New Here? - Introduce Yourself

[Discofever]

Hello all from Tennessee.

I play only for fun at home and had to sell a relatively inexpensive pool table when I moved several years ago. I am finally in a position to buy another table and am trying to learn more about tables and playing pool in general. And that’s how I stumbled across this forum. It looks like a great place.

 

[Gdub1717]

New here?
Introduce yourself, tell us where you hail from and a bit about yourself.

New here?
Introduce yourself, tell us where you hail from and a bit about yourself.

Brand new here from Louisiana but not to billiards. I’m a bit of a 9 ball specialist because I enjoy that game the most. I just started my journey back into tournament 9 ball form. I haven’t taken a shot since 2003 when I got married. My old cue was a plain Jane 20 ounce huebler with no wrap or inlays. I sold it in 2004 after getting married. I just bought a 20 once Viking B2001 natural stain, no wrap, no inlays, v-pro shaft, Lepro medium tip. The wood and construction seem way better than my circa 2000 model huebler. I haven’t had a chance to shoot with yet due my son’s basketball and not having a table but the cue looks and feels super solid with excellent balance. I look forward to asking you gurus many questions as I get better. Here a link to my cue
https://www.vikingcue.com/viking-b2001-a201/
cheers

 

[JayB93]

New here from Flower Mound, TX (north of the DFW Airport in Dallas). We bought an oversized 8' McIntyre table (made here in the Fort Worth area) on the cheap from someone in our neighborhood. I have never "learned" to play other than just playing for fun in college - now nearly 30 years ago. My 14yo son and I have been playing 8b for about 6 months just to have some good bonding time. The table slates were not set up properly, but it was a good start. Redoing our game room flooring this weekend and going to have the table recovered and set up by a professional. Will be ready to roll by next weekend. I've been lurking while waiting for my account to be approved to post. Some of the table restorations are mind blowing. Think I may start off with a 5 gallon bucket ball polishing contraption that is more of a "redneck approved" type operation.

 

[Choppertwo]

New here?
Introduce yourself, tell us where you hail from and a bit about yourself.

My name's Mike I'm from Hagerstown Maryland been playing pool for 60 years started when I was 13 years old I've had a table and every one of my houses since then the Warsaw radio mast a landmark played in league around this area for 10 years in any local tournaments and I could find until about 10 years ago got my start playing straight pool when I was a kid until I got of age add a 9-foot table for almost 20 years but it was getting hard for me to play on so I bought another 7 ft table that's what I have down my basement right now so will all of my nice cues about 5 years ago no need to have a nice Q if I'm not playing tournaments due to covid I haven't play any competition for 2 years at home and that's about it

 

[Ratchet]

New "Old-Timer" lol Been gone for a while and didnt know this place still existed ? I was with the ( As far as I know now defunct ) old rec.sport.billiards newsgroup that went in together with AZ Billiards one year and rented a 1st floor room at The Derby City Classic adjacent to the Pool Rooms we put a pool table in there and had a great time meeting each other as well as rubbing elbows with the Pro's who just happened to need a table to practice on lol We let them use our table for exhibitions and challenges and actually got to shoot against some of them in our very own pool room , We always kept someone on duty to "Monitor" the room and I did that a few times and actually got to meet "The Black Widow" Jeanette Lee and do her a favor , She had some items that needed a safe place to stay so I put them under our pool table and in exchange she put on an exhibition for us doing trick shots and giving us advice ! I even got to meet NASCAR driver Tony Stewart who has a few pool pro buddies that he runs with on occasion and he had purchase a couple very high dollar cues that he needed a place to test them out and we accommodated hiim ! all in all it was a damn great time !

Tom

 

[MikeW86]

New here, name is Michael. I'm 35 and from Kansas City, MO. I've been playing pool (inconsistently) since I was 17 or 18.

I'm a C-level player on a good day, but I'm always trying to get better and am fascinated by the game. I bought a nice Joss cue and a Viking break cue about 15 years ago when I was in the military and had alot of deployment pay to spend on toys, and those are what I play with still. I like to play at Raytown Recreation in Raytown MO, and Side Pockets in north Kansas City.

I already bought some of Pooldawg8s milkdud tips, since the talisman pro that's been on my Joss for 10 years is gettin' worn out.

 

[Twocylndr]

Twocylndr... Springfield, IL, about 1/2 miles (as the crow flies) from Neilsens Billiards. I like old John Deere tractors. Mostly shot pool in bars. Met my wife while playing. Table was close to high top tables. I was holding a mug of Old Style, before I lined up my shot, I asked the young lady (whom I never met) at the hightop if she would hold my beer as I took the shot... several years later we were married.
Years later she “brow beat” to buy a motorcycle...then she wanted her own, tired of riding bitch she was.
Since then I have my own table and 5 bikes!!! 2 grown kids, 3 John Deeres, 2 Farmall Cubs, an Oliver and a Ford 9N.
Ain’t life great?
If only I was good shooting pool...

 

[RickHamme]

Rick Hamme,
Learned to play pool at YMCA, and my dad was excellent at hand eye cordination and pool, darts, shuffle board,
cards you name it.
Left the YMCA and played at local bowling alley with the older guys, then went in army and won
some tournaments in pool and ping pong.
When I it 30 years old I quit play for about 12 years and been playing ever since.
I put tips on, play some tournaments, but my favorite is Thursday night local pool league,
Everyone knows everyone and we kind of look out for each other.
For those who are just starting, Best of Luck, some of us are on the other side of the
Hill and they should be respected as well.
My favorite quote in win on the table, not necessarily by the rules. meaning i sometimes
over look an opponets foul and just like to go for offensive play and the have fun.
Thanks Everyone for your posts !!!!!

 

[Scott44]

Hi all,

Just joined the site. I am a long time pool player and live in Iowa. Someone has to right? Looking forward to the ISPA tournament in Des Moines in April.

 

[ak1975]

Hey all, long time pool player from western New York. I love the game and enjoy getting better and having fun doing it. I hope to do some league play soon.

 

[James1973]

New guy from North Suburbs of Chicago. Used to play everyday in teens and early twenties...then life/kids/job got in the way. Getting back into it...actually just starting to look at cues, I'm always up for suggestions (nothing over 4k or my wife will kill me). Have my eyes on the Carmeli or possibly the Zen cues but not sure. Love country music and whisky.

 

[Robs Taljam]

Hi @all.

My name is robert and i live in germany. I play pool since 1980, and i had read the posts here very interested. Not every, but the most... Now i got my Approve and i´m very happy to can discuss with you. I´m just learning the right english and i hope, that some people understand my posts or requests. And i am an employee from lincoln electric and i hope, that i can visit cleveland this year. In this case i will be happy, if i can play with somebody in this area. I wish you a nice time.

 

[891014+1]

Hi lads! One more here, in love with the game.

 

[TheJackal]

Good day everyone. I'm Eddi. A couple of people call me Ed, but it just doesn't sound right to me I haven't seriously picked up a pool stick in many many many years. There's been the occasional game (s) at a friend's house, but they were far and few between. Since I recently retired, and had surgery on my hand. I'm doubtful I'll go back to bowling (I've been bowling on and off for 40+ years), so I'd like to hit the pool rooms again. My current cues, from back then, are a Biagio and Cobra that, for whatever reason, I had turned down. They are very thin...and a Dale Perry that I have never used, though I don't recall why I didn't. I do remember selling off a couple of others, but don't remember what they were.

Can anyone suggest a room in Colorado, specifically the Aurora, or close by, area that I can go to practice until I feel I can be back up to my old self?

 

[psymin123]

Hello everyone, I'm Simon from Canada Alberta. Nice to join this forum, look forward to meeting and learning from one another!

 

[gwstexas]

New here?
Introduce yourself, tell us where you hail from and a bit about yourself.

Hello all,
I've been a member for about three years, but never posted. I'm just getting back to pool after about a thirty year layoff. I used to play mediocre nine ball and fairly good three cushion billiards. I started playing at the OU Student Union game room back in the days of Tom Fisher, Don Owen and Jay Helfert and I was lucky enough to get acquainted with Hayden Lingo and some other really good players. Now I just like to play when I can.

Gary S.
Oklahoma City

 

[Woody Woodward]

New here?
Introduce yourself, tell us where you hail from and a bit about yourself.

I'm Matty from central Louisiana. Love the game. I've been playing pool for the last thirty years. I have a habit of playing to the level of my opponent, which can be frustrating. I want to see more tournaments with larger prizes. They give 250,000$ bonuses for snooker on top of the prize money and the mosconi cup is in England. I think we should do better. Pocket billiards is a great game but it's stigmatized in the USA by ideas of young ruffians fighting and robbing each other, like a pool hall is a sixties film. Anyway I guess we all have an opinion on these things and I am rambling.

 

[johnnyjumpjump]

I am John in Colorado. I played pool through my teenage years in Indiana and then not until recently (50 years later). Two and one-half years ago I purchased a nice Gold Crown I knowing that I would be moving to a new home (looked for houses that could accomodate a full sized pool table). The table now sits in my rec room and I am back to playing.

I have been enjoying AZBilliards the last few years - helped me with the choice of a pool table and recently with the choice of my playing cue.

 

[jeff700]

Jeff here from North Mississippi

I played quite a bit of pool in the late 80s through sometime in the mid 90s. I loved it, but only advanced to what I would call an advanced amateur. I couldn’t hang with the “good players”, but was slightly better than the average amateur.
I owned several meucci cues, and after trying out a Schon I decided I wanted a steel joint cue. The owner of the local pool hall (a well known player in the area) knew I was looking for a new cue. A quiet individual, he surprised me one night by bringing several of his cue out from a storage room one night and let me try them out. Two of them stood out to me by the way they played but neither had a brand name on them. This was around late 1991, and they both looked old. He said one of them was a Jensen. It had a slim stainless ring at the joint from what I remember…I’ve never seen another that looked like it. It wasn’t fancy, kind of plain…felt good. The other cue was a plain standard 4 point, steel joint with a dark black butt with a plain white cap. He told me it was a Szamboti, but he didn’t act like it was a big deal. His personal playing cue was an old ivory joint Szamboti. Was it genuine??? I don’t know, but I didn’t want to chance it. It looked plain, and was too much money at the time for me to risk….I think he priced it at $1000.
I ended of visiting Bill McDaniel in Jackson, TN and ordered a basic 4 point cue from him in early 1992. I was stunned by the beauty and craftsmanship in the cue!!!! But to me, it just didn’t have the same hit as the Schon’s, that Jensen, and the “Szamboti” cue. It just didn’t feel as stiff to me, and never warmed up to the feel of it. I sold it some time in late 1999 or early 2000.

Anyway, I have recently got the urge to play again, and played twice this past week after about 25 years. Yep, I’m still a poor player, but I think I‘ll try to get back into it.

I have been looking for decent but cheap cue. Prices have really gone up from what I remember. I would love to find a sweet deal on an older plain Schon, but will probably end up with something much cheaper.

Jeff

 

[MajorMiscue]

Greetings, pool players. I'm Steve and I live in Curridabat, Costa Rica, just east of San Jose.I relocated here from the West Coast, USA after I retired (FAA ATC). I got my start playing pool in the YMCA in around 1963 and found I have an affinity for the game. Never had any instruction beyond one slightly older kid who advised me that you could keep the cue ball from following the object ball into the pocket by hitting it lower.

I came here for the weather and the fishing. I used to build high end fishing rods for billfish and tuna. Played pool in a local casino that had pool tables near the blackjack tables. A cute little blonde blackjack dealer took an interest in watching me play during her breaks. We have been together for 15 years now and have a 13 year old daughter.

My wife frowns on me hanging out at casinos and bars with pool tables so I bought an 8'+ table so I can play at home. I played with house cues for many years until I came upon a young man abusing a cue at a casino in Seattle. Every time he missed he would slam the shaft of the cue on the table. It looked like a nice cue and it bothered me that he was abusing it like that. I asked if he would like to play a game and put a $50 on the table. Told him he got the money if he beat me but if I won I got the cue. I still have it, a Meucci original made in 1983.

I recently got into CF shafts. I have worked with carbon fiber first in arrows and fishing rods in the 80s and 90s. I recently purchased a Meucci SP but with a Carbon Pro shaft, 29" in 12.25mm with a Kamui med black/clear tip. I like it but bought a McDermott cue with a Defy carbon shaft for comparison. McDermott put some kind of finish on their graphite and, frankly, ruined it in my opinion. That's enough for now, I'm enjoying the site.