Disclosure – 1.There will be spelling and grammatical errors guaranteed
2. I am not a writer, but a fricken pool player so deal with disclosure #1
3. This will be a bit long so just skip over if you don’t like pool stories/bio stuff/or the name Matt in general
Cliffs –
1. Pool related story on history behind the nickname
2. My pool history and why I enjoy AZB
3. Pictures of Jamaica including pool/AZB
3. Comments/questions are welcome, even troll posts are aight… tl;dr, cool story brah, I hate your face, your posts remind me of ________ , even you suck at life is an acceptable reply.
Ok…(stands up) Hi, my name is Matt Spina and I am an alcoholic…wait, wrong forum never mind. Ok, so that is my real name and I am not an alcoholic as AA is definitely for quitters. First thing is first. My nickname Spimp is pronounced as one word not s-pimp and NO I did not give myself that nickname. It was given to me by a friend many years ago during a game of pool. We were playing in a nickel arcade called Loco Joes here in Des Moines and I was about 17-18 years old. I was a regular there whether it was playing pool or the nickel arcade games. One night I was playing pool with my buddy when within a 2 hour period during the busy hours there were about 4-5 girls that I knew came in to hang out (at different times). Each one came up to me and said hi and gave me a hug to which my friend who did not know any of them was feeling a bit jealous and blurted out loud “Damn Spina look at you pimp, fk it, I’ll call you Spimp!” A few other friends that were there loved that nickname and that is how it stuck…nothing dirty or bad as the label people tend to think of when they hear “pimp”…..just a cross between the last name and pimp on a night I said hello to my lady friends and to answer your next question….yes I ONLY said hello with a hug (no reach around goosings that I can remember).
As for my pool history it started just before my nickname was given at the Loco Joes Arcade. One day I went there to play video games with a buddy of mine and a couple games of pool. When we started playing pool a guy came up and asked to play. He beat the snot out of me and told me I seemed to have a natural eye, was cool to hang around, and would I be interested in playing in a junior league called APA. I was like sure, why not. I showed up that Sunday and was introduced to my teammates who later on became lifelong great friends of mine. That first day in junior league they started me as a 4 since I was a new player. I got smoked by the league operator’s daughter who was also a 4 in about 32 innings…yes 32 looong innings, it was ugly. I of course dropped to a 2 the next week (this is back when guys could be 2’s)….but being the absolute competitor that I am I fell in love with the game that day….I’m not sure if it was the atmosphere, the competition, or just the fact that I was horrible and wanted to get better right away.
Well, I put in some work in my game and was at Loco Joes a lot…I would play the good ol race to 3 for $5 with a good friend of mine just so we could get practice with playing for money and the pressure that comes with it even though it was small pressure. My teammates showed me a couple of things, but most of it I had to sort of teach myself. One of my good friends later on told me that the reason he didn’t show me how to do a proper bridge is he didn’t want me to move up in handicap too quickly lol…yes APA so even though I was mad I knew why he did it. I still worked on my game moving up from a 2 to a 3 that session. Within that first year I ended up in 4 sessions moving up 1 handicap from 2-3, 3-4, 4-5, and then 5-6. My goal was to be a 6 before heading off to college, and literally about the week before I moved up to a 6 to accomplish it.
I then left my friends to go to college at Northwest Missouri State. How could I go wrong here?…the girl to guy ratio was like 5-1 (bow chicka wow wow), our football team was considered one of the best in D II, and I heard it was a party school. We won the national championship my freshman and softmore year to which I had a blast driving to Alabama to watch our team win the championship in 4 overtimes my 2nd year there…ok back to pool. At the college, pool was definitely not high up on the requirement to attend. I played at the bar and hands down beat the snot out of most of the people there (think while still being a 6 in APA which we know isn’t jack shiot). There was one guy that became a good friend of mine from Missouri that could play well, so we would play in the dorm basement table occasionally. As for pool stories there was one former semi pro that was a townie in one of the bars (Northwest Missouri State University is in Maryville) named Butch who gambled with me playing $50 sets. I ended up losing $150 to him. After the sets were done he told me that I had a great eye, and could easily make my game jump if I fixed one thing. I asked what it was to which politely he said that I play too much defense. Now this is a whole different conversation (and possible thread starter) on why I even to this day probably play more defensive then offensive…but just to keep it short (too late), I listened and told him good game afterwards walked out a loser ($150 was a lot to me as a broke college student so it stung).
Another short story was when a buddy of mine and I decided to road trip to a pool hall in St. Joseph, Missouri called Shooters. I took some cash and was feeling very confident in my game, ready to rock. I could tell everyone’s eyes were on us when we walked in (probably thinking fresh meat). Finally after we hit a few balls around a guy asked to gamble to which of course I agreed. Now here is where I made my mistake and did not make him post. I ended up $180 winner and he said to come back tomorrow to get paid. I was irate, but (assessing the situation) noticed that it was about 10-2 in terms of amount of people that were in his and my corner and that was not in our favor. My buddy was 5’4’’ and I am pretty short so more like 10-1.5 lol. I got aired, was mad but it is what it is, lesson learned.
I’ve got plenty of stories from the good ol Loco Joe’s and college days, but I’ll save those for maybe another thread that relates to them. Fast forward now to after college. I was feeling fantastic about my confidence and pool game coming home. I joined the APA again and for the first about year dumped to stay a 6 so our team wouldn’t get over handicapped. Well I hated losing so that didn’t last too long. I decided to go with the “I’m going to destroy everyone” attitude, moved up to a 7 in 8 ball and was playing very well beating up on a lot of people. I started to get ducked by chicken sh*t 6s and even 7s occasionally. There would be the occasional 5 that shot like a high 6 that was a tough match (hard to fade 5-3 if you don’t win the first game or two on against a good player). When I was done with APA I want to say in Des Moines (after probably 250ish matches) I had one of the highest win/loss %s in town of about 81-82% which includes that one year that I dumped….yes it was just APA but something to still be proud of. It would probably have been around 85-90% if it wasn’t for the first year and playing in a sandbagging league as a high handicap and still winning a lot is not easy. I always wanted to play the best on the other team and didn’t duck anyone!
My biggest pool win coming back from college was a $25 tournament + Calcutta that I won for about $2k. I only had 1/3 of myself though in the Calcutta getting bid to $140 so I ended netting close to $1k. I beat several good players here in Des Moines to win it and will never forget the tournament that I was definitely an underdog to win it all. People respected my game…they just didn’t know I had it in me to shippppp it .
Fast forward a bit more to which I met my wife who also plays pool. We met several times including once or twice throughout the years at Loco Joes or Stix. We dated for about 6 years and finally got married last December in Jamaica (December 1 to be exact and yes I know my first year anniversary is coming). We had a blast out there. They had a couple of pool tables with one outside and one inside which was sort of lol but very few people came to Jamaica to play pool including us so it was all good. In terms of pool about 3 years ago I sort of retired due to some health issues as well as just not having fun in league anymore. Once I started dating my now wife I sort of slacked in pool as well playing mostly socially unless someone was barking at the bar to play some which rarely happened. My friends would heckle me about not playing as hard as I could and I should really try to see how good I could get, but that just wasn’t me. I am the type of person who will just be having some beers with a couple of buddies, shoot a ridiculous 3 rail kick cut and do a fistpump after making it…basically I love the game and didn’t want to become the “robot” I would have needed to be pretty much to take it to the next level. Add that and the fact I was dating and am now married and life is more important to me then this game regardless of how much I like to play.
Random Matt Facts
- I like to play poker for money whether it is a friends game, online, or at the casino. My favorite card game is O8, but I also like to play regular holdem and a bit of Omaha hi. I would like to play in 1-2 WSOP events next June, but that will depend on the funds.
- I enjoy video games…wifey just got me a PS4 for our anniversary/Christmas last night so I am excited to play it.
- I majored in Business Management and have helped put together a 70+ page business proposal for a guy in Maryville that was looking to start a business. Our team had to choose 2 businesses to which one of them I (slightly influenced) the team to choose a pool hall. I have a very good idea now on everything involved in doing this if I ever wanted to open one, or wanted to be a partner with someone on this.
- I am a Hawkeye fan with both basketball/football, Minnesota Vikings football fan, and also a big North Carolina basketball fan
- I am very sarcastic…and have been compared to being like David Spade, just a bit better looking lol.
- I work a desk job/inside sales which is why post count is fairly high….add to it I type 60+ words a minute and you get the picture.
- I have taken Randyg class for pool and it was a real eye opener after watching the video of myself shooting!
- My favorite pool players from growing up would be Dave Pearson and Tom Rossman who are great ambassadors of the game.
- I once met Bob Jewitt at Stix here in Des Moines who told me if I fixed my stance I would be a world beater (think he was just being nice)
On AZ Billiards the main areas I frequent are the main forum area (funny gif section in particular), the action room, the gallery, the wanted for sale section, and occasionally NPR (while ignoring most of the political pissing match threads). I love the site and while it seems I occasionally go over the top on some harsh posts (I don’t sugarcoat sh*t), for the most part I try to avoid doing so unless I feel someone is really deserves it. I don’t care who likes or dislikes me on a forum and know there are at least 1-2 that don’t give a hoot about me which is OK in my book…it’s possible I could play a couple of games in person with a few beers shooting the sh*t with them and we could become friends fwiw. I absolutely love humor and to make people laugh whether it is my friends in person or if I can on here. Life is short, enjoy it. Hopefully one day I will also get to attend one of the big pool tournaments and meet some of you AZers on here that I interact with daily. Iowa is a bit of a drive to these locations but maybe one day I will do a big road trip.
I’ll post a few pictures from our destination wedding in Jamaica and maybe a few others…feel free to post with any questions about me if you get bored!
PS….yes I am a huge fan of Alyssa Milano and Eliza Dushku and while they haven’t quite yet responded to any of my letters which include some pictures of me posing in various suggestive positions…I expect to hopefully get a reply one day.
2. I am not a writer, but a fricken pool player so deal with disclosure #1
3. This will be a bit long so just skip over if you don’t like pool stories/bio stuff/or the name Matt in general
Cliffs –
1. Pool related story on history behind the nickname
2. My pool history and why I enjoy AZB
3. Pictures of Jamaica including pool/AZB
3. Comments/questions are welcome, even troll posts are aight… tl;dr, cool story brah, I hate your face, your posts remind me of ________ , even you suck at life is an acceptable reply.
Ok…(stands up) Hi, my name is Matt Spina and I am an alcoholic…wait, wrong forum never mind. Ok, so that is my real name and I am not an alcoholic as AA is definitely for quitters. First thing is first. My nickname Spimp is pronounced as one word not s-pimp and NO I did not give myself that nickname. It was given to me by a friend many years ago during a game of pool. We were playing in a nickel arcade called Loco Joes here in Des Moines and I was about 17-18 years old. I was a regular there whether it was playing pool or the nickel arcade games. One night I was playing pool with my buddy when within a 2 hour period during the busy hours there were about 4-5 girls that I knew came in to hang out (at different times). Each one came up to me and said hi and gave me a hug to which my friend who did not know any of them was feeling a bit jealous and blurted out loud “Damn Spina look at you pimp, fk it, I’ll call you Spimp!” A few other friends that were there loved that nickname and that is how it stuck…nothing dirty or bad as the label people tend to think of when they hear “pimp”…..just a cross between the last name and pimp on a night I said hello to my lady friends and to answer your next question….yes I ONLY said hello with a hug (no reach around goosings that I can remember).
As for my pool history it started just before my nickname was given at the Loco Joes Arcade. One day I went there to play video games with a buddy of mine and a couple games of pool. When we started playing pool a guy came up and asked to play. He beat the snot out of me and told me I seemed to have a natural eye, was cool to hang around, and would I be interested in playing in a junior league called APA. I was like sure, why not. I showed up that Sunday and was introduced to my teammates who later on became lifelong great friends of mine. That first day in junior league they started me as a 4 since I was a new player. I got smoked by the league operator’s daughter who was also a 4 in about 32 innings…yes 32 looong innings, it was ugly. I of course dropped to a 2 the next week (this is back when guys could be 2’s)….but being the absolute competitor that I am I fell in love with the game that day….I’m not sure if it was the atmosphere, the competition, or just the fact that I was horrible and wanted to get better right away.
Well, I put in some work in my game and was at Loco Joes a lot…I would play the good ol race to 3 for $5 with a good friend of mine just so we could get practice with playing for money and the pressure that comes with it even though it was small pressure. My teammates showed me a couple of things, but most of it I had to sort of teach myself. One of my good friends later on told me that the reason he didn’t show me how to do a proper bridge is he didn’t want me to move up in handicap too quickly lol…yes APA so even though I was mad I knew why he did it. I still worked on my game moving up from a 2 to a 3 that session. Within that first year I ended up in 4 sessions moving up 1 handicap from 2-3, 3-4, 4-5, and then 5-6. My goal was to be a 6 before heading off to college, and literally about the week before I moved up to a 6 to accomplish it.
I then left my friends to go to college at Northwest Missouri State. How could I go wrong here?…the girl to guy ratio was like 5-1 (bow chicka wow wow), our football team was considered one of the best in D II, and I heard it was a party school. We won the national championship my freshman and softmore year to which I had a blast driving to Alabama to watch our team win the championship in 4 overtimes my 2nd year there…ok back to pool. At the college, pool was definitely not high up on the requirement to attend. I played at the bar and hands down beat the snot out of most of the people there (think while still being a 6 in APA which we know isn’t jack shiot). There was one guy that became a good friend of mine from Missouri that could play well, so we would play in the dorm basement table occasionally. As for pool stories there was one former semi pro that was a townie in one of the bars (Northwest Missouri State University is in Maryville) named Butch who gambled with me playing $50 sets. I ended up losing $150 to him. After the sets were done he told me that I had a great eye, and could easily make my game jump if I fixed one thing. I asked what it was to which politely he said that I play too much defense. Now this is a whole different conversation (and possible thread starter) on why I even to this day probably play more defensive then offensive…but just to keep it short (too late), I listened and told him good game afterwards walked out a loser ($150 was a lot to me as a broke college student so it stung).
Another short story was when a buddy of mine and I decided to road trip to a pool hall in St. Joseph, Missouri called Shooters. I took some cash and was feeling very confident in my game, ready to rock. I could tell everyone’s eyes were on us when we walked in (probably thinking fresh meat). Finally after we hit a few balls around a guy asked to gamble to which of course I agreed. Now here is where I made my mistake and did not make him post. I ended up $180 winner and he said to come back tomorrow to get paid. I was irate, but (assessing the situation) noticed that it was about 10-2 in terms of amount of people that were in his and my corner and that was not in our favor. My buddy was 5’4’’ and I am pretty short so more like 10-1.5 lol. I got aired, was mad but it is what it is, lesson learned.
I’ve got plenty of stories from the good ol Loco Joe’s and college days, but I’ll save those for maybe another thread that relates to them. Fast forward now to after college. I was feeling fantastic about my confidence and pool game coming home. I joined the APA again and for the first about year dumped to stay a 6 so our team wouldn’t get over handicapped. Well I hated losing so that didn’t last too long. I decided to go with the “I’m going to destroy everyone” attitude, moved up to a 7 in 8 ball and was playing very well beating up on a lot of people. I started to get ducked by chicken sh*t 6s and even 7s occasionally. There would be the occasional 5 that shot like a high 6 that was a tough match (hard to fade 5-3 if you don’t win the first game or two on against a good player). When I was done with APA I want to say in Des Moines (after probably 250ish matches) I had one of the highest win/loss %s in town of about 81-82% which includes that one year that I dumped….yes it was just APA but something to still be proud of. It would probably have been around 85-90% if it wasn’t for the first year and playing in a sandbagging league as a high handicap and still winning a lot is not easy. I always wanted to play the best on the other team and didn’t duck anyone!
My biggest pool win coming back from college was a $25 tournament + Calcutta that I won for about $2k. I only had 1/3 of myself though in the Calcutta getting bid to $140 so I ended netting close to $1k. I beat several good players here in Des Moines to win it and will never forget the tournament that I was definitely an underdog to win it all. People respected my game…they just didn’t know I had it in me to shippppp it .
Fast forward a bit more to which I met my wife who also plays pool. We met several times including once or twice throughout the years at Loco Joes or Stix. We dated for about 6 years and finally got married last December in Jamaica (December 1 to be exact and yes I know my first year anniversary is coming). We had a blast out there. They had a couple of pool tables with one outside and one inside which was sort of lol but very few people came to Jamaica to play pool including us so it was all good. In terms of pool about 3 years ago I sort of retired due to some health issues as well as just not having fun in league anymore. Once I started dating my now wife I sort of slacked in pool as well playing mostly socially unless someone was barking at the bar to play some which rarely happened. My friends would heckle me about not playing as hard as I could and I should really try to see how good I could get, but that just wasn’t me. I am the type of person who will just be having some beers with a couple of buddies, shoot a ridiculous 3 rail kick cut and do a fistpump after making it…basically I love the game and didn’t want to become the “robot” I would have needed to be pretty much to take it to the next level. Add that and the fact I was dating and am now married and life is more important to me then this game regardless of how much I like to play.
Random Matt Facts
- I like to play poker for money whether it is a friends game, online, or at the casino. My favorite card game is O8, but I also like to play regular holdem and a bit of Omaha hi. I would like to play in 1-2 WSOP events next June, but that will depend on the funds.
- I enjoy video games…wifey just got me a PS4 for our anniversary/Christmas last night so I am excited to play it.
- I majored in Business Management and have helped put together a 70+ page business proposal for a guy in Maryville that was looking to start a business. Our team had to choose 2 businesses to which one of them I (slightly influenced) the team to choose a pool hall. I have a very good idea now on everything involved in doing this if I ever wanted to open one, or wanted to be a partner with someone on this.
- I am a Hawkeye fan with both basketball/football, Minnesota Vikings football fan, and also a big North Carolina basketball fan
- I am very sarcastic…and have been compared to being like David Spade, just a bit better looking lol.
- I work a desk job/inside sales which is why post count is fairly high….add to it I type 60+ words a minute and you get the picture.
- I have taken Randyg class for pool and it was a real eye opener after watching the video of myself shooting!
- My favorite pool players from growing up would be Dave Pearson and Tom Rossman who are great ambassadors of the game.
- I once met Bob Jewitt at Stix here in Des Moines who told me if I fixed my stance I would be a world beater (think he was just being nice)
On AZ Billiards the main areas I frequent are the main forum area (funny gif section in particular), the action room, the gallery, the wanted for sale section, and occasionally NPR (while ignoring most of the political pissing match threads). I love the site and while it seems I occasionally go over the top on some harsh posts (I don’t sugarcoat sh*t), for the most part I try to avoid doing so unless I feel someone is really deserves it. I don’t care who likes or dislikes me on a forum and know there are at least 1-2 that don’t give a hoot about me which is OK in my book…it’s possible I could play a couple of games in person with a few beers shooting the sh*t with them and we could become friends fwiw. I absolutely love humor and to make people laugh whether it is my friends in person or if I can on here. Life is short, enjoy it. Hopefully one day I will also get to attend one of the big pool tournaments and meet some of you AZers on here that I interact with daily. Iowa is a bit of a drive to these locations but maybe one day I will do a big road trip.
I’ll post a few pictures from our destination wedding in Jamaica and maybe a few others…feel free to post with any questions about me if you get bored!
PS….yes I am a huge fan of Alyssa Milano and Eliza Dushku and while they haven’t quite yet responded to any of my letters which include some pictures of me posing in various suggestive positions…I expect to hopefully get a reply one day.