Gamble to be good??

dooziexx said:
Just read the interview with Danny "Kid Delicious" Basavich in the latest issue of BD.

"Q: What advice would you give someone who wants to go on the road?
A: If a young kid wants to get good, he's for sure gotta gamble. There must be only about one out of every 100 champions who just practices and doesn't gamble. I think its a must, even though its not talked about as, quote-unquote, a great thing to do. You really have to get that pressure in your veins."

Personally I dont think you have to gamble to be good. There are other ways to get "pressure in your veins" than gambling ie. competing in tournaments. What do you think?
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I would maintain they don't gamble to be good, they gambled because they are good. That is a mighty big difference in perspective. Gambling a lot makes you good at gambling not pool. It makes you good at evaluating a potential opponent's speed, it makes you good at negotiating spots, it makes you good at sandbagging when you need to; for most people it makes you poor.
If you really want to win, if you really have that competitive feeling, why is gambling neccessary? Winning is everything, that's what playing games, all games, is all about. Gambling is just how the people who are good at it take advantage of those who aren't. Gambling may force a person who doesn't really care about winning to play hard, but for a true sportsman, somebody who just wants to win, it is superfluous. Do you think Vince Lombardi or Red Auerbach or for that matter Bill Gates would have pushed harder if a bet was at stake. I think not, they just wanted to win.
 
I was just talking to someone about this last night. It seems that there is an alternative to tournaments and gambling for pressure: discipline. If you have the type of personality where discipline is a big part of everything, you can put pressure on yourself without relying on outside stuff. After all, worrying about losing a little money or failing to place in the money in a tournament are really just ways of putting pressure on yourself anyway, right?

But I don't think it's necessary in order to make you stronger, anyway. It seems that it might be a necessity for people who don't take their game seriously all the time. If you NEED something outside the game to force you to pay attention to the details of your game, perhaps you're not as into the game as you might like to think?

If non-money games leave you bored or playing sloppy, seems you're more into money than pool...
 
My friend gambled with Johnny Archer a couple years ago. Wait it wasnt gambling, it was "stealing". Guess thats the difference. :) Just kidding, my buddy tried it with the 7, and lost 3 sets to him.
 
catscradle said:
Do you think Vince Lombardi or Red Auerbach or for that matter Bill Gates would have pushed harder if a bet was at stake. I think not, they just wanted to win.
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If you play pool like Microsoft writes software, I'll gambe with ya! I imagine your idea of a safety would be giving me ball in hand while you close your eyes and hum... hehe. Sorry, I'm a programmer and MS makes me ill. :)
 
Worminator said:
No...they ALL do not have to be that way. Take Johnny Archer for example, I can't remember the last time I saw him in gambling action. I would assume this is due to sponsorship obligations, but lack of gambling action sure doesn't affect his game.
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I would be willing to gamble that U R wrong.
 
Gambling doesn't improve ones game directly, hard work and desire does. It does provide incentive, simulation and risk though. I treat money matches and tournaments like a competency test. A test of ones ability and learned knowledge, perhaps a necessity from time to time to offer feedback and an assessment of ones game. Which is healthy for improvement. Placing something of value or being rewarded on the outcome stimulates the mind and body and changes the conditions. And players who can best deal with this normally excel and come out on top, IMO.

Gambling is associated with money but really it can be anything of value to the respected parties. Whether that’s food, money, clothing, self pride or a personal goal, whatever, it's all a form of gambling. In that you place a little piece of yourself on the line when competing.

Rick
 
catscradle said:
Do you think... Bill Gates would have pushed harder if a bet was at stake. I think not, they just wanted to win.
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I could be wrong, but I believe that Bill Gates made a huge bet. In the beginning, of operating systems, he sold software to IBM that he did not have.

Rick
 
I don't gamble much now, but in the mid 80s I played all the time. 5 and 10 dollar tournaments 4 nights a week. We drove 1 1/2 hours each way to play in a 5 dollar tournament, but we knew there would be $10 a game action afterwards. I didn't bet high but the action helped my game a bunch. I hated to lose. I think to play champion caliber pool you must gamble and you must work your way up the ladder. Play a wide variety of players, and play against the champions at some point either gambling or tournaments, because no matter how good you play you must have that confidence
to compete on the champion level. Sam
 
Worminator said:
And you believe he did that on his own dimes?
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I just read the road runner story .And found it most outstanding.if you look at it good u need a backer a big one to go out on the road.And for you to get your skills up! Then what are u going to do after that? money is driffent then tournments u get the rolls and u don't..It's the luck of the draw .I play for money sometimes when i feel like it .But i have a better tournment game then money..so i'm happy the way i play for the cash .and in tourments..the road work you can have it. I like it were it is safe..And the road is RUFF.
But good luck out there.. :confused:
 
an example of gambling in its worse

There is a very good one pocket player in my room. He is always calling people nits who dont gamble. If you only bet $10 or $20 he always makes you feel like you are a low life gutless scum. Yet he himself is always robbing kids who cant play by playing like he is old and cant see (a lie) or making games that he couldnt possibly lose. And if by chance that young kid comes along and beats him he will throw a fit. He will also bring in good players from the outside and set up guys in his own room. A real snake. I bring this up because this is what turned me off about gambling. If gambling makes you into a crappy human being than I dont care how good it makes you as a player. Of course there is other good examples like Road Warrior Danny Diliberto who I saw in great up and up action and Grady too.
 
Amen, yobagua. When I was a teenager we had 2 excellent
one hole players in my town- Albert Smith and Guy Buffy.
Smith was better than anybody up to $2 a game,maybe $5.
Buffy would sometimes play games with hundreds bet on
the side. He & his followers had no respect for Albert
but Albert was a better player; he just didn't gamble.
Who was better? You tell me.
 
yobagua said:
There is a very good one pocket player in my room. He is always calling people nits who dont gamble. If you only bet $10 or $20 he always makes you feel like you are a low life gutless scum. Yet he himself is always robbing kids who cant play by playing like he is old and cant see (a lie) or making games that he couldnt possibly lose. And if by chance that young kid comes along and beats him he will throw a fit. He will also bring in good players from the outside and set up guys in his own room. A real snake. I bring this up because this is what turned me off about gambling. If gambling makes you into a crappy human being than I dont care how good it makes you as a player. Of course there is other good examples like Road Warrior Danny Diliberto who I saw in great up and up action and Grady too.
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Hey yobagua, I bet this one pocket player that U R talking about is a real snake in whatever he is doing. I don't think gambling made hime this way. I know some others that R the same , just like the guy you described, low lifes.
 
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Youre right guys. I just think if you are going to gamble try to include integrity and dignity into the equation. I like what the Brits do. One club will host another club to pit their best guy against the others best guy. They'll put up a lot of cash and the best man wins. They consider this as a challenge for their guy to also get some experience. After reading bios on Hendry, Jimmy White, Steve Davis, they all do that. And they do it in a gentlemanly fashion.
 
tobyjoe said:
If you play pool like Microsoft writes software, I'll gambe with ya! I imagine your idea of a safety would be giving me ball in hand while you close your eyes and hum... hehe. Sorry, I'm a programmer and MS makes me ill. :)
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I'm a programmer as well. My opinion is that to Bill Gates business is a game and the winner is the one who accumulates the most money. It is clear that his, and therefore Microsoft's, philosophy is that time to market is vastly more important than initial quality. Admittedly their success at this is greatly aided by their predatory practices, but, you know what, that economic success would tend to lend credence to his supposition. Bill Gates is, as much as I dislike his business practices, a very smart man. If he thought a flawless product was the most important consideration in selling software, you can bet his software would be "99.9% pure" coming out of the shrink wrap. Believe me it pains me to say this, but the fact is that after a couple of releases and patches (always patches) their software is pretty damn good.

If I played pool like Bill Gates does business, I'd gamble with anybody. ;-)

Well we're on the subject of technology one of my favorite quotes (stuck right here on the frame of my monitor):
"Progress was alright once, but it has gone on too long." - Ogden Nash ;-)
 
hustlefinger said:
I could be wrong, but I believe that Bill Gates made a huge bet. In the beginning, of operating systems, he sold software to IBM that he did not have.

Rick
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But it wasn't about the money, it was about winning. Money is just how he keeps score. If he had failed, he wouldn't have really lost anything, they would have gone bankrupt and he would have gone back to undergraduate studies at Harvard.
 
"If I played pool like Bill Gates does business, I'd gamble with anybody. ;-)"

If this metaphor were realized, with the typical MS security model, I'd say that just carrying money into a pool hall would be a gamble... hehe.
 
Every pool player in the world knows these type of guys. We had a pair of brothers when I first started playing that would bring in road players to take each other off. How sad is that? Every one knows how these guys are, so the best thing to do is avoid em. And tell every one you know to avoid em. Sam
 
Worminator said:
No...they ALL do not have to be that way. Take Johnny Archer for example, I can't remember the last time I saw him in gambling action. I would assume this is due to sponsorship obligations, but lack of gambling action sure doesn't affect his game.
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You might think that but Johnny came up gambling just as much as anyone else. He is also famous for giving up seemingly impossible spots to shortstops for a hundred a set just to stay in form. I am talking about things like 7 on the wire going to 11 and outrunning the spots.

There are some nice articles in the current BD about Johnny's game and his mental ups and downs.

Ralf Souquet is the only full time pro that I know of who has never gambled, hustled or "been on the road".

John
 
yobagua said:
There is a very good one pocket player in my room. He is always calling people nits who dont gamble. If you only bet $10 or $20 he always makes you feel like you are a low life gutless scum. Yet he himself is always robbing kids who cant play by playing like he is old and cant see (a lie) or making games that he couldnt possibly lose. And if by chance that young kid comes along and beats him he will throw a fit. He will also bring in good players from the outside and set up guys in his own room. A real snake. I bring this up because this is what turned me off about gambling. If gambling makes you into a crappy human being than I dont care how good it makes you as a player. Of course there is other good examples like Road Warrior Danny Diliberto who I saw in great up and up action and Grady too.
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Yobagua,

There are a lot of pool rooms with players like the one in your pool room. If I didn't know better, I'd think he is someone I know. As far as I'm concerned, this guy represents one of the problems that occurs with gambling and pool. He just wants to win money and doesn't really want to be in a competetive game. He's not gambling, he's manipulating the situation so that he can transfer money from other peoples' pockets to his. Too bad we don't have some way to run these types of players out of the pool halls on a rail!
 
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