I found out long ago that there are two kinds of billiard players: those who play to win, and those who play for the joy of playing well.
The former tend to become bitter and turn nasty as soon as they loose one game or two. Those are the ones that go tell their friends how lucky you were, or how unlucky they were, during the match.
The latter tend to become annoyed *at themselves* when they miss shots. They are the ones who'll tell you how sloppily they played, or if you tell them that it happens, answer that no, it was entirely their fault.
I tend to use the former's quick temper and nasty personalities against them: I slow down my game, concentrate on all my shots from the get go, play safeties, act like all balls were really easy, and quip lightly in between games, as if the match was a walk in the park. It really gets them excited, which in turn makes it even easier to win. Often enough, when the match draws to a close and there's one or two games left, they'll unscrew their cues angrily and forfeit, which means less work for me to win.
As for the latter, I feel sorry for them (I'm one of them), especially when they really do have bad luck. But if I have a match to win, I'll try to say things like "really, bad luck man..." or "sorry I counted a point at that moment, I was so sure it would go in!" in between matches, to increase their sense of despair and prevent them from getting ahold of themselves and start playing well again. That type of player rarely forfeits though, and usually endures the self-inflicted mental torture to the very end.
Based on the way you change your game to get under a players skin to gain advantage, I dont think you are one of the ones that plays for the enjoyment of playing well. But thats just my translation of your post :wink:
Woody