I Love POOL. Stories of how you get sucked in?

[nancewayne]

sucked in? Hooked on Pool...better description!

I was 10 yrs.old and after school, I walked downtown to the YMCA. On the way, I passed a glass windowed Toy store and in the front was a small kids pool table. I went in an ask if I could try hitting balls. The owner allowed me to that day and several days after that. At the YMCA there was one old 9ft National table (available for 5 cents per 1/2 hour). I played there almost every day (or until I ran out of $$$) until I moved at age 12....that was 60 years ago and still playing !

 

[CJ Wiley]

He was tough to beat at Peg's Pocket that's for sure

I was 15 and in 10th grade. My friends said hey lets go to Pegs Pocket, all the spartanettes (my high school cheerleaders) go there! So we walk into Pegs and sure enough there is a group of kids from my school there in the corner playing on gandy 4x8s. I sat with them for a bit but then I noticed over on the other side of the room they had a crowd watching this game. I walked over to see what was going on. John Ditoro was playing Tommy Brown straight pool for $100. I didnt know all this of course, I just was told they were playing for a $100 and I sat there trying to figure out what game they were playing. I was mesmerized with the way both players were moving the cueball around and effortlessly pocketing balls over and over again.

My buddy walked over and said hey we are going to leave soon. I told him sit down here and watch these guys play. Its incredible! He wasnt bitten and was instead still watching to see if this blonde spartanette he was interested in was looking at him at any moment. They made me leave and while the discussion in the car was all about the girls, I was thinking about pool.

The next day I rode my bike back to pegs 3 mile ride and no easy chore in Miami. I sat in that room and watched all the daytime players matching up and playing.

I was blessed with the fact that in the early 80s, Pegs Pocket was a fantastic pool room, with dozens of regulars that would consistently match up. When I was 17 and 18 I would regularly be playing sets for 50 and 100 on a daily basis. One summer I think me and my buddy Al Noel went to the pool room every day for three months straight.

I got to see Richie ambrose come in and get beat by Tommy Brown. I saw CJ Wiley come in with Strong Arm John and play Tommy for two days. They left loser on that trip but I heard that CJ came back a few years later and made a nice score against the locals who were backing Mario Cruz. Road players didnt seem to make the trek all the way to south dade county that much, but when they did they always seemed to find their way to Pegs Pocket.

We actually made 50k on that trip, however, I never did beat Tommy Brown, we broke about even after three plays/days. He was tough to beat at Peg's Pocket that's for sure, especially when I was 20 years old.

 

[12squared]

I shared some friends with my brother who was about 20 months older than me but only 1 school year ahead. Many of them hung out at the pool room in Oak Park, MI (Cushion n Cue) and I always wanted to get in there cause it just seemed the cool thing to do, but you had to be 17.

On my 16th birthday my Mom wanted to throw me a surprise party so she asked my brother to take me to the pool room knowing I would jump at the chance. We went and I was hooked. 5 months later I had a fake ID made to show I was 17 and I started going on my own.

Coincidentally, The famous Rack was only 1/2 mile away from Cushion n Cue, which I found about a year or two after. That place was a trip!

Dave

 

[uwate]

We actually made 50k on that trip, however, I never did beat Tommy Brown, we broke about even after three plays/days. He was tough to beat at Peg's Pocket that's for sure, especially when I was 20 years old.

I was just a kid in awe when I saw you walk in with Strong Arm. I can still remember this pretty clear. This young looking kid in a plain white tshirt and jeans and this bigger guy walk in. The bigger guy says they are here to play pool for money and to make the call to bring someone in to play.

CJ walked up to one of the gold crowns at pegs and rolls a ball downtable to the middle of the end rail he grabs a house cue and take the cueball behind the line and cuts that ball in. Then he rolls another ball downtable and goes to the other side and again cuts the ball in. He turns to Strongarm and says..."this table will do!"

That was awesome watching you and Tommy play. The first set you beat him and everyone had asked to go in with Tommy and his girlfriend Nikki (the barracuda herself). After CJ beat him that first set he got the locals together and said look I gotta bet my own and none of you are in. I cant fade looking over at the sidelines and seeing so many frowns when I miss. He did play better that second set and won. You two then took the game upstairs to the private club that pegs had at that time the next day. Tommy was indeed very tough to beat on home turf. He beat or broke even with all all the folks that I can remember him playing at Pegs. Watching him and John Ditoro go at it for bragging rights as to who was the alpha dog in Pegs was great fun. Tommy took it very personal that he was to be alpha and was prone to doing funny things. One time we were there watching those two play and it was a tight 14.1 match and it was at the very end..close and both players needing only a few. Tommy played a delicate safety to roll on top of a ball to hide from a number of balls all open. He had to get near or froze to the ball to be safe. So he shoots its and immediately ditoro jumps up and starts eyeballing whether he could see a shot. Tommy gets behind him and the two of them are there trying to see if something is visible. Tommy immediately determines nothing is there and he proceeds to play act like hes behind a hot girl in bed, complete with a lil ass slapping and hair pulling. We all cracked up except for Ditoro.

Another time Ditoro was in the room gambling and my buddy Al turns to me and says look theres Tommy! and we look and Tommy is there peeking through the window in the corner of the room watching. We go outside and Tommy is there and we say hey! whaddya doing man? He says im watching. Waiting. Whatya waiting for Tommy? get in there! He then reached into his waist band underneath track warm up he was wearing and pulled out an enormous wad of money. Im waiting he said again...When I see deeet da ro looking weak im going go in there and bust his nuts off!

Lol Tommy was fun to hang around with. He was a great player and always was hooking up with the gals in the pool room. All us pool grommets just idolized him.

 

[meximan2469]

I was roommates in college with Nathan Dumoulin, at the time (2005) he was writing and filming Mastering Pool (Originally with Alex Pagulayan) in his spare time. I didn't really follow pool just banged around out bars when I was out having some drinks. A couple of years passed after college and he released Mastering Pool with Mika Immonen, I joined Runout Media as a part time help with marketing and since then have become hooked. I have watch countless hours of pool online as well as being lucky enough to attend some events all over the world in person whether it was working them or just spectating.

Fast forward 5 years and now I would say I have one of THE coolest jobs in the billiard industry. I am currently working for Runout Media filming and editing matches and dvds, as well as working for the World Professional Billiard League as the director of social media and committee board member that is in charge of player communications. Oh and I get to live in Las Vegas to do it .

 

[Gogafem]

Well I suppose it was a very passive start that lasted years and years...

My dad used to take me to a pool place(That is now closed) when I was 4 years old. I still remember watching him play with his friends there. I also got sucked into watching snooker on TV years later.

Once after school 2 of my classmates took me to a game room and they had 2 pool tables there. They offered me to play and I said I didn't really know how and I shot a few shots but couldn't do it well so being too embarrassed I didn't play anymore and just watched. I think the table there was 7 ft.

A few months later when my family visited some people outside the city, they took me to another game place there and I played some pool there, this time a lot more. I really got sucked in and I assume that the seed truly got planted here. The table I played on there was 6 ft I think.

I kept going and going to play casually and kept learning and learning... Then I finally went to a more serious pool hall and played on 8 ft tables for a while.

...And kept going and going til I got where I am today =P...

 

[slach]

I was around 20 or so in college on a sunny Friday afternoon at the student union pool hall. Not many people around, not a care, cool and quiet except for the clicking of balls. I had a long diagonal straight-in that I softly rolled into the corner. My eyes followed the ball into the pocket and continued up to the windows high on the wall across the room. The sun was filtering in through the tree branches moving with the breeze. I just paused and looked, felt so relaxed and thought how all was so well with my world. After thirty five year I can still feel that moment when I walk into a pool room.