lost my cool tonight, maybe its time for a break?

I played a guy in APA 9-ball in the fall who was like that. Whenever he got into trouble he'd take a free swing and either pocket a ball with position on the next ball or leave me hooked. Apparently, this guy is well-known for being lucky.

Sounds like you just had a bad night, take a couple days away from the table and you'll probably be fine.
 
iusedtoberich said:
Btw, off topic, but how can you slop a ball in 8 ball? I thought at first something like a double bank into the called pocket, but your description indicates the ball went in a non-intended pocket. I assume by your description of the shots that your league does not play called pocket? I just never heard of 8 ball being played without calling it, even in bar banger rules.
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APA 8-ball rules are slop except for the 8-ball... gotta call the 8.

(In my experience bar-banger rules swing wildly between call nothing and call everything including butterfly farts in Africa that affect the humidity in upstate NY.)
 
We have a 2 on my team that shits in at least 8 balls a game. lol wins a lot and drives people crazy.

Here's what I've learned as a 9 I rarely shit in balls and one of the reasons is good players don't hit anything hard they don't have to! Everything is hit at table speed so It rarely has a chance to go in another pocket. The newer low handicap players Tend to hit everything very hard and if your playing on a fast bar box table with big pockets theres a good chance it's going to find a hole some where.

We all lose our temper from time to time. lol don't worry about it. What sucks is you gave him the satisfaction of getting under your skin.
 
In my errant youth, I have been guilty of inflicting savagery on several cues. They did not live to tell the tale.

Nowadays, I'm cool as can be. Why is that? Because after 17 years playing the game, I know in my heart of hearts that it is better than going to work. That thought gives me all the comfort I need after any type of loss including gambling.

Cheers mate,

JL
 
Let it go! Quickly. If I were your opponent, I'd remember your reaction to my "slop" shots. First opportunity I got, I flail away at a shot just to piss you off. The angrier you got, the more I'd bang away. On the score sheet, no one knows how I won. They just see the mark next to my name, not yours.

Those that have known me for a long, long time are aware of how I learned the lesson I'm relating to you :o. The voice of experience is sometimes a painful one. Honestly though, I wouldn't be the player I am today without having learned those lessons. Painful as they were.

Lyn
 
lorider said:
now before all you start to bash me and telling me what you would have done if i had been playing you let me explain what led up to this incident.
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Don't bother.

Doesn't matter. Thing about pool is it never matters what your opponent did, does, will do or how.

All that matters is what you do when you get the chance. Think about that next time you throw a tantrum like a 5 year old in a supermarket. You think people in the super market care what Mom did to set him off ?
 
This kind of thing happened to me a few years ago. I just took some time off. I am always calm and collected when I play win or lose so it was different for me. What I found was not that I was taking the game too serious, I was taking myself too serious. After my break I came back with a much better attitude and it hasn't happened since.

Not suggesting you do the same but if it keeps happening you might want to consider taking a break.
 
I'm someone who has "teetered on tilt" my whole life. It never took much to push me over the edge. The one thing I've really worked on in the last 6 months is keeping my emotions in check..especially involving playing pool.

In my experience...when I'm able to stay positively focused and not get upset at my failures or my opponents fortunate rolls...I play at a much higher level...and more importantly a much more consistent level.

I highly recommend "The pleasure of small motions" book. Its not a "cover to cover" read. After reading it in small doses...chapter by chapter...its finally starting to make sense. Pool is beautiful..yet difficult and complex game. For some reason we tend to expect to play at our top gear every time we play. When that doesn't happen...frustration/aggravation and every other negative emotion usually steer us into more negative results.

The beauty of pool as earlier mentioned in this thread is...our opponent has very little effect on our success at the table. If you want to win...run out..play great safes...break the ball better. This might be the purest sport of controlling your own destiny.
 
Unless you honestly believe there's a pool god who favors one player over another,
there is no such thing as a "lucky player". Or a "lucky style".

The words "he resorts to slop" makes it sound like he slops balls in on purpose.
If slopping could be done on purpose, then it wouldn't be slop would it?

This guy is simply a normal human being who outplayed you. And you will be a 5 for the rest of your life if you stick to this childish thinking that some guys have some magical power that lets them get 'lucky' whenever they want.

Good players make balls, bad players make excuses.
 
lorider said:
hill- hill match and my opponent just made his last ball and started walking around the table to pocket the 8 hanging in the corner, i slammed my stick on the table at the 8 ball before he had a chance to shoot at it. i have never done that before in my life, i think the shit eating grin on his face after he pocketed his last ball to get on the 8 is what really set me off.

now before all you start to bash me and telling me what you would have done if i had been playing you let me explain what led up to this incident.

this guy is a 5 the same as me. we are pretty even at playing pool. we both are about the same in pocketing balls, cue ball control, pattern play, even in all aspects except one " SLOP ".

HE IS THE LUCKIEST MF'ER I EVER SEEN WHEN IT COMES TO RESORTING TO SLOP SHOTS !! now i aint saying i have never made a slop shot in my life , heck we all have at one time or another but this guy is something else when it comes to slop.

please dont turn this into another apa bashing thread. i have stated on here many times that i really dont see much slop in my league from s/l 5's and up .....except for this guy and one other 5 in my league who is about as bad as him.

as i stated earlier he is a damn good shooter but he resorts to slop when he gets into trouble. he is capable of running out anytime with an open table without resorting to slop.

he made several slop shots tonight but 2 of them really got to me. then the shit eating grin after he made the last slop shot to get on the 8 when it was hill-hill really set me off. i did manage to shake his hand after i retrieved my cue but i did tell him he was too good a player to resort to slop while shaking it , and i managed to smile while saying it.:)

tonight was very uncharastic of me , like i said earlier i have never acted like that in my life over a game of pool, not even when gambling in bars in my younger years.
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The fact that you realized what you did and that you need to take action to correct it says a lot about you. (in a good way) You can't control his luck at the table so work on not letting that get to you.

A old guy once told me "If you had a shot and you aint at the table now, then whatever happens is your own damn fault"! That can be a hard pill to swallow but there is a lot of truth to that statement.
 
lorider said:
i have never done that before in my life, i think the shit eating grin on his face after he pocketed his last ball to get on the 8 is what really set me off.

HE IS THE LUCKIEST MF'ER I EVER SEEN WHEN IT COMES TO RESORTING TO SLOP SHOTS !!

as i stated earlier he is a damn good shooter but he resorts to slop when he gets into trouble. he is capable of running out anytime with an open table without resorting to slop.


tonight was very uncharastic of me , like i said earlier i have never acted like that in my life over a game of pool, not even when gambling in bars in my younger years.
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I sort of clipped a lot of what your wrote.

IMO, you'd be the better man to go ahead and apologize for your behavior and NOT bring up slop as some kind of justification for your actions. If you choose to play a game that includes slop, then you win or or lose regardless of the rules. There is no rule that says that you can't use the rules to your advantage.

I don't mean to sound holier than thou because I'm as big of an ass on the table as the next person. Sometimes worse. But, that's on me, not on my opponent.

Freddie <~~~ size 50
 
Ditto krelldog, can't say it better than that.

"The beauty of pool as earlier mentioned in this thread is...our opponent has very little effect on our success at the table. If you want to win...run out..play great safes...break the ball better. This might be the purest sport of controlling your own destiny.
 
It happens to all of us. Bad day or whatever, driving to the pool hall and get cut off in traffic, some guy with a hat or shirt that just shouts arrogance and it pisses you off, the fat girl that ignored you... We all have nights where for whatever reason emotions run high and if that's the worst you do then that's nothing. Weekly play in leagues can't be taken too seriously and there are players that hit the ball hard enough for it to go in somewhere... 6 rails later. I began to realize a while back that I can only control what I do, the bad guy is trying to win just like me, sometime they have to. Just remember to stick to your game - the cream always rises to the top.
 
I empathize with you, I really do. Last night, I was playing in our weekly FREE race to 1, nine ball tournament, DE and my first match was against this guy who plays a couple of levels below my game and since the tournament is handicapped, he gets the 8 ball. I take practicing seriously as well as playing in "fun" local tournament or big events. Anyway, he is shooting on the two ball and hits it poorly and slaps the eight ball in the side missing the two ball's pocket by a foot. He starts grinning like a mule eating briars and wouldn't stop, eyeing me the whole time, almost contorting the rest of his body with ecstasy.

While a part of me wouldn't have minded taking that grin off of his face, I realized that the slop was all he could bring to the table for which I had a small amount of sorrow for him and simply shook his hand and said, "Good luck." Getting mad at the grinning mule wouldn't have done any good and that's really all he wanted anyway. He knows he is a loser but that day he was a lucky loser. :D
 
CreeDo said:
The words "he resorts to slop" makes it sound like he slops balls in on purpose.
If slopping could be done on purpose, then it wouldn't be slop would it?
Click to expand...

In leagues/tournaments where slop is allowed, there comes situations at times where the shooter has no decent shot so he/she takes a flyer at a ball (or cluster of balls) in the hopes of SOMETHING of theirs going in. There is no intention of putting any ball into any intended pocket. The only result they are after is that they "get lucky" and get to remain at the table. So, the purpose is to slop a ball in (or, get lucky). This is where the terms of endearment such as "Spray-and-Pray", "Poke-and-Hope", and "Grip-and-Rip" come from.

IMO, slopping in a ball isn't done "on purpose", but the act of attempting to slop in a ball IS.

Maniac
 
lorider said:
hill- hill match and my opponent just made his last ball and started walking around the table to pocket the 8 hanging in the corner, i slammed my stick on the table at the 8 ball before he had a chance to shoot at it. i have never done that before in my life, i think the shit eating grin on his face after he pocketed his last ball to get on the 8 is what really set me off.

now before all you start to bash me and telling me what you would have done if i had been playing you let me explain what led up to this incident.

this guy is a 5 the same as me. we are pretty even at playing pool. we both are about the same in pocketing balls, cue ball control, pattern play, even in all aspects except one " SLOP ".

HE IS THE LUCKIEST MF'ER I EVER SEEN WHEN IT COMES TO RESORTING TO SLOP SHOTS !! now i aint saying i have never made a slop shot in my life , heck we all have at one time or another but this guy is something else when it comes to slop.

please dont turn this into another apa bashing thread. i have stated on here many times that i really dont see much slop in my league from s/l 5's and up .....except for this guy and one other 5 in my league who is about as bad as him.

as i stated earlier he is a damn good shooter but he resorts to slop when he gets into trouble. he is capable of running out anytime with an open table without resorting to slop.

he made several slop shots tonight but 2 of them really got to me. then the shit eating grin after he made the last slop shot to get on the 8 when it was hill-hill really set me off. i did manage to shake his hand after i retrieved my cue but i did tell him he was too good a player to resort to slop while shaking it , and i managed to smile while saying it.:)

tonight was very uncharastic of me , like i said earlier i have never acted like that in my life over a game of pool, not even when gambling in bars in my younger years.
Click to expand...



Dude man up a little! Everybody get lucky in pool and it was just a APA match. Its not like you lost in the finals of the US Open.

Slamming sticks on the table is very poor sportsmanship. I would go as far to say that if the game isn't fun anymore you should take a break.
 
Lorider - it happens. Doesn't really matter the reason. Let it go.

Last night I was playing a 7 (me - 8) in 9ball. Always a tough match. Anyway, I am down in the match with four balls all at one end of table, my shot after he jarred the 6; just had to cinch it, easy out. So, I touch the cb and foul. I dragged all four conceding the points and racked.

Was it stupid? Yes.

I did apologize for my behavior.
 
The good thing is it's a league. Meaning you'll get a chance to play that guy's team at least twice maybe three times a season. I don't know about you but whenever I lose to someone I always push my captain to let me play that person again next time our teams come up. I figure I owe them a heavy beating. :)
 
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