you neither know me nor have you read my posts over the years. That's perfectly OK.
As I've so often posted, I consider Shane an all-time great, a living legend, and one of the top few players of the entire nine ball era. Nonetheless, his track record in overseas competition has been disappointing given his level of talent and his level of accomplishment on US soil. At present, and I've posted this often, as well, I think he's the world's third best rotation games player, behind JL Chang and Josh Filler, and each of them has a very good track record against Shane.
If refusing to be delusional about Shane's track record overseas is hating, then I'm a hater, but the fact is that I have limitless respect for what Shane has accomplished in his stellar career, and I hope I'm lucky enough to be in attendance when he is inducted into the BCA Hall of Fame.
I very rarely bet on pool, and for the most part, I very rarely bet on anything. That said, I have never made a bet against a person I don't know, and I won't be starting that practice now.
Yes you are right. I think Robbie won a United States bar table championship if memory serves me right. I thought for sure he would become a solid Pro at one time. He and Bob were close in age. Robbie came over and beat Bob in my poolroom once. When they were young Robbie could handle the pressure a little better than Bob, but I always thought Bob had the potential to advance to a higher level if he put his mind too it.
The greatest mistake I ever made was thinking because of the talent that God gave me that the pool room “owed” me a living. It did not.
For the better part of my career I never used or played high. But in the end being around so many in that life I gave way to temptation, and the lure of easy money. I really never thought about it back then, but you play sets for thousands of dollars the only people willing to put up that kind of money were bookies and drug dealers.
Once I made the decision to go down that path they made it easy to facilitate my demise. It was my choice and selfishness that brought me there though.
But I digress. I quit playing in about 2000, and the only time I would go into the pool room was when I was drinking, and wanted to try and grab some former glory. But the way pool works is if you aren’t riding that train full time there is no way possible you can play your best game.
That night, when I played Anthony, I just couldn’t pull it together. After that I called him and settled that debt. But there were a lot of things I regret along the way, that I never made up for. I had a lot of people that were really pulling for my success that I let down because of my selfishness.
Archers opened up recently here and I have played a few times. But for me the pool room is a dangerous place. I am not sure I will ever feel “safe” there ever again. Not that the pool room is a bad thing in and of itself.
I just don’t know if there is anything left for me there.
thenaturalpoolplayer
Active member
thenaturalpoolplayer
Active member
I agree about the drills being a waste of time. Why practice situations that never occur in a game?
I know a guy with such a natural stroke that when I uploaded a video of his cue power, people accused him of spraying silicone on the balls or rails, or cheating to make the ball do that. If he didn't have a real job and played pool instead, I bet he would be hammering some of the Mosconi team
I won’t name names.
But yes I know and have seen a few guys with sooooo much talent. Running 10 packs in their home room or the only pool room they play in at a given time.
They get performance anxiety or don’t like to travel or just don’t care about being a pro. There’s plenty of wasted talent out there. Or talent that can’t be achieved for external reasons like performance anxiety.
It is what it is. Some guys just have the desire to live out of a suitcase and others don’t. Or some get tired of it and want something else out of their life. Nothing wrong with that.
Fatboy <——-has no talent for pool
But yes I know and have seen a few guys with sooooo much talent. Running 10 packs in their home room or the only pool room they play in at a given time.
They get performance anxiety or don’t like to travel or just don’t care about being a pro. There’s plenty of wasted talent out there. Or talent that can’t be achieved for external reasons like performance anxiety.
It is what it is. Some guys just have the desire to live out of a suitcase and others don’t. Or some get tired of it and want something else out of their life. Nothing wrong with that.
Fatboy <——-has no talent for pool