How and where did you first start playing

fasted71465

fasted71465

Fast Ed
Silver Member
This has been asked here before but I love these threads. I was 13 and there was a small rec room that had a couple of 8 footers and a bowling lane that young people would hang out there. I was standing and watching a couple guys play 8 ball and one of the guys made a cross side bank and it blew my mind. So I played the winner(the guy that made the bank) the next game and I made the same bank shot he made and I was hooked on the game from then on. By the time I was 18 nobody around could beat me and I started to go to bars and won a lot of money. Then I decided to go to a bigger city to play and I learned real fast that I didn't play near their speed. So 27 years later I am still trying to compete with the big city boys. An hour drive for me so I don't make it as much as I used to.
 
Our neighbor had one of those Sears tables with the "honeycomb" slate (i.e. not real) that I hit the balls on a few times, but we were basically forbidden to use it when the adults weren't around, and when they were around they were using it themselves, so.....

I got into a few local bars underage (about 16) and they all had tables, but I'd lose my quarter real fast and have to wait maybe an hour for my next quarter to come up. You don't learn much that way.

In college my room was right next to the rec room for the dorm. There was a 10' table in there that was in terrible shape (prolly donated to the school by a local pool hall looking to fit 8 footers in their room and get a tax write off to boot). It got pretty steady use by guys from the city who could play, but I used to jimmy the lock and sneak in after the room was closed for the day and play. Sometimes I would play all night long, and skip classes the next day.

Eventually, I dropped out of school. Oh, well, I would have made a shitty doctor anyway. I never got very good, but that 10 footer got me shooting straight enough that the bar tables I later played on seemed like toys. And how many guys younger than 80 can say they started on a 10' table? :cool:
 
I used to go to the bar for lunch/breaks with my dad when I'd work with him. I'd beat balls around hopelessly and not know any difference, and I thought he was the greatest player ever. One week when I was around 11-12 years old I just suddenly was able to make balls. Something clicked and I was able to see where I was supposed to hit balls; I started with an open bridge and remember sticking my pointer finger out to guide the cue and also it helped for cuts to the left as my finger was pointing at the contact point. Someone showed me how to draw the cue ball and that blew my mind! Made $2-5 games on challenge tables and held my own against an inferior crowd, they were fueled by alcohol and hurt pride that a kid beat them, but they always ended up being friendly in victory or defeat. The banger days weren't so bad...
 
Very well, where do I begin? My father was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with low-grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery. My mother was a fifteen-year old French prostitute named Chloe with webbed feet. My father would womanize, he would drink, he would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Sometimes he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy... the sort of general malaise that only the genius possess in the insane lament. My childhood was typical... summers in Rangoon, luge lessons. In the spring we'd make meat helmets. When I was insolent, I was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds... pretty standard, really. At the age of twelve, I received my first scribe. At the age of fourteen, a Zoastrian named Vilma ritualistically shaved my testicles. There really is nothing like a shorn scrotum... it's breathtaking, I suggest you try it. Then I found pool
 
We had a table in the basement growing up but quit playing cause I discovered girls and then auto racing. Started to ease up on racing and found out that I suddenly had an abundance of time, then a friend asked me to sub on his team with him and found out you forget how to pocket balls after 30 years of not playing, but I ended up staying on his team. My aunt had our old childhood table so I brought it home and found out it was a real POS so I started looking at tables and found a pristine GCII and burned the POS table in our burn barrel, it was that bad. That all started 2 years ago and I cant play enough right now, I hope my enthusiasm stays this way cause I am having fun.:D
 
1ist pool

Well the best i can rember, i was hanging with my brother and{PAUL ANDERSON] the worlds strongest man, walking around ball park swimming pool , and down town. took me into poolroom to shoot a few games we turns out i caught on fast and could beat both, w:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:ell from thin on i was hooked,. and still love it at 75yr-- - play on America!!!!
 
Forever

I grew up with a table in the house.
My dad used to have a weekly gambling
sessions at our house. I guess he won his
fair share. He also played and gambled in
other guys homes on different nights.

So I can't remember when I first played.

I've played forever !!

Joe
 
My 2 friends and I thought we were cool at the ripe old age of 13 smoking cigarettes. We soon figured out that cigarettes and pool halls went hand in hand. We can come home smelling like smoke and our parents wouldn't think twice. Once you're in a pool hall, you play pool...

At 14 we moved several towns away, but low and behold the new house had a 70s 8' AMF with yellow cloth. When we moved in, my folks had the table re-felted for me and it was game on ever since. I played all the time until I moved out.

Then it was playing on bar boxes very irregularly until last year when I bought my own table at the age of 31. Now I play more than I ever have.
 
When I was around 8 or 9 my uncle had an 8 ft slate table in his garage, and would practice for hours on end by himself. I would watch and occasionally shoot a hanger or two. When I was 10, my dad bought me a Sears honeycomb table for Christmas. I could pocket balls, but had no concept of shape or anything other than center ball. Banged balls on it for the next 4-5 years off and on.

Fast forward to when I had my first real job working at Best Buy, I was 17 and one night after work the manager asked if I wanted to go play some pool. Of course I thought I knew how to play and I said sure! Of course he said he was good and was going to kick my ass. I said the same and couldn't wait to challenge him. When he was racking the balls he asked me 'BCA?" I responded "huh?" I had never heard of such a thing. He says don't worry about it. We proceed to play for a couple of hours while drinking beers and ordering some food. He obviously was stalling, but at the time I had no idea. Right before last call, he asks if Id like to play him for the tab, just a little "race to 3" Me always liking to gamble I said sure. Of course he crushes me 3-0, and pretty much just runs out from everywhere. (Hustling 101 at its finest)

From that night forward I did everything to improve, books, videos, purchased my own table, etc. My girls girlfriend at the time bought me a nice production Pechauer cue. Over the years I practiced, played league, gambled and drastically improved. I run into the manager about 8 years later at a pool hall, and hes watching me play some 9 ball. I ask him if hed like to gamble some, he declines. I say you got the 8 ball, same response. Finally, I say you got the 7 but you gotta bet something. He still says no thanks, and that he cant beat me with that spot. His decline was better than any money I could have won.

As we all know this game has millions of ups and downs. Ive sworn I was gonna quit a hundred times. So to Mario (the manager) thanks for that one night, I guess....
 
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How my addiction started

My father converted the garage into a entertainment area with an 8 footer in 1980 right when ESPN had nothing else on but old billiards matches and Australian Rules football. I couldnt convince any of my buddies to try the football so I became a pool shark instead. :D
 
I just started playing 2 years ago, at the age of 58. I might have banged balls once at a bowling alley growing up but not enough to remember it.

I was walking around our community recreation center when a couple of my fishing buddies saw me and said "Hey, come in here." They were playing pool and put a cue in my hand.

I'm hooked. I think my buddies are sad they ever invited me to play because I won our center's last two tournaments.
 
Started playing casual stuff when I was 14. Local town didn't have drinking so bar rooms were unheard of. The local cafe was the only place with a table so that is where everyone hung out. I spent a lot of time playing against everyone there taking my lumps. The a funny thing happened, I did what most guys do, I found out women were more fun that pool. I lost touch with pool for a couple years. Got divorced then stumbled into a league. Competitive pool, money matches, great players, man I was hooked again. I have been playing ever since. Sure wish I could pocket balls in real life like I can in my imagination.
 
I started going to one of the local pool rooms (we had several in those days) when I was fifteen. It was a small place called Brunswick Billiards, and had two Snooker tables, and four full size. I went there with my friends who could drive. :smile:
 
It's kind of a long story, but here goes...

One morning Jesus and I woke up in this cave after 3 days...

He aks me, "what you gonna do now?" and I replied, "don't know, Jesus, what you got planned?"

He says, "I'm gonna keep turning water into wine and multiplying the fishes, you want to go with me?"

I replied, "No, Jesus, I think I'm gonna see if I can turn some of this pocket change into a pot of gold on the road playing pool".

That's the last I ever saw of Jesus. I never did find my pot of gold...wonder how his wine and fish business is doing.
 
I was 17 and started playing junior league APA after getting introduced to some great people. I was horrible and was a 2 (back when males were allowed to be 2s). My first match they started me as a new player (4) and I lost to another 4 in like 40+ innings. After moving down to a 2 I finally worked up my way to a 3 by the end of the session. The next session from a 3 to a 4. I did that 4 sessions in a row going from a 2 to a 6 in a year period right before leaving to go to college. I came back home 4 years later and worked on the game a bit harder to move up and start gambling/playing tournaments a bit. My biggest score money wise to date is winning a $25 buyin tournament for about $500 + $1440ish calcutta....I only had 1/3 of myself since I was bought for $140 and right out of college that and the entry fee were a bit much for me...that's ok, 2 other people each bought a 1/3 and they were very happy spending about $45 and then winning $480 a piece.
 
I started playing pool at 12-13 yrs old in the American Legion hall where my father hung out. The tennis courts that I played on were pretty much next door, and when I went to meet him so he could take me home, I would watch the pool games in progress. Needless to say it was pretty much love at first sight, and although I continued playing tennis into adulthood there was clearly a new number one girl on the block.

That summer, I became the only thirteen year old in the Virgin Islands with an ulcer--the lunch money to sustain me on the tennis court was actually going towards practice time on the pool tables! :D
 
I slipped into out local pool hall as an 8 year old and a friend we referred to as Brave Eagle took me back to the 3rd table and we played a game scratch or 61. I fell in love with pool that very day......still love the game....

My dad took me out of that room a few times as a youngster. He knew what went on in that room. I did too! The clicking of balls, the characters, the burgers but most of all I just enjoyed the good'ol real people that hung out there.

Stan Shuffett
 
Starting out

When I would have birthday parties at Dave and Busters in Dallas, I always had to walk past the billiard floor to get to the video games. I would stare at the tables as if I was a deer in head lights.

As I got older I would go to the bowling alley and play on the tables there. We eventually turned the out side storage building into a "get the kids out of the house room" and thats where we got an oldie but a goodie, it was slate but thats about it. I got some old robert byrnes vhs tapes and then one day could beat all my friends.

Then one day I went to college and officially found booze and women. It wasn't until I graduated college that I got back into pool when I moved to KC.

Now I live back home and am waiting on my 9ft diamond and ready to practice practice practice. And as Vince Limbardi says "practice does not make perfect, only perfect practice makes perfect"
 
Age 14, 1962, was sent by my parents to a Catholic boarding school run by the Catholic Christian Brothers, to get "straightened out". For punishment, after the usual beatings, I was "campused" for periods of time, meaning I couldn't leave the campus of the school, especially on weekends. But, in addition to basketball in the gym and occasionally sneaking out to the girl's school down the way, there was a recreation room with 2 9'rs and 1 snooker table (!!) where we would hang out, play for cigarettes, and try to learn the game. I spent two years at the school and lots of time campused.
:D
 
ceodynamo said:
When I would have birthday parties at Dave and Busters in Dallas, I always had to walk past the billiard floor to get to the video games. I would stare at the tables as if I was a deer in head lights.

As I got older I would go to the bowling alley and play on the tables there. We eventually turned the out side storage building into a "get the kids out of the house room" and thats where we got an oldie but a goodie, it was slate but thats about it. I got some old robert byrnes vhs tapes and then one day could beat all my friends.

Then one day I went to college and officially found booze and women. It wasn't until I graduated college that I got back into pool when I moved to KC.

Now I live back home and am waiting on my 9ft diamond and ready to practice practice practice. And as Vince Limbardi says "practice does not make perfect, only perfect practice makes perfect"
Click to expand...


Perfect practice won't always make perfect, but perfect practice will show your progress.
 
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