chipper8828
Chipper8828
I was wondering how the gamblers on this forum got their first taste for it and around what age they started playing for money.
First Gambling Experience
- Thread starter chipper8828
- Start date
it was when i was old enough to be in bars, it was a game of bar rules 8 ball for 5.00 and was as nervous as iv'e ever been but i wound up getting the 5.00. After i won i felt like i just hit the lotto
I started not too long ago and really like it for the pressure. The money itself is just a reward.
chipper8828 said:
I remember my first gambling experience very well...I had just realized that there was such a thing as a pool room...I was 25...I started going to a pool room to practice and play...(I had no clue what I was doing)....another guy approached me and asked if I would like to play some sets race to 5 for $10...I said what the heck....(I have a competative nature)...I ended up winning two sets....
The guy went up to the front counter and was talking to the guy behind the counter he came back and asked if we could play some for $20 a set...I said sure..I ended up winning that set also...(I was not supposed to win that one as I was being set up)...
He went back and talked to the guy at the front counter, came back and asked me to play for $10 a game.......I said ok...but I then realized that #1the guy I was playing had no money...#2 he was not going to quit until he got even......I had already been there way longer than I expected so I started dumping games off to get back to even (was not real hard to do since I really sucked anyway)...When I was $10 ahead I said I will tell you what, you cover the table time & we will call it even......Since this guy had been conversing with the counter guy, I knew he was going to get free table time anyway...
Anyway...there were a few firsts in this night...
- First time I gambled
- First time I was being hustled
- First time I was being air barreled
- First time I got to play pool all night for free
- First time I got in trouble with the wife for being at the pool room too long.
Turned out he was also the first friend I made in the pool world. We have never gambled with each other since. but we have gone to many a tournament and or action room since then, and been out so late playing pool that we got home just in time to take a shower and go to work....
We don't do that anymore....but those were some good times....
I didnt start until a couple weeks ago, my game is now to the point where ill will play anyone in the hall and not be intimitated, not trying to sound cocky or anything iam just confident.
been awhile
I was fifteen, barely, and had just gotten my driver's license. The pool tables were in low dives and the bet was usually a drink, $1.00 or $1.25, ninety cents at Nick's Steakhouse that hadn't served a steak in many a moon. One to three dollars a game was very common too and ten a game was serious gambling. Of course minimum wage was $1.25 and I wasn't being paid that much. Seems like I was making seventy-five cents an hour in a family ran business so when I started winning pretty regularly a year or two down the line it was a big deal. Unlike most posters here, I stunk as a pool player when I started and only a stubborn streak kept me playing. Come to think of it, that is the only reason I am playing now!
Hu
I was fifteen, barely, and had just gotten my driver's license. The pool tables were in low dives and the bet was usually a drink, $1.00 or $1.25, ninety cents at Nick's Steakhouse that hadn't served a steak in many a moon. One to three dollars a game was very common too and ten a game was serious gambling. Of course minimum wage was $1.25 and I wasn't being paid that much. Seems like I was making seventy-five cents an hour in a family ran business so when I started winning pretty regularly a year or two down the line it was a big deal. Unlike most posters here, I stunk as a pool player when I started and only a stubborn streak kept me playing. Come to think of it, that is the only reason I am playing now!
Hu
my first gambling experience was when i was 23? I had started playing pool again, on a whim. And within two weeks, had bought a Viking VM34, and a Schon LTD lol. So i used the Viking to break with and the Schon to play with.
Well a new pool hall had just opened, and i decided to stop in. Low n behold i ran into a old friend from HS. And we ended up playing some. i think we played 5$ sets and TT. And its funny how back then, i thought i was the shit, and had no fear of anything. The first couple of times out, i lost. But after that, i didnt loose for the next month, against him.
After that i lost contact with him, and then a guy i worked with at Dominos Pizza, played some pool so, i started gambling with him, 1-2$ per game. At this bar in Grand Rapids, the BOB. They had free pool on mondays.
We'd head on up, and play. I'd get up 3 or 4 games and just have him buy me a drink and wipe the games off. and begin again. Rarely did i loose.
And then i stopped playing pool for about 2 yrs. And play again till i was 26? And then I played in my first tournament, and noticed i wasnt as good, as what i thought.
Of course if someone came upto me to gamble, i was leary, of everyone, because i knew most guys obviously we're better and just wanted a easy score.
But now its the opposite, i am the one who is fear'd by most of the players. And the only games i get are with the top players or i end up giving up alot of weight.
dave
Well a new pool hall had just opened, and i decided to stop in. Low n behold i ran into a old friend from HS. And we ended up playing some. i think we played 5$ sets and TT. And its funny how back then, i thought i was the shit, and had no fear of anything. The first couple of times out, i lost. But after that, i didnt loose for the next month, against him.
After that i lost contact with him, and then a guy i worked with at Dominos Pizza, played some pool so, i started gambling with him, 1-2$ per game. At this bar in Grand Rapids, the BOB. They had free pool on mondays.
We'd head on up, and play. I'd get up 3 or 4 games and just have him buy me a drink and wipe the games off. and begin again. Rarely did i loose.
And then i stopped playing pool for about 2 yrs. And play again till i was 26? And then I played in my first tournament, and noticed i wasnt as good, as what i thought.
Of course if someone came upto me to gamble, i was leary, of everyone, because i knew most guys obviously we're better and just wanted a easy score.
But now its the opposite, i am the one who is fear'd by most of the players. And the only games i get are with the top players or i end up giving up alot of weight.
dave
I was about 10 I guess. My brother took me to the VFW after work, and turned me loose on the place. We had a table at home, and I played good 8 ball at maybe a low "c" level. I thought I was just playing these guys for fun, but when I beat the first guy twice my brother barked him out of $20. I played for maybe an hour while He had a few beers, then we left. Driving home He filled me in that I was playing for money, and said not to tell Mom!
then he kept the money for beer and gas, and I got stiffed.....friggin backers!
Gerry
then he kept the money for beer and gas, and I got stiffed.....friggin backers! Gerry
Only advice
Although my big brother plays, and gambled quite a bit, he never taught me anything about the sport. The only advice he ever gave me when he found out I was getting into Pool was that if I wanted to be good, I had to play for money, even if it was for only a dollar. So I did.
And he bought me my first cue for Christmas when I was a sophmore in High School, a 3 piece cue with 2 1oz adjustable weights on it (the outside, not the inside)..... lol and a box case to go with it.
Although my big brother plays, and gambled quite a bit, he never taught me anything about the sport. The only advice he ever gave me when he found out I was getting into Pool was that if I wanted to be good, I had to play for money, even if it was for only a dollar. So I did.
And he bought me my first cue for Christmas when I was a sophmore in High School, a 3 piece cue with 2 1oz adjustable weights on it (the outside, not the inside)..... lol and a box case to go with it.
Wow, we're gonna go back a bit here. My grandparents boought me a chip board top table for Christmas in about 1962 or 63 IIRC. A year or so later some friends/cousins were in playing with me. I think there were four or five of us altogether. I won 8 straight games of 8 ball for a quarter a game. LOL!! When I was 16 I looked 18 or 19 and began going in the bars once in a while with friends and winning, usually beers When I first walked into the room where I would spend the next twenty five years or so playing, I was accosted by a guy that I found out later was a real nit. He asked me to play quarter/half 9 ball. We played for an hour or so, and broke even. I think he was on of the few people that I almost never lost to over the years, until he was barred. That's basically how I got strated. I've never been a real big gambler, but I've liked to bet a bit when I could affford it and I've always been around the money players, gamblers and hustlers.
When I first walked into the room where I would spend the next twenty five years or so playing, I was accosted by a guy that I found out later was a real nit. He asked me to play quarter/half 9 ball. We played for an hour or so, and broke even. I think he was on of the few people that I almost never lost to over the years, until he was barred. That's basically how I got strated. I've never been a real big gambler, but I've liked to bet a bit when I could affford it and I've always been around the money players, gamblers and hustlers.