I finally made the trip across the state to Melbourne to visit SkippyFL, ARM9BALLER, and rjbigfish.
I had an interesting time while i was there. The first night, i arrived around 8pm, and waited for jack and arnold to show up. Both of them play with Andy Gilbert Cues. So when they arrived i had the opportunity to test hit one of them. The first gilbert i used was ARM9BALLERS, and i have to say i didnt like the hit. He had the ferrule changed and the shaft turned down. So he told me to borrow the bartenders Gilbert and try it. Thank god i did, because i fell in love with it.
He told me he wanted $700 cash for it, which was robbery. But i really loved the cue. I was contemplating trading him my $900 coker straight up, even though i knew similar Gilbert Jump/Breaks could be found for $500. At first he didnt want to trade it, because he wanted the cash, and hadnt heard of coker.
So then Jack (SkippyFL) comes in, and we start playing for a while, then decide to gamble some. We play all night and im keeping close to even, but hes up most of the time. 2am Approaches, time to close, but instead of leaving we stay. We played till around 3:30, and Jack was up 4 sets on me. At this time, i thought i would try my luck against the Bartender (brandon). So i ask how he plays, and they say about even with Jack. So i say ok. Then the kid starts running out everything, and nearly skunks me. So i play one more set, and lose, down 2. I was like you set me up!! But they said he doesnt normally play that well. So i quit, and paid out. We ended up leaving around 4:30am. So basically, the first night, they ran a train on me, and i lost the cash in melbourne
.
But i did convince him to trade me the Gilbert!! The jump break cue plays like god, and is a perfect fit for me. Even though i lost somewhere around $250-300 in trading down for it, i dont mind, the cue plays so damn good.
So night two, i go in, start hitting them around with a kid named "DB". We start playing some sets, and i get up a few. I got a couple lucky rolls, and the kid took it to heart, and started to get on tilt. So i got up 4 sets, and i knew he was going to ask for weight, or quit. But i was wrong, he just kept playing, and i ended up winning 7 sets before he said he was done. So i recovered my cash that i lost to Jack and Brandon.
I never got to gamble with ARM9BALLER or rjbigfish
I did watch a match between rjbigfish and another local in a 6 ahead match. It was entertaining, and i could tell rjbigfish knew what he was doing.
The atmosphere was very nice, and everyone was generally friendly. Its a great place (golden cue) to have as a home pool room.
I can safely say there is far more action in Melbourne than what ive heard. Theres all kinds of good players, plenty of bad ones, and a good amount in between. There are alot of heavy hitters that you dont want to match up with, and thank god i had some people from AZB advising me, or it would have been an expensive trip!!
One thing that sucked in Melbourne than gainesville is that it isnt much of a party town. We drove around for a while saturday night, and nothing was going on anywhere.
And jack, you still owe me a *special* one pocket game, since you sold me out!
**One final word**
The official word of Melbourne is "Sporty". I heard this word used as an adjective from almost every person i met in Melbourne.
I had an interesting time while i was there. The first night, i arrived around 8pm, and waited for jack and arnold to show up. Both of them play with Andy Gilbert Cues. So when they arrived i had the opportunity to test hit one of them. The first gilbert i used was ARM9BALLERS, and i have to say i didnt like the hit. He had the ferrule changed and the shaft turned down. So he told me to borrow the bartenders Gilbert and try it. Thank god i did, because i fell in love with it.
He told me he wanted $700 cash for it, which was robbery. But i really loved the cue. I was contemplating trading him my $900 coker straight up, even though i knew similar Gilbert Jump/Breaks could be found for $500. At first he didnt want to trade it, because he wanted the cash, and hadnt heard of coker.
So then Jack (SkippyFL) comes in, and we start playing for a while, then decide to gamble some. We play all night and im keeping close to even, but hes up most of the time. 2am Approaches, time to close, but instead of leaving we stay. We played till around 3:30, and Jack was up 4 sets on me. At this time, i thought i would try my luck against the Bartender (brandon). So i ask how he plays, and they say about even with Jack. So i say ok. Then the kid starts running out everything, and nearly skunks me. So i play one more set, and lose, down 2. I was like you set me up!! But they said he doesnt normally play that well. So i quit, and paid out. We ended up leaving around 4:30am. So basically, the first night, they ran a train on me, and i lost the cash in melbourne
. But i did convince him to trade me the Gilbert!! The jump break cue plays like god, and is a perfect fit for me. Even though i lost somewhere around $250-300 in trading down for it, i dont mind, the cue plays so damn good.
So night two, i go in, start hitting them around with a kid named "DB". We start playing some sets, and i get up a few. I got a couple lucky rolls, and the kid took it to heart, and started to get on tilt. So i got up 4 sets, and i knew he was going to ask for weight, or quit. But i was wrong, he just kept playing, and i ended up winning 7 sets before he said he was done. So i recovered my cash that i lost to Jack and Brandon.
I never got to gamble with ARM9BALLER or rjbigfish
I did watch a match between rjbigfish and another local in a 6 ahead match. It was entertaining, and i could tell rjbigfish knew what he was doing.
The atmosphere was very nice, and everyone was generally friendly. Its a great place (golden cue) to have as a home pool room.
I can safely say there is far more action in Melbourne than what ive heard. Theres all kinds of good players, plenty of bad ones, and a good amount in between. There are alot of heavy hitters that you dont want to match up with, and thank god i had some people from AZB advising me, or it would have been an expensive trip!!
One thing that sucked in Melbourne than gainesville is that it isnt much of a party town. We drove around for a while saturday night, and nothing was going on anywhere.
And jack, you still owe me a *special* one pocket game, since you sold me out!
**One final word**
The official word of Melbourne is "Sporty". I heard this word used as an adjective from almost every person i met in Melbourne.
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