So - who here plays this game for the fun?

J

JasBy

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Just making an observation - at this moment on the first page of posts are separate threads discussion the ills of drinking while playing pool, the ills of being social and talking while playing pool, and the ills of music while playing pool.

I personally play bar league pool and do it as much for the social aspect, not only for my teammates, but the opponents as well. We have for the most part played each other 30ish weeks a year for the past 10+ years. I've also played on more serious teams and leagues, but still the social aspect was high, even when playing with some of the best players in the area.

Now to each his own, and I can understand some of the points being raised in the other threads, but we all have to remember that we want to grow the pool community, and frankly, if I was a new pool player that stumbled in here due to a Google search and read some of these threads talking about 'bar sluts wanting the music too loud' I would close my browser and never come back. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and we should express the bad as well as the good - I just wanted to add to the good side.

I play this game because I love it and it's fun - it's fun for me, for my friends, and hopefully for my opponents, win or lose.

Why do you love this game?
 
because its challenging and fun game that the entire family can enjoy
or a person can enjoy it all by his own

alot of history as well

it can take more than a lifetime to master
if ever
so many levels of skill

I have so much admiration for it

im not a gambler either so for me gambling doesn't even enter the equation
 
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I only play for fun as I gave up gambling a few years ago. IMO when you gamble you are doing it for the money and that is fine if thats what you want to do. Myself I just enjoy playing and will play for fun all day if I had the time to do so.
 
I don't gamble and I don't drink. Guess that means I'd better be playing for fun.
 
it is obvious i learned to play in a far different environment than the previous posters. while gambling maybe considered by many as an "ugly side" of pool; to me and i assure you many others it is just a means of keeping score. whether it is the obligatory game of 8 ball for your favorite beverage or $100 9 ball it is just the pool players means of making sure they do their best or they will have to pay the price.

so to each his own. so when i ask you if you want to wager on a particular game and smile when you say no, it is my way of asking do you want to play a game and give me your very best. nothing more ... nothing less.
 
I play for the love of the game. I am not good, like at all. I struggle to hang at the mid-their of a league that varies from absolute newbie to probably B speed. If it's anything like golf in 3-4 years I'll be solidly at the low end of mediocre. It's not for lack of trying, I just don't have any natural skill and have to fight for even the slightest improvements.

But for some reason I love this game, it fascinates me and I can play by myself at a table for hours and hours. There are only two things I truly enjoy doing on my own...golf and pool.

I'm playing in a league for the first time ever now, I'll play some really cheap sets on occasion and I'll have a beer or two sometimes....but mostly I play because I love it. I will go to the pool hall at 11am every Saturday and Sunday when it's quiet and I can just practice alone...me, the table, the balls, and my cue. For me, that's enough.
 
JasBy said:
Just making an observation - at this moment on the first page of posts are separate threads discussion the ills of drinking while playing pool, the ills of being social and talking while playing pool, and the ills of music while playing pool.

I personally play bar league pool and do it as much for the social aspect, not only for my teammates, but the opponents as well. We have for the most part played each other 30ish weeks a year for the past 10+ years. I've also played on more serious teams and leagues, but still the social aspect was high, even when playing with some of the best players in the area.

Now to each his own, and I can understand some of the points being raised in the other threads, but we all have to remember that we want to grow the pool community, and frankly, if I was a new pool player that stumbled in here due to a Google search and read some of these threads talking about 'bar sluts wanting the music too loud' I would close my browser and never come back. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and we should express the bad as well as the good - I just wanted to add to the good side.

I play this game because I love it and it's fun - it's fun for me, for my friends, and hopefully for my opponents, win or lose.

Why do you love this game?
Click to expand...
Probably everybody who plays. They day it isn't fun anymore I would quit.
 
Like another person allready said, the pool hall is a great escape. If I've had a bad day at work or whatever I can always count on a trip to the poolroom to make me feel better. I can practice by myself and engross myself in the game completely shutting everything out, or talk with my pool hall buddies, even play a backroom card game (shhh!) if I want. It's the perfect place to forget the outside world, because in there nothing really changes. The characters stay pretty much the same, as does the furniture, layout etc, it's a world of its own where nothing you do outside the poolroom truely matters to anyone. I truely feel like a completely different person, more myself than anywhere else, in the poolroom.

The deep concentration, the feeling of immense accomplishment which non-pool players will never understand, together with the "isolation" from the outside world makes pool the perfect hobby. And I also love that it is a game for life. Even as an old geezer, there is still a chance that I will drag myself and an oxygen tank around the table with me, as long as my eyes don't give out. If so I'll be a stakehorse/railbird. The poolroom has room for everybody.
 
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I play for the fun of it, although I doubt if I'd play at all if it weren't for One Pocket.
There is enough players at my pool hall, excuse me, sports bar and grill (damn it), so we get in a lot of team OP, and that's fun. A lot of hooting and hollering, there.
I don't gamble because I just never wanted to go down that road. I've never seen any good come out of it in the long run. It will perk up your game, that's for sure, but it isn't necessary for becoming a good, or great, player.
I also enjoy the young waitresses where I play. Every now and then I'll get a fist bump out of one of them, and all of a sudden I'm a youngster again. Then I go into the men's room, look into the mirror, and weep.
Now what was your question? :smile:
 
I've played the game since I was 12 yrs. old (about to turn 65), spent three years on the road, owned and ran poolrooms for 20 yrs., directed a 9 ball Tour for 10 yrs and have played leagues during most of it. Through all of it, I did it for my love of the game.

Since I retired from the tour and directing tourneys, I play once a week on a small 20 team BCA league with my friends mostly for the social aspect. Since I know all the players in the league, each week I get to catch up with many old friends whom my team is playing against. It's like living in a small town where everyone knows each other.

I got the itch a few months ago with the goal to start playing in regional and state level tourneys. As of now, I haven't had the time to spend on the big table that I need to be competitive again. I plan to make time though as I just bought a new BK3 break cue.

In fact, it just dawned on me that instead of sitting here typing on the computer, I should be at the poolroom practicing.

So, see ya! LOL


Stones
 
I play for fun. Especially when it's $100 sets. Even more fun when it's $500. And as for all the hoopla over music and talking and such who cares? It doesn't bother me at all. It's been that way since I was 8 and the only thing that's changed is instead of Skynyrd and Hank Jr. it's Taylor Swift or Katy Perry or some other slut singing. If I don't like it I put in my ear buds and listen to something I do like. If a guy comes talking trash while I'm playing I just ask him to get his money out or shut the fu€k up, tuck his tail between his legs and go away till he grows a pair. If someone is talking socially around our money game I smile because I know it's bothering the guy I'm playing while I barely even notice.

But I got no problem with guys who don't gamble and play "just for fun". And I think it's really egotistical, condescending and insulting for guys to look down on such players as if they are playing meaningless games. We have an A player locally that never gambles but he will clean your plow for you. He and I are about dead even and I often play him for hours. Takes all I got to beat him and trust me, he's giving his best effort every time. And he does it because he loves the game. If you can't give your best effort without putting money on the line you need to quit, you're an insult to the game itself.
 
ExilePreacher said:
I play for fun. Especially when it's $100 sets. Even more fun when it's $500. And as for all the hoopla over music and talking and such who cares? It doesn't bother me at all. It's been that way since I was 8 and the only thing that's changed is instead of Skynyrd and Hank Jr. it's Taylor Swift or Katy Perry or some other slut singing. If I don't like it I put in my ear buds and listen to something I do like. If a guy comes talking trash while I'm playing I just ask him to get his money out or shut the fu€k up, tuck his tail between his legs and go away till he grows a pair. If someone is talking socially around our money game I smile because I know it's bothering the guy I'm playing while I barely even notice.

But I got no problem with guys who don't gamble and play "just for fun". And I think it's really egotistical, condescending and insulting for guys to look down on such players as if they are playing meaningless games. We have an A player locally that never gambles but he will clean your plow for you. He and I are about dead even and I often play him for hours. Takes all I got to beat him and trust me, he's giving his best effort every time. And he does it because he loves the game. If you can't give your best effort without putting money on the line you need to quit, you're an insult to the game itself.
Click to expand...

I like the second paragraph better than the first, but I'll take either over much of what is posted on AZ.

I saved and bought a table at thirteen, having been around pool only on rare occasions and never around real pool players.

I am lucky in that I knew a lot about myself at a very early age. I knew I would be a mechanical engineer before I knew there were words for what I wanted to be. I knew I loved pool from the first time I saw a table and was allowed to use a cue...I was about eight.

I can't honestly say that I am always playing for fun and I can definitely say that I don't always have fun playing. Playing for me is a lot more like breathing. Sure, I can stop doing either for a while, but eventually the burn is too great and I have to start again.

I used to love foosball. I played at least three foosball tourneys a week for three years. During those three years, I almost never touched a pool table. Eventually I tired of the foosball scene (the people and the attitudes, not the game) and I walked away completely. After seven years I don't get the urge to play foosball.

I've had to take breaks of up to 3mos many times for work--when I travel I am working so much that there simply isn't the time or energy to spare to play. When I get back, tho, I am at the table.

I, as a rule, don't gamble. I did, small stakes or drinks, small ring games, but I'm not in love with the competition any longer. I've played a few tourneys recently and haven't lost a match, but it just doesn't add anything to the experience.

I don't do anything without giving 100%. Whether it is making cues, working, making cue cases, friendships, making knives, building my truck or my brothers motorcycle frame, I am fully invested.

So...for fun? No. I enjoy it, but I play because I need to play.
 
I used to gamble, now I play for the fun of the game.
Things have really changed {for the worse as far as I am concerned}
in several ways in the past 50 years.
People used to mind their own business, and if you played for a couple of dollars , someone might lose 20 or 30 bucks and be friends the next day and play again.
There were some stone cold hustlers , and all kinds of con men and crooks hanging around but they could mostly only cheat you, if you stuck your nose in their business.
There were all kinds of personalities and levels of players and people seemed to enjoy themselves.
Now , I see the same guy in 99% of the faces in the poolroom.
He's the knocker nit that was always the loudest guy in the room.
He killed action like it was a calling and sniped every young kid , old man or weak person that came through the door and loved to constantly tell everyone how sharp he was.
If he made a mistake and played someone that wasn't stone cold dead , he was 1 and done.
He never carried more than 12 dollars on him just in case he did get his nose open , it wouldn't cost him anything.
When he made a 10 dollar score he went around and chirped in everyones ear , thinking they were impressed.
There used to be 1 of these guys in every pool room.
Now if there are 20 people in there , 18 of them are clones of this guy.
The part I really don't understand is that most of them don't spend a dime unless they are robbing someone and then they complain because they have to pay 2 dollars in table time to run off potential customers forever and no one seems to care?
 
JasBy said:
Just making an observation - at this moment on the first page of posts are separate threads discussion the ills of drinking while playing pool, the ills of being social and talking while playing pool, and the ills of music while playing pool.

I personally play bar league pool and do it as much for the social aspect, not only for my teammates, but the opponents as well. We have for the most part played each other 30ish weeks a year for the past 10+ years. I've also played on more serious teams and leagues, but still the social aspect was high, even when playing with some of the best players in the area.

Now to each his own, and I can understand some of the points being raised in the other threads, but we all have to remember that we want to grow the pool community, and frankly, if I was a new pool player that stumbled in here due to a Google search and read some of these threads talking about 'bar sluts wanting the music too loud' I would close my browser and never come back. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and we should express the bad as well as the good - I just wanted to add to the good side.

I play this game because I love it and it's fun - it's fun for me, for my friends, and hopefully for my opponents, win or lose.

Why do you love this game?
Click to expand...

I play for fun but can't stand "bar pool", those players usually start yelling and hooting at every shot that goes in and seem to make up new rules during every shot. That pool is only fun if you are drunk.

There is playing with friends for fun when you are not in a tournament, but I don't view that the same as playing with someone that put on rap music at 11 volume and tries to tell me that if you hit 3 rails with the cueball it's not a scratch.
 
I do both. I play league/tournies and I take it very seriously and expect to do well. The best thing I've done is get on a league with my wife and friends and it's much more social. We are still competitive and want to win but nothing like any other pool I play. This has been a nice change and it's fun helping beginners/average players get better and teach them some things.

We all have a couple drinks and a good time. Sometimes we forget this game is fun, and think that the fun part is winning/playing well. Good game, good company, good times.
 
Strictly for fun, play local league 8 ball and 9 ball. I want the challenge of trying to improve my game that to me is what it's all about.
 
I've played pool off and on my entire life. In my 20's, I hung out in a pool hall and had a blast! I was a mediocre player, I could hold my own. Fast forward to my late 40's- we bought a house and I got a man cave. A pool table was essential. It's fun for me. I can wager a bit, but it's mainly for the love of the game. I play every day, I don't hafta go to a pool hall. I like it much better. My friends play here or I go to their place, we never play for cash. I love this game. The reason? There is always someone better than me that I can learn from. Or, I can help someone who's interested. At this point, the game is mental to me. I instinctively know how and what I'm doing however, my metal capacity doesn't let me at times...
 
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