Have to get this off my chest - sorry for the rant

[BillPorter]

Hey there folks my first post:
I was playing 8 ball a couple of days ago, Made a really good shot and got perfect position. My opponent says, hey that's my ball. Wow, how did I do that. A few minutes later next game about the same thing, another good shot and position, but again wrong ball. I do have an excuse, I am 76 and I hadn't had my daily nap. I still managed to win the game!!

Hey, congratulations on pulling out the victory in spite of your senior moments! Us older guys can stiff dab it now and then!:smile:

 

[ScottW]

Alcohol can make people think funny things.

One night, a couple of months ago, I was in this little nearby bar-banger tournament, one of these race-to-one annoying type deals. Ugh.

I draw this one guy, who generally isn't a bad shot, but he's also a power drinker, and he was in his cups by the time we played. He wins the flip, breaks, sinks a solid and a stripe, in that order (we're playing 8-ball, btw). Open table. He shoots and misses. I step up, I like the stripes, so I pot one.

This guy gets all worked up. "I'm stripes! I sank one on the break!!!" "Yes, but you sank a solid on the break at the same time, and then you didn't pocket a ball, so it was open." "BULLS**T etc etc!"

Pointing to the tray on the bar box, that has the door open, so it's completely obvious - the solid is ahead of the two stripes - pointing out that for him to be stripes, he would have had to have sunk a solid first and would hence BE solids - no use. It took the guy running the tournament to step in and tell this guy how it was and that was that.

 

[SCCues]

I also was surprised when I finally figured out it was One Pocket. Race to 3 for $20? I would've simply packed it up and said goodnight.

If a guy can't keep up with the game score, there will surely be other arguments. Probably his last $20.

Ray

Ray,

I agree with you.

Bill,

It's not worth getting this upset for $20 and be sure the next time you get into a game that the score is marked as soon as possible after each game and you might even talk to your opponent and make sure that you both agree what the right score is.

I've had a couple of situations come up in my weekly local 9 ball league also. We play a race to 9 with no handicaps and it's happened twice where my opponents score keeper has missed marking some of my games and now I check the score after each game in my matches so this won't happen again.

The latest petty thing that happened which has never happened to me before was I flipped a coin with my opponent before the match started to see who got the first break and I won the flip so it was my opening break. The table we were playing the match on was a bar box and we usually put up $5 in quarters each before we start the match. After each of us counted the quarters and we were ready to start my opponent went to the end of the table to break the balls and he was waiting for me to rack and I told him it was my break and of course he disagreed. I didn't want to start an argument so I let him break, but that made me so angry that I tried much harder than normal to be sure I won the match and I did. The next time I play that guy I'll be sure we understand who's break it is before we do anything else. The first break is big in 9 ball especially on a bar box!

James

 

[Sam Waltz]

Testosterone, gamblin' and alcohol....ahhh we who dabble in all three at once shall be a happy bunch! LOL

From that first day we hit a ball in a pocket until the day we can no longer pick up a cue, may the adventures never stop...

Con-cue-scious says, "Even when right, the cost may be more than it's worth to argue over."

Now, on to the next adventure...

 

[ironman]

Last night I got into a big argument with a young guy at the pool hall. I got so loud that the players on the next table suspended their race to 4 for $200 game until I quieted down. It's not like me to get this upset about anything at a pool hall, but I did and I'm still fuming a bit the next morning. So maybe detailing the problem will help me get over it.

I proposed a race to 3 for $20 to a young guy at the pool hall last night. We have played several times, always for very small stakes, and have usually played a friendly game with one another. I think he won $20 the last time we played. He called the flip correctly and broke the balls from the right side of the table. After trading safeties for a while, he picked up a couple of balls. Later, after he made a third ball, I commented that he had three to none for me. Quite a while later, the score was 6 for him and two for me. I started really focusing on my safeties and played as carefully as I could, eventually making a bank to bring the score to 6 to 3. So I grind and grind and grind and eventually even the score at 6 to 6. Another long period of safeties and I get another ball and now need just one. A couple of times my opponent just missed a bank that would have allowed him to run the two remaining balls, but miss he did. Finally, about an hour into the game, he leaves me a long almost straight shot for the win. As I get down on the shot, I see him move to stand directly in the line of the shot. I get up off the shot and ask him to move, which he does. I roll the ball in and get ready to break for the second game. But he says it is HIS break and the score is one to one in games!!!! What????!!!! He says this is the second game and that he won the first game. The more we talk about this the madder I became - I had worked my butt off to win this first game and now he says it's one to one and his break!!! He does remember winning the coin flip and breaking the balls, but says the ball I just made was the winning ball of our SECOND game! I point out that I NEVER break from the left side of the table giving me the right hand pocket so it is absolutely clear that I didn't break that game. Also, we ALWAYS mark games with a coin and there is no coin on the table. He claims that at one point I said, "You've got one and I've got none." This was probably his misremembering my comment that he had three balls and I had none earlier in the game. I could go on and on, but I think I've given enough of a description.

After coming home and thinking about it, I decided that he probably believed he was right as it would be just too bizarre to think that he was doing this in an attempt to cheat me out of a game. Maybe drugs or alcohol were clouding his memory and judgment? Maybe fatigue? So I will give him the benefit of the doubt and see what he says when I see him next. Surely, once his head cleared, he realized that he was wrong and maybe he will admit that when I see him next.

As the poster say's, "Just say NO"!!

 

[sixpack]

Hey there folks my first post:
I was playing 8 ball a couple of days ago, Made a really good shot and got perfect position. My opponent says, hey that's my ball. Wow, how did I do that. A few minutes later next game about the same thing, another good shot and position, but again wrong ball. I do have an excuse, I am 76 and I hadn't had my daily nap. I still managed to win the game!!

LOL!! Good job!

I played an older gentleman (Frank Barowski, Denver folks might remember him) one time in a tournament. It was alternate breaks. The first game he breaks and runs out. It takes him about 45 minutes. Not exaggerating.

He looks at me and asks me whose break it is

I said, "It's mine."

He said, "Are you sure?"

I said, "Yep, you broke and ran out."

I had to repeat it a few times, but then it dawned on him and there was a look of wonder on his face and he said "But I NEVER do that!"

He passed away a few weeks after that but I like to remember him by the look on his face when he realized he had broken and run out.

For the record, he actually broke and ran out pretty often. I think he just didn't remember them.

~rc

 

[Sam Waltz]

Nice...REAL nice!

LOL!! Good job!

I played an older gentleman (Frank Barowski, Denver folks might remember him) one time in a tournament. It was alternate breaks. The first game he breaks and runs out. It takes him about 45 minutes. Not exaggerating.

He looks at me and asks me whose break it is

I said, "It's mine."

He said, "Are you sure?"

I said, "Yep, you broke and ran out."

I had to repeat it a few times, but then it dawned on him and there was a look of wonder on his face and he said "But I NEVER do that!"

He passed away a few weeks after that but I like to remember him by the look on his face when he realized he had broken and run out.

For the record, he actually broke and ran out pretty often. I think he just didn't remember them.

~rc

That is absolutely beautiful! I hope when I'm his age that I've still gotta cue in my hand and I'm still breakin' and runnin'! Who cares if I remember it myself, I'll be a legend to all those young whipper snappers by then!

 

[poolpro]

Well I can tell you this.....Obviously you havnt been playing GOOD pool players.....Cause until you have been hustled for 0....you havnt been hustled yet!

$0? Hell, I've been hustled for three times that! Consider yourself lucky!

 

[wahcheck]

no more

Mr. Porter:

To me, it wouldn't matter if the guy really thought it was the 2nd game.
For $20, I agree it's not the money, but the outrageousness of some young guy not remembering it was only the first game.....If it was me, I wouldn't play him again, 'cause it's not worth the aggravation of arguing over it. If he can forget something like this, it seems very likely to happen again, for whatever reason.

 

[philw]

Actually, it was only $20 on a race to three. You are certainly correct that $20 is not worth bursting a blood vessel over. It really wasn't the money - I think it was that I had played so hard for so long to overcome a big deficit in the game and finally win it.

I hope you quit at that point Bill. I've been on the receiving side of that kind of cheating also. The best thing to do is call it quits and just never play the guy again. I'm sure he was the perfect gentleman when he beat you the previous matchup. It's not worth the aggravation and it sounds like he needs the money more than you do and will stoop to any level to get it. I think that is another shark move to try and confuse you about the score, it's more common in 9 ball though. It's a way to direct your thoughts away from the task at hand. IMO

 

[philw]

You probably put him to sleep (the game lasted an hour) when he awoke he remembered having a big lead. LOL

That seems to make a lot of sense. I know there have been games that I
thought I was going to run out and blew the run somehow and already had that win calculated in my head. I guess anything's possible.
Next time to really screw him up tell him that was the 3rd game and he must have slept a game.

 

[emptypockets]

Last night I got into a big argument with a young guy at the pool hall. I got so loud that the players on the next table suspended their race to 4 for $200 game until I quieted down.

Wow, the guys I feel sorry for are the ones that were on the next table playing for $200 and had to suspend play. I think if it was me I would have offered you both $20 if y'all would just quit playing or move to the table in the nearest pool room.

 

[memikey]

Bill.......you're 67 and describe the opponent as a "young guy". Without explanation, depending upon how relatively speaking you tend to be in your descriptions of age, that could mean just about anything from 18 to 50.

The reality is that, with or without him being on drugs, no person under about 27 or so (and a good bit older in some cases) is ever going to accept the possibility that a 67 year old has a better memory, so he probably wasn't really listening to your explanations about the coin toss and which side you always break from etc as by that stage he had already formed the opinion that yet another old timer has lost the plot :smile:

Giving him the benefit of the doubt but keeping a careful eye on things next time would be my vote.