Reigning Back Pocket Campion of the World.

gulyassy

Custom Cues Since 1986
Silver Member
Back in Greenville SC for a few weeks and I am offering one on one lessons in my shop at my home on a 4 1/2 by 9 Diamond Pool table with 4 3/8 pockets and tournament blue cloth. I can teach all these secrets that I have been reading about that I thought was the only way to play. I have been playing pool for 42 years. I have been teaching for 42 years. I am the reigning Back Pocket Champion of the World, played on the Mosconi Cup 2 years in a row, won countless tournaments and love pool. I know how to win which is something that most pool instructors can only guess about. My skills include all games and focus on basics and winning. PM me if anyone is interested in learning the secrets of pool. Privacy is my promise.
 
Isn't that the only back pocket tournament they ever held professionally?

As far as I know it was. It was the first time I ever played Back Pocket. I was just there to do cue repair and they needed players because of a small field. I learned the rules as I played.
 
Back in Greenville SC for a few weeks and I am offering one on one lessons in my shop at my home on a 4 1/2 by 9 Diamond Pool table with 4 3/8 pockets and tournament blue cloth. I can teach all these secrets that I have been reading about that I thought was the only way to play. I have been playing pool for 42 years. I have been teaching for 42 years. I am the reigning Back Pocket Champion of the World, played on the Mosconi Cup 2 years in a row, won countless tournaments and love pool. I know how to win which is something that most pool instructors can only guess about. My skills include all games and focus on basics and winning. PM me if anyone is interested in learning the secrets of pool. Privacy is my promise.

So, you started teaching the same year you began playing?
 
So, you started teaching the same year you began playing?

As soon as I figured something out about playing and another people wanted to learn or playing with a friend I let them know what I had discovered. In the beginning I was way off about pool but I enjoyed helping others. After a few years I was able to teach simple basics that made my game begin to blossom. Within a few more years I discovered the secret of center to edge. This I learned in the first 5 years. I also learned center ball and started destroying my opponents. I lived at the Hilltop Motel in Hudson Ohio for about 10 years. It had a Gold Crown 1 and 2 bar tables and was open 24 hours a day. I only lost 4 times, once to Jay Swanson and once to Bobby Sneider, a local from Cleveland, once to Grover, and once to Amil Glocart. I played everybody that came in because the owner, Ralf called me down to the bar when ever there was action. I played Leo Gay, Jimmy Marino, Mighty Mouse, Bill Steigal, gave Joe Kerr the 7, busted and stranded Junky Randy and Mark Mario, just to name a few. Yes I picked my games well but after a few years I played everybody. This is where I developed my game and became a player. I left the Hilltop at 27 and stayed on the road for years making a living. When action became scarce I went to work fixing cues but still playing. I started making cues 25 years ago and here I am ready to get at it again.
 
Sure, playing extremely well, teaching and all that's cool but can you build a really good playing cue, or how about a bad-azz break cue?
 
Mike, can you explain what you mean by the secret of center to edge?
It is an aiming technique that enables you to see very clearly where to aim the cue ball at certain cut shots which goes directly to the center of the pocket.
 
Do you still have this vest? It's a cool vest! :cool:
 

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Do you still have this vest? It's a cool vest! :cool:

You know what. I was the only US player to beat Oliver in a singles match this year of the Oliver Ortman Dream Team. He beat Dallas West in the finals of the World Championship in Taiwan that year.
 
How is back pocket played?

Starts out like 9 ball except it is call pocket and call safe. Missing a called ball or making a called safe results in the option to take or give the shot back. Every game each player has a pocket on the end where you break from alternating the pockets every game. The object is to make the 9 in your pocket. If the 9 goes the game is over scratch or not. The 9 cannot be hit out of turn or it will be placed back by the incoming player or his option, and it is spotted on the rack side. Race to whatever, 9 in the tournament I played in, one race to 11 in the finals.
 
It is an aiming technique that enables you to see very clearly where to aim the cue ball at certain cut shots which goes directly to the center of the pocket.

Mike, this is intriguing, because you must have learned this technique in the 1970's, right?

Are you familiar with the center-to-edge (CTE) aiming method taught by Hal Houle and refined in recent years by Stan Shuffett? If so, is your technique similar to theirs?

Did you personally discover/develop your CTE aiming technique or did you learn it from someone else? If the latter, do you remember who else was using it or teaching it in that era?

I don't know whether you are aware of it, but the Houle/Shuffett type of CTE aiming is quite a controversial topic on this forum and has led to numerous lengthy threads with vociferous proponents and opponents. If you developed or learned something similar 35 years ago, you may know or represent an important Missing Link in our knowledge of the development of such methods.

[Edit: I also realize that you may just be talking about aiming the center of the cue ball at the edge of the object ball, or a little thicker or a little thinner hit than that, for shots that are in the vicinity of 30-degree cuts. If so, that technique is just part of fractional-ball aiming, and probably goes way back. It will be interesting to hear more about the nature of your technique.]
 
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As soon as I figured something out about playing and another people wanted to learn or playing with a friend I let them know what I had discovered. In the beginning I was way off about pool but I enjoyed helping others. After a few years I was able to teach simple basics that made my game begin to blossom. Within a few more years I discovered the secret of center to edge. This I learned in the first 5 years. I also learned center ball and started destroying my opponents. I lived at the Hilltop Motel in Hudson Ohio for about 10 years. It had a Gold Crown 1 and 2 bar tables and was open 24 hours a day. I only lost 4 times, once to Jay Swanson and once to Bobby Sneider, a local from Cleveland, once to Grover, and once to Amil Glocart. I played everybody that came in because the owner, Ralf called me down to the bar when ever there was action. I played Leo Gay, Jimmy Marino, Mighty Mouse, Bill Steigal, gave Joe Kerr the 7, busted and stranded Junky Randy and Mark Mario, just to name a few. Yes I picked my games well but after a few years I played everybody. This is where I developed my game and became a player. I left the Hilltop at 27 and stayed on the road for years making a living. When action became scarce I went to work fixing cues but still playing. I started making cues 25 years ago and here I am ready to get at it again.

Don't count Jay Swanson , almost everyone lost to him for the cash.
 
mike i got that match of you and grady on back pocket nine ball kind of reminds me how they played back to front one pocket years ago:thumbup:
 
''mg'',,,,,,,,

For a real treat,,check out Mike playing back pocket on Accu-stats if Pat Fleming has any copies left,,,

Mike, always the consumate gentleman was nice enough to sign my tapes at the ''Hopkins Expo''...

Thanks again buddy!!

,,,,,,,,,Alan,,,,,,,,
 
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