I expect that a moderate alcohol intake (maybe a couple of beers spread out over a couple of hours) won‘t materially effect performance either way. As for those who claim to actually play better after they’ve been drinking my experience, without exception, has been that those are the same people who never play unless they’ve been drinking so I’m not sure how they really know.
PUI (Playing Under the Influence)
- Thread starter dquarasr
- Start date
Sounds like a great career! No bugs is an outstanding achievement. I agree with your assessment that it is unique. Of course you were probably the only SOBER one.
There are a lot of parts of programming/software development that I absolutely would not recommend to drink while doing, but it was pleasurable for some things, almost like playing music.
I haven't been doing any programming lately but I do occasionally noodle around and the dev toys these kids have today are amazingly cool! Although I miss the structure of COBOL and RPG.
Yeah. Don't check anything in after you've been drinking! Learned that the hard way.
All of this dates back to when I was a young man: I learned to play pool while drinking heavily. A prime motivation was free beer, or at least beer or mixed drinks I didn't pay for.
I was working most of the time I was playing pool nightly, often hard physical labor. I might be climbing hundreds of feet of iron and roping up material hand over hand. If I had a single block hung to be able to pull down instead of up I thought it was a luxury! Sixty or eighty pound bundles were common and a few things weighed in at twice that. Arms and shoulders were a little tight after working like that or pulling wrenches ten or twelve hours. A few beers definitely helped unkink muscles!
I won more drunk than sober simply because I was drunk most of the time. I did beat road players when drinking so safe to say I played pretty fair drinking. I gave the sober/drinking thing some thought because there were other things I never considered drinking or smoking a doobie before, like driving a six or eight hundred horse machine around a dirt track.
Paying attention to my drunk and sober game I realized I changed styles. Sober I gave the balls a pretty solid whack. I mostly bulldozed my way through racks. After a few beers or mixed drinks I started shooting softer and seeking the easiest way to win. Sometimes I played shape just to minimize walking around the table.
Considering things, I decided my best game would be playing more my drinking style while I was sober. Practicing on a snooker table encouraged this.
I played a hippie for about a year or so that didn't pass on cutting anything. He was probably six-six, doubt he weighed a hundred pounds! He was usually ripped out of his gourd when we played. He didn't have a nerve in his body and was the best at making ridiculous cuts I have ever seen. We were usually on nine foot tables with bucket pockets and he never shot a bank or safety. Got to where we were bad for business, when we tied up everyone was soon gathered around watching. I could beat him pretty consistently if I banked when I favored that option. When I took on the challenge of cutting with him I was somewhere around fifty-fifty after the first few months. These were the rodeos that people came around to watch. Always a battle royal. I can't say if the hippie would have played better or worse straight, I don't think he was ever straight at any time of day or night.
I watched Scotty Townsend win a three day bar tournament. Aside from beer, he came in the door with a fifth or quart of hi-test. He timed it so the bottle was emptied during the finals! Another time he was keeping count of beer he drank for somebody. Starting in on Friday afternoon, by late Saturday night the count was at seventy-two and he wasn't near about done. I suspect he topped a hundred beers that weekend. He played in the finals but I don't remember if he came in first or second. I left with the finals still to be played on Sunday evening. These were tournaments that paid a couple thousand to win plus calcutta so they drew shooters from all around the gulf coast.
When somebody is used to playing on something I don't think it is a major handicap on a pool table. I forget the match but a check on youtube will show Keith playing Efren with Jeanie in the front row discreetly holding his Budweiser and passing it to him now and then. I think this was the match where he casually shot the final ball in with his off hand!
Hu
I was working most of the time I was playing pool nightly, often hard physical labor. I might be climbing hundreds of feet of iron and roping up material hand over hand. If I had a single block hung to be able to pull down instead of up I thought it was a luxury! Sixty or eighty pound bundles were common and a few things weighed in at twice that. Arms and shoulders were a little tight after working like that or pulling wrenches ten or twelve hours. A few beers definitely helped unkink muscles!
I won more drunk than sober simply because I was drunk most of the time. I did beat road players when drinking so safe to say I played pretty fair drinking. I gave the sober/drinking thing some thought because there were other things I never considered drinking or smoking a doobie before, like driving a six or eight hundred horse machine around a dirt track.
Paying attention to my drunk and sober game I realized I changed styles. Sober I gave the balls a pretty solid whack. I mostly bulldozed my way through racks. After a few beers or mixed drinks I started shooting softer and seeking the easiest way to win. Sometimes I played shape just to minimize walking around the table.
Considering things, I decided my best game would be playing more my drinking style while I was sober. Practicing on a snooker table encouraged this.
I played a hippie for about a year or so that didn't pass on cutting anything. He was probably six-six, doubt he weighed a hundred pounds! He was usually ripped out of his gourd when we played. He didn't have a nerve in his body and was the best at making ridiculous cuts I have ever seen. We were usually on nine foot tables with bucket pockets and he never shot a bank or safety. Got to where we were bad for business, when we tied up everyone was soon gathered around watching. I could beat him pretty consistently if I banked when I favored that option. When I took on the challenge of cutting with him I was somewhere around fifty-fifty after the first few months. These were the rodeos that people came around to watch. Always a battle royal. I can't say if the hippie would have played better or worse straight, I don't think he was ever straight at any time of day or night.
I watched Scotty Townsend win a three day bar tournament. Aside from beer, he came in the door with a fifth or quart of hi-test. He timed it so the bottle was emptied during the finals! Another time he was keeping count of beer he drank for somebody. Starting in on Friday afternoon, by late Saturday night the count was at seventy-two and he wasn't near about done. I suspect he topped a hundred beers that weekend. He played in the finals but I don't remember if he came in first or second. I left with the finals still to be played on Sunday evening. These were tournaments that paid a couple thousand to win plus calcutta so they drew shooters from all around the gulf coast.
When somebody is used to playing on something I don't think it is a major handicap on a pool table. I forget the match but a check on youtube will show Keith playing Efren with Jeanie in the front row discreetly holding his Budweiser and passing it to him now and then. I think this was the match where he casually shot the final ball in with his off hand!
Hu
It all depends on how well someone holds their liquor. I once played 20-40 Hold'em while I was very stoned. It cost me about $2,000 in two hours of play!
boogieman
It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that ping.
89
"Did you see that run?"
"Bro, you were using the 9 ball as the cue ball."
"Oh, I thought I was solids."
When you're feeling 10 feet tall and bulletproof, the judgement of your skill might be a bit lopsided.
"Did you see that run?"
"Bro, you were using the 9 ball as the cue ball."
"Oh, I thought I was solids."
And I think that is the crux of the matter.
Gotta practice the same way you'll play...training is of the utmost importance!
Almost all of the old players seemed to have some chemical issues. For some the chemical was alcohol. Also, alcohol could be used to fine tune a person's mix.
The old tournaments were often more a place to gather than a major event. I remember when Greenway was just past their glory years they had tournaments scheduled long in advance that only had $250 added money. Just a few years before the added money had been a thousand or more. The big guns flocked in anyway. They didn't come for the tournament, it was a gathering. The talk was much more who got who last night and were they hooking up again tonight than what was happening in the tournament.
Danged few were running three days or more pretty much around the clock on the natch. I tried speed pills, liked them way too much. I had known a couple people who burned themselves up on speed and died, no speed for me!
Hu
The old tournaments were often more a place to gather than a major event. I remember when Greenway was just past their glory years they had tournaments scheduled long in advance that only had $250 added money. Just a few years before the added money had been a thousand or more. The big guns flocked in anyway. They didn't come for the tournament, it was a gathering. The talk was much more who got who last night and were they hooking up again tonight than what was happening in the tournament.
Danged few were running three days or more pretty much around the clock on the natch. I tried speed pills, liked them way too much. I had known a couple people who burned themselves up on speed and died, no speed for me!
Hu
Its all fun and games, till you smash the cue.
Do you drink alcohol when playing?
I've figured out that drinking and playing pool doesn't work for me at all. I have a table at my house and I play often. When I'm drinking, I'm useless. I don't see how people can drink while they play. On league night, I tend to nurse the same...
forums.azbilliards.com
What do you guys drink while shooting pool?
Just started playing pool and just started drinking. Just curious :)
forums.azbilliards.com
Just for more reading entertainment
This thread makes me think of something that happened at the Tulsa Billiard Palace in the late 80's. One of the better local guys named Randy Jones was going to play roadie Charlie Ford(likely not real name. From S. Carolina he said). Charlie walked in after doing a few hits of either good blotter or window-pane acid. They flipped the coin and Charlie proceeded to play near flawless 9ball and put a pretty bad beatdown on Randy. When it was over someone asked Charlie what it was like and he said the pockets looked really big and comfy and the balls all sparkly and he just sent the sparkly balls into their dens. Crazy.
Waterdog came up to Bakersfield to play me after beating almost everyone in L.A. I only knew him by name, but had never seen him before. So this young, long haired hippie looking dude comes into my poolroom and asks my counter man if anyone here plays for money. He calls me (it's early in the day) and I tell him I can be there in 30 minutes. I come in and this hippie dude is hitting balls on the front table. The first thing I notice is his T-Shirt. It looks like the solar system with different color planets on weird orbits around a bright yellow Sun. The back of the shirt was all stars. Pretty unique and cool is my thought. I ask him if he's looking for a game and he says, "Yeah, I play all games." Okay by me, how about some $10 or $20 9-Ball. "Let's play for twenty," he says.
We are playing push out and I just play my normal game. This guy is firing at everything, no matter where I put him. He makes some, but misses more. He is firing balls in from all over the table and the cue ball is running wild. I'd never seen anyone play quite like this before. But I'm winning, so I don't say a word. He is talking too, all about the Universe, the stars and all kinds of weird shit. I'm thinking this guy is a little crazy but he has a pocket full of money. As we play he starts to act even stranger, with his gyrations and movements. I'm not really worried, but just don't know what's wrong with him. He wants to keep playing so I put up with his antics. Finally he says some more weird shit and I have to ask him what's wrong with him, why is he acting like this and talking so crazy. Now he tells me. He says, "I'm high on acid and it is so beautiful!" Now I get it, he's higher than a kite. I ask him if he wants to keep playing and he says yes, I love pool.
After a couple of hours of $20 9-Ball he's broke. I win over $500 from him. It doesn't seem to bother him in the least. He says he's hungry so I give him some food. I ask him where he's staying and he motions, "Out there!" He tells me he has no car and travels by bus. Damn, this is weird. Pretty soon he gets up to leave and I ask him if he has any more money. He reaches in his pocket and pulls out some change and a bunch of pills (maybe more acid). He says, "I have my cue and that's all I need." I hand him $40 and he takes it, and walks out the door.
Oh, one more thing. I did ask him his name during our game and he told me his name was Don, but everybody calls him Waterdog. For months after that every pool player that came through and the guys I ran into on my next trip to L.A. said they heard I busted Waterdog. I explained to them he was high on acid when we played and no one seemed surprised.
Just one more adventure I had on my journey to nowhere.
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BarBoxROB
New member
I heard that Eric Durbin played jam up on LSD only hear say never saw it myself
I've told the story more than once on here..
there was a pretty slimy dude I used to know from the tournament circuit and he was fine to be around and all that.. but nobody wanted him hanging around after the pool room. You know the type.
Anyway I'm sitting around at an event and he is messing around on an empty table and playing opposite handed. I watched that guy play for like 45 minutes with his opposite hand and he never missed a ball. Later, I mentioned him I've never been seen him play left handed and that he may be better left handed than right handed.. he looked at me but those giant pupils and said "I'm rolling man!" and walked away.
Strange world.
And... I used to know a guy whose favorite thing in the world was to smoke pcp. He used to play real good on it too, but you might have to fight him. Anyway, he told me when he smoked that stuff and stepped up to the table, the balls all had rail-lines to the pocket. I'll take his word on that one.
Lol. We could find plenty of guys who would drink 3+ beers an hour and play you (or me) for whatever you wanna do and for as many hours you wanna keep paying.
I guess maybe they wouldn't be 'serious pool players' but they can play as well as the game can be played and prefer plastered.
Guy Manges
Registered
I'm for and against all of it... Guy
I came into a bar near my home one night not far from midnight. Last stop of the night, I was only fifteen or sixteen, and I was plastered! I made it back to the challenge table by going bar stool to bar stool. Two guys were playing so I put my money up. The bet was the table and a mixed drink, $1.75 total!
I was using the table and a house cue to navigate and winning game after game. One guy saw the way things were going, the other one said "No way he can be this drunk, keep drinking, and keep winning." I was drinking out of the little tall thin highball glasses and started stacking them on one of the little round tables, 18" or two feet across. I covered the table completely and had eight or ten glasses on the second level when they ran out of glasses.
I was drinking a whiskey and coke or similar every game. Had they tested me that night they would have hauled the machine in for calibration! Never lost a game, the bar finally closed down after I played several hours or more. The other player wasn't great and I certainly don't endorse being as stupid as I was at that age but I was less than two miles from home, mostly through subdivisions and nobody out and about at two AM.
Even as young and dumb as I was then I was rarely that dumb. I took the challenge of couldn't keep drinking and winning though and I was gonna ride that pony into the ground if the other player didn't quit.
Of the handful of players that I knew of that could play drunk, most spent a lot of time drunk. A young Mike Massey comes to mind. I don't know of him using anything else but a lot of hi-test alcohol went down his gullet while playing. Others are better known but bottom line, never bet against someone simply because they are high or stoned. They may play like a god for awhile. More likely never make a ball in an ocean but you never know! A handful of times I started to pull friends out of bad games only to realize they were winning! A few of them were stunned to learn who they had beaten. The other player would have only had to give his real name for the local guy to curl up and die!
Hu
I was using the table and a house cue to navigate and winning game after game. One guy saw the way things were going, the other one said "No way he can be this drunk, keep drinking, and keep winning." I was drinking out of the little tall thin highball glasses and started stacking them on one of the little round tables, 18" or two feet across. I covered the table completely and had eight or ten glasses on the second level when they ran out of glasses.
I was drinking a whiskey and coke or similar every game. Had they tested me that night they would have hauled the machine in for calibration! Never lost a game, the bar finally closed down after I played several hours or more. The other player wasn't great and I certainly don't endorse being as stupid as I was at that age but I was less than two miles from home, mostly through subdivisions and nobody out and about at two AM.
Even as young and dumb as I was then I was rarely that dumb. I took the challenge of couldn't keep drinking and winning though and I was gonna ride that pony into the ground if the other player didn't quit.
Of the handful of players that I knew of that could play drunk, most spent a lot of time drunk. A young Mike Massey comes to mind. I don't know of him using anything else but a lot of hi-test alcohol went down his gullet while playing. Others are better known but bottom line, never bet against someone simply because they are high or stoned. They may play like a god for awhile. More likely never make a ball in an ocean but you never know! A handful of times I started to pull friends out of bad games only to realize they were winning! A few of them were stunned to learn who they had beaten. The other player would have only had to give his real name for the local guy to curl up and die!
Hu