Gambling is the problem

[Scaramouche]

Gambling is an addiction.
Gamblers claim they can handle it.

Their philosophical heros are:

ALF No Problem!

and

Sladge Hammer Trust me. I know what I'm doing!

 

[boradriver]

What is the obsession with races to 100? It could be some of the reason pool is dying in the USA. I mean look at half the stories of your "great" hustlers, and it is full of sayings like "once his mixture was right he was unbeatable" (Ie a drug cheat, who chemically outlasted an opponent). Wow. Impressive. NOT.

Also gamblers play with other peoples money - "my backer is bigger than yours". Again what has that got to do with anything? If you're not gambling with 100% your own money it counts for nothing. But again what is a lot of money for one player could be pocket change for another. Still not a level playing field, so an advantage in your favour. If the average American salary is 20x that of a Pinoy (I made 20x up) then you should be betting 20x what they bet with them to make it fair. Equal amounts they have more pressure on from the outset.
American gambling folk law seems all messed up with stories of how players failed in tournaments and cleaned up gambling afterwards. I guess this goes some way to explain the obsession with gambling and overlooking tournament failure. To fix pool in the USA you need to stop this way of thinking. You idolise failure. This is what holds you back.

Races to 100 prove nothing. I bet a lot of people in the world could race Usain Bolt over a marathon distance and win. What does that prove? Oh you managed to trap him into something for your advantage and won. So what? He's still the fastest man who ever lived and you're still a nobody. End of.

I always thought the Pinoy players should be giving others odds because it seems like most the their winnings get sent back to the Philippines. With the current exchange rate $100 US is about 4368.50 Philippine peso.

Oh and by the way I disagree with 99.9% of what you said above.

 

[onepocket1]

Races to 100 have a large confort zone built into them. A player can loose 99 games and still win. They have plenty of time to recover from mistakes or an opponent's hot streak.

This comfort zone is not present in tournament play. Short races requires a different attitude than long races. Every game is so much more inportant. The player who can handle this presure the best has the advantage.

If the world stage,in pool, is short races then American players should practice playing presure packed short races.

 

[Chops02]

the situation the o/p is referring to (having an advantage one way or the other) isn't gambling. it's trying to rob a player. the issue is actually the fact that very few pool players want to come up with a fair match. they want to stack the odds. nobody wants to gamble anymore.