For anyone who thinks pool's not stressful

Words To Live By

Johnnyt said:
I've seen guys break cues, hit the other player with fist or cue, throw balls, crack slate with balls, throw his cue like a spear. I even saw a pro wrestler in Tampa, FL turn over a barbox when I beat him for a few hundred dollars.(i almost needed to change my underwear that day).
But in 50+ years I've never saw someone split their own head open on the table. Johnnyt


Well Johnny, you just can't be everywhere at the same time.
Doug
 
That's totally amazing to hear this. I didn't read the whole thread so this may have been said already but is Fabio ok now?

I have punched the slate on the table after missing a ball more than once and it hurts like hell. It Takes a lot to get me mad and I just felt it was better than banging my cue on the ground.

I shouldn't do either of them but at times the anger gets the best of you. Anyway, The way my hand feels after doing this I'll lay even odds he never ever hits his head on the table again. :D I hope the guy is ok.

Maybe someone will come out with Hammerhead cues and he can rep them. :p

Poor guy, He must have a lot going on in his life right now.
 
Gregg said:
Thanks a lot, freind;

You almost got me in trouble at work with my supervisor, Rick.

How about a a heads up NSFW next time you want to Roll me?


I only RickRoll about once every 6 months, just to keep everyone on their toes. :D Also, what is NSFW about Rick Astley? Everytime I've ever been Rickrolled I turn it up and listen to the whole song. Makes me happy every time.
 
Putting his name?

champ2107 said:
First off I dont agree with u putting his name on here, imho. Secondly i want to see in how this thread plays out now. I already see its like school in the summer, just like I used to hear it on Fat Albert!
Champ,

This wasn't a private match in an empty poolroom. THis guy imploded in a professional tournament with hundreds of paying witnesses. His name is spreading around the SBE like wildfire. It is the talk of the Expo (so far). Louis wasn't telling stories or starting rumors here.
 
corvette1340 said:
I only RickRoll about once every 6 months, just to keep everyone on their toes. :D Also, what is NSFW about Rick Astley? Everytime I've ever been Rickrolled I turn it up and listen to the whole song. Makes me happy every time.

I thought it was a superb video, I just couldnt resist grabbing a banana bouncing on my bed and singing my head off! :p
 
Louis got it right

Louis headed the topic well when he asked the implied question "Who thinks pool is not stressful"?
Professional pool is very stressful.
I have managed Fabio for close to ten years and they have been ten hard years - for him not for me.
He is one of the small band of truly full time professional with a "have cue, will travel" philosophy.
This has taken to many places away from his beloved Rome, his family and his friends. Frequent visits to the USA plus Tokyo, Dubai, virtually every European country means he is constantly on the road, in strange hotels, eating on the hoof.
He has enjoyed a fair degree of success winning titles in the UK, Holland and Spain. But he has not matched the achievements of some of his peers such as Ralf, Niels or Oliver.
After deducting expenses, he has made enough to keep body and soul together. But therein lies the stress.
I spoke to him a few days before he left for VF and I knew that he was having problems of confidence. He had lost the final match to qualify for the World 8 Ball, had seen his friend fellow Italian Bruno Muratore leapfrog him in the Euro Rankings and was generally struggling with his form.

His dedication to the game could only be equalled, never beaten. Over the years when I have travelled with him he has proved to be a perfect ambassador for his sport, winning friends and generally putting on a show and helping to spread the pool gospel.

Although Fabio is a kind and loyal friend off the table his intensity during play has a negative effect and has cost him some matches and although I did not expect his extreme reaction against Gabe, I think I can understand why it happened.

But Fabio will be back. He will spend a bit of time with me and he will be a force to be reckoned with after that.

I would like to thank everyone for their concern and good wishes.
As for the detractors - swivel!
 
pro9dg said:
Louis headed the topic well when he asked the implied question "Who thinks pool is not stressful"?
Professional pool is very stressful.
I have managed Fabio for close to ten years and they have been ten hard years - for him not for me.
He is one of the small band of truly full time professional with a "have cue, will travel" philosophy.
This has taken to many places away from his beloved Rome, his family and his friends. Frequent visits to the USA plus Tokyo, Dubai, virtually every European country means he is constantly on the road, in strange hotels, eating on the hoof.
He has enjoyed a fair degree of success winning titles in the UK, Holland and Spain. But he has not matched the achievements of some of his peers such as Ralf, Niels or Oliver.
After deducting expenses, he has made enough to keep body and soul together. But therein lies the stress.
I spoke to him a few days before he left for VF and I knew that he was having problems of confidence. He had lost the final match to qualify for the World 8 Ball, had seen his friend fellow Italian Bruno Muratore leapfrog him in the Euro Rankings and was generally struggling with his form.

His dedication to the game could only be equalled, never beaten. Over the years when I have travelled with him he has proved to be a perfect ambassador for his sport, winning friends and generally putting on a show and helping to spread the pool gospel.

Although Fabio is a kind and loyal friend off the table his intensity during play has a negative effect and has cost him some matches and although I did not expect his extreme reaction against Gabe, I think I can understand why it happened.

But Fabio will be back. He will spend a bit of time with me and he will be a force to be reckoned with after that.

I would like to thank everyone for their concern and good wishes.
As for the detractors - swivel!

Thank you for sharing this insight with us. That's the problem with viewing things from our computer monitor. We seldom know the bottom line to anything. REP to you for sharing and best wishes for a quick recovery for Fabio.

Please check your email.
Thanks,
JoeyA
 
Much like golf, the most frustrating aspect of pool is that the only person responsible for missing a shot is you. And sometimes, some of us have felt like we have to punish ourselves for our mistake. This is the first incident I've heard of in professional pool but the stories are legendary from the pro golf tour. Only a few years ago, Woody Austin very forcefully hit himself over the head with his putter a half dozen times badly bending the shaft and giving himself a headache.

Many years ago, Tommy Armour (grandfather of the current player on tour) took out his frustration on his Buick pounding out the windshield and both headlights before running out of anger. Many years later he was giving a lesson to a woman and began to shake his fist to emphasize a point and his hand swelled up to twice it's normal size. Doctors found a piece of glass stuck in his hand, a reminder from his one rounder with the Buick.

Ky Laffoon, back in the 30s, once veered off the path on his way to the next tee and threw himself into a large pile of bramble. When he eventually extricated himself, he was bleeding so badly he had to DQ. He also punched himself so hard another time, he knocked himself out.

When I was a young man, I broke a club against a tree; the cost of it convinced me not to do it again. This is the technique for blaming something other than yourself. I can tell you, it's not nearly as satisfying.

I hope Fabio is okay. I know how badly he feels.

Brian in VA
 
pro9dg said:
Louis headed the topic well when he asked the implied question "Who thinks pool is not stressful"?
Professional pool is very stressful.
I have managed Fabio for close to ten years and they have been ten hard years - for him not for me.
He is one of the small band of truly full time professional with a "have cue, will travel" philosophy.
This has taken to many places away from his beloved Rome, his family and his friends. Frequent visits to the USA plus Tokyo, Dubai, virtually every European country means he is constantly on the road, in strange hotels, eating on the hoof.
He has enjoyed a fair degree of success winning titles in the UK, Holland and Spain. But he has not matched the achievements of some of his peers such as Ralf, Niels or Oliver.
After deducting expenses, he has made enough to keep body and soul together. But therein lies the stress.
I spoke to him a few days before he left for VF and I knew that he was having problems of confidence. He had lost the final match to qualify for the World 8 Ball, had seen his friend fellow Italian Bruno Muratore leapfrog him in the Euro Rankings and was generally struggling with his form.

His dedication to the game could only be equalled, never beaten. Over the years when I have travelled with him he has proved to be a perfect ambassador for his sport, winning friends and generally putting on a show and helping to spread the pool gospel.

Although Fabio is a kind and loyal friend off the table his intensity during play has a negative effect and has cost him some matches and although I did not expect his extreme reaction against Gabe, I think I can understand why it happened.

But Fabio will be back. He will spend a bit of time with me and he will be a force to be reckoned with after that.

I would like to thank everyone for their concern and good wishes.
As for the detractors - swivel!

With all due respect, I think Fabio needs to take a break from pool for a while. What he did was VERY unhealthy! He didn't break a cue, he tried to shatter his own skull.

Tang was there and he told me about it. He said it was frightening to watch.
 
Petroni had an argument with Earl Strickland some years back and had to be restrained. He seems to be a very emotional man at times when things aren't going just right for him.

I've met him twice, just some brief conversation but he was very pleasant and would have talked longer had I not been in a hurry to leave. He's a polite man but if you can read people, he has a lot of intensity in him.

As a side note (I can't remember his name right now) but there was this guy who would take a ball off the table and toss it up in the air when he felt he didn't get a good roll. While it was up, he would make sure his head was under it when it came down and he would let it crack him in the forehead, face or wherever it hit him....

I'm not sure if this is all due to the stress of the game or something else that belies some other emotional or mental isssue that these people go thru. And it's not limited to pool. Chess players, boxers and many other participants of a variety of activities have at times gone over the edge and done some very odd things to themselves.

Most players of his caliber have come to relish the pressure and stress of top notch pool. That's part of the addiction to our game, dealing with the pressure. From gambling match ups to tournament play to playing the ghost at home, we all have come to realize that there's "pressure" at times in our beloved sport. So, my bottom by-line on this episode of Fabio's is that I would bet he has other issues also going on in his life at this time. He'll be in my thoughts and I wish him all the best in his future.
 
jay helfert said:
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Thanks for a good laugh. I needed that this morn.
Jay, Chuck Bobbit is here at the Desert Classic Stop (57 players). He wanted to ask if he needs to provide helmets at the shootout tourney next month. :)
 
If Thy Right Eye Offend Thee......Pluck It OUT

Terry Ardeno said:
As a side note (I can't remember his name right now) but there was this guy who would take a ball off the table and toss it up in the air when he felt he didn't get a good roll. While it was up, he would make sure his head was under it when it came down and he would let it crack him in the forehead, face or wherever it hit him....


Well, that could be anyone, we all do that.
Doug
( don't we ? )
 
Vahmurka said:
What could you expect, it happens sometimes even to such gentlemen like Ralf Souquet who threw a bottle of water in a wall a couple of years ago at the WPC and before he went so mad at himself that injured his knuckles after he hit the table.
Tables are really destroying.


Whoa! When was this?

I remember at the WPC 2004 he was quite pissed all the time, was it the same year, in Taipei?
 
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Rick Roll

corvette1340 said:
a friend of mine at the tournament actually got some footage of the Fabio incident on his phone and just posted to youtube. Warning: a bit disturbing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBGIQ7ZuuiU&feature=related

I've been Rick Rolled again. Nobody does that and gets away with it

As for Fabio, maybe that was his way of getting his head into the game, or maybe he was Rick Rolled one too many times
 
It's so sad to hear stories like this when it involves one of the games true professionals who lives and breathes pool and is such a great character for the game. The whole game of pool would be so much worse off without people like Fabio so it's all the more disappointing to see flipant stupid remarks from some people on here.

Get well soon Fabio because your many fans can't wait to see you back.
 
Has there been any word about his physical condition? Is he ok? Concussion? Fracture?
 
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