No money in pool?
- Thread starter AHWOSU86
- Start date
For an honest answer to your question ..no it is not possible to make a living playing pool for 999 out of 1000 people to put it mildly
I have known most of the famous players and gamblers and they almost all died broke and friendless.Titanic Thompson,Fats,Handsome Danny,Jersey Red, and I could go on.
Take a look at Ronnie Allen today,or Jimmy Reed or just about any other player.
If you want to be successful get a job,start your own business,look at the people who have houses,families and friends.How many of these people are pool players.
Ever hear the term POOL BUMS,grow up ,you want to be a bum,what pool players can even get staked? and why?
Mike Massey made me a millionaire,he came to Dallas 35 yearsor more ago,played me one handed on a bar tablle,gave me the 7,and beat me. I qiuit playing started a business worked 6 daysa weeks and made a million bucks,had 5 children who all graduated from college,paid cash for their houses .
My suggestion to you is go to work and make something of yourself while there is still time.
I know this is not going to make me a lot of friends on AZ but the advice is sincere and good.
I have known most of the famous players and gamblers and they almost all died broke and friendless.Titanic Thompson,Fats,Handsome Danny,Jersey Red, and I could go on.
Take a look at Ronnie Allen today,or Jimmy Reed or just about any other player.
If you want to be successful get a job,start your own business,look at the people who have houses,families and friends.How many of these people are pool players.
Ever hear the term POOL BUMS,grow up ,you want to be a bum,what pool players can even get staked? and why?
Mike Massey made me a millionaire,he came to Dallas 35 yearsor more ago,played me one handed on a bar tablle,gave me the 7,and beat me. I qiuit playing started a business worked 6 daysa weeks and made a million bucks,had 5 children who all graduated from college,paid cash for their houses .
My suggestion to you is go to work and make something of yourself while there is still time.
I know this is not going to make me a lot of friends on AZ but the advice is sincere and good.
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this
This is quite possibly the wisest post that I have ever read ...imho . I would also
like to ad that this quite possibly covers the live streaming of pool as well.
This is quite possibly the wisest post that I have ever read ...imho . I would also
like to ad that this quite possibly covers the live streaming of pool as well.
Work 6 days a week.... hell yeah that's what i'm talking about!
That's not the kind of life a person growing up in the 2000's should have to look forward to. I'm young but i've already had my taste of working ridiculous hours just to go to sleep and realize you have to do it all over again.
Let's try and make the world a better place so people don't have to do such things.
Unless you're one of the very top touring pro's or a great (top 1%) road player/gambler, making a living in pool is nearly impossible. Period.
My advice - get an education, get a good job and/or look at starting your own business, get established and look at pool as an enjoyable hobby - if you can sometimes win or place at a tournament or win a little gambling so much the better - but never look at pool as your main source of income - there's a 99% chance that you'll end up broke if you do.
My advice - get an education, get a good job and/or look at starting your own business, get established and look at pool as an enjoyable hobby - if you can sometimes win or place at a tournament or win a little gambling so much the better - but never look at pool as your main source of income - there's a 99% chance that you'll end up broke if you do.
try reading the 4th commandment in Exodus 20,then' go to the ant thou sluggard and be wise'
Perhaps I could compare a life in pool,7 days a week in the lowest of conditions traveling from room to room state to state just looking for a game,working at pool around the basest of people with no guarantee,no repeat business ,no benefits,high overhead,dangerous working condition from fights,pool cues and bullets.To mention nothing of losing fairly and dumping.To say nothing of the fact that one of the top 5 one pocket players in the world makes more money borrowing ,with no intention of repaying ,than they do playing pool.
It actually takes more work to play pool.I speak from experience,including bullets,sleeping in the car,waking up away from family and hardly ever actually losing money but still needing more.Having been on the road with the best in the business ,winning more than most anyone you can name ,I look back at it all as losing.
Perhaps I could compare a life in pool,7 days a week in the lowest of conditions traveling from room to room state to state just looking for a game,working at pool around the basest of people with no guarantee,no repeat business ,no benefits,high overhead,dangerous working condition from fights,pool cues and bullets.To mention nothing of losing fairly and dumping.To say nothing of the fact that one of the top 5 one pocket players in the world makes more money borrowing ,with no intention of repaying ,than they do playing pool.
It actually takes more work to play pool.I speak from experience,including bullets,sleeping in the car,waking up away from family and hardly ever actually losing money but still needing more.Having been on the road with the best in the business ,winning more than most anyone you can name ,I look back at it all as losing.
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deanoc......well said my friend!!!!
Here is the bad news, NOTHING is easy and you are entitled to NOTHING!!
Making a living at anything is tough, and then it all depends on what type of living you want to make. Either way it takes hard work, passion, character, and integrity to be successful. Not to mention some type of skill or talent. Regardless if you are a mechanic, school teacher, engineer, pool player, whatever..........you need a bit of talent to start.
I am sure every poster on AZ would love to play pool for a living. In our idealistic minds, it would be all winnings, beautiful hotels, good friendly people, and "dead stroke" 24/7. But that is not the reality of it.
For me............I want to be able to enjoy my pool passion, support my family, pass my knowledge onto my children. Drive to league in a new car. Buy a new cue whenever I feel the desire, and enjoy playing. Not worry if some "short-stop" is going to snap the nine in on the break in a hill hill match and beat me out of my gas money.
If you can, sit with someone who is trying to make a living at the game. Not someone at the top, a player in the middle. I believe it would be an eye opening conversation!
Mike
Here is the bad news, NOTHING is easy and you are entitled to NOTHING!!
Making a living at anything is tough, and then it all depends on what type of living you want to make. Either way it takes hard work, passion, character, and integrity to be successful. Not to mention some type of skill or talent. Regardless if you are a mechanic, school teacher, engineer, pool player, whatever..........you need a bit of talent to start.
I am sure every poster on AZ would love to play pool for a living. In our idealistic minds, it would be all winnings, beautiful hotels, good friendly people, and "dead stroke" 24/7. But that is not the reality of it.
For me............I want to be able to enjoy my pool passion, support my family, pass my knowledge onto my children. Drive to league in a new car. Buy a new cue whenever I feel the desire, and enjoy playing. Not worry if some "short-stop" is going to snap the nine in on the break in a hill hill match and beat me out of my gas money.
If you can, sit with someone who is trying to make a living at the game. Not someone at the top, a player in the middle. I believe it would be an eye opening conversation!
Mike
I always treated the game as a second or part time job. I worked all week at the secure job I had and ran around on week-ends, playing the game, I loved. I did well at both of them.
I agree there's very little money in the game, compared to other games or sports, and it's a shame. Pool is as difficult a game as any of them out there. It is also a game that you don't have to be six foot ten or weigh three hundred pounds to play. It's a game anyone can play. So why have we fallen so far behind thew rest of the games or sports?
I recently came across an old photo from the early nineteen hundreds. It was a group of players gathered around a table. They were about to start playing a tournament and they were posing for a group picture. They all had their sticks in hand and were pointing they at a money bay sitting on the table. The purse for the tournament was 20,000. This was inthe early twenties, mind you. What happened?
In that era, pool was huge. It was the game of choice, for the common man. It was their winter's entertainment, after baseball season was over. It was covered in most major news papers. A lot of the writer's were pool players.
The players, of the time, were like the old time gunslingers. Many a challenge was given by someone invading a players territory and it was a fight to the death, that usually resulted.
Where did the game go wrong?
The depression didn't help. Neither did a World War or the Korean War.
The early sixties brought the first boom in the game in a long time. The Hustler, brought the game back in the public's eye. The only problem was, television had also arrived. Along with the NFL and many other games. And people could bet on these events. Pool never made it this far.
Then Vietnam started and again all the pool players were off to war.
The Color of Money brought the last resurgence of the game. It had a great chance, for success, at this time. There were twenty-four hour sports networks looking for anything, they could find, to throw out there at the public.
We failed miserably. There was no direction or leadership. Everyone was in it to see what they could get for themselves.
Maybe in the future, we won't make the same mistakes. I know the game will get another chance. Hopefully it will come, before I'm gone. We need to be ready. We need to stop being so narrow minded.
There's plenty of money out there. You just got to know where to look. I'm working on it.
________________________________
http://tommcgonaglerightoncue.com
I agree there's very little money in the game, compared to other games or sports, and it's a shame. Pool is as difficult a game as any of them out there. It is also a game that you don't have to be six foot ten or weigh three hundred pounds to play. It's a game anyone can play. So why have we fallen so far behind thew rest of the games or sports?
I recently came across an old photo from the early nineteen hundreds. It was a group of players gathered around a table. They were about to start playing a tournament and they were posing for a group picture. They all had their sticks in hand and were pointing they at a money bay sitting on the table. The purse for the tournament was 20,000. This was inthe early twenties, mind you. What happened?
In that era, pool was huge. It was the game of choice, for the common man. It was their winter's entertainment, after baseball season was over. It was covered in most major news papers. A lot of the writer's were pool players.
The players, of the time, were like the old time gunslingers. Many a challenge was given by someone invading a players territory and it was a fight to the death, that usually resulted.
Where did the game go wrong?
The depression didn't help. Neither did a World War or the Korean War.
The early sixties brought the first boom in the game in a long time. The Hustler, brought the game back in the public's eye. The only problem was, television had also arrived. Along with the NFL and many other games. And people could bet on these events. Pool never made it this far.
Then Vietnam started and again all the pool players were off to war.
The Color of Money brought the last resurgence of the game. It had a great chance, for success, at this time. There were twenty-four hour sports networks looking for anything, they could find, to throw out there at the public.
We failed miserably. There was no direction or leadership. Everyone was in it to see what they could get for themselves.
Maybe in the future, we won't make the same mistakes. I know the game will get another chance. Hopefully it will come, before I'm gone. We need to be ready. We need to stop being so narrow minded.
There's plenty of money out there. You just got to know where to look. I'm working on it.
________________________________
http://tommcgonaglerightoncue.com
In a nutshell.
If you want the American Dream, you sure as hell aren't going to get it by playing pool.
The ones who do, which is just a handful, have marketed themselves so that they might be able to retire with some comfort, but that in itself is a rarity.
I'd be willing to bet that the majority of full time pool players with no other skill set who JUST play pool for a living, die broke or in a state of poverty.
THAT is the reality of pool.
Every other pool player that has some relative comfort in life, either inherited a lot of money, or has some full time job or another profession that is their REAL career.
Having watched pool go backwards for the past 20 years, it's safe to say that pool is never going to hit the big time in my lifetime. Or in the lifetime that i might actually still be able to compete a little.
So with that, pool for me, is a hobby that is played from time to time.
If you are young, and you have your whole future in front of you, and you want to take a shot at pool, knock yourself out.
Can you make some decent money? Sure, if you are smart enough, cause to be perfectly honest, it's not about how you play.
I know several mid level players who make way more money then the great players around could.
But either way, it doesn't last, people wise up and no longer feel like donating, and then where are you?
Back at square one.
If you have skillz from the gods, then you might be one of the lucky ones, but otherwise, you will end up broke and beaten up from the life that pool tosses at you.
Keep it as a part time thing.
Once you become a legitimate pool bum, you're jeopardizing a legitimate future for an industry where there IS no future.
If you want the American Dream, you sure as hell aren't going to get it by playing pool.
The ones who do, which is just a handful, have marketed themselves so that they might be able to retire with some comfort, but that in itself is a rarity.
I'd be willing to bet that the majority of full time pool players with no other skill set who JUST play pool for a living, die broke or in a state of poverty.
THAT is the reality of pool.
Every other pool player that has some relative comfort in life, either inherited a lot of money, or has some full time job or another profession that is their REAL career.
Having watched pool go backwards for the past 20 years, it's safe to say that pool is never going to hit the big time in my lifetime. Or in the lifetime that i might actually still be able to compete a little.
So with that, pool for me, is a hobby that is played from time to time.
If you are young, and you have your whole future in front of you, and you want to take a shot at pool, knock yourself out.
Can you make some decent money? Sure, if you are smart enough, cause to be perfectly honest, it's not about how you play.
I know several mid level players who make way more money then the great players around could.
But either way, it doesn't last, people wise up and no longer feel like donating, and then where are you?
Back at square one.
If you have skillz from the gods, then you might be one of the lucky ones, but otherwise, you will end up broke and beaten up from the life that pool tosses at you.
Keep it as a part time thing.
Once you become a legitimate pool bum, you're jeopardizing a legitimate future for an industry where there IS no future.
I wasn't saying pool is the exception. At it's current state, it'd be more work to be able to make a living in pool then doing what you've done in your life.
I'm saying a person should do something that doesn't require that kind of mental strain.
Looking back on it, i'm sure you're proud you put the kids in college. But you sure killed your ass doing it didn't you?
As for the bible quote, I try and follow it as best I can, but I have yet to see the fruits of my efforts.
To me it sounds like you are asking if there is enough “Easy Money” to be made playing pool (something you love) to make a living, instead of getting a real job, which is something you might not like.
There are actually just 2 keys to consider to answer this question:
1. How much do you need a month to live on. Ie: what is “Making a living” to you in terms of dollars, and
2. How good are you?
I’m going to contrast pool to something I know far more than most about… Poker.
It has been my experience that most people who ask me the same question about poker (and in turn, I ask them the same 2 questions back) severely UNDER-Estimate the 1st part, and OVER-Estimate the 2nd part.
The truth is the same though:
The more you need to make, the better you need to be.
If you need $3,000 a month to live on, and are not very good, you have ZERO chance of making a living at this.
If you (somehow) only need $500 a month to live on, and are a solid player in both tournaments and cash games, then your chances of success are pretty good.
The problem is that most NEED a lot more than their skills can PROVIDE.
There is just not that much money in pool PERIOD, so finding easy money, is going to be hard extremely difficult.
Sorry to say, if you are looking to make good or even decent money at pool, and don’t have the skills to do it, you will probably fail. This is the same with poker.
The reason that poker players make the Lucrative/Great/Very good money they do, is that there are so many more people playing poker (which is a PURE money game) than pool, that the gap between a good player and a bad player is huge, even though they are playing in the same game.
There are actually just 2 keys to consider to answer this question:
1. How much do you need a month to live on. Ie: what is “Making a living” to you in terms of dollars, and
2. How good are you?
I’m going to contrast pool to something I know far more than most about… Poker.
It has been my experience that most people who ask me the same question about poker (and in turn, I ask them the same 2 questions back) severely UNDER-Estimate the 1st part, and OVER-Estimate the 2nd part.
The truth is the same though:
The more you need to make, the better you need to be.
If you need $3,000 a month to live on, and are not very good, you have ZERO chance of making a living at this.
If you (somehow) only need $500 a month to live on, and are a solid player in both tournaments and cash games, then your chances of success are pretty good.
The problem is that most NEED a lot more than their skills can PROVIDE.
There is just not that much money in pool PERIOD, so finding easy money, is going to be hard extremely difficult.
Sorry to say, if you are looking to make good or even decent money at pool, and don’t have the skills to do it, you will probably fail. This is the same with poker.
The reason that poker players make the Lucrative/Great/Very good money they do, is that there are so many more people playing poker (which is a PURE money game) than pool, that the gap between a good player and a bad player is huge, even though they are playing in the same game.
Sorry, I just re-read your post. You have 2 VERY different questions in it.
1st part - Can somebody make some extra "Spending Money" from pool.
Answer: Hell yes, even at a local level.
Last part - Is anybody making a good living at pool.
Answer: Hell no, unless you are among the top handfull of players in the world.
1st part - Can somebody make some extra "Spending Money" from pool.
Answer: Hell yes, even at a local level.
Last part - Is anybody making a good living at pool.
Answer: Hell no, unless you are among the top handfull of players in the world.
True, and there are literally THOUSANDS more fish at poker than pool...
No - balled
You reported on your personal info that you are 99 years old. That's a
good thing. We can all look forward to your death of old age in the not to distant future. :grin:
You reported on your personal info that you are 99 years old. That's a
good thing. We can all look forward to your death of old age in the not to distant future. :grin:
I hope he lives forever!
Funny thing is the better you get the harder it is to make easy money. The guys that told you to gamble and it will help improve your game, now are looking for spots. All the money you dump into pool is 10 times harder to get back.