I would like to think that I am not the same player I was 10 or 20 years ago. Hell, I'd like to say I'm not the same player I was one year, or even just a few months ago. Things happen, you learn stuff, you make mistakes, you have successes, the game and your opponents teach you stuff about all that and most importantly, about yourself.
Reading a couple of recent threads here, made me think of the old adage, "Wisdom comes with age." Well, sometimes, methinks old age comes alone...
In another thread, there has been the suggestion that moving from one table to another for a challenge proposition was unfair. And perhaps, a few years ago while along the way in my own education as a pool player, I would have thought the same. But time, tribulations, and well, a small dose of that thing that sometimes comes with age, has made me a little more sanguine about taking issues such as these in stride.
Let me give you an illustration of just one incident that "educated" me:
Several years ago I was sweating a match at the DCC between the great Shannon Daulton and undercover uber agent, Jack Cooney. It was taking place in the chapel. After one particular game, Cooney took a bath/smoke break and Shannon began shooting balls on an adjacent vacant table. Cooney comes back and Shannon says something like, "Hope you don't mind, but the sun is comin' in through that window there and I thought it'd be better to move over one."
Now me, I'm a guy who tries to factor everything into a match like table speed, pocket tightness, rail bounce, humidity, and barometric pressure. I'm sitting in the stands thinking: no way -- against a great player like Shannon, when he's had a few minutes to check out the table, and the speed, and the pockets, and the rolls -- fergetaboutit.
Cooney looks at the table for just a second, pushes his glasses back a bit with one of his fingers like he does and says, "OK." And I sat in the stands and said to myself: Wow. That's the way it should be done.
Was changing the table for the challenge 1000% fair to earlier contestants? No. Was there any malicious intent on the part of the individual that made the decision? No. All that happen was that circumstances changed. The room was being locked up and was no longer available, not much difference than if the cloth got torn and another table needed to be put in use.
So that's it. We learn along the way, about the game and its complexities our opponents and about ourselves. And what seems unfair to some, is something some of us have learned not to worry about a long time ago.
Lou Figueroa
Reading a couple of recent threads here, made me think of the old adage, "Wisdom comes with age." Well, sometimes, methinks old age comes alone...
In another thread, there has been the suggestion that moving from one table to another for a challenge proposition was unfair. And perhaps, a few years ago while along the way in my own education as a pool player, I would have thought the same. But time, tribulations, and well, a small dose of that thing that sometimes comes with age, has made me a little more sanguine about taking issues such as these in stride.
Let me give you an illustration of just one incident that "educated" me:
Several years ago I was sweating a match at the DCC between the great Shannon Daulton and undercover uber agent, Jack Cooney. It was taking place in the chapel. After one particular game, Cooney took a bath/smoke break and Shannon began shooting balls on an adjacent vacant table. Cooney comes back and Shannon says something like, "Hope you don't mind, but the sun is comin' in through that window there and I thought it'd be better to move over one."
Now me, I'm a guy who tries to factor everything into a match like table speed, pocket tightness, rail bounce, humidity, and barometric pressure. I'm sitting in the stands thinking: no way -- against a great player like Shannon, when he's had a few minutes to check out the table, and the speed, and the pockets, and the rolls -- fergetaboutit.
Cooney looks at the table for just a second, pushes his glasses back a bit with one of his fingers like he does and says, "OK." And I sat in the stands and said to myself: Wow. That's the way it should be done.
Was changing the table for the challenge 1000% fair to earlier contestants? No. Was there any malicious intent on the part of the individual that made the decision? No. All that happen was that circumstances changed. The room was being locked up and was no longer available, not much difference than if the cloth got torn and another table needed to be put in use.
So that's it. We learn along the way, about the game and its complexities our opponents and about ourselves. And what seems unfair to some, is something some of us have learned not to worry about a long time ago.
Lou Figueroa
Last edited:
