I'm down the snooker hall by my self just passing some time playing some UK 8 Ball. It was fairly busy and I kept feeling like someone had their eyes on me. Most likely because I'm by my self just playing the ghost, playing massively aggressive pool and not playing very well. This kid, and I mean just a kid he was about 17/ 18ish asks if I want a game. I agree and we played maybe 4 or 5 games and he stank. Couldn't make a ball. He then asks to play for money. I expected him to say like £1 a game seeing as he sucked so bad but he said £10 a game and I'm not really into stealing candy from a baby so I thought I'll play but I'm so far ahead of him ability-wise I can fudge a few games and make it even at the end. I did and he played awful. One of the games took like 15mins because i didn't want to win it but he just couldn't pot 2 consecutive balls.
This set ended with me being £10 up and I was just going to say pay for the lights to the kid which was about £6ish and call it even. Then he throws a bombshell my way and wants to play for £50 race to 3. I was like show me the £50 and we can play. He pulls out this wallet that was bursting at the seems. He easily had £500 in there. And it just hit me that something wasn't quite right. He had a nice cue, his fundamentals looked decent and he came here with a wallet full of cash. I'm thinking game on at this point. We play and his level of play went up ten fold. He broke and ran the first rack and I was sitting there thinking I've been done over here. My turn came to break and I broke and ran that game, he broke dry and I ran out and then I hit a monster break making 5 balls at the right time and ran the final game out. He then says double or quits? F*ck that I thought because we will eventually break even. I asked how much he could afford to lose and we can play a set for that amount. He comes back and says £1500. I'm like what the fuuuuu.... How can a kid his age afford to lose that much!? I just replied with rack 'em up.
We decided on a first to 11 games. At this point the kid thought he had seen my top level, but he hadn't and unfortunately for him I'd seen his and I'm a bit more experienced and picked up on what he was good at and what he wasn't and used it to my advantage. I hit 5th gear right away and ran away with the set. 11-4 it ended. Time for the kid to pay up. He says he doesn't have the whole £1500 on him which is to be expected so I offered to take him to the bank. He declined and said he would give me what he had in his wallet which turned out to be £690. Seeing as its not even half I wasn't having any of it. I took the cash, his watch which is quite nice and worth a few hundred but most importantly I took his cue. My cue is priceless to me and if I was in his situation id go to the bank and pay up just to get my cue back. So, I kept hold of his cue thinking he would come back. The kid never came back. He couldn't afford to lose £1500. Id rather he just said I can afford to lose what ever is in my wallet. I'm sure he will use this as a lesson learned and grow from it but a couple of reasons why I took the money off a kid are as follows...
Firstly, I didn't like his style. Playing so bad and then switching it up when the money got bigger I class as a bad move. Shows no respect to me and he probably thought I've seen this guy play and he he isn't playing very well so I'll chance it against him. If he just came out and said look, I'm a good player do you want to play for some money id have more respect for him and may have let him keep the cue and watch.
Secondly, he tried doing a runner a few times which I forgot to mention. He was 8-2 down and he kept wanting to go to the bathroom, which is fine but he didn't need to take his cue. So I told him to leave the cue and wallet down at the table if he were to leave the room. Its something I do automatically when playing for money with randomers and something I expect others to do.
So yeah, this is why I don't really like playing for money with people i don't know. They try to deceive you, they lie, they show no sign of respect and rarely pay up when the stakes get high. I'll stick to playing with people who I know are good for the cash in future I think.
This set ended with me being £10 up and I was just going to say pay for the lights to the kid which was about £6ish and call it even. Then he throws a bombshell my way and wants to play for £50 race to 3. I was like show me the £50 and we can play. He pulls out this wallet that was bursting at the seems. He easily had £500 in there. And it just hit me that something wasn't quite right. He had a nice cue, his fundamentals looked decent and he came here with a wallet full of cash. I'm thinking game on at this point. We play and his level of play went up ten fold. He broke and ran the first rack and I was sitting there thinking I've been done over here. My turn came to break and I broke and ran that game, he broke dry and I ran out and then I hit a monster break making 5 balls at the right time and ran the final game out. He then says double or quits? F*ck that I thought because we will eventually break even. I asked how much he could afford to lose and we can play a set for that amount. He comes back and says £1500. I'm like what the fuuuuu.... How can a kid his age afford to lose that much!? I just replied with rack 'em up.
We decided on a first to 11 games. At this point the kid thought he had seen my top level, but he hadn't and unfortunately for him I'd seen his and I'm a bit more experienced and picked up on what he was good at and what he wasn't and used it to my advantage. I hit 5th gear right away and ran away with the set. 11-4 it ended. Time for the kid to pay up. He says he doesn't have the whole £1500 on him which is to be expected so I offered to take him to the bank. He declined and said he would give me what he had in his wallet which turned out to be £690. Seeing as its not even half I wasn't having any of it. I took the cash, his watch which is quite nice and worth a few hundred but most importantly I took his cue. My cue is priceless to me and if I was in his situation id go to the bank and pay up just to get my cue back. So, I kept hold of his cue thinking he would come back. The kid never came back. He couldn't afford to lose £1500. Id rather he just said I can afford to lose what ever is in my wallet. I'm sure he will use this as a lesson learned and grow from it but a couple of reasons why I took the money off a kid are as follows...
Firstly, I didn't like his style. Playing so bad and then switching it up when the money got bigger I class as a bad move. Shows no respect to me and he probably thought I've seen this guy play and he he isn't playing very well so I'll chance it against him. If he just came out and said look, I'm a good player do you want to play for some money id have more respect for him and may have let him keep the cue and watch.
Secondly, he tried doing a runner a few times which I forgot to mention. He was 8-2 down and he kept wanting to go to the bathroom, which is fine but he didn't need to take his cue. So I told him to leave the cue and wallet down at the table if he were to leave the room. Its something I do automatically when playing for money with randomers and something I expect others to do.
So yeah, this is why I don't really like playing for money with people i don't know. They try to deceive you, they lie, they show no sign of respect and rarely pay up when the stakes get high. I'll stick to playing with people who I know are good for the cash in future I think.
