Have you ever used a name other than your own playing pool?

CJ Wiley

ESPN WORLD OPEN CHAMPION
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Back when I was on the road gambling I used 3 aliases, Mike from Indiana, Chris from Missouri and Butch from Tennessee.

This is the story of how they almost got backed to play each other to see who the best young player was in the country.

https://youtu.be/GA3NPNA61yw

How about you, ever had to use a name other than your own for any reason?
 

PoolBum

Ace in the side.
Silver Member
No, whenever I wanted my opponents to think I couldn't run three balls using my real name seemed to work just fine.
 

middleofnowhere

Registered
No, whenever I wanted my opponents to think I couldn't run three balls using my real name seemed to work just fine.

I know you were being funny but it was often just a good policy. You often did not know what terms you may leave on and it was just better to not have anyone know your name of where you were from. Back then everyone was in phone books.

If they know your name and roughly where you were from it was just a call to 411 to have someone show up on your doorstep if they wanted.
It had more to do with safety for the average scuffler then someone may recognize your name or have heard of you. Every time anyone came in the poolroom looking like they were looking to play, you know the look, someone would always go outside and check plates for out of town cars.
Today it is all different, hell someone will take a picture and post it here and in 10 minutes someone will post a whole line on them.

You really don't know how people act . I was going to a tournament years ago and you often stop here and there to maybe make a few bucks if you have time. I was in a place and won some money. A couple days latter I was at the tournament about a 100 miles from where I was a few nights earlier.

As I am about to play my match who is sitting in the stands but the whole crew from the poolroom I was in the other night. After the match I went over to them and said hello, didn't really know what else to do not knowing how they would react. The one guy says, "You seem to have improved since Wednesday". We all just laughed but it didn't have to go that way.

Even though we were not talking about much money some people can be really crazy. I had a friend shot over $5.00. he was ambushed in the parking lot. It's not the money, you are messing with peoples egos and they can react badly sometimes.
 
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ShootingArts

Smorg is giving St Peter the 7!
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For Awhile

I think it was right after TCOM, everybody that could run three balls was using an alias, some changing it weekly. Sometimes just to jack with somebody I'd tell them that wasn't the name they were using two weeks ago when I really had no idea. Caused great stuttering and back tracking!

Somebody persuaded me to get with the program and I did off and on for a couple months. Couldn't get over the idea that it was all stupid for a bunch of clowns to think they needed an alias or three and went back to my old policy of just using my first name. Nickname really but it has been on a handful of businesses, my trucks on the road, and the only name 99% of people knew me by for many years. Like ShootingArts, the person makes the name not the name making the person.

I wasn't totally unknown to road players but I'm 99% sure that they just had me down in the book as Hu, spelled Hugh. That was all the handle I needed. I laughed awhile back when a young lady was a bit pushy asking my name.

"Hu"
"Do you have a last name?"
"Just Hu"

Hu
 
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CESSNA10

AzB Gold Member
Gold Member
Silver Member
Back when I was on the road gambling I used 3 aliases, Mike from Indiana, Chris from Missouri and Butch from Tennessee.

This is the story of how they almost got backed to play each other to see who the best young player was in the country.

https://youtu.be/GA3NPNA61yw

How about you, ever had to use a name other than your own for any reason?

CJ, When your all time high run in straight is 56, no need to use an alias
 

ChrisSjoblom

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Never had a pool alias, but in the early to mid 1980's I went by Guido Cinelli at steel-tip dart tournaments along the west coast. Five of us league players in the East Bay area got together to form a tournament crew, traveling to one or two tournaments a month in an old motorhome. One of us was a bicycle racer that had a sponsorship from Cenilli bicycles who could get them to provide hats and shirts so we decided to call ourselves the Cinelli Brothers. We each took an Italian first name, mine was Guido.

Great times. We would each throw $100 into the traveling kitty at the beginning of a season, pay our own entry fees and throw any winnings into the pot, too. We were usually able to travel all season without needing to dip into our pockets again, although there was never anything left over at the end of the road. Met a lot of good people and got to play against and with some of the best in the world at that time. The blind draw warm-up shoots the night before a big tournament were especially fun. You could get a lucky draw and have your world-class partner carry you into the money!
 

Bic D

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I had a fake ID until I was 21 so I had to go by my brothers name for a while
 
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ShootingArts

Smorg is giving St Peter the 7!
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Team Names

Never had a pool alias, but in the early to mid 1980's I went by Guido Cinelli at steel-tip dart tournaments along the west coast. Five of us league players in the East Bay area got together to form a tournament crew, traveling to one or two tournaments a month in an old motorhome.

...


Team names reminded me of something from a few decades back. A friend wanted to send me a US Post Office cap to take a picture in. Not realizing how expensive they were I told him to send me three.

Me, my brother, and my best friend at the time were all shooting pistol competitions together. We wore the caps all that season and called ourselves "The Postal Pistol Team". Since I looked a lot like my avatar at the time and one of the others was almost equally woolly it made people wonder! Sent my partner a picture with the three of us looking appropriately "postal" and he was happy with his investment in caps.

Hu
 

jay helfert

Shoot Pool, not people
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Silver Member
I never thought my name made much difference to anyone since I wasn't some champion and people usually wanted to play me because I was easy to get along with. I never made a fuss, never cheated or sharked anyone and even gave them the benefit of the doubt on a close hit. I knew early on that if I was the better player I would end up with the money just by playing pool and keeping my mouth shut, except to compliment my opponent when they made a good shot and commiserate with them if they got a bad roll. So many times after I scrapped out a win the guy would remind me of his bad rolls and my good ones. Of course I admitted how lucky I had been to win. This attitude brought a lot of guys back for seconds, thirds and more!

My only "name" mistake was having Ernie put my name on the first Ginacue he ever made for me. I was playing some half assed road player and was grinding out a little score at $10 9-Ball. I laid my cue on the table to hit the restroom and told him I'd be right back. A couple of my friends were sitting there so I wasn't worried about my cue. I was gone maybe five minutes and when I got back he was packing up his cue. I asked him what he was doing and he told me that he didn't know I was Jay Helfert. He had looked closely at my cue and saw my name there. I couldn't believe it but it really happened. I never left my cue laying around after that. :)
 
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CJ Wiley

ESPN WORLD OPEN CHAMPION
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Silver Member
they raided a bar I was at and found two different IDs on me

I had a fake ID until I was 21 so I had to go by my brothers name for a while

I was up in Marion Indiana and bought a drivers license off a kid named Michael Hulse so I went by Mike Hulse until the police ended up taking it in Chicago.....they raided a bar I was at and found two different IDs on me, they took it and told me to NOT come back to that county until I was 21.....I went directly across the street to another bar and had a beer.... that experience made me thirsty! :thumbup:
 
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