How many hours do you think you've spent actually at the table playing pool?

Chuck Fields said:
Just because Im bored....... :eek:

"I began playing pool at the age of 19 at a place called Ride the Rail in St Louis, MO in 1995. The first couple years I just shot 8 ball on a valley cougar maybe once a month for an hour or so. In 1997 I finally decided I wanted to try the 9 foot table. That is when I learned that many of the players there actually gamble at pool and it intrigued me even more. Most people offered me enormous spots to get me to play with them. By 1998 I was fired from my job and began playing pool every day.

One day I was at a place called Afton Billiards and was playing a guy named Jim the Painter, He made a bet with me that he would put up $200 if I could beat him in a race to 9 while spotting me the wild 7 vs if I lost I had to sign up for the U.S. Army. He had a recruiter there watching the match. I lost and I signed up as I promised. I only stuck it out for 3 years but when I got out I came back to St Louis and began playing pool again regularly.
He started doing donuts in the parking lot with the van. After that I quit pool for a few years. In 2004 I began my own buisiness which I ran successfully for 3 years. Eventually when the market was saturated in 2007 I began going to the poolroom again. There was a whole new batch of patrons at the poolroom I was used to going to. I met Coty who was the only B- player at the poolroom in 2007 everyone else except for Ron who worked there was a C or C+.


From this thread http://forums.azbilliards.com/showpost.php?p=4488067&postcount=1

So by your own admission, theres about 7-8 years where you played no where near how much you are claiming now.
Heres a tip, dont lie. It just makes you look bad when you get caught.
Ive played pool for over 35 years and to hit 37000 hours, I would have had to average almost 3 hours a day, every day for that 35 years. I can assure you, that I have not.
Chuck
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Maybe Rhea has played 20hours/day the last 5 years :p
 
Chuck Fields said:
Just because Im bored....... :eek:

"I began playing pool at the age of 19 at a place called Ride the Rail in St Louis, MO in 1995. The first couple years I just shot 8 ball on a valley cougar maybe once a month for an hour or so. In 1997 I finally decided I wanted to try the 9 foot table. That is when I learned that many of the players there actually gamble at pool and it intrigued me even more. Most people offered me enormous spots to get me to play with them. By 1998 I was fired from my job and began playing pool every day.

One day I was at a place called Afton Billiards and was playing a guy named Jim the Painter, He made a bet with me that he would put up $200 if I could beat him in a race to 9 while spotting me the wild 7 vs if I lost I had to sign up for the U.S. Army. He had a recruiter there watching the match. I lost and I signed up as I promised. I only stuck it out for 3 years but when I got out I came back to St Louis and began playing pool again regularly.
He started doing donuts in the parking lot with the van. After that I quit pool for a few years. In 2004 I began my own buisiness which I ran successfully for 3 years. Eventually when the market was saturated in 2007 I began going to the poolroom again. There was a whole new batch of patrons at the poolroom I was used to going to. I met Coty who was the only B- player at the poolroom in 2007 everyone else except for Ron who worked there was a C or C+.


From this thread http://forums.azbilliards.com/showpost.php?p=4488067&postcount=1

So by your own admission, theres about 7-8 years where you played no where near how much you are claiming now.
Heres a tip, dont lie. It just makes you look bad when you get caught.
Ive played pool for over 35 years and to hit 37000 hours, I would have had to average almost 3 hours a day, every day for that 35 years. I can assure you, that I have not.
Chuck
Click to expand...

Maybe she's just really bad with math.:)

Edit: oops, nevermind, I read the whole thread.
 
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I've been playing since the Christmas of 94, so call it 95. Spent the majority of my early to mid teens in snooker clubs, and I would hazard a guess I'm only around the 10k hour mark.

Anyway, hows that 6 ball ghost coming along?
 
From 2002 - 2009 I was practicing/playing 1000 hr + per year. Stopped for a couple years. So 7000+...
 
victorl said:
Just imagine you could have done something way more productive with those 37,000 hours than just becoming a B-level poolplayer.
For example studying to become a trivia master/Jeopardy champion or watching 74,000 episodes of Friends reruns.
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Friends episodes are only 22 minutes with commercials, so it' well over 100,000 reruns. Do try to keep up!
 
This is actually an interesting topic to me. I started a thread on it almost two years ago:

http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=260816

I'm not even to 10,000 hours yet.

Maybe Rhea is at 37,000 hours as claimed but I think to accurately come up with a number you can't include time just hanging out at the pool room and even the time spent playing others would need to be cut in half to accurately reflect the time YOU spent at the table.
 
Kim Bye said:
I was thinking just the same thing...

My goal is to play around 1000 hours/year. But life gets in the way, I recon I will manage just around 700 hours this year.
I would have loved to play twice that.
I don`t think there is a direct correlation between time played and skill level.
You need efficient table time, wich means working on your flaws, difficult shots etc.
Sometimes if I have a week I don`t get to play as much pool as I wan`t. I try to watch alot of pool on youtube, I learn so much from watching other players, studiyng Shane`s break or looking at players like Mika, Earl, Thorsten and Corey. These guys have a "perfect" game and seeing how they solve problems has been an ephiphany more than once.
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What can good players learn from watching pool? I don't get it.
 
BasementDweller said:
This is actually an interesting topic to me. I started a thread on it almost two years ago:

http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=260816

I'm not even to 10,000 hours yet.

Maybe Rhea is at 37,000 hours as claimed but I think to accurately come up with a number you can't include time just hanging out at the pool room and even the time spent playing others would need to be cut in half to accurately reflect the time YOU spent at the table.
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With me it would have to be cut in thirds plus time spent racking :smile:

JC
 
I always find it sort of funny that I rarely play pool (couple hours a week if I'm lucky) and I've never had a period of time where I've put time in to improve. Wish I could but I'm just not able... but it's funny that the same people are at the pool room everyday and a lot of them are even with me or just a bit better. That's amazing to me. I walk in the room and play a guy who plays every single night for hours and I win half the time. That's insane!
 
cleary said:
I always find it sort of funny that I rarely play pool (couple hours a week if I'm lucky) and I've never had a period of time where I've put time in to improve. Wish I could but I'm just not able... but it's funny that the same people are at the pool room everyday and a lot of them are even with me or just a bit better. That's amazing to me. I walk in the room and play a guy who plays every single night for hours and I win half the time. That's insane!
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I hear you on the one hand but on the other -- I don't know any top notch players that haven't put in A LOT of hours.

It would nice if you could match up with guys based on the real number of hours they spent at the table.

I haven't ran into too many guys under 10,000 hours that I wouldn't be willing to play some. Of course I'm just sort of guessing on their number of hours.
 
BasementDweller said:
I hear you on the one hand but on the other -- I don't know any top notch players that haven't put in A LOT of hours.

It would nice if you could match up with guys based on the real number of hours they spent at the table.

I haven't ran into too many guys under 10,000 hours that I wouldn't be willing to play some. Of course I'm just sort of guessing on their number of hours.
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Based on the amount I play per week, I'm guessing I've played about 2,808 hours of pool. In local tournaments I'm ranked C+ in some and B in other. Most of the people that speed or below play MUCH more than me and for much longer.

Of course, the great players live on a table but what I'm saying is that these bangers just never seem to improve with all that table time.
 
cleary said:
I always find it sort of funny that I rarely play pool (couple hours a week if I'm lucky) and I've never had a period of time where I've put time in to improve. Wish I could but I'm just not able... but it's funny that the same people are at the pool room everyday and a lot of them are even with me or just a bit better. That's amazing to me. I walk in the room and play a guy who plays every single night for hours and I win half the time. That's insane!
Click to expand...

You are one of the most naturally talented mofo's I have ever seen. We know who ghost wrote all of the subject matter in SVB and Darren's videos......
 
Fact - I play about 250 hours a year. That's roughly 2,000 hours lifetime and I'd still play you even Rhea.
 
Rough estimate - I'd put myself near 1000? I've not been playing for three years yet, so it feels about right. I probably play 10 hours per week right now, summer it was 20-25... Didn't play much more than 5-7 tops once you go back over a year.
 
I only play two nights a week, for roughly 4-5 hours each night. Sometimes less. So around 300-500 hours per year and I bet I play decent. I used to play 6 nights a week, when I was in college and was stupid.

I have a full time 40-50 hour/week job (That I enjoy). I saved enough money, in one year, to put a nice down payment on a 2 year old house in a fancy neighborhood. It's nice having a healthy bank account, owning a home, a vehicle, and luxuries. You probably don't care for all that... but that's none of my business.
 
There were probably some weeks that I'd stay at the bar from about 7pm until 1 or 2am. Then on some weekends, from about 11am until close. Mix into that some days where I was just broke, a few times too hungover to go out and drink, then the oddball vacation or just being sick. My girlfriend was out of town this past weekend. Thursday, I went to the bar from about 7 until midnight or 1. Friday, from about 7 until 1. Saturday, from about 5 until 2am, I think. Sunday, I had two league matches and then spent another 2 or 3 hours at the bar. Out of almost 30 hours, I probably only played 15 or less, I'm guessing. Last night, I also played for an hour or two.

Who knows.. maybe I've averaged 15/wk for the last 9 years or so. That would put me at around 7,000 hours, I think. Not bad for a C- player. Probably a conservative estimate.
 
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