No Heart?

[poolplayer1988]

I have a question for you guys. First, let me tell you the story. Last night (Tuesday), I'm at a friend of mine's house practicing with him on his table. He has an extremely tight Olhausen, and I was hitting pretty damn good. My wife and I leave, and we start heading to Wal-Mart, on the north side of our town. As we're driving down the road, the house man from our local pool room calls my wife's cell phone and says Jody (a guy I know who's a pretty decent player) wants to play me a race to 7 for $100 and he'll spot me the 7. This is at about 1:00am in the morning. I tell the house man, and I quote, "I don't need no f%^*ing 7 to beat him. I'm on my way to the store and then I'm going home." Then we hang up. A few minutes later, I tell my wife, "call him back and tell him I'm I'll play Jody a race to 7 for $50 if he wants to play. They say okay. SO, I turn around, go all the way across town to my pool room and play Jody. I smoke his ass 7-1 in about 30 minutes, and quit, telling them I'm going to Wal-Mart and then home. Jody pitches a bitch, he's like, "where's your heart?" and crap like that. I say, "look, I was on my way to Wal-Mart, and ya'll called me to play a race to 7, and I said okay. Now, I'm going to Wal-Mart." It was late and I had gotten off work at 10PM after working 10 hours and then played at my friends house for about 2 and a half hours. I was ready to hit the store and go home. They called me out, so I played. It wasn't about the money, I just wanted to prove to Jody and his "fans" that I could beat him. I told him after the match that I didn't need the spot to beat him, and I don't. I just wanted toi show Jody and his "fans" that I wasn't a joke. Was I in the wrong for quitting after 1 set, or should I have been obligated to play as long as Jody wanted to, since he called me out? What's your honest opinion?

Doug Talbot

 

[thebigdog]

I have a question for you guys. First, let me tell you the story. Last night (Tuesday), I'm at a friend of mine's house practicing with him on his table. He has an extremely tight Olhausen, and I was hitting pretty damn good. My wife and I leave, and we start heading to Wal-Mart, on the north side of our town. As we're driving down the road, the house man from our local pool room calls my wife's cell phone and says Jody (a guy I know who's a pretty decent player) wants to play me a race to 7 for $100 and he'll spot me the 7. This is at about 1:00am in the morning. I tell the house man, and I quote, "I don't need no f%^*ing 7 to beat him. I'm on my way to the store and then I'm going home." Then we hang up. A few minutes later, I tell my wife, "call him back and tell him I'm I'll play Jody a race to 7 for $50 if he wants to play. They say okay. SO, I turn around, go all the way across town to my pool room and play Jody. I smoke his ass 7-1 in about 30 minutes, and quit, telling them I'm going to Wal-Mart and then home. Jody pitches a bitch, he's like, "where's your heart?" and crap like that. I say, "look, I was on my way to Wal-Mart, and ya'll called me to play a race to 7, and I said okay. Now, I'm going to Wal-Mart." It was late and I had gotten off work at 10PM after working 10 hours and then played at my friends house for about 2 and a half hours. I was ready to hit the store and go home. They called me out, so I played. It wasn't about the money, I just wanted to prove to Jody and his "fans" that I could beat him. I told him after the match that I didn't need the spot to beat him, and I don't. I just wanted toi show Jody and his "fans" that I wasn't a joke. Was I in the wrong for quitting after 1 set, or should I have been obligated to play as long as Jody wanted to, since he called me out? What's your honest opinion?

Doug Talbot

I think you should have let the guy know ahead of time you only intended to play one set. People will get pissed off every time when someone quits after one set. Usually if I am strapped for time I will let the guy know before we even start that my time is limited and how long I can play. After that its up to the other guy t decide if he wants to continue.
Really does one race to 7 prove you are better than the guy you played? So yes you proved you can but that was only 8 games of nine ball played, I am sure he is dying to play again. Don't be surprised if he comes out super focused against you next time, he might even quit ahead on you. Then you would surely understand the frustration.

 

[mjantti]

Any opinion about people who quit in the middle of the set ? They claim that they don't want to play when they're shooting bad. Even if we are playing only for the table time or something they sometimes quit. Hate it. And usually they are the same players who often claim that they are not playing at their usual level. Funny, they seem to be underperforming over 90% of the time...

Did you know that over 80 per cent of the male drivers think that they are better than the average driver ? Seems that we can't make an objective evaluation of ourselves.

 

[poolplayer1988]

Pool God?

I think you should have let the guy know ahead of time you only intended to play one set. People will get pissed off every time when someone quits after one set. Usually if I am strapped for time I will let the guy know before we even start that my time is limited and how long I can play. After that its up to the other guy t decide if he wants to continue.
Really does one race to 7 prove you are better than the guy you played? So yes you proved you can but that was only 8 games of nine ball played, I am sure he is dying to play again. Don't be surprised if he comes out super focused against you next time, he might even quit ahead on you. Then you would surely understand the frustration.

That's just it though. Jody's "fans" think he is some kind of pool god, yet I beat him 90% of the time. The other 10% he barely wins. His "fans" think that because he goes out of town and plays in some bar tournaments on 8 footers against drunks who are too inebriated to hold the stick and wins some small rinky dink $5 trophy and a $25 first place prize that he is Jesus incarnate or something. I only played him to prove the point, AGAIN, that he is no pool god. As far as I was concerned, he could have kept the money. Oh, and I forgot to mention in my earlier post that he wasn't even backing himself, one of his "fans" was. He didn't even have the nerve to back himself, and he ALWAYS has the money. His friends must have pumped him up to call me out. No doubt I'll play him again sometime, but I get tired of proving my point again and again that I'm the better player and having his idiot friends say he's better. What's even funnier about the situation is, the guy that backed him played me some on Sunday and quit on me while he was ahead after 30 minutes and left, so I actually accomplished two things: got my money back from and then some, and showed Jody and his crew that I am still better than him.

 

[sjm]

I have a question for you guys. First, let me tell you the story. Last night (Tuesday), I'm at a friend of mine's house practicing with him on his table. He has an extremely tight Olhausen, and I was hitting pretty damn good. My wife and I leave, and we start heading to Wal-Mart, on the north side of our town. As we're driving down the road, the house man from our local pool room calls my wife's cell phone and says Jody (a guy I know who's a pretty decent player) wants to play me a race to 7 for $100 and he'll spot me the 7. This is at about 1:00am in the morning. I tell the house man, and I quote, "I don't need no f%^*ing 7 to beat him. I'm on my way to the store and then I'm going home." Then we hang up. A few minutes later, I tell my wife, "call him back and tell him I'm I'll play Jody a race to 7 for $50 if he wants to play. They say okay. SO, I turn around, go all the way across town to my pool room and play Jody. I smoke his ass 7-1 in about 30 minutes, and quit, telling them I'm going to Wal-Mart and then home. Jody pitches a bitch, he's like, "where's your heart?" and crap like that. I say, "look, I was on my way to Wal-Mart, and ya'll called me to play a race to 7, and I said okay. Now, I'm going to Wal-Mart." It was late and I had gotten off work at 10PM after working 10 hours and then played at my friends house for about 2 and a half hours. I was ready to hit the store and go home. They called me out, so I played. It wasn't about the money, I just wanted to prove to Jody and his "fans" that I could beat him. I told him after the match that I didn't need the spot to beat him, and I don't. I just wanted toi show Jody and his "fans" that I wasn't a joke. Was I in the wrong for quitting after 1 set, or should I have been obligated to play as long as Jody wanted to, since he called me out? What's your honest opinion?

Doug Talbot

You were not in the wrong. In a gambling situation, you can quit anytime you like. Many hustlers would tell you it's inappropriate to quit ahead, but most of them are just trying to ensure that they can dump early in a session without having to worry that it might actually cost them some money if their opponent were to quit.

The "no heart" comment is one you expect to hear often, as it's one of the clches of pool gambling. It's a play on emotion that has been working for the hustlers for a very long time.

Quit when you like, though, as another poster noted, when you pre-arrange a game, if your time is limited, you should mention it in advance. Perhaps Jody would have passed on playing at all and the unpleasantries would have been avoided. With a pickup game, however, you should make it clear at the beginning of an action session that you reserve the right to quit at any time.

Hope you bought something nice at WalMart with your winnings.

 

[poolplayer1988]

Quitting in the middle...

Any opinion about people who quit in the middle of the set ? They claim that they don't want to play when they're shooting bad. Even if we are playing only for the table time or something they sometimes quit. Hate it. And usually they are the same players who often claim that they are not playing at their usual level. Funny, they seem to be underperforming over 90% of the time...

Did you know that over 80 per cent of the male drivers think that they are better than the average driver ? Seems that we can't make an objective evaluation of ourselves.

Now that would irritate me. The person who quits, do they forfeit and pay up or do they just quit and leave without paying? What is it about pool players who think that anyone who beats them is obligated to let them when their money back? I have played guys for 6, 7, 8 hours and had them down the whole time, get tired and quit, and they would go spastic, like, "You're not going to give a chance to get even? That's f*&$ed up man!" God! How long do you need? If a guy says, let's play a race for so and so, and I say okay, am I obligated to play more than the one race? I say Hell NO! Now if they say let's play some, then I take that to mean more than one race. Just my opinion.

Doug Talbot

 

[poolplayer1988]

Mentioned in advance...

Quit when you like, though, as another poster noted, when you pre-arrange a game, if your time is limited, you should mention it in advance. Perhaps Jody would have passed on playing at all and the unpleasantries would have been avoided. With a pickup game, however, you should make it clear at the beginning of an action session that you reserve the right to quit at any time.

Hope you bought something nice at WalMart with your winnings.

During the first phone call, my wife told the house man that we were going to the store, and then home and that we weren't going to be out long. I just figured if he wanted to play so badly that I'd give him a chance to win something. That's why I didn't accept the 7 ball for a $100. Then it would have really been an embarassment. Honestly, no matter what happened, those guys would have been the same way. If I had kept playing and kept winning, they would have wanted me to play all night long. I can't do that like the other pool bums like Jody and his "fans", I have a job, they don't, nor does any of them want one. They make money hustling kids and drunks. I feel sorry for them, really.

Doug Talbot

 

[poolplayer1988]

Mentioned in advance...

Quit when you like, though, as another poster noted, when you pre-arrange a game, if your time is limited, you should mention it in advance. Perhaps Jody would have passed on playing at all and the unpleasantries would have been avoided. With a pickup game, however, you should make it clear at the beginning of an action session that you reserve the right to quit at any time.

Hope you bought something nice at WalMart with your winnings.

During the first phone call, my wife told the house man that we were going to the store, and then home and that we weren't going to be out long. I just figured if he wanted to play so badly that I'd give him a chance to win something. That's why I didn't accept the 7 ball for a $100. Then it would have really been an embarassment. Honestly, no matter what happened, those guys would have been the same way. If I had kept playing and kept winning, they would have wanted me to play all night long. I can't do that like the other pool bums like Jody and his "fans", I have a job, they don't, nor does any of them want one. They make money hustling kids and drunks. I feel sorry for them, really.

Doug Talbot

P.S. I bought my wife some stuff with the winnings.

 

[BackPocket9Ball]

Why are you complaining? You have a guy who you think you can beat even willing to give you the 7-ball with friends willing to back him. If they are willing to keep betting $100 a set, why piss them off by quitting after one set?

You have a good thing going, don't let ego ruin it for you. If you keep trying to convince them that you're the better player, pretty soon they might start believing you.

 

[Pelican]

Why are you complaining? You have a guy who you think you can beat even willing to give you the 7-ball with friends willing to back him. If they are willing to keep betting $100 a set, why piss them off by quitting after one set?

You have a good thing going, don't let ego ruin it for you. If you keep trying to convince them that you're the better player, pretty soon they might start believing you.

I'm with you backpocket. Take the 7 and clean his plow till the money runs out. You can't buy groceries with ego. That is the difference between a young player and an old player, IMHO.

 

[gwvavases]

Tap. Tap. Tap.

You should do everything you can to keep the guy and his friends thinking he is a "pool god" (as you put it). What better situation can you have than that?! Keep playing him, and let him and his friends keep paying for gifts for your wife!

But...if you think you would have wanted to play a second set for a chance to win your money back if you had lost the first set, then it was not right to quit after one set. Like someone else said, let him know up front how long you're gonna play (either money, time, # of sets, whatever).

 

[DrCue'sProtege]

speaking of "pool gods" i have one around here. people think he's a really great player or something, yet i know that he is mostly a blowoff. lets call him Doug.

why?
Doug's cues, tips, table, cases, etc, etc, are all the best, and everyone one of mine is cheap stuff, and anybody at a pro tournament would laugh at me for what i have. yet Doug (in his 50s) has never played a big time pool tournament, will occassionally win $15 or so at the local tavern, has told me before "around here people think i am somebody", and refuses to come over and play me on my Gold Crown IV.

he has told me that Bob Meucci doesnt know anything about cues, that Bob Byrne doesn know sh-t, and that he is buddies with Nancy and Gordon Hart of Viking cues. when i asked Nancy about Doug she had never heard of him.

Doug had no idea when i asked him about why balls "kick", said thats ridiculous. i tell him Tom "Dr Cue" Rossman had told me about this "kick" or "skidding" of balls and he tells me Rossman doesnt know sh-t.

when i played on his table once his Simonis cloth was kinda loose, you could move it with your hand. i asked him why it wasnt tight, he said its not supposed to be tight, people that think that dont know sh-t. maybe he's right on this one, i dunno. but he's the only one ever that told me you want cloth loose on your pool table.

he's refused to tip my Cuetec cue because he calls it a piece of sh-t, and should only be used for roasting hot dogs.

anyway, get the picture?
i really cant stand to be around people like this, i havent had but one contact with him in the last several months. sorry part is that, as is stated in this post, some people around here do think he is one of the "pool gods" in the area. but a guy like this cant possess the heart and desire to be a good player. but he sure can tell anyone that will listen how good he is.

regards,
DCP

 

[Lmarr9]

I think all the other posts are correct - you should always tell someone when you only have a certain amount of time to play. Then they have to make the decision. Through reading all the posts and reading the original posts one thought came to me and noone else has made any comments about this......

Why did you go out of your way to play one set to prove anything? I feel this is where a lot of players get strayed and head down a wrong & expensive path. Who did you originally start playing for ???? YOURSELF.

You should have told the guy on the first call that you were going home and could not devote hours of play to him but you would be glad to set up a meeting time where you could play for a decent amount of time.

This accomplishes three things for you. One, he thinks you are scared and this will pump him up more. He probably will be willing to lose more money to you because of you putting him off a day or two. Two, you get to go home get a good night sleep. Three, you have self satisfaction of not having to prove you have game but showing you have game on YOUR TIME, not theirs !!!! Plus, if you had went home and played later this post would be different. You would be bragging about taking more of his money instead of being pissed from the way your were treated. You control you. Don't let them control you !!!!

Hope this helps. I know I will probably get ribbed about the self-gratification thing but I know this is what keeps me grounded and not subjected to the "bad side" of this sport. You can't take to heart what other people say about you or your game.

Lisa

P.S. Glad you got his money but you should have held out for more !!!
As they say, you get what you pay for. Cheat set with cheap player !!

 

[tonyk]

As far as I was concerned, he could have kept the money.... What's even funnier about the situation is, the guy that backed him played me some on Sunday and quit on me while he was ahead after 30 minutes and left, so I actually accomplished two things: got my money back from and then some, and showed Jody and his crew that I am still better than him.

But you won the one set you played? I don't understand this part of your post.

Either way, if you were going to play just one set, I'd normally tell the guy, especially if it's particularly sweet action like this sounds.

And who cares if him and his buddies think they're better? That can only work to your advantage, if you ask me.

Unless you're playing to prove the world that you're better than the other guy, then good luck with that, I doubt it would happen, but who knows.

I don't gamble or play in tournaments to prove anything to anyone other than myself. I just like to see if I can win.

 

[piglit]

...refuses to come over and play me on my Gold Crown IV...regards,
DCP

Well, perhaps he doesn't want to get a cue ball through his head!! Sorry- that was just too easy.

Guy sounds like a class 1 jack-ass. Hope he doesn't get to you too deeply. You don't have to talk to him...just walk away or, if your playing, tell him you don't want to talk to him now. Repeat- repeat-repeat-repeat. He'll get the picture soon enough.

-pigu

 

[Nineball-98]

In my opinion a person has to play a very high level of pool to be considered a "pool god"-ex.-(Reyes, Archer, Fisher, Strickland, etc.-if you wanted to call players pool gods. I wouldn't let people like the one mentioned in DCP's thread bother me. They are free to have whatever belief they want concerning their abilities. Personally, I would never be critical concerning the way someone plays. Whether a player is modest, or whether they like to brag and boast, you can never really be sure how they play unless you have played against them or seen them against other players.

 

[Pin]

he's refused to tip my Cuetec cue because he calls it a piece of sh-t, and should only be used for roasting hot dogs.

Lol

I disagree with the principle entirely - if a cue is straight and has a decent tip, the rest is relatively unimportant.
However, the comment made me laugh, and it's all the funnier if he actually won't re-tip your cue



Over here in the UK, I don't have a clue about the etiqette of gambling in America, but common sense tells me that if you're gambling with someone, you have to expect that they might leave with some of your money. You can't just keep pestering them to let you win it back!

Though telling them how long you expect to be able to play, before you start, seems to make sense.



Obviously this guy and his friends have got under your skin a little.

I've learned to genuinely not give a damn about what certain people think about me.
I still treat everyone with some level of respect, but some people, people I have absolutely no interest in becoming a friend of, I don't care about at all.
I used to be very insecure when I was younger, I think this largely came about when I became more secure and confident. Although I did also consciously choose to abandon caring about it.

 

[Pin]

...And usually they are the same players who often claim that they are not playing at their usual level. Funny, they seem to be underperforming over 90% of the time...

Did you know that over 80 per cent of the male drivers think that they are better than the average driver ? Seems that we can't make an objective evaluation of ourselves.

Probably the most insightful thing I've read on these forums!

 

[thebigdog]

During the first phone call, my wife told the house man that we were going to the store, and then home and that we weren't going to be out long. I just figured if he wanted to play so badly that I'd give him a chance to win something. That's why I didn't accept the 7 ball for a $100. Then it would have really been an embarassment. Honestly, no matter what happened, those guys would have been the same way. If I had kept playing and kept winning, they would have wanted me to play all night long. I can't do that like the other pool bums like Jody and his "fans", I have a job, they don't, nor does any of them want one. They make money hustling kids and drunks. I feel sorry for them, really.

Doug Talbot

P.S. I bought my wife some stuff with the winnings.

Next time he offers the 7, take it? Make the bet for at least $500. If he has all these backers sounds like you can make a killing off these guys. When they figure they can't give you weight then tell them you will play some even for $100. Sounds to me like you have something good here. A lot of guys who don't know any better willing to donate.
You could probobly make enough of these guys to pay your way into the U.S. Open!

 

[LastTwo]

That's just it though. Jody's "fans" think he is some kind of pool god, yet I beat him 90% of the time. The other 10% he barely wins. His "fans" think that because he goes out of town and plays in some bar tournaments on 8 footers against drunks who are too inebriated to hold the stick and wins some small rinky dink $5 trophy and a $25 first place prize that he is Jesus incarnate or something. I only played him to prove the point, AGAIN, that he is no pool god. As far as I was concerned, he could have kept the money. Oh, and I forgot to mention in my earlier post that he wasn't even backing himself, one of his "fans" was. He didn't even have the nerve to back himself, and he ALWAYS has the money. His friends must have pumped him up to call me out. No doubt I'll play him again sometime, but I get tired of proving my point again and again that I'm the better player and having his idiot friends say he's better. What's even funnier about the situation is, the guy that backed him played me some on Sunday and quit on me while he was ahead after 30 minutes and left, so I actually accomplished two things: got my money back from and then some, and showed Jody and his crew that I am still better than him.

So you should have stayed there and drilled him 17 sets in a row, if you want to get the message across that he can't win. NEVER quit winners. Before you play anyone, let them know how many sets you plan to play, or how long you can play for. TO win one set and quit is no good. I'm not saying you don't have heart, but the other guy has a right to be upset. You seem to care alot about what other people think, about you being a better player than Jody. I'll bet you anything almost all of them are talking crap about you "getting lucky and quitting ahead" or something like that. Never quit winners.