Never played cornhole, never will, but I like canned beans. Not as good as old school soaked in a pot beans, but still pretty damn good
SVB featured on 60 min (dropped 10 hrs ago)
- Thread starter QShark
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To each his own, but I find poker completely unwatchable. In fairness, it's a game I don't play, so perhaps I'd enjoy it if I did.
Chris Moneymaker is the reason that John Q Poker Player believes he can win. A few year's after that, a guy who came second and made close to $5,000,000 noted that he felt he was only the fourth best player in his weekly poker game at home. I think his name was Danneman.
Poker has that "lottery" element that entices thousands and thousands of people to make a poor investment. Very few among the dead money are successful, but every year a few not-so-serious players cash a very big check at the WSOP.
I’m fine with people loving the gambling aspects of pool. But at the same time, one shouldn’t expect pool to go mainstream while at the same time continue to ‘embrace’ its gambling side. You can’t have it both ways. If we’re fine having gambling be forever intertwined with pool and pool culture, then we should continue to expect professional pool to remain at its current status today…which is essentially nonexistent in the mainstream world.
Badpenguin
Well-known member
This "docuseries" on amazon prime is actually pretty good. It gets better as it goes along. Some of it is goofy as shit and obviously scripted, but it also gets almost heartwarming at points. Unfortunately it costs, and pool players are notoriously cheap, so it will never go beyond a single season.
I just fail to understand why the gambling aspect of pool is still looked down upon. As has previously been noted, FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM, and possibly others run commercials on ESPN continuously. There is even an "official" sportsbook of the NFL.
Boxing is a huge sport with billions of dollars involved. But their is a ton of gambling, prop bets, and a long history of shenanigans. From Don King and his murder rap, to mobsters having fighters take dives, to judges being bought off.
shoeless joe and pete rose failed to bring down baseball, over 10 pro football players were suspended for the year for betting on games, alabama's college baseball coach was fired for betting..against his own team! All this, and yet gambling is what is holding pool back...
I just don't buy it that gambling turns off sponsors. I think if you have a product that people (the general public) can get into, develop personalities and rivalries that grab the attention of the casual fan, then folks will tune in.
I don't think it's just the gambling aspect that is the concern. I think it's the general unsavory reputation--that pool halls are filled with people who are hustling, threatening, fighting.
Lots of people watch and enjoy football or baseball or boxing without a care about gambling. But many people can't disentangle pool the game from their perception of the seedy, dangerous, low-class poolhall environment.
i think what people mean is tournament pool vs money matches, not gambling in itself. imo, online betting sponsors would do wonders for the 9-ball tour, as those kind of outside sponsors can up the prize money big time.
i don't mind money matches either btw, i just don't think it has as bright future as a professional tour does
It isn't. It's the hustling aspect of pool that is looked down upon. Anyone who doesn't think that both pros and amateurs alike are, at times, hustlers is not paying enough attention to our sport. It's true that most pool gambling is on the level, but one of pool's biggest problems is that is persists in living in denial about the fact that hustling is still common at all levels of play, professional play included.
I recall one year at Derby City seeing countless players, some of them pros, competing in "Hustlin" shirts, even on the stream table. I remember saying to the person sitting next to me, "I hope no potential out-of-industry sponsor is here." If this is how pool and pool players wish to present themselves, it's their every right, but it tends to reinforce the negative stereotypes about pool that are already out there in a way that will continue to obstruct the efforts of those trying to shed pool of its seedy image.
Golf vs pool? Come on, who in their right mind would put these two sports together? Golf has raised billions for charity over the years. Every pro golfer presents himself well in public, and those who engage in behavior detrimental to pro golf's image are disciplined. Golf takes its image seriously. Pool does not.
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1. The other sports do have structural oversight which in turn promotes the confidence that gaming the system is punished, as all of your examples show. If some oversight commission for pool suspended Mike Lebron, Buddy Hall and the rest of the gang for life following the 1991 incident, there would be a belief that pool is above the board gambling (even if some shenannigans do take place from time to time).
2. Bob's Corner Tavern 40 miles outside of some random mid-sized US city doesn't have a baseball field, poker tables, golf course, boxing ring, football field, etc.... but it does have 2 Valley bar boxes that are ripe for abuse. This is where a lot the issues happen, or are percieved to happen. Alcohol + Gambling + Playing bar rules 8-ball and its arbitrary set of rules is a bad mix. Works of fiction also do not paint friendly pictures of pool halls, bar rooms, etc.. When 60 minutes brings this perception up, it's not because it's entirely fake.
3. While gambling (or really hustling), or that side of the sport, is not a problem for most of us signing up for a website called "AZBilliards", the hustling perception of the sport will impact the degree at which parents allow or encourage their kids to take up interest in it, creating a ceiling for advertisers to consider. In order to enjoy watching pool, you have to play a few racks to really understand how it's no where near as easy as it looks on TV. Dad taking his 12 year old son to the driving range to hit some balls is going to percieved as far better than Dad taking junior to the pool hall.
Ok. That makes more sense. It's just most of these type threads only reference gambling. Mea Culpa.
My buddy has one of these Hustlin shirts. My little girl thought it meant to hustle, like I yell to her when playing softball. I never corrected her.
I don't remember mentioning golf, but since it is brought up....
yes, kudos to the PGA
These dudes would like a word with you!
Some fairly recent Golf Headlines:
Phil Mickelson acknowledges 'reckless' gambling addiction amid LIV Golf uproar, report he lost $40M.
Tiger Woods checks himself into a rehab facility for sex addiction!
PGA Tour golfer Erik Compton arrested, charged for domestic dispute in Florida
After spending 30 months in three different prisons, two-time major champion Angel Cabrera will be released on Friday, per Golf Digest. Dating back to 2016, Cabrera has been dealing with his legal troubles. The 53-year-old has served a sentence for domestic violence against his ex-wife and other lesser chargesIsn't there a pro tour financed by the same group who murdered an innocent reporter?
To Stu and all golf fans: Just bustin yall's chops and having a little fun. No ill intent!
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Somewhat reminiscent of when Babe Ruth was told by a journalist that he was making more money than the President of the United States (Calvin Coolidge, I think). Ruth's brilliant reply was, to paraphrase, "that's as it should be, for I had a better year than him." The superstars don't see far beyond their own arenas.
Can't have it both ways?
80 percent of pro sports are legally bet on here.
So why is it good for the others and not pool?
Pool is pretty boring to.watch unless you have a skin in the game.
Getting non pool players to watch is never gonna happen either.
I'd say gambling could do wonders for pool....especially if pool backed by an online gambling company.
Of course pool players would probably screw that up again as before.
That's the media for ya.... If you'll start calling the sponsors & telling them what you think, You'll dry up the waterhole, the bastards drink from...
No, I am not.
As noted in post 68 in this thread, I said "most pool gambling is on the level". Gambling is and always be part of pool, and I'm fine with that. I only took exception to hustling and it is the only that type of gambling, still rampant at all levels of play, that drags down the image of pool.
The Vegas point doesn't work. How does playing roulette in Vegas differ from gambling at pool with somebody whom you know to be a slightly better pool player than yourself? You know the odds are against you before the game begins, but you play because you enjoy it. Same thing with horse racing. When you enter the track, you know that the odds are against your winning but you do it because it's fun and you'll enjoy it if you have a few dollars riding on the outcome of the races. Is sports betting any different? Most of us make "investments" which are losers in the long run for entertainment value, even if it's only buying a lottery ticket.
when people gambled more at pool there were many more rooms and most making money. the fun players dont come in often enough. so it has turned to league pool on bar tables.
seedy poolrooms you guys watch to much tv. pool rooms have mostly been places gamblers and family could go to. there were of course a few exceptions but not the rule.
everyone gambles every day for money on things. they just dont want to admit it. and use the holier than thou thing for themselves.
if they were talented enough to win at any gambling game they would be doing it.
seedy poolrooms you guys watch to much tv. pool rooms have mostly been places gamblers and family could go to. there were of course a few exceptions but not the rule.
everyone gambles every day for money on things. they just dont want to admit it. and use the holier than thou thing for themselves.
if they were talented enough to win at any gambling game they would be doing it.
To me, the biggest thing was being able to play online. It let everyone play without much effort.