Gambling with cranksters...

[John Barton]

thanks guys theres some pretty good info here. I actually did come out a few sets head last night just from playing a little more defensively but keeping the heat on. And when he took a 'break' I washed up and had some soda and ate some carbs and just tried to keep refreshed. I like the advice about setting a time to stop or setting a limit on sets. Now of course, the next problem.. they seem to bet more than they have on them.

the easy answer to this one: POST the toasties.

We were playing a methie one night and busted him - he had his girlfriend, who worked at a poolroom a highway hour down the road come and pay off the last set from her tip jar.

She didn't stay his GF for long after that. But she did get skinny while she was with him.

 

[Fatboy]

Yes it does, from what I've been told. I think there is actually a posting on the tournament announcement forum about a one pocket tournament at that room in a couple of months.
Just check it, there will be a 2,500 added one pocket tournament at that room in Victorville in January.

thanks next time i drive to vegas or LA i'll stop in and let you whats up. i never booked a loser in there once, i never even broke out even, i could grab 40-$100 every trip, after they got to know me it was a bit harder but they were clueless. i never saw a pool room that was that soft, the best player in ther might have been a C player.

 

[thebigdog]

thanks next time i drive to vegas or LA i'll stop in and let you whats up. i never booked a loser in there once, i never even broke out even, i could grab 40-$100 every trip, after they got to know me it was a bit harder but they were clueless. i never saw a pool room that was that soft, the best player in ther might have been a C player.

I'm surprised you were able to find anyone to bet with you in there. Nobody in that place would play me back then. The owner of that place now is Gary, he used to hang out at Tommy Baker's place in Fontana back in those days.

 

[219Dave]

I think the best way to throw an addict off his game is every ten minutes or so point to some random guy in the room and whisper to the addict--"doesn't that guy look like an undercover to you?" or walk up to a random guy in the room and ask "hey man, how's it going? Still assigned to the Task Force?"

LOL.

 

[jimmyg]

Speaking of crank/speed, I'm watching "They Shoot Horses, Don't They" on MoviePlex channel as I type this and they've been dancing for 602 hours (25 days) non-stop at this point in the movie. Oy-Vey !
What are THEY on ?

Doug
( don't tell me how it ends )

Desperation.
Jim

 

[fish on]

I like It! Have a cop friend stop by!

I think the best way to throw an addict off his game is every ten minutes or so point to some random guy in the room and whisper to the addict--"doesn't that guy look like an undercover to you?" or walk up to a random guy in the room and ask "hey man, how's it going? Still assigned to the Task Force?"

LOL.

At a APA team event recently our player had to play a hopped up lower level player.
That is a problem, the story I got was the pockets are like baskets, I was told to slow things down. I directed my guy to do so.
It helped a little but not totally, he won we lost, oh well!

Drug use is out of control, people looking for a edge, forces others to level the playing field and do same!
IPT would have had drug testing.
US open should.
I saw things and heard things I am disgusted!

 

[memikey]

Doesn't it strike anyone as more than a little absurd that threads which seem to condone heavy drug taking as being both an acceptable social practice and a thing which is not necessarily to be wholly discouraged in and around the sport can flourish on the same forum boards as threads bemoaning the allegedly undeserved poor image of pool and threads bemoaning the lack of corporate sponsors?

Zero tolerance, only way to go.....in the daily routine of all pool halls, in the tournament rooms, in the national and international championships, everywhere. Drive these lowlife scum of the earth out....don't let greed to grab their money blind you to the truth. Condoning heavy drug taking in and around the game, for whatever reason, makes any pool player, of any level, a seller-out and an enemy of the game, no matter what other sympathetic and apparently insincere noises they might make about the game. It's one or the other, no compromise

If anyone is a heavy drug taking pool player or regularly plays pool with them they know exactly what they are doing and any alleged love of pool is complete hogwash.

 

[dabarbr]

If I was after someone like this I would not play them at their convenience. These players mostly would be at places that had no closing hours.

I found the best time to match up with them would be in the morning hours. This type of person is geared to go for at least a couple of days and is guarenteed to be there in the morning hours. I would get a good sleep and be well rested before going to the location.

Once the games starts it was important to play at a slow pace to set the tempo for the rest of the day. I would be ready to go all day. If you are in a rested and relaxed state it is easy to observe the condition of your opponent and adjust your tempo according.

Whatever their frame of mind would be I could mold it to what I wanted it to be. Change their mind set from fast and loose to slow and undecided. When everything leans in your favorite you win.

 

[thebigdog]

I don't get it

Doesn't it strike anyone as more than a little absurd that threads which seem to condone heavy drug taking as being both an acceptable social practice and a thing which is not necessarily to be wholly discouraged in and around the sport can flourish on the same forum boards as threads bemoaning the allegedly undeserved poor image of pool and threads bemoaning the lack of corporate sponsors?

Zero tolerance, only way to go.....in the daily routine of all pool halls, in the tournament rooms, in the national and international championships, everywhere. Drive these lowlife scum of the earth out....don't let greed to grab their money blind you to the truth. Condoning heavy drug taking in and around the game, for whatever reason, makes any pool player, of any level, a seller-out and an enemy of the game, no matter what other sympathetic and apparently insincere noises they might make about the game. It's one or the other, no compromise

If anyone is a heavy drug taking pool player or regularly plays pool with them they know exactly what they are doing and any alleged love of pool is complete hogwash.

What are you saying? That you won't gamble with someone who uses drugs? Well I guarantee you, if you gamble, you have gambled with users. Something about these two lifestyles that seem to find each other. I don't know what your solution would be. Would you have to take a drug test before gambling? I don't know what pool halls you are hanging out in, but I've never been to one that didn't have drug users, dealers, etc. Drug dealers very often happen to be stakehorses as well.

 

[Fast Lenny]

Not to burst any of your guys bubble but there are alot of drug addicts and alcoholics playing pool,you might not think it but its a fact,even some of your heroes.Its been going on for a long time,look at Greg Stevens or Greenleaf.I am looking into breaking a world record of playing pool for 48 hours,the record was 45 and isnt even held in the US.An older friend of mine by the name of Jim Abel was a record holder years ago for most balls pocketed in 24 hours,he said it was horrible after and would never do it again.I am going to talk to him about keeping up for that much time considering i dont use power adders like drugs,coffee,or cigarettes.

 

[memikey]

What are you saying? That you won't gamble with someone who uses drugs? Well I guarantee you, if you gamble, you have gambled with users. Something about these two lifestyles that seem to find each other. I don't know what your solution would be. Would you have to take a drug test before gambling? I don't know what pool halls you are hanging out in, but I've never been to one that didn't have drug users, dealers, etc. Drug dealers very often happen to be stakehorses as well.

1. There is lots of pool including lots of gambling going on in many pool halls all over the world right now without any sigificant involvement of heavy drug users or dealers.

2. As far as USA goes, by your own assessment in the above quote, not my asessment or opinion I hasten to add, the USA pool scene is presently a cess pit which hypnotically lures serious drug taking scum and other dregs of society. You also seem to think things have always been like that and that it is therefore inevitable to continue in the future and that all pool players should just resign themselves to accepting it and should even hone their skills in how to play the various different type of drug addicts.

3. My main point, since you ask, is that some people in this thread appear to see nothing even remotely wrong or detrimental to the image of pool in discussing the best tactics with which to play people who they know are crackheads as if knowing those tactics is something to be proud of. Quite probably some of the same people have in the past or will in the future whinge about no recognition for pool talent and not enough sponsorship for pool. Many of the pool greats of today and yesteryear would feel sick to their stomachs at this attitude.

4. If they read and accept that the viewpoints in posts like yours and others in this thread are truly illustrating "just how it has to be in pool halls" can you think of any reason why any parent would ever want their child to take up pool or any reason why any company outside the cuesports industry would want to associate their brand image with pool?

5. Beam us up Scotty, the lunatics have definitely taken over the asylum.

 

[thebigdog]

1. There is lots of pool including lots of gambling going on in many pool halls all over the world right now without any sigificant involvement of heavy drug users or dealers.

2. As far as USA goes, by your own assessment in the above quote, not my asessment or opinion I hasten to add, the USA pool scene is presently a cess pit which hypnotically lures serious drug taking scum and other dregs of society. You also seem to think things have always been like that and that it is therefore inevitable to continue in the future and that all pool players should just resign themselves to accepting it and should even hone their skills in how to play the various different type of drug addicts.

3. My main point, since you ask, is that some people in this thread appear to see nothing even remotely wrong or detrimental to the image of pool in discussing the best tactics with which to play people who they know are crackheads as if knowing those tactics is something to be proud of. Quite probably some of the same people have in the past or will in the future whinge about no recognition for pool talent and not enough sponsorship for pool. Many of the pool greats of today and yesteryear would feel sick to their stomachs at this attitude.

4. If they read and accept that the viewpoints in posts like yours and others in this thread are truly illustrating "just how it has to be in pool halls" can you think of any reason why any parent would ever want their child to take up pool or any reason why any company outside the cuesports industry would want to associate their brand image with pool?

5. Beam us up Scotty, the lunatics have definitely taken over the asylum.

I don't think that anyone said there was nothing wrong with it. You just seem to think we should sweep it under the rug and pretend this doesn't exist. Well sorry to tell you it does, and it has for many years. Yes you do get the "dregs of society" in pool rooms, you find them other places as well, but they do seem to be more open about their lifestyles in the pool rooms.
I don't know which pool greats of yesteryear you speak of who have no knowlegde of this behavior. The ones I have met and talked to speak very openly of practices that were commonly used 30, 40, 50 years ago. Doesn't sound like things are much different today than they were back then.
The reason why their is no sponsorship (money) in pool is not its image. Its they way its promoted. Poker gets the same dregs of society that you speak of and is getting huge money pumped into it. The problem is that they are trying to turn pool into golf and that will never happen.

 

[thebigdog]

Not to burst any of your guys bubble but there are alot of drug addicts and alcoholics playing pool,you might not think it but its a fact,even some of your heroes.Its been going on for a long time,look at Greg Stevens or Greenleaf.I am looking into breaking a world record of playing pool for 48 hours,the record was 45 and isnt even held in the US.An older friend of mine by the name of Jim Abel was a record holder years ago for most balls pocketed in 24 hours,he said it was horrible after and would never do it again.I am going to talk to him about keeping up for that much time considering i dont use power adders like drugs,coffee,or cigarettes.

Exactly....

 

[John Barton]

Doesn't it strike anyone as more than a little absurd that threads which seem to condone heavy drug taking as being both an acceptable social practice and a thing which is not necessarily to be wholly discouraged in and around the sport can flourish on the same forum boards as threads bemoaning the allegedly undeserved poor image of pool and threads bemoaning the lack of corporate sponsors?

Zero tolerance, only way to go.....in the daily routine of all pool halls, in the tournament rooms, in the national and international championships, everywhere. Drive these lowlife scum of the earth out....don't let greed to grab their money blind you to the truth. Condoning heavy drug taking in and around the game, for whatever reason, makes any pool player, of any level, a seller-out and an enemy of the game, no matter what other sympathetic and apparently insincere noises they might make about the game. It's one or the other, no compromise

If anyone is a heavy drug taking pool player or regularly plays pool with them they know exactly what they are doing and any alleged love of pool is complete hogwash.

Not true. Whatever a person wants to so to their body is their choice. Some people are on "prescription" drugs with real prescriptions. Should they be banned as well. What about the largest drug pushers in the world? Big Pharma. And their dealers, doctors who succumb to the drug company reps array of perks.

I don't agree with performance enhancing drugs in sports but in gambling between private parties it's two people doing their thing and they both choose to be there.

We have way to much of a morality play going on in the world about drugs. We should be looking at why people feel the need to escape into drugs instead of criminalizing what is legal with a prescription.

I am playing someone and they break out a pill box and take five pills I don't feel like I have the right to question or judge them. Nor do I follow people to the car to see exactly what they are doing there - I just assume it, perhaps rightly, perhaps wrongly. But I don't care as it is their life and not mine. If I have a friend who is messing up his life then I will try and help him. I have other friends who take plenty of drugs though and they function just fine and are leading happy productive lives. So it's different for each person and I can't make blanket judgements when it comes to self-medicating.

As long as alcohol is legal I don't think the government or anyone else has a leg to stand on regarding the "immorality" of drug use.

 

[John Barton]

1. There is lots of pool including lots of gambling going on in many pool halls all over the world right now without any sigificant involvement of heavy drug users or dealers.

As far as you know. I have been around the world as well and I can tell you from my own experience that the similarities are more than you think.

2. As far as USA goes, by your own assessment in the above quote, not my asessment or opinion I hasten to add, the USA pool scene is presently a cess pit which hypnotically lures serious drug taking scum and other dregs of society. You also seem to think things have always been like that and that it is therefore inevitable to continue in the future and that all pool players should just resign themselves to accepting it and should even hone their skills in how to play the various different type of drug addicts.

Sometimes it's like that. In some pool rooms. And anyone who is serious about playing pool in tournaments and in gambling sessions does need to learn how to face such players. Ignoring the reality doesn't help either.


3. My main point, since you ask, is that some people in this thread appear to see nothing even remotely wrong or detrimental to the image of pool in discussing the best tactics with which to play people who they know are crackheads as if knowing those tactics is something to be proud of. Quite probably some of the same people have in the past or will in the future whinge about no recognition for pool talent and not enough sponsorship for pool. Many of the pool greats of today and yesteryear would feel sick to their stomachs at this attitude.

Or it's equally possible that the pool greats of the past would be in complete agreement as to the present realities having had to compete under the same conditions in the past. If you are a gambler and a tournament player and you don't know how to deal with someone who is jacked up then you will lose more often than you should. So yes, it is something to be proud of to know how to react in these situations.


4. If they read and accept that the viewpoints in posts like yours and others in this thread are truly illustrating "just how it has to be in pool halls" can you think of any reason why any parent would ever want their child to take up pool or any reason why any company outside the cuesports industry would want to associate their brand image with pool?

I would tend to think that a responsible parent would welcome a view into the less rosy side of pool without having to experience it by bailing their kid out of jail. Armed with this knowledge they can seek out the people and places that are "safe" for their kids to pursue billiards. No, no companies would want to associate themselves with a sport that has widespread drug use. Baseball anyone?


5. Beam us up Scotty, the lunatics have definitely taken over the asylum.

Well, the lunatics often have a better view of reality than the warders and that is what keeps them crazy. I think staying sane often means living in a state of denial of just how awful the world can really be.

 

[pwd72s]

In ALL aspects of my life, I avoid tweekers...period!

 

[JDB]

In ALL aspects of my life, I avoid tweekers...period!

I gotta agree with you here. I would rather not play at all than have to resort to playing someone on drugs.

 

[Braditude7]

For all you gamblers out there I need some advice.. basically on dealing with fatigue. I have an 8-5 construction job and generally play pool in the evenings. Occasionally, I'll match up with a local that is a crack/crank head. I hold my own until it starts getting into the late hours. I've been up for 18 hours and am burning up energy focusing. But crankster head goes 'to his car' and comes back refreshed. Even if it's not this exact scenerio I'm sure lots of people have to deal with late night fatigue in general. What do you guys do out there to keep the energy up or other techniques for focusing?

Tough to beat them after your bed time they probaly just got up

 

[ShootingArts]

Good idea!

In ALL aspects of my life, I avoid tweekers...period!

Good Idea!

I don't want to play anyone that plays enhanced. Damned smokers calming their nerves with nicotine clearly have an edge. Likewise the guy that just sips a beer every few hours or takes an aspirin before playing. Then there are those tweakers that drink coffee and other caffeine laced products to jack them up. Worst of all are those that resort to energy drinks or a handful of supplements to help them through the contest. Some just use sugar or sweets to jack them up. No sugar or sweets allowed, no sweet gum, no gum at all because gum is claimed to have benefits for Nick Varner and others. No loading up on slow release carbs before a long match either.

If you can't do it straight and clean I don't want to play with you!! What do you mean I drink coke and chew gum? I just don't play with other people who play enhanced, it's OK if I do.

Hu

 

[Jimmy M.]

The Chemical Warfare players! Just set a time-limit before you start playing these guys. If I've worked all day and I know that I'm about to play a guy who is going to try to get me in an all-night, chemical warfare session, I'll just tell them I can only play for some finite period of time. I'd play all night too if I didn't work (and the only trips I'd be making to the restroom would be to piss) but, since I do, I'm not about to work all day, then get outlasted on the pool table by someone who is chemically enhanced.