In bar table eight ball, do you deliberately miss shots?
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Salesmanship is an important skill. Near the Tri Cities (Benton City) some 20 years ago there was a Friday night $5 Eightball tournament. I knew of 3 players that played my speed that were not allowed to play. I won it 6 times in a row and was still welcome.
Not 6 weeks in a row but 6 visits in a row. (Can't fish out the hole)My M O for new little tournaments was to run the first rack when everyone is watching and measuring "the new guy". Then never run another. Just play a good solid defense that leaves the weaker players thinking they almost won. Usually it's the fear factor that gives them the twitch.
They feel they got their money's worth when they get to shoot. It is possible to give them a shot but not a chance unless they play Real Good.
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It occurred to me that the reason bar rules are traditionally “your best effort to pocket a ball” (no safeties), is likely because every kid that first learned which end of the cue stick was which, started naturally with the simplest games, which originally were also ’slop’ games.
If you shot hard and contacted a legal ball, your chances of pocketing SOMETHING beneficial were quite good. So, no reason to ‘cheat’ by playing ‘dirty pool’ (safety or 2-way miss).
boogieman
It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that ping.
No wonder APA is so popular
As I saw it pool was my side job after awhile. I didn't run wide open at my day job if I didn't need to, why should I at pool? After a few years in my local hole everyone knew I had another gear when road players passed through but most would happily play me for a few dollars as long as I gave them a look at the table. "I could have won." They could have but it wasn't likely. Then a road player or decent shooting stranger came in, the game was kicked up a couple balls. When they left I dropped back to local gambler level of play. It was funny when my blood was up a few times and a local player would remind me it was them that I was playing now! Sometimes I would slash through a table or two before I remembered to swap gears.
Bar table was fun and profitable. The finest killing field I ever found was a pool room beside a naked dancing lady joint. Doors had to stay unlocked both sides of the pool room for fire code I suspect. That room was guaranteed twenty a game action every night for a few years, fifty a game once or twice a week, a hundred a few times a year, all on bar tables. I quietly pulled five hundred or so a week out of that place. I think it was prostitution next door, got their liquor license pulled or suspended long term and the whole place closed. It reopened maybe a year later but the dynamic was gone as well as almost all the pimps and gigolos. Three and five a game, a big night if it got up to twenty a game.
My main prey had been the gigolos next door coming over to prey on the drunks. I drank a lot of beer in those days so seemed an easy target. Every month or two a three-quarter naked lady would come storming up to my table, "I am working my ass off next door and you are taking all my money!"
I miss that place.
Hu
I don't think what you are describing is "deliberately missing shots".
You are playing safties... You are putting both the object ball and the cue ball in strategic positions to negatively affect the play of your opponent.
That is a strategy often employed, especially on a bar box. An old friend of mine used to say, "You have to set the table before you eat."
Bar boxes have clusters. A good player will not run all the easy balls out, clearing the obstructions for the opponent. They will break out the trouble balls, and try to tie up the opponent, and then run out.
Sounds like that is what you are doing... perfectly acceptable pool.
You are playing safties... You are putting both the object ball and the cue ball in strategic positions to negatively affect the play of your opponent.
That is a strategy often employed, especially on a bar box. An old friend of mine used to say, "You have to set the table before you eat."
Bar boxes have clusters. A good player will not run all the easy balls out, clearing the obstructions for the opponent. They will break out the trouble balls, and try to tie up the opponent, and then run out.
Sounds like that is what you are doing... perfectly acceptable pool.
GT T
Got that shit nailed bro!!Salesmanship is an important skill. Near the Tri Cities (Benton City) some 20 years ago there was a Friday night $5 Eightball tournament. I knew of 3 players that played my speed that were not allowed to play. I won it 6 times in a row and was still welcome.
My M O for new little tournaments was to run the first rack when everyone is watching and measuring "the new guy". Then never run another. Just play a good solid defense that leaves the weaker players thinking they almost won. Usually it's the fear factor that gives them the twitch.
They feel they got their money's worth when they get to shoot. It is possible to give them a shot but not a chance unless they play Real Good.
The goal of the game is not to make balls.
The goal of the game as to win.
The goal of the game as to win.
I prefer a move that Raphael Martinez tried on me. He eventually prevailing after I declined his tempting offer.....My break ball for the cluster that gave him a 2-1 advantage. He had played to his break ball Early as we All do, Right? Bar table 8 ball 101.
Anyway when he didn't get His angle(we each had 1 prospective break ball) he left me nicely on my prospect with the "no future" angle.
I held him off a long time before he choked me out. We did win the team tournament in the end though. Those Valley 7 foot tables could be challenging. One little twitch and wuhwuddle ooops.
Those Were the Days
Flashback getting me all Puffed Up.
Well Stan (pretty sure he won a bar table 8 ball event in Reno.) Anyway with 3 on his team, I was 3rd. However I ended up playing the hill/hill game. Had to of been......luck? Yeah we both got to shoot and he did twitch big time. I confess to a tactic that his team(home team) had validated... . .I can Shark with the best. It is however against my religion.
Flashback getting me all Puffed Up.
Well Stan (pretty sure he won a bar table 8 ball event in Reno.) Anyway with 3 on his team, I was 3rd. However I ended up playing the hill/hill game.
Had to of been......luck? Yeah we both got to shoot and he did twitch big time. I confess to a tactic that his team(home team) had validated... . .I can Shark with the best. It is however against my religion.
So many things I identify as very similar.
I had a year and a half at The Mustard Seed 2 in Bellevue. 8 valley 8 foot tables. Large immigrants from Vietnam area. Loved a 1 and 2 respot ring game. Averaged 250 a week.
The titty bar in Sacramento that had 2 tables and weekly tournaments. I attended regularly with my wife. She would smoke cigarettes with the girls in the ladies room and give them auntie counseling. The one week I attended alone a new girl approached me to offer a dance. She was intercepted and scolded with, "That's Jackie's Husband!!"
The Mustard Seed 1 and 2 dollar game with the Asians had a personal rule. Rules of engagement .
Never make more than 3 balls without riding the 9. Playing 5 handed was prefered. Splash the cash became their favorite method. It was fun and I made 50 a night for the lessons.
. Never make more than 3 balls without riding the 9. Playing 5 handed was prefered. Splash the cash became their favorite method.
It was fun and I made 50 a night for the lessons.I can see why Hu.
Places like that are Gold and if you know of one, keep it down low.
Good fleece holes are few and far between.
I only know of 2 in the entire city I live in today.
They dried up faster than desert water holes in the past 20 years.
A good player can intentionally miss to leave a guy a shot. Doesn't need to be a good shot. Just another turn at the table. Depending on who you're playing, ala you can switch gears, you can give most bar bangers 3 or 4 chances to get out and keep them at the table longer - losing money - by giving those chances.
This type of play is abso necessary in some cases. Ask any road dawg worth his salt.
Not playing harder than I needed to led to a major funny. I had went over to the rich side of town and got into action. Slid about a hundred and a half from a guy in cheap action before he decided he had enough fun. "Can I call my cousin?" I looked at the clock, about eleven or eleven thirty, should have an hour and a half maybe two hours of play before the law forced a two AM closing. "Sure, give him a call."
The cousin wasn't a happy camper, he had to get up at six for his day job. The loser did talk him into coming. "He can barely beat me." He walked in the door and cussed his cousin out. The guy that was called was from the poor side of town too and we knew each other well. He didn't even take his stick out the case.
Hu
Too funny Hu!!
Sounds like you're very familiar w this dance.
Not our first rodeos, eh??
