The Joy of Pool

S

Secaucus Fats

Banned
I thought I'd start a thread about the joyful experiences in pool. This is not about technique or skills, it's about those things that make you want to keep on playing. The moments we savor as players. So come on, share the things that make you happy!

One of the things that really makes me happy is the feeling I get after a comeback when I'd been written off and left for dead by my opponent, and the spectators. Tonight I had my back up against the wall. My opponent in a race to 5 (8 Ball) was on the hill and I needed 5. He broke, made a couple, and then turned the table over on an unforced error. I didn't break a sweat, I didn't panic, I just played my game (including a prolonged safety exchange), and won five straight for the victory! Man, that felt good!:)
 
There is one moment I'll never forget.
A couple of years ago the poolroom owner opened up a room just off the main part of the pool hall where couples could sit and chat, have an adult beverage, and dance to the music from the jukebox. He called it the Blue Room.
One night I met a woman at the bar who, after a couple of cocktails, agreed to go into the Blue Room with me and listen to the music
To say this woman was beautiful would be an understatement, but there was however one small problem. She had a deformity. It turned out she had been born with three breasts. The normal two breasts in front, and a third breast on her back.
It was some of the best slow dancing I ever had. :D
 
1. My 2 y/o daughter making her first ball (with my help) but she did it the right way.
2. Running 3 of 5 racks, a nine ball break and leaving my opp no shot in the other game.
3. Six ball break.
4. Playing JDB about once a month or so, those are fun matches.
5. When I first learned how to draw a ball with some degree of control.
6. Attending RandyG's class and learning that pool and hitting a ball is not a random act.
7. My first 14.1 run into another rack. That as very nice.
 
I played a big event one time and was goin all the way, easy-like...till I got waxed 2 sets in a row, 9-2 and 7-1. The air up thar was thin!

That made me want it more for shore.
 
Joy of Pool



About a year ago a friend and I went out of town he was working and I was going to lay around the room, work on the computer and then we were going to stay out and play pool all night.

While he was gone during the day I had a wonderful conversation with a tournament director, worked on my book and went next door had a great steak, redskin mashed potatoes and brocolli and since they were on sale 3 Long Island Iced teas. Went back to the room slept the best Ive ever slept, my friend drove to the tournament and I walked in drew one of the most notorious gamblers in the state. He broke and before he got stopped having control put 4 racks on me in a race to 5. Score 4-0. I got up and decided he wasnt to see the ball again and before I lost complete control I put 5 on him. That was a great day and as long as I live and drink Long Islands maybe one day I will do it again. So far my best day in Pool. Whoo Hooo!

336robin:thumbup:
 
The day I truly learned what a stroke was; and how to do it. It wasn't that long ago, so I still get a kick out of watching the cue ball doing amazing things. :)

The first time I broke and ran a rack of 8-ball.
The first time I broke and ran a rack of 9-ball.
The first time I broke and ran a rack of 10-ball.

All of which were since the beginning of this year.

Really learning how to play 1-pocket - then hearing my mentor gripe about how I left him with nothing. :)

I hope to have a joyful - yet revengeful - return to a particular tournament later this summer.
 
As I've said before I am playing in a league for the first time this session. The first 2 weeks I was so nervous for some reason my hands were shaking. I missed shots I don't normally miss and lost to players I would normally beat.

So to answer the question the joy for me now is getting down on a shot with everything steady and being able to trust that I will play the way I do outside of leagues.
 
The come from waaayyy behind matches are always memorable. I had one in Vegas at the APA Nationals in 2001. Our team had made the final 8 and I was playing well all week. At that point, I was 6-0 as a 6.

I drew another 6 in the 5th set of the quarter finals. For whatever reason, I started slowly and got down 4-0. My opponent was on his way out, but I could tell the nerves were setting in. He was getting slower and slower and his stroke got a little jabby. He finally gets to the 8, which was a fairly easy shot when it isn't the 5th set of the quarters, and after many attempts to settle himself, he shoots and misses.

I'd love to tell you I ran the set out, but it wasn't that pretty. I did, however, manage to fight and claw my way back to win the match 5-4. At that point, that was the biggest pressure match I had ever played in. Especially knowing the prize money difference at that level.

We lost in the semi's the next morning, but I always remember that match as an example of "you can do it".
 
Great comments and observations so far.

I have repped each and everyone of you. :)

I just remembered the days when I was new to the game; the first time I saw a really perfect draw shot and wondered if I had really seen it. My reaction was along the lines of 'wow---how the hell did he do that'? I remember how happy I was the first time I shot a draw shot...it was like I had learned to make the magic work for me.

I believe that for us pool players, the joy of this game lies in that we never stop discovering things, testing ourselves, gaining experience, and having fun with it...all the while adding more arrows to our quivers.
 
one shot long long ago

A lot of memories since then but the first I remember is one shot on a challenge table when I was fifteen or sixteen. It was on the eightball in an eightball game and the shot was a three-quarter length straight back bank, except I planned to carom off of the opponent's ball about a foot away from the side pocket and make the eight in the side pocket of the bar table after banking off of the end rail. With most or all of the other player's balls still on the table traffic made this the easiest shot available.

Since I was caroming off of the opponent's ball in a bar I verified that they had no issues with that, explaining the shot before shooting. As it happened it was a busy night on the action table and eight or ten of the regular gamblers were watching.

After describing the shot I fired it in without any hesitation or further ado. There weren't any great players in there, maybe one shortstop in the bunch. However, with that one shot I served notice I was ready to run with anybody in the place. Maybe a little thing but it was about respect as a pool player and after that I always had it there.

The toughest battle I was ever in was also the most fun, another great memory. No sharking, no game playing, just a pool battle between equals that lasted for hours. It is great when two people just go at it with their skills on the table.

Hu
 
the only joy i get out of pool is those moments when it becomes effortless.

everything else about it is just work.
 
Memphis...Jesus and a slice of pizza

I was with my friend in Baton Rouge back around 04 at this pizza joint with a couple pool tables...

they had the LSU tiger head on the yellow felt and purple rails lol...

we were playing 8 ball for 10 a game and I broke and ran the first rack...

so we get to talking and they asked me some questions and i told them a story about me scoring against Bobby Pickle and Ronnie Allen up in memphis and how my best friend Jesus had tagged along for the trip (whole another story and jesus's real name is Mark lol but thats what we called him, and I was John the Baptist:wink:)

i get done with this great lil story and one of the guys we were playing said:

"No wonder why you play good, you sure do know how to pick your friends....wish my best friend was Jesus!"

I laughed so hard it nearly drove me to tears lol....

wasn't no big deal but it sure was funny at the time and I'll never forget that:cool:
 
I love those little moments when I figure something else out and the realization just clicks and I instantly get a little better. It's usually something someone has been telling me for years and while I know it to be true it takes one of those "ohhhhh that's what they meant" moments to really affect my game. unfortunately those moments happen less and less as I get better and better. The last was when I drew a ball ridiculously farther than I wanted and I realized how much easier position was when you're barely holding the cue.

I also always smile when I'm playing in an APA match just getting shapes on everything and I hear the other team say "there's no way that guy is only a 5". (Although that is happening with increasing frequency so I may not be a 5 much longer.)
 
At College

When tourning the campus (UCR) one of the first places I went to was the Rec Room - 4 nine foot tables. There was this cocky guy playing on it - he was a janitor for the university but he had for years hustled the college students. He could play but I knew I could beat him. After beating him on the challenge table he gets all out of sorts and asks me to gamble with him (in front of all the students). I drilled him for 100 bucks (lot of money for a poor college kid) and became an instant celebrity at the Rec Room.
 
My earliest joy in the game came about when I made a table length kick shot, at the age of 6, to beat one of my dad's buddies on our table in the basement. The ribbing that guy got from the rest of the players was ruthless.:D

To this day, I'm still supremely confident in my ability to kick balls in. The other night, I made a kick/bank shot on the key ball (after hooking myself, of course) and then made a really obtuse bank on the 8 to win the round for my team at league. The adrenaline rush was just the same 45 years later.

Good thread!

Brian in VA
 
oh gawd!

what a great post!

this allows each of us to talk about her favorite subject ... herself!

sure ... i could go on and on about tourney victories, five-figure grudge matches, the humiliations inflicted on efren et al.

of course, in my case, none of that would be reality-based!

if the forum will incorporate my small story -- one that celebrates the sort of triumph that others have described -- then, here it is!

amsterdam billiards, downtown, 9-ball, sunny v. elizabeth, first (and only) break and run out.

my three girlfriends and i play when we can, not that often. none of us has ever run an entire 9-ball rack. i broke -- pow, pow, pow! suddenly i am shooting at the 6-ball, make it, but mess up on position.

then, i squint at the 7-ball and use my soon-to-be-patent-applied-for secret- formula! i mentally pretend that elizabeth was on an easy run-out and she missed the 7-ball!

this means that -- in my mind -- instead of my messing up on my 7-ball shape, i am presented with an unexpected opportunity to steal the game! employing my fullest spidey-sense i bank the seven into the side -- kapow!

perfect shape ensues on the eight and the money ball.

i know ... it's a tiny triumph ... but it's mine!

sunny
 
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