Hmm...2005, about to graduate high school, 18 years old. Young, dumb, full of...Anyway, I was messing around with some girl I had met at a party. She called me one day to pick her up from school. Then she takes me to Sticks. The place was deserted. Aside from us, there were two old guys playing on one of the big tables, and the bartender. We played a couple games and I wasn't all that interested. But I could smoke inside, so it seemed like a pretty good spot for me. We stayed a few hours and played maybe 2 games (I don't think I made a ball that day). But the whole time I had been watching the two old guys playing. At the time, I thought they must be pros. Finally, the two old guys unscrew their cues and one of them gives the other one a couple hundred bucks...I was hooked!!
A few days after that, I went back to Sticks early in the morning, by myself this time. I grabbed a table and started knocking balls around; trying to remember how those old guys were holding the cue. It was a disaster. Several people came by and asked if I wanted to play for money, but I knew I wasn't quite ready yet. Finally, one of them comes over and starts showing me a couple of things.
Now it's 7 o'clock and this guy in a wheelchair comes over and asks me if I want to play in the tournament. I had been playing all day and was starting to make some balls so I figured, "What the hell." After I went 2 and out, I grabbed a table again and kept playing.
A few hours after that, there were some guys woofing to each other back and forth and they finally settled into a game (I didn't know what was going on at the time). One of them was about my age, and the other one, named Shaky, was a little bit older (one of my best friends now). Watching these guys play looked like a totally different game than the old guys from last time. I was thinking, "Oh, so THESE guys are the pros." Anyway, Shaky wins and tries to play again and then mutters something about "no action" before he goes home.
After that, it became an 8 hrs a day kind of thing. Play pool all day long. Play the hold 'em tournaments at night. Play the 9ball tournaments on Sundays and Mondays. If I was lucky, I'd make it to class every once in awhile.