Non-Gambling Pool Players

[Biloxi Boy]

Do they exist?
What I am trying to determine is if a new breed is here. Are the new folks the same as the old? What can y'all tell me?

 

[jasonlaus]

Do they exist?
What I am trying to determine is if a new breed is here. Are the new folks the same as the old? What can y'all tell me?

Used to be everybody in the bar would play for $5 to $20/game all night no matter how good the player holding the table was.

Now they quit playing for free because they don't want to put quarters in the table.

Nobody gambles anymore, not even for a cheap beer

 

[couldnthinkof01]

There's usually always someone willing to play in my experience.
Not like it once was though.

 

[FairladyZ]

Our favorite back in the day was race to 5 for $25 9-ball at the pool room. Nowadays, getting the screen out of their faces is a bigger challenge....I guess I don't see thrill in online gambling.

 

[maha]

you can find games for peanuts. that is amounts you wouldn't play for years back so why now.

i get decent well off older people ask me to play and i say i play for money what do you want to do. and they walk away as they want to only play for kicks.
you cant any anyone in most pool rooms to play for cash and few if any in a bar.
the younger crowd do not gamble.

 

[DynoDan]

True. The world certainly has changed. Anyone desperate for a little action, and willing to play for pennies even, is considered a con man looking to steal your life savings. Go figure. True sportsmen game for competition, appears to be an extinct species.

 

[Johnny Rosato]

There's 3 or 4 players here in Birmingham might play for a beer or so.

 

[nataddrho]

I started playing in 2005, so it’s been 20 years. I only started playing as a release from academic stress, and never was around the game or any type of gambling growing up. I am part of the new breed that is mostly fascinated with the beauty of precision as a skill. I work too hard for my money to associate it with macho posturing, and can find many like minded people to play the game with for free and for simple enjoyment. Much like many who play golf and strive for the perfectly repeatable stroke. It is a meditative activity for me as opposed to a competitive activity, and an automatic benefit is an excellent attitude that people enjoy being around.

In general I was raised that gambling is an addiction and is to be avoided at all costs.

 

[maha]

too bad you missed out on a great thing. gambling has been around forever and you do it yourself for large amounts even though you do not want to admit it.

gambling can be an addiction as also many things you likely do as well.

 

[markjames]

people to play the game with for free and for simple enjoyment.

it’s a beautiful game played by beautiful people for beautiful reasons

art work can sell for high dollars but
the creating of art is not about money

 

[Rusty in Montana]

A life long family friend once told me that I should only gamble with money I won while gambling !
I enjoy playing in tournaments but rarely ever gamble outside of a tournament .

Between the friend and my family they convinced me not to get to carried away , I know how boring !

 

[Sealegs50]

I don’t often play for money. But I don’t consider $5-10 sets to be gambling. As long as my losses are less than the cost of entering a tournament, it doesn’t feel like gambling to me.

I used to play a friend who really like to play for something even if it was small amounts. I was the stronger 9B player and he was better at 1P. We’d warm up by playing $5 sets of 9B and then play $5 games of 1P. That same $5 went back and forth for years.

Although the courtesy seems to have been lost over the years, if I am playing someone and my opponent has been winning more than me, I’ll cover the table time.

 

[maha]

yea as said, even those that think they are playing for money are betting a cup of coffee or less a game. thats not gambling.

if you dont gamble thats fine you are not a nit or a bad person just of a different nature of a gambler.

but realize you do gamble on things for more than you would at pool every day of your life. and many times are gambling your life on it.

 

[PoolBum]

Our favorite back in the day was race to 5 for $25 9-ball at the pool room.

When I was a graduate student I used to play races to 7 for $40 until I could either pay my rent or I was homeless.

 

[gregcantrall]

I never considered it "gambling". The money was just a way to keep score. Sometimes a quarter on the 5 and fifty cents on the 9. Ten on the 5 and twenty on the 9 did happen on occasion.
That was long ago and far away.

 

[Fatboy]

True. The world certainly has changed. Anyone desperate for a little action, and willing to play for pennies even, is considered a con man looking to steal your life savings. Go figure. True sportsmen game for competition, appears to be an extinct species.

Yet they go to casinos and give it away……I can’t figure it out….

 

[Fatboy]

too bad you missed out on a great thing. gambling has been around forever and you do it yourself for large amounts even though you do not want to admit it.

gambling can be an addiction as also many things you likely do as well.

I’ve gambled for years at everything, lived in Vegas forever. Yet I don’t go to casinos and I’ve never been addicted to gambling. I suppose for some that’s an issue/ lucky I’m not in that category.


Tails!!!


Fatboy

 

[Buckzapper]

I was never much of a gambler but played and won my share of ring games. I was fortunate to live near Albany, NY (70s) and I did watch Mike Zuglan match up for the cash on a pretty regular basis. Players such as Steve Mizerak, Ray Martin, Jim Rempe and a few road players just as tough, would come into the Golden Cue and would lose their money. Most tried with 14.1 and 9 ball. A couple shooters thought they'd get their money back playing 3 cushion. Wrong....Zuglan played some top end 3 cushion as well. It's one thing to gamble at pool a little, but it's another story when you're trying to take money from world class talent such as Mike Zuglan.

 

[straightline]

I'm nearly a squeaky toy baht aye...

 

[Bavafongoul]

Races for $5, $10 & $20 sets aren’t hard to find. Just playing for a beer will cost you $7-10 bucks for only one beer.