Great memories - Old school 9 ball ring games

M

maxeypad2007

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Growing up a definitely had some of my best times playing 9-ball ring games on saturdays in Southeastern KY.

9-ball ring games that were "honest effort" (no defense) with a lot of ridiculous rides on the 9-ball. Heckling between each shot.

I laugh to this day when I think about an old player named "rat turd" that would sit his spit cup on the rail right next to the pocket where you were shooting.

Times were a lot different then. No predator cues, slow shitty cloth with big 5.5" pockets anybody could feel like a champion on. People breaking from the middle because they didn't know any better.

I think I had more fun playing back then than I do now though. The cast of characters, the ignorant behavior and endless laughter made the experience.

Who else remembers old games like this? PS I love pool now too but this was more about the experience and less about the game itself.
 
Playing partners snooker (with 3 cherry short stack) for quarters when I
first started playing was more fun than I probably will ever have again playing pool. The cast of characters, the players, the joking, and all the camraderie will always be remembered as one of my 'best of times'.

td
 
Ahh, the good old days! A four-player ring game with $5 on the 5-ball and $10 on the nine....And the winner was often the one who was the most expert at cracking a joke when you were down on the shot! :D
 
ring games are fun

For several months I ran a "ring game tournament" for the B & C players in town.

24 max players, 6 to a table, we used poker chips to "ante" for each rack, each player started with the same amount of chips, every 1/2 hour the bet doubled, final 4 (winner from each table) were in the money & played it out for 1st through 4th.

No safeties, play a scratch from the kitchen - if object ball was in kitchen then it was spotted, if you didn't get a legal hit then the incoming player could take the table or give it back to you. Sold tickets for 10 ball side pot game.

Sharking was defintely encouraged :D Needless to say we got in a lot of table time :smile:
 
maxeypad2007 said:
Growing up a definitely had some of my best times playing 9-ball ring games on saturdays in Southeastern KY.

9-ball ring games that were "honest effort" (no defense) with a lot of ridiculous rides on the 9-ball. Heckling between each shot.

I laugh to this day when I think about an old player named "rat turd" that would sit his spit cup on the rail right next to the pocket where you were shooting.

Times were a lot different then. No predator cues, slow shitty cloth with big 5.5" pockets anybody could feel like a champion on. People breaking from the middle because they didn't know any better.

I think I had more fun playing back then than I do now though. The cast of characters, the ignorant behavior and endless laughter made the experience.

Who else remembers old games like this? PS I love pool now too but this was more about the experience and less about the game itself.
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They were one of my favorite parts of pool. I haven't seen one in ten or 15 years. The honest effort rule developed imagination and stroke. See the last article in http://www.sfbilliards.com/articles/cols2010r.pdf for some rules and such for ring games.
 
1 b4 5/2 b4 9

We used to play a lot on the bar table in the early 70's. Pretty much as described by other posters. We played smaller stakes-$1 on the 5/$2 on 9ball.

If you made the 5 on a fluke/ride/out of order-it re-spots if at least one lower ball is on the table. For the 'luck' 9ball-at least two balls 'before' the 9ball had to remain on the table in order to re-spot the 9ball.(other balls substituted, unless the barmaid had unlocked the table for her boyfriend and crew)

We should have had a tally board. A lot of arguments over-'I had a 5, and two 9's', what did you have? OK-ours cancel/he owes me, you owe the other guy-just pay them and we're all square'-OK-somebody rack.

This game is where I first heard the term 'brother-in-law'.:eek: In time, we adopted the reshuffle the order after 10 games rule. (usually that was too late)

Fun times:D

More recently-played $10/$20 6 man 9ball ring game. I lost $120 before I had a legitimate shot. People are good at disguising 'honest effort' shots these days. It wasn't as fun as I remembered.
 
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Ring games

I used to drive about 60 miles to play a ring game from about 6:00 pm on Friday, until about 8:00pm on Sunday. It was at a cafe that was always open, and real close to a Naval Base,lol. I played sailors all weekend, just about every weekend for a couple years. 4 would leave, and another 4 would jump in. We would ride the nine like crazy, big cue ball, and shag carpet felt. Good fun for all.
 
Missing the old days

I miss the ring games. We used to play these in the bars every Friday and Saturday night. We would play 6-way with a line of people waiting to get in. It was lower stakes $2 on the 5, $3 on the 9, double on the run, if you make the money ball early, you spot it back up and get paid for making it again. If you could string some racks you could do pretty well.:smile:
 
Shake em up', ring it up' and ride it' were common expressions in this type of play.
 
Bob Jewett said:
They were one of my favorite parts of pool. I haven't seen one in ten or 15 years. The honest effort rule developed imagination and stroke. See the last article in http://www.sfbilliards.com/articles/cols2010r.pdf for some rules and such for ring games.
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The last ones I remember and played in were at Family Billiards in San Francisco after the added $$ USPPA tournaments Delbert used to have there.

$10 or $20 a man with Delbert, Dave Piona, George Michaels, a couple others and me. We would play til early morning and I don't remember coming out too well in those games, but did get in my share of barking.

Must have been 17/18 years ago.
 
The old men in my hall would play about 4 or 6 handed. The 5 and 9 ball were each one point. First one to get 7 points would close out the set usually for 5 bucks. If the one ball is still on the table the 5 ball keeps spotting. If the 6 ball is still on the table teh 9 keeps spotting till somebody wins the game.

Once saw a game where a player broke made the 9 and the 1and 5 were dead in the corner. Slams in the combo and the 1 ball floated over for the 1 and 5 in the side after the spot. Dead in so at this point the guy 3 points. Then gets a combo on the 9 ball with the 4 ball. Then the 5 ball and then ran out for a total of 6 points in one game. Best ring game I ever saw!! The players where first rate and anybody less then that got cut up pretty quick. Guys like me :embarrassed2:
 
In the mid-80's there were ring games going on nearly each day of the week, at different places throughout Orange County, CA. Only a few players knew about all of them. Those that were too strong got barred from playing, but that was rare. The folks at one place in Mission Viejo didn't bar anyone, and actually enjoyed having good players passing through. I remember folks like Jeff Beckley, Mark Edwards and Rafael Martinez would stop in when enroute between LA and San Diego.

Edit to add: I'm pretty sure our own jrhendy made a visit to Mission Viejo too
 
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Keith was in a ring game in California when he was a young'n, hanging out in the pool room, which I think was Bob's Billiards. He may have been about 15 or 16 years old at the time, and he was just coming into his game, not realizing how strong he was hitting 'em.

One ring game had a lot of heavweights in it, and it went on for a couple days straight. Keith managed to win a big chunk of change, and the game ended. Keith moseyed on over to a bench on the side of the room and fell asleep. After being up all night long and more, he fell into a deep sleep.

While he was snoozing, a couple scoundrels came up to Keith and cut his pants pockets, stealing all his money. When Keith woke up, he couldn't believe that somebody stole all his winnings, leaving him broke.

He eventually found out who the scoundrels were, and he go this money back, but that's a story I'm saving. I just thought it incredible that anybody would have the nerve to cut somebody's pockets while they were sleeping and steal their money. :eek:
 
3RAILKICK said:
...

This game is where I first heard the term 'brother-in-law'.:eek: In time, we adopted the reshuffle the order after 10 games rule. (usually that was too late)
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: ) me too, on the term. And long ago at a room that has since closed down (twice), I accidentally messed up, just being ignorant- one of the very regular player's girlfriends was talking to me about him and another regular player. I said, "But I thought they were related." She laughed and said, "They look nothing alike- one's black and the other's white- what made you think that?" and still completely ignorant of the term, I answered, "I heard they were brothers in law!"

: )
 
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