i screwed up big time tonight !

L

lorider

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
i played league tonight. playing 8 ball i am a 6 and faced a 5 in a 5-4 race.

i started out bad, missing pretty easy shots and had no cue ball control. after i was down 3-0 with him on the hill i finaly got my shit together and won 4 in a row. here we are both on the hill and i get a pretty good run going. i get on my last ball which is up table but i have to navigate around his balls to get back down table to the 8 ball.

my 1st thought is to use natural follow going 2 rails back down table but i am afraid of getting hung up with his balls. i decide to use bottom right coming off the rail going back down across table which i do with a power draw and wind up getting decent shape on the 8.

my opponent comes up and gives me a fist pound saying nice shot. i then proceed to call the 8 in the bottom right corner but hit it soft because i am afraid of scratching in the left corner. wouldnt you know the 8 just hangs in the corner where you could blow on it and it would fall.

i go back to sit down while my opponent goes running up to the table and proceeds to run his last 5 balls and then pockets the 8 winning the match. while he is running out my captain is giving me the wtf was that lecture. she said he had conceded the match and i should not have shot at the 8.

i said i thought he was congradulating me on the shot on my last ball, she said no, he was congradulating you on the match.

i told her i was so into the match i did not think about what the hell was going on.

you ever have one of those nights ? what do you think about how that went down ?
 
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You were sharked

In the pool world, the way to say nice shot is a polite tap, tap, tap of the cue. Anything above and beyond that is meant to distract you. He had deniability in that his words were "nice shot" and not "nice game" but the effect is the same. The fact that he left his seat to give you a fist bump is way over the top. Chalk it up to a lesson learned.

When my oponent trys to shark me I regain my focus by getting mad, self righteously mad.

Celebrating a shot before the game is over is a big no-no. When I make a nice shot I remind myself that, that shot means nothing if I do not get out or win the game. It is very easy to let down after a tough shot and dog the easy one.
 
rrich1 said:
how is saying nice shot giving you the game? did he start to break down his cues?
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we wereplaying double jeapordy. even if he was indeed conceding this match i doubt if he was going to unscrew his cue because he had an up coming 9 ball match.
 
gregcantrall said:
In the pool world, the way to say nice shot is a polite tap, tap, tap of the cue. Anything above and beyond that is meant to distract you. He had deniability in that his words were "nice shot" and not "nice game" but the effect is the same. The fact that he left his seat to give you a fist bump is way over the top. Chalk it up to a lesson learned.

When my oponent trys to shark me I regain my focus by getting mad, self righteously mad.

Celebrating a shot before the game is over is a big no-no. When I make a nice shot I remind myself that, that shot means nothing if I do not get out or win the game. It is very easy to let down after a tough shot and dog the easy one.
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i honestly dont know what his intention was. i did not pay attention to what he said and absently returned his fist bump because i was trying to stay focused on the 8 ball.

if he did indeed say nice game the concession was off was i went ahead and shot at the 8. you are right , it is very easy to dog an easy shot once you have made a hard one. exactly what happened here.:embarrassed2:
 
While your captain is technically right, I can't see myself walking away after that fist bump. Unless he raked the 8 or something. And I cant imagine you doing that, either.

You're right, you screwed up for not making the winning shot, and that has probably happened to everyone at one point or another. I bet it doesn't happen to you again anytime soon though...

It would suck if it was a genuine shark move, but I expect it wasn't. You would probably know, as you play with these folks quite a bit. Just a bad sequence, sadly.
 
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justadub said:
While your captain is technically right, I can't see myself walking away after that fist bump. Unless he raked the 8 or something. And I cant imagine you doing that, either.

You're right, you screwed up for not making the winning shot, and that has probably happened to everyone at one point or another. I bet it doesn't happen to you again anytime soon though...

It would suck if it was a genuine shark move, but I expect it wasn't. You would probably know, as you play with these folks quite a bit. Just a bad sequence, sadly.
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Yup! What he said!
 
Where I play at, if your opponent makes any kind of move like you won the game ie: getting out of his seat, reaching his hand in his pocket for a quarter or unscrewing his cue you dont have to shot anymore. That seems to work great.
 
I can't remember ever seeing an opponent get up from their chair and fist bump, shake hands or any make any other congratulatory gesture without meaning to concede the match. The only thing for you to do in this situation is to say thank you and sit down.

This brings up another mistake players often make. When someone looses a match, especially by a bonehead shot or mental blunder, the best thing for people on the sidelines (your captain) to do is STFU. To say anything critical immediately after such a loss is not going to be well received until at least a few minutes have passed. Anything less is just piling on self loathing already in progress.
 
lorider said:
my captain is giving me the wtf was that lecture.
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Really?

I'm sorry but this is unacceptable behavior in my book. One of the reasons I only once played in such circumstances and never will again.



As far as the situation, it was definitely ambiguous. You were at the table. You made the call. That makes you correct and any and every observer, Craptain or otherwise, merely a spectator.


Sucks that you missed.





.
 
lorider said:
we wereplaying double jeapordy. even if he was indeed conceding this match i doubt if he was going to unscrew his cue because he had an up coming 9 ball match.
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i play double jeopardy on wed nights and i always unscrew my cues after play even when i know i am going to put myself up later
 
50/50

It may have been Sharking, it may have been concession, and it may also have been....just plain old, nice shot.

Goes back to...it isn't what you say...it's how you say it. You and your captain would have to have made that call, and called him out right then and there...meaning...you would have to have said " do you want me to shoot it?"

Just cuz he fist-pumps you, doesn't end the game, but could SUGGEST it.
You still need confirmation, after all, you need to pocket the eight, or he needs to officially concede.

Sucks, good luck, experience will help. Next time. It's good to ask, cuz, why shoot the eight if he's willing to concede?
 
I missed the 8 ball worrying about a scratch very much like that many moons ago when playing league. The 8 ball was deep into the pocket & the Cue Ball had stopped & I was still down watching the 8 to see if it would fall & then my opponent said, 'that's ball in hand'. I said, "what'. He said, "Yeah, nothing hit a rail'. I said, " yeah, I guess you're right, but a ball that deep in the jaws should count as a rail...it would not have hit a rail if it had dropped either."

Regards to &
 
8onthebreak said:
It may have been Sharking, it may have been concession, and it may also have been....just plain old, nice shot.

Goes back to...it isn't what you say...it's how you say it. You and your captain would have to have made that call, and called him out right then and there...meaning...you would have to have said " do you want me to shoot it?"

Just cuz he fist-pumps you, doesn't end the game, but could SUGGEST it.
You still need confirmation, after all, you need to pocket the eight, or he needs to officially concede.

Sucks, good luck, experience will help. Next time. It's good to ask, cuz, why shoot the eight if he's willing to concede?
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Thats incorrect if you approach the table while your opponent is shooting you concede the game. Regardless what is said or done.

But in this situation most people would consider you the jerk if you forced him to concede, I will also add I think he was giving you the game as I have never seen opponents approach the table to fist bump or high five or any other gesture for someone making a nice shot, Im sure the reason is because most people know if you approach the table you are conceding the game.
 
21Gambler said:
Thats incorrect if you approach the table while your opponent is shooting you concede the game. Regardless what is said or done.

But in this situation most people would consider you the jerk if you forced him to concede, I will also add I think he was giving you the game as I have never seen opponents approach the table to fist bump or high five or any other gesture for someone making a nice shot, Im sure the reason is because most people know if you approach the table you are conceding the game.
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It must really be different everywhere else. On my league nights I see people giving high fives and fist pumps to there opponent all the time and they are not conceding the game but showing there respect for a well played shot. We do not consider it a shark move because everyone in the Hall are friends. We are serious about winning but not so serious that we can not be friendly with one another and have fun playing..
 
Only you know for sure, but in my experience, lower level players are more likely to accidentally break the 'unwritten rules' than to intentionally try a subtle sharking move.

I'm all about "you make a move to concede the rack, you lose" but if your first instinct was to read it as a compliment, then probably that's exactly what it was.

Knowing that he was sincerely impressed by one of your shots should not get in your head and cause you to miss. And it sounds like it wasn't really a factor. You just had a tricky shot and barely missed.

To me, if you honestly felt like it was just a compliment but you tried to force a forfeit anyway... well, that'd be a pretty nitty move. I think it reflects well on you that you didn't even consider trying that. A lot of guys are just waiting to pounce on opportunities like that.
 
It is a little funny that he got out of his seat and paid you a compliment but what if he wasn't conceding and you thought he was. It could have gone bad in that scenario. At the end of the day who really cares. You pay $7 either way and got to play a good match.
 
gregcantrall said:
In the pool world, the way to say nice shot is a polite tap, tap, tap of the cue. Anything above and beyond that is meant to distract you. He had deniability in that his words were "nice shot" and not "nice game" but the effect is the same. The fact that he left his seat to give you a fist bump is way over the top. Chalk it up to a lesson learned.

When my oponent trys to shark me I regain my focus by getting mad, self righteously mad.

Celebrating a shot before the game is over is a big no-no. When I make a nice shot I remind myself that, that shot means nothing if I do not get out or win the game. It is very easy to let down after a tough shot and dog the easy one.
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This is The APA we're talking about, not the "real" pool world. In the APA if he didn't offer the congratulatory shake and the symbolic cracking of the cue joint he was conceeding nothing. Tapping of the cue is traditional, but the fact is a lot of APA players don't know this. As far as the captain goes, maybe she should have played herself.
Again, remember, this is the APA we're talking about, where typical traditional pool etiquette and unspoken unwritten rules don't always exist. I don't seem to recall any rule in the APA book that says a fist bump is considered a concession, in most of the billiard world yes, but in the APA maybe not so much. I don't even really recall a rule in the APA book that says cracking your cue is considered a concession, but I do know I've heard that. So try to keep in mind what we're talking about, if you not playing with "pool" people all the time (ie - The APA) traditional rules and etiquette may not apply.
 
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I also see occasional fist bumps of opponents in my in-house 8-ball league. Usually it's lower level (casual) players. They are not conceding, just congratulating.

But there is one lower level guy that I've seen break down his cue 3-4 times over the last six months. If its' the last game and he misses a shot leaving a possible runout, he acts disgusted at himself, breaks his cue down, and puts it in his case. I once saw him do it twice in one game! Each time the other guy made a few balls and missed. I used to think this was just a childish move by someone wound too tight, but then someone told me that the guy admitted once he does it as a sharking move... Pathetic.
 
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