My vicious cycle.....

gpeezy

gpeezy

for sale!
I call it vicious because of the cycle I go through. I love to play pool. I love the game and love to play competitively. Unfortunately there are a lot of things that pull me to and drive me away from the game. Compiled things get me fed up and I end up taking a sabbatical.
One is money. I for one don't put much thought into money. It doesn't turn my world. The good thing is I'm not a complete idiot (close) and know money is necessary. Staying out late with night to night becomes expensive. I do travel to play sometimes and if no action or too tough of action costs a ton. I also have been known to make a bad game or two which takes me further down. Then money spent away from the poolhall with my friends, umm, Busted.
Tired. Late nights over and over are as exhausting and staying up for two days. I dealt poker for a while in order to help my bankroll which helped my money for sure. But after a few nites in a row of that, over a couple of months I was just beat. Tryn to work and do that is too much for me. Just playing pool I will stay out till 2am if not later. Then get up 4 or 5 hrs later and do it again, ouch.
The people. One of the greatest and worse things about pool. I love characters. There are just some I don't want to know on a personal level. Neither do I want them to know me although sometimes I wish they did. I like to think of myself as a honest and fairly respectable person. A poolroom can change that in peoples eyes in no time flat. I've been on a break from pool for a couple or 3 weeks doing whatever, getting back in the gym, summer things, whatever. When I get back to the poolroom someone I know comes up asking me about dumping someone, I've been on drugs, I've been this,that. It gets tired, and old, and unmistakably stupid.
The last thing is you get pulled away from life. Like say I love to play and have a drive to play well. I get lost for months in a poolroom and I miss a ton of things that I would love to do while I'm young (which seems to be not long) and don't have a wife or family. I have a group of friends that we all have been close for 10 years or more and we have a blast. They call me daily while I'm on my pool buzz and eventualy either check me up and tell me I'm getting out of a poolroom for a while or they just quit calling and figure I will be back. Certain things are not a definate in this life and good friends are at the top of that list.
Sometimes I need to vent and always question posting these but it does ease the mind to let them be known to someone. I'm not looking for advice cause the fact is I have some growing up to do. I just wish there was more time in a day, more energy in my body, and I owned a money tree.
 
You are not alone

You have just explained the life of so many of us. Although money isn't the issue for me. Staying out late night after night and getting 3 or 4hrs sleep does take it's toll on me. But how can I leave the poolroom something might happen and God forbid I miss easy action or a score.

When the pool bug hits it hits hard you can't go at it half ass. As my friend says you are either in all the way or in the way. Crawfish just posted he needed a break, I think most of us do time to time or our life suffers. We stop talking to our friends that don't play pool and we don't treat the people we love the way we should. In the end pool is like a drug and sometimes we just need to stop cold turkey for awhile.
 
Staying out late in pool halls has affected me. On the one hand I love it and enjoy the times I've spent doing it week after week, but on the other I feel like I'm missing out on other things.

Family, the beach, health (I tend to drink and smoke more when I'm in the poolhall), and other things a 23 year old should be doing instead.
 
A person I worked with, we were separated for many years, asked me how I was doing when we were reunited. I told him, "I've become a responsible person and I can't stand myself." He laughed and thought it was funny. I was never more honest in my life.

Unfortunately being a pool-player and living a normal life, nearly impossible. Somehow, someway, I managed to work, for almost forty years at the same job, and play pool at a high level. Having the right job helped. My time in the pool-room was limited so I made a lot of appointments with people if I was looking for action. This cut down on hanging around, waiting for a game. I went to a lot of tournaments or places I knew I could find a game. When my life was to complicated, raising kids, I took a long break from the game, five years. I couldn't be as selfish as I needed to be to think only of myself. So far it's paid off, I have two great kids that eventually, grew up and got sick of me, so I'm back playing again.

Time goes by real fast. Family and friends are essential parts of life. Get organized. There's time for everything if you don't overdue it.

Great post! I lived it, also, and I'm still living it.
 
I hear ya brutha! I got hooked on pool after stepping foot into a poolhall and couldn't ever get enough of it. I was single and had nothing else to do in life at the time. It became so strong, that I quit a Management job (place was going to close eventually anyways) to go work in the poolhall. I knew I was going to take a drastic cut in pay, but my thought process was this.....

I was going to do something I love and not worry about the fact everyone told me I was crazy. I figured I'm only going to live once and I was addicted to pool and the people, the HELL with making the "right" decision.

Plus, I got free table time, I got to play all night, after hours, and I got to live and breath pool for about 17 hours a day for several years.

It's easy to burn out.. just take a little time off.
 
I get that way a lot of times, pool does engulf my life to a degree that I could never imagine. It is the love and challenge of the game that keeps calling my name. I wake up, I want to shoot pool, I go to sleep thinking about waking up to shoot pool, it IS a vicious cycle. One thing I do learn is to balance it. I try to get people who I am close with involved in the game, no matter what. I take time to explain it to them, it never gets old, because I am introducing someone to a thing that I am very passionate about, I can go all day. Many of them find it interesting, and I take them with me to the pool halls. Yes, they are bangers, but you know what, when I shoot with my friends and family, I keep it competitive but it is also very easy going and fun. We have great conversations, we have a great time. It can be all out competition where no talking is allowed to a place for friends and family to be with and have something we can all do together, shooting good or not. Yes, I understand sometimes and a lot of time people don't take pool as serious as a majority of us here, and I understand that, but I also want them to know, it can be really fun. Yes, a good pool game and the long nights of haul ass action is great, but it can never out weight the great conversations and time I have with my family and friends, and it would never out weight my family and friends. They are my motivation, they are my smiles and laughter. Our life cycles revolve around each other, and as mine revolve around the pool table, I will be more than glad that they show interest in what I love, and I don't mind stepping out of the billiard cycle for my friends or family. They always have to come first, because what are we without them? My dad use to be the same way, and he plays snooker. My mom told me, my dad, before me and my brother were born, he use to shoot pool after he gets off work and not come home until the private club he goes to closes. Once my brother and I were born, he cut back on all of that, and pick us up everyday in school and all. Since we were born, I have never heard of my dad shooting pool or playing snooker until I was around 16-17. I never even knew my dad had his own cues until I was about 15, and he rarely takes it out to show us. Now that I get involved in the game, my dad is very interested in it and always talk to me and watches online matches with me. I haven't been this close to my own father since I was 9 years old. There is something about pool that can bring us together and reconnect us. Try it out my friend, I am sure you will find a way to reconnect.

Happy shooting! :)

Chino
 
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The Long Road!

gpeezy said:
I call it vicious because of the cycle I go through. I love to play pool. I love the game and love to play competitively. Unfortunately there are a lot of things that pull me to and drive me away from the game. Compiled things get me fed up and I end up taking a sabbatical.
One is money. I for one don't put much thought into money. It doesn't turn my world. The good thing is I'm not a complete idiot (close) and know money is necessary. Staying out late with night to night becomes expensive. I do travel to play sometimes and if no action or too tough of action costs a ton. I also have been known to make a bad game or two which takes me further down. Then money spent away from the poolhall with my friends, umm, Busted.
Tired. Late nights over and over are as exhausting and staying up for two days. I dealt poker for a while in order to help my bankroll which helped my money for sure. But after a few nites in a row of that, over a couple of months I was just beat. Tryn to work and do that is too much for me. Just playing pool I will stay out till 2am if not later. Then get up 4 or 5 hrs later and do it again, ouch.
The people. One of the greatest and worse things about pool. I love characters. There are just some I don't want to know on a personal level. Neither do I want them to know me although sometimes I wish they did. I like to think of myself as a honest and fairly respectable person. A poolroom can change that in peoples eyes in no time flat. I've been on a break from pool for a couple or 3 weeks doing whatever, getting back in the gym, summer things, whatever. When I get back to the poolroom someone I know comes up asking me about dumping someone, I've been on drugs, I've been this,that. It gets tired, and old, and unmistakably stupid.
The last thing is you get pulled away from life. Like say I love to play and have a drive to play well. I get lost for months in a poolroom and I miss a ton of things that I would love to do while I'm young (which seems to be not long) and don't have a wife or family. I have a group of friends that we all have been close for 10 years or more and we have a blast. They call me daily while I'm on my pool buzz and eventualy either check me up and tell me I'm getting out of a poolroom for a while or they just quit calling and figure I will be back. Certain things are not a definate in this life and good friends are at the top of that list.
Sometimes I need to vent and always question posting these but it does ease the mind to let them be known to someone. I'm not looking for advice cause the fact is I have some growing up to do. I just wish there was more time in a day, more energy in my body, and I owned a money tree.
Click to expand...

Good Post!gpeezy:

Yep I "Married the game of Pool" as a teenager, been with Her ever since!:grin:


David Harcrow
 
Certain things are not a definate in this life and good friends are at the top of that list.
Click to expand...

Lots of honesty in post #1.Rep for that btw.
The above line caught my eye as about as honest as they ever come.....for me that is.

Peezy,it sounds as if you have found the real grind lol....
 
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I didn't quite lose my ex-wife due to pool, but I did lose her because I was away from home doing other stuff (when I should have been doing pool). I regret the lost pool time :D

If you love pool itself and not gambling then I don't think money should be an issue. If all you're paying is half the table time, that's not gonna bust anyone. Forget about sets.

Can't do anything about the goofy people and the wasted time and the pissed lady waiting at home though. Part of the life I guess.

You can get 26 hours into each day with a little meth! Just kidding, keep away from that.
 
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