I am tired of hearing people moan, groan and make smart remarks about safeties

F

Febreze

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I play in a lot of tournaments, and i do my fair share of gambling, and one thing i just cannot stand is when people, some of them experienced players, have to make a stupid remark getting up from their chair after you have played a good saftey. I am a firm believer if you are playing someone with a fair amount of money on the line, that you are not supposed to converse with them unless its about a game ruling (unless you have agreed conversation is ok beforehand), and i think all these stupid remarks people make if you soft break or play good safe. And god forbid if you 3 foul someone, they go berzerk, pointing out how weak your run out game must be, instead of looking at their own inability to use the rails.

I was playing 10 ball on a bar table a few months ago race to 5 for 100. The guy i was playing was a good shotmaker but his position was pretty bad and he had no idea what to do with the rails. On the case game when i was on the hill, there were 3 balls left on the table, one of them frozen on the point of the side pocket in such a way it doesnt go down table without scratching, so i played 2 easy safes, both of which he missed kicking at, and he lost. He slams his cue down, throws a crumpled bunch of 20s on the table and says never again is he going to play "non runout dudes" and i havent seen him sense. These people have no concept of percentage play whatsoever.

The part that irks me the most is not that he got mad, but what he got mad at. If you miss a kick 3 times on a bartable when theres 3 balls left, and youre not playing efren, then you ought to look at your own rail game, instead of making sucker remarks. I consider remarks like these shark moves.

Just my soapbox. anyone else have any similar stories?
 
I LOVE playing safeties!

Always have, always will......must have been ingrained from the snooker table.

Just play them when you need to to win. No words necessary. They will learn ...... or keep losing. JMO

td
 
Febreze said:
I play in a lot of tournaments, and i do my fair share of gambling, and one thing i just cannot stand is when people, some of them experienced players, have to make a stupid remark getting up from their chair after you have played a good saftey. I am a firm believer if you are playing someone with a fair amount of money on the line, that you are not supposed to converse with them unless its about a game ruling (unless you have agreed conversation is ok beforehand), and i think all these stupid remarks people make if you soft break or play good safe. And god forbid if you 3 foul someone, they go berzerk, pointing out how weak your run out game must be, instead of looking at their own inability to use the rails.

I was playing 10 ball on a bar table a few months ago race to 5 for 100. The guy i was playing was a good shotmaker but his position was pretty bad and he had no idea what to do with the rails. On the case game when i was on the hill, there were 3 balls left on the table, one of them frozen on the point of the side pocket in such a way it doesnt go down table without scratching, so i played 2 easy safes, both of which he missed kicking at, and he lost. He slams his cue down, throws a crumpled bunch of 20s on the table and says never again is he going to play "non runout dudes" and i havent seen him sense. These people have no concept of percentage play whatsoever.

The part that irks me the most is not that he got mad, but what he got mad at. If you miss a kick 3 times on a bartable when theres 3 balls left, and youre not playing efren, then you ought to look at your own rail game, instead of making sucker remarks. I consider remarks like these shark moves.

Just my soapbox. anyone else have any similar stories?
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Advice? Wear earplugs. :D

~rc
 
Exploit their weaknesses of course. If someone can be thrown off his game with safeties, I'm more than glad to do that to win the match. If he starts crying and doesn't play again, he's the type that would start crying over some other thing eventually. And I don't care to play against crybabies. I've even managed to get one multi-European Champion off his game with a few nice safeties, but we were playing 14.1 :)
 
I always said I am not here to make every shot, I am here to win. If that means playing safe, then that is what I am going to do. My opponent may not like it, but all the better for me.
 
I like to watch every tv and on-line game that I can find.

To me, a good safety battle is twice as interesting to watch as run out after run out........
 
grindz said:
Always have, always will......must have been ingrained from the snooker table.

Just play them when you need to to win. No words necessary. They will learn ...... or keep losing. JMO

td
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Completely agreed. I have always thought the ability to play safe in pool is what putting is to golf. Sooo important
 
For the most part, my experience has been that bar players complain about every correct rule or tactic, especially if you are the 'guest' beating the pants off them on their home box.

It's really a form of sharking, and in extreme cases, there have been times where I have laughed, unscrewed and thanked them for the opportunity of experiencing their unique tribal customs.;)
 
Safeties are a very intricate part of the game. If someone plays a good safe on me I usually congratulate them.
 
Believe it or not, I've had players gripe about me turning off my hearing aid (at which time I'm completely deaf) so I can play in silence. One even went so far as to say it was against APA rules. I just laughed at him.
 
Yeah the objection that some people have to good safeties is pretty bizarre.

I play in an in-house league that definitlely isn't the toughest in the world, but there are a handful of strong, serious players. I use the opportunity to practice and get better.

Some of the players who are much less serious, though, seem to really be offended by safeites.

After one attempted safety (I didn't even execute it properly!) I had one guy sneer "playing safeties is n***er pool!"

Another time I played safe on a woman and got ball in hand and ran out. She didn't say much immediately but after the match was over and I was halfway across the room sitting with my team she has a very "loud" conversation the whole room could hear about how she thinks safeties are only for wimps.

Finally, one guy who is actually a pretty decent player, and surprisingly intelligent but is very open about the fact that he thinks safeties shouldn't be allowed; that players should always try to make a shot. What makes it bizarre is that one day he's teaching a relatively inexperienced teammate to play in practice and the guy is faced with no open shots whatsoever.

So what does Mr. Hates Safes suggest? He tells the newbie to bank the object ball towards a side pocket at a literally impossibly sharp angle to go in, but in the meantime, really try to leave the cueball at the other end of the table behind a cluster.

I decide to have a bit of fun with it and smile, saying, "soo...you're teaching him to play a safety, huh?"

All he could do was sputter and trip over his words while he tries to argue that a 5 degree entry angle into a side pocket off a bank from the shortrail is a "legitimate" shot.

Overall, I agree with whomever said it's just a sharking technique. I can't count how many times I've been in a game in some bar and had people mutter after I play a safety "oh, we're allowing that?" despite the fact that they're playing bar rules where if they hit nothing or fail to contact a rail they don't bat an eye and expect you to play the cue ball from where it is, but damnit if you execute a perfectly legal safety that should be disallowed on grounds of not trying to make a ball on every shot.
 
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A week ago I played some of my best 8ball ever by winning a local intermediate class tournament. But believe it or not, I got criticized for using too many center ball strokes during my runouts...
One guy who was never a threat to win the event told me: "look, you played good, but your game is unwatchable, I couldn't stand watching you run out on this guy...you are so insecure that you are looking for natural angle or a stop shot almost all the time..."
 
predator said:
A week ago I played some of my best 8ball ever by winning a local intermediate class tournament. But believe it or not, I got criticized for using too many center ball strokes during my runouts...
One guy who was never a threat to win the event told me: "look, you played good, but your game is unwatchable, I couldn't stand watching you run out on this guy...you are so insecure that you are looking for natural angle or a stop shot almost all the time..."
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Thank you for making me laugh out loud.
 
I love playing people that hate safeties, I will play safe on them every chance I get, even on some shots I would normally take if I know it bothers them.

It shows ignorance on their part, a well played safety is as beautiful as a well made shot but it takes an intelligent mind to see it that way.
 
Rocket354 said:
Yeah the objection that some people have to good safeties is pretty bizarre.

I play in an in-house league that definitlely isn't the toughest in the world, but there are a handful of strong, serious players. I use the opportunity to practice and get better.

Some of the players who are much less serious, though, seem to really be offended by safeites.

After one attempted safety (I didn't even execute it properly!) I had one guy sneer "playing safeties is n***er pool!"

Another time I played safe on a woman and got ball in hand and ran out. She didn't say much immediately but after the match was over and I was halfway across the room sitting with my team she has a very "loud" conversation the whole room could hear about how she thinks safeties are only for wimps.

Finally, one guy who is actually a pretty decent player, and surprisingly intelligent but is very open about the fact that he thinks safeties shouldn't be allowed; that players should always try to make a shot. What makes it bizarre is that one day he's teaching a relatively inexperienced teammate to play in practice and the guy is faced with no open shots whatsoever.

So what does Mr. Hates Safes suggest? He tells the newbie to bank the object ball towards a side pocket at a literally impossibly sharp angle to go in, but in the meantime, really try to leave the cueball at the other end of the table behind a cluster.

I decide to have a bit of fun with it and smile, saying, "soo...you're teaching him to play a safety, huh?"

All he could do was sputter and trip over his words while he tries to argue that a 5 degree entry angle into a side pocket off a bank from the shortrail is a "legitimate" shot.

Overall, I agree with whomever said it's just a sharking technique. I can't count how many times I've been in a game in some bar and had people mutter after I play a safety "oh, we're allowing that?" despite the fact that they're playing bar rules where if they hit nothing or fail to contact a rail they don't bat an eye and expect you to play the cue ball from where it is, but damnit if you execute a perfectly legal safety that should be disallowed on grounds of not trying to make a ball on every shot.
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A few things:

1. When some loser raciest says my safety is N*** pool I usually look right at them and say "well at least they know how to play pool and they're apparently smarter than you"
Don't say this unless you're ready to fight the silly redneck.:eek:

2. A safety is a "legitimate" shot.

3. If they aren't smart enough to know what or how to play safe then they aren't smart enough to be sharking you with their complaints. They're just "D" players that are missing half the game and whining because you got them.

4. This sh*t generally only happens in bars. I call it the bar player mentality which basically means they think you have to always go for something and all they end up doing is selling out all night long because of it. I personally love it!!

5. Just laugh it off and put the money in your pocket.:thumbup:
 
You're insecure since you play center ball? That's hilarious! I started playing in the sixties with Wilie's Little Red Book as my Bible. Having a man who ran 526 balls say he uses 80% centerball sticks with me over the years. I look at almost every shot with center first, then make any adjustment necessary to do what I need to do. Why make things harder if you don't need to?
Regarding safetys, I really don't care to play them any more than necessary, since I'd rather win from the table than the chair. But I sure love the demoralizing effect on your opponent when you kick your way out of his best safety effort. I also like a "calculated miss" in 8-ball where you move a ball or balls to better your runout chances for your next inning, and hide whitey all in the same shot.

Bill
 
the people who complain about safties are usually the ones who cant kick to save their life. Learn to kick at a ball and get off my a$$
 
TXsouthpaw said:
the people who complain about safties are usually the ones who cant kick to save their life. Learn to kick at a ball and get off my a$$
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Maybe you can go hold your finger on the rail and show them where to hit the cue ball.
 
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