Try To Go Pro?
Practice everyday for eight hours. Take lessons, read books and watch videos of the pro matches. If you do all this for about five years and you have the natural talent to go with it, you could make it to the pro-level in pool.
But wait, unless you?re in the top twenty or so out of the hundreds of professional pool players in the United States, you won?t earn over the poverty level after expenses. Some pros in other countries do far better. Their governments help sponsor them.
Here in the states most of the top tournaments pay between six and fifteen thousand for first place, with one paying forty. All you have to do is beat about fifty champions from all over the world. There might be ten of these a year all over the country. Then you have the many small tournaments across the country that pay one to five thousand for first. If you don?t have a sponsor that pays all your expenses, it comes out of your pocket. Figure ten tournaments a year, between a thousand and fifteen hundred dollars for each one you enter. That?s for entry fee, from two hundred to five hundred, hotel or motel at fifty to a hundred a night, times three or four nights, food and travel to get there and back. If you?re going from Florida to Vegas you?re looking at four to five hundred round-trip. And that?s not counting the many small tournaments you need to go to try and make ends meet. I can?t think of many jobs that would pay you less than thirty thousand a year for five years of experience, five years of schooling or instruction. They would all pay you more than most pros earn in tournaments.
Just go online and click on a few players from your state to see what they made over the years. Then count how many tournaments they played in a year. Let?s say they played in ten tournaments last year, winning Thirty-five thousand. Ten times a thousand each for expenses equals ten thousand. Then take fifteen percent out for Uncle Sam. As you can see, they earned less than twenty-five thousand without any healthcare, retirement, vacation, or any other perks a regular job has. And this is a pro pool player in the top thirty out of thousands of them. Most don?t even make expenses. They live with friends and relatives. They sleep in their old cars at tournaments, and borrow money to get by. It?s a shame. Just a note?in 2005 and 2006 there was a new nine million-dollar tour called the International Pool Tour that went under after four tournaments. About six million in prize money was won. Some players won two hundred thousand dollars or more. One won over a half a million. So when you check out the tournament payoffs for the players?don?t use 2005 or 2006. If this tour had made it, pool would be a major sport on TV today and players would have made a good living and be household names. Right now the women on the Women?s Professional Billiard Tour have their act together. They are the only real tour. You will see them on TV ten times more than the men are now. Some of the best female players in the world are on the tour, and more are coming to the United States every month. While we are on the subject of women pool players just let me say this. Don?t take any women you haven?t seen play lightly. There are thousands of women playing now that can hold their own or beat an average player. Most guys never associate women with hustling pool. Women that are at the tops of there state regional tours think nothing of jumping in their car and going a state or two away to hustle pool. A few of them make their living that way. Most of the top pro women can and have run over one hundred balls in straight pool without a miss. It?s not unusual for a woman pro to run five racks of nine-ball. If she is good-looking she will use that to her advantage. By the time the guy figures out that he?s being hustled, his wallet is empty. Been there, did that years ago and it wasn?t a top woman pro either. So you?ve been warned. I?m not saying never play a woman for money, I?m just saying be careful. Don?t jump into a game with her before you know how well she plays.
Years ago a good player could hustle pool on the road in other states where he or she weren?t known. Now you have the Internet with every pool pro, hustler, and road player at the click of a mouse. Every poolroom has a computer to check for pictures of that stranger that just walked in and wants to play for some big money. Add to that the cost of travel, motels, and food. Hustling on the road is just about a thing of the past. Which is really a shame because that?s where most of the great players and stories come from over the last hundred years.
Here are some of the hustles I?ve pulled and had pulled on me over the years.
