It was 1988. I had finished basic training and tech school for the Air Force and had just been stationed in Nebraska. What is there to do in Nebraska when you're under 21? NOTHING! There is a pool table in our day room in the barracks, so I decide to play a game. I've always liked playing pool, but never took it seriously. I had a good time playing so I figured this would be a good way to pass the time from now on.
The table was a Brunswick table. Don't know which type because at that time I didn't care about equipment. Except for the cue I was shooting with. It was a house cue with the awesome slip on tip!! So I decided to go out and buy a cue. Where does every player that doesn't know jack about pool, purchase their first cue? That's right...K-Mart!! Oh, it was a beauty! That wonderful screw on tip and that smooth plywood shaft. How could you beat it? Purchase made, time to go and play. I head back to the barracks and start playing. In a short time, others started to join me to play and it was a great time. None of us were worth a darn, so it was pretty competitive. We were playing for things like laundry detergent and who was going on the food run.
Occasionally, this one guy would come and watch us but would never play. This went on for weeks. We never said anything to him, because we were all new Airmen in the Air Force and we had seen him in uniform before and he was a Sergeant. Finally one day, I just simply asked him if he wanted to play and he said he would be right back. He went to his room, changed clothes and came back with this case that looked like it had a rifle in it. He pulled out a two piece cue, that looked sort of similar to ours...but not really. I remember breaking that game, and never breaking again!!!!! This guy was making that cue ball dance all around the table! It was going at all sorts of different angles and even BACKWARDS!! What the hell was that and how can I do it? It was the coolest thing that I had ever seen! I had to learn it! Eventually the other guys quit playing. To them it was no fun to lose, but not me. I wanted to learn how to play like this guy, and if that meant getting my butt kicked then so be it!
We would play almost every day. I never asked him to show me anything. I just watched him play. I would keep playing by myself for hours after he had gone. Then one day, I did it! I finally beat him in a game. He laughed and said 'good shooting kid'. It was ugly, I don't know how it happened, but it did. I still had no stroke and was still using center ball english a lot!! He told me that there were leagues and tournaments that I could play in when I was 21 and that if I wanted to play in them, that I should continue practicing. He asked me if that was something I would be interested in. After I told him yes, he told me to meet him in the day room that Saturday. I forget the time, but I was there already playing when he came in and asked if I was ready to go. I thought he meant to play some pool, but I was wrong. He asked if I had any money and if he could take me somewhere, and I said sure. He took me to a billiard store. When I walked in all I saw were pool tables everywhere and pool sticks all around the walls of the store! It was like pool equipment heaven! So I start looking at all these cues and was amazed. They were beautiful! Schon, Joss, McDermott and Meucci's all over the walls (I didn't know anything about custom cues or that they even existed). Apparently I was looking at the wrong walls, because for some reason some of those pieces of WOOD had prices in the $1000's! He said to me that since I was a beginner, it would be best to look at this other wall. There I saw, Dufferin, Viking, and Schmelke's. I decided on a plain looking Schmelke. It was only $80.
We went back to the barracks and he went to his room brought out his cue and gave me my first 2x2 case. It was a Porper case, but he told me that I could only have it under one condition. That I never put that K-Mart cue in it!! No problem! The cue went into my wall locker and never brought it out to play again.
We started to play a little and then he told me that this would be the last time that we would play together. I asked why and he told me that he gave me the basic tools to continue to learn and he wanted to see how I play in a couple of years when I as 21. His name was Roger.
So I continued to play by myself again. It was like a drug. I would come home from work, shower, change, and grab my cue and head into the day room. I would play for hours!
I learned how to put backspin on the ball and after that it was over! You all know that once a beginner learns backspin, that's all they ever want to use!! I realized quickly though that I could not just use backspin, and started experimenting with hitting the cue ball in different areas. I saw how it made the cue ball act after impact and started learning how to move the cue ball around the table and put it in the general area that I wanted it in. Not always successful mind you!
Eventually the guys that I played with originally saw that Roger was no longer playing, so they decided to start playing again. They noticed how much I had improved and then they were interested in learning. We went back to that same billiard store and they all bought cues as well. None of us had the same cue.
Because I had been playing a little longer than them, I was the first one to develop any kind of stroke, but I was so excited to be the best at something (within our group of friends), that I couldn't keep it to myself. I started showing them the little things that I had learned, and in no time we were playing for laundry detergent again.
We found out that there was an intramural league on the base. Different squadrons around the base had pool teams and together they formed a league. At that time our squadron didn't, so I asked if we could start a team. After all the okay's were done, all of us played together in this league. We lost A LOT, but man was it a good time. We found out about the APA from others in this league that were also of age and played at local bars in the APA league. At that time you had to be 21, so we made a pact that we would wait for all of us to be 21 before we joined the APA.
Now we're all 21 and join the APA. We go to this local bar in Bellevue, Nebraska. There's 5 of us and that is just enough members to have a team, but the owner of the bar says that you can have up to 8 and it's good to have extra players just in case someone can't make it. We tell him that we're brand new to the league and don't know anyone else. He tells us he's a 5 in the league and he would be glad to shoot with us. Of course we say yes. He's the bar owner. What we didn't know is that with him, came a lot of advantages. He paid for us to join the APA, he paid our quarters for home and away matches, he gave us all shirts with our team name on it, we drank for free as long as it wasn't beer or alcohol, and he drove us to all away matches. He was awesome!! We couldn't have gotten any luckier! We also found out that he owned a pool hall just across the river and state line in Council Bluffs, Iowa. It was called Esquires. They had about 25 Valley bar boxes. It was a very nice place, although some of the people that came in weren't so nice.
We started playing APA out of there as well, and got the same benefits from this place. As time went on, our skill levels changed. We all started as 3's, but eventually started moving up. So much that we were unable to keep the team together. We tried to keep it together but we couldn't find any lower skilled players. They were and still are very hard to come by! We were together for about 2 years and it was great! I was the first to go. At that time I was a 5 and formed a new team with friends that were new to the APA, but not new to pool. We started shooting out of a bar called Uncle Charlie's in Council Bluffs, IA. Shortly after that I got moved up to a 6 and again the other players also improved and the team had to break up. Now, that was 2 teams that it had happened to, so something had to change.
I decided to instead join a team with established players and found one back in Bellevue, NE. Now shooting out of a bar called Rumour's. We had all been in the league for a while and were pretty much stuck at our current skill levels. We had a strong player at each skill level, and that team eventually went to Vegas. We did well, but I think we were overwhelmed by the experience and didn't play as well as we normally did. Shortly after coming back from Vegas, we lost a couple of players due to getting orders to serve overseas. They were hard to replace and eventually the team parted ways.
Joined another team shooting out of a new pool hall called Fort Crook Billiards also in Bellevue. This became my home. Which was a problem, because you see by this time, I already had a wife and kids. I was playing on APA teams 3 nights a week and 1 BCA team on another. So I wasn't exactly the best husband and father that I should have been. My wife being the wonderful and loving person that she was had always put up with my pool habit, and then one day decided that it was time for a wife intervention. She changed what was called her "Dream Sheet" in the military to read "Open Overseas". Which roughly translates to...we got orders to England within a month!! My APA days were over until we got back from England.
That was 1998 and we were there 8 LONG years! Didn't play at all for 6 of those years, then they started to remodel the community center on base. I went in and talked to the manager and told her that I would be interested in starting an intramural pool league for the military. In trade for letting me start this league, I would make sure that the new equipment would be looked after and the players would even help with the cost of upkeep.
I started a league similar to BCA. Of course were weren't sanctioned by the BCA, but it was the simplest format to follow for any kind of handicap. The entry fees to the league went into a fund to help with the upkeep of the tables and equipment, and the weekly dues all went towards an end of session picnic. There was never any money awarded in our league as that would be against Air Force regulations. Sad to hear that when I left England the league fell apart, but for 2 years it was fun.
We get orders back to the US. Now living in Virginia, I seek out somewhere to play pool. I drive by a place called Break Away Billiards late one night and decide that I would check it out that following weekend. I met my now best friend John that first day I walked in. He came up to me and introduced himself. I got there in the middle of an 8-ball tournament and noticed that there was only a couple of good players. John and I started to talk and eventually started a team in the APA. They were able to find my old stats and so I started back up playing as a 6 again. I'm not sure why such a difference between skill levels here and the ones in Nebraska, but I was walking thru everybody and in no time was a 7. I remember the 7's in Nebraska were super strong. They would break and run a rack almost every time and if they couldn't they would seal you up!! Here, it was rarely that I saw a 7 break and run a rack and I could tell that there was a big gap between their skills, so I was beating all of them. Apart from a couple of 7's in this area, the rest are so watered down that at Nationals even though they're 7's, they would get spanked!!
Ownership of Break Away Billiards changed and it went from good to bad!! It progressively got worse and so in 2009 I quit playing APA. I was a 7 in 8-ball and a 9 in 9-ball. I'll never believe that those numbers mean anything though. Unfortunately in this area it's pretty much the same teams going to Vegas every year. Their skill levels never seem to change. They've been playing together for the 4 years that I've been here and somehow they never improve and still go to Vegas every year. Yet, I've been on 5 different teams playing 1 day a week, and all of those teams have had to split up because our skill levels went up so fast. I'm not saying that there's something shady going on, but...okay yes I am.
I'm not bashing the APA. It has been the source of a lot of good times in my life. When and if ran properly it's a great way to introduce people to the game and possibly then they will eventually improve and outgrow the league.
Stay tuned for my extremely long winded gambling stories. This is what happens when I take the day off of work. I should probably stop doing that!
The table was a Brunswick table. Don't know which type because at that time I didn't care about equipment. Except for the cue I was shooting with. It was a house cue with the awesome slip on tip!! So I decided to go out and buy a cue. Where does every player that doesn't know jack about pool, purchase their first cue? That's right...K-Mart!! Oh, it was a beauty! That wonderful screw on tip and that smooth plywood shaft. How could you beat it? Purchase made, time to go and play. I head back to the barracks and start playing. In a short time, others started to join me to play and it was a great time. None of us were worth a darn, so it was pretty competitive. We were playing for things like laundry detergent and who was going on the food run.
Occasionally, this one guy would come and watch us but would never play. This went on for weeks. We never said anything to him, because we were all new Airmen in the Air Force and we had seen him in uniform before and he was a Sergeant. Finally one day, I just simply asked him if he wanted to play and he said he would be right back. He went to his room, changed clothes and came back with this case that looked like it had a rifle in it. He pulled out a two piece cue, that looked sort of similar to ours...but not really. I remember breaking that game, and never breaking again!!!!! This guy was making that cue ball dance all around the table! It was going at all sorts of different angles and even BACKWARDS!! What the hell was that and how can I do it? It was the coolest thing that I had ever seen! I had to learn it! Eventually the other guys quit playing. To them it was no fun to lose, but not me. I wanted to learn how to play like this guy, and if that meant getting my butt kicked then so be it!
We would play almost every day. I never asked him to show me anything. I just watched him play. I would keep playing by myself for hours after he had gone. Then one day, I did it! I finally beat him in a game. He laughed and said 'good shooting kid'. It was ugly, I don't know how it happened, but it did. I still had no stroke and was still using center ball english a lot!! He told me that there were leagues and tournaments that I could play in when I was 21 and that if I wanted to play in them, that I should continue practicing. He asked me if that was something I would be interested in. After I told him yes, he told me to meet him in the day room that Saturday. I forget the time, but I was there already playing when he came in and asked if I was ready to go. I thought he meant to play some pool, but I was wrong. He asked if I had any money and if he could take me somewhere, and I said sure. He took me to a billiard store. When I walked in all I saw were pool tables everywhere and pool sticks all around the walls of the store! It was like pool equipment heaven! So I start looking at all these cues and was amazed. They were beautiful! Schon, Joss, McDermott and Meucci's all over the walls (I didn't know anything about custom cues or that they even existed). Apparently I was looking at the wrong walls, because for some reason some of those pieces of WOOD had prices in the $1000's! He said to me that since I was a beginner, it would be best to look at this other wall. There I saw, Dufferin, Viking, and Schmelke's. I decided on a plain looking Schmelke. It was only $80.
We went back to the barracks and he went to his room brought out his cue and gave me my first 2x2 case. It was a Porper case, but he told me that I could only have it under one condition. That I never put that K-Mart cue in it!! No problem! The cue went into my wall locker and never brought it out to play again.
We started to play a little and then he told me that this would be the last time that we would play together. I asked why and he told me that he gave me the basic tools to continue to learn and he wanted to see how I play in a couple of years when I as 21. His name was Roger.
So I continued to play by myself again. It was like a drug. I would come home from work, shower, change, and grab my cue and head into the day room. I would play for hours!
I learned how to put backspin on the ball and after that it was over! You all know that once a beginner learns backspin, that's all they ever want to use!! I realized quickly though that I could not just use backspin, and started experimenting with hitting the cue ball in different areas. I saw how it made the cue ball act after impact and started learning how to move the cue ball around the table and put it in the general area that I wanted it in. Not always successful mind you!
Eventually the guys that I played with originally saw that Roger was no longer playing, so they decided to start playing again. They noticed how much I had improved and then they were interested in learning. We went back to that same billiard store and they all bought cues as well. None of us had the same cue.
Because I had been playing a little longer than them, I was the first one to develop any kind of stroke, but I was so excited to be the best at something (within our group of friends), that I couldn't keep it to myself. I started showing them the little things that I had learned, and in no time we were playing for laundry detergent again.
We found out that there was an intramural league on the base. Different squadrons around the base had pool teams and together they formed a league. At that time our squadron didn't, so I asked if we could start a team. After all the okay's were done, all of us played together in this league. We lost A LOT, but man was it a good time. We found out about the APA from others in this league that were also of age and played at local bars in the APA league. At that time you had to be 21, so we made a pact that we would wait for all of us to be 21 before we joined the APA.
Now we're all 21 and join the APA. We go to this local bar in Bellevue, Nebraska. There's 5 of us and that is just enough members to have a team, but the owner of the bar says that you can have up to 8 and it's good to have extra players just in case someone can't make it. We tell him that we're brand new to the league and don't know anyone else. He tells us he's a 5 in the league and he would be glad to shoot with us. Of course we say yes. He's the bar owner. What we didn't know is that with him, came a lot of advantages. He paid for us to join the APA, he paid our quarters for home and away matches, he gave us all shirts with our team name on it, we drank for free as long as it wasn't beer or alcohol, and he drove us to all away matches. He was awesome!! We couldn't have gotten any luckier! We also found out that he owned a pool hall just across the river and state line in Council Bluffs, Iowa. It was called Esquires. They had about 25 Valley bar boxes. It was a very nice place, although some of the people that came in weren't so nice.
We started playing APA out of there as well, and got the same benefits from this place. As time went on, our skill levels changed. We all started as 3's, but eventually started moving up. So much that we were unable to keep the team together. We tried to keep it together but we couldn't find any lower skilled players. They were and still are very hard to come by! We were together for about 2 years and it was great! I was the first to go. At that time I was a 5 and formed a new team with friends that were new to the APA, but not new to pool. We started shooting out of a bar called Uncle Charlie's in Council Bluffs, IA. Shortly after that I got moved up to a 6 and again the other players also improved and the team had to break up. Now, that was 2 teams that it had happened to, so something had to change.
I decided to instead join a team with established players and found one back in Bellevue, NE. Now shooting out of a bar called Rumour's. We had all been in the league for a while and were pretty much stuck at our current skill levels. We had a strong player at each skill level, and that team eventually went to Vegas. We did well, but I think we were overwhelmed by the experience and didn't play as well as we normally did. Shortly after coming back from Vegas, we lost a couple of players due to getting orders to serve overseas. They were hard to replace and eventually the team parted ways.
Joined another team shooting out of a new pool hall called Fort Crook Billiards also in Bellevue. This became my home. Which was a problem, because you see by this time, I already had a wife and kids. I was playing on APA teams 3 nights a week and 1 BCA team on another. So I wasn't exactly the best husband and father that I should have been. My wife being the wonderful and loving person that she was had always put up with my pool habit, and then one day decided that it was time for a wife intervention. She changed what was called her "Dream Sheet" in the military to read "Open Overseas". Which roughly translates to...we got orders to England within a month!! My APA days were over until we got back from England.
That was 1998 and we were there 8 LONG years! Didn't play at all for 6 of those years, then they started to remodel the community center on base. I went in and talked to the manager and told her that I would be interested in starting an intramural pool league for the military. In trade for letting me start this league, I would make sure that the new equipment would be looked after and the players would even help with the cost of upkeep.
I started a league similar to BCA. Of course were weren't sanctioned by the BCA, but it was the simplest format to follow for any kind of handicap. The entry fees to the league went into a fund to help with the upkeep of the tables and equipment, and the weekly dues all went towards an end of session picnic. There was never any money awarded in our league as that would be against Air Force regulations. Sad to hear that when I left England the league fell apart, but for 2 years it was fun.
We get orders back to the US. Now living in Virginia, I seek out somewhere to play pool. I drive by a place called Break Away Billiards late one night and decide that I would check it out that following weekend. I met my now best friend John that first day I walked in. He came up to me and introduced himself. I got there in the middle of an 8-ball tournament and noticed that there was only a couple of good players. John and I started to talk and eventually started a team in the APA. They were able to find my old stats and so I started back up playing as a 6 again. I'm not sure why such a difference between skill levels here and the ones in Nebraska, but I was walking thru everybody and in no time was a 7. I remember the 7's in Nebraska were super strong. They would break and run a rack almost every time and if they couldn't they would seal you up!! Here, it was rarely that I saw a 7 break and run a rack and I could tell that there was a big gap between their skills, so I was beating all of them. Apart from a couple of 7's in this area, the rest are so watered down that at Nationals even though they're 7's, they would get spanked!!
Ownership of Break Away Billiards changed and it went from good to bad!! It progressively got worse and so in 2009 I quit playing APA. I was a 7 in 8-ball and a 9 in 9-ball. I'll never believe that those numbers mean anything though. Unfortunately in this area it's pretty much the same teams going to Vegas every year. Their skill levels never seem to change. They've been playing together for the 4 years that I've been here and somehow they never improve and still go to Vegas every year. Yet, I've been on 5 different teams playing 1 day a week, and all of those teams have had to split up because our skill levels went up so fast. I'm not saying that there's something shady going on, but...okay yes I am.
I'm not bashing the APA. It has been the source of a lot of good times in my life. When and if ran properly it's a great way to introduce people to the game and possibly then they will eventually improve and outgrow the league.
Stay tuned for my extremely long winded gambling stories. This is what happens when I take the day off of work. I should probably stop doing that!
(Sadly I think it's just as long - sorry!) 
