What Attracted You To The Game?

JLW

JLW

Dunder Mifflin Salesman
Silver Member
With all the recent discussion about how to best market pool, I thought it would be interesting to hear how all of you AZBers got into playing. Was it your parents? The YMCA (or some other youth organization)? The college bar scene? Watching on ESPN? What was it that ignited your interest in playing and following the game? I know for me it was through playing pool with my father and going with him on an almost daily basis to the poolroom.
 
A friend had a pool table in high school and we used to spend a lot of time in his cellar playing. I forgot about pool until about 4 years ago (I'm 52 now) when I ran across the billiards matches on ESPN. Around the same time another friend of mine gave me a table that I refurbished and put in my cellar. I began to talk about pool at work and found out that one of my coworkers played on a league. About 1 year ago I joined a pool team that yet another friend got me on. Since then I've joined a second team so I'm playing Sunday and Thursday nights now. Greg
 
Well first It was a guy who was a pro road player and he was having playing with a cuetec. His one was all white colored not grapite but fiberglass very pretty to me and i want one right away. Couldnt pay the 200 but had 100 and got the wooden won with fiberglass coat used, played with that won and it became my favorite. bought the same one for the break stick didnt like it at first, now with the new tip its harder, hits the white ball much harder and I get it to fly up in the air some times it doesnt fly OFF the table. The pro road player was good and I dont know his name but he was the best ive scene.
 
the thing that got me attracted to the game was how amazing it looked for someone to move that white ball around the table and not miss, took my breathe away. Anyways to my story, use to hang out alot with my cousins and they use to drink at nights at his cousins house. One night i went with them there cause they said they drink, listening to oldies (my favortie tunes) and play pool for money. Went and ended up losing most my money cause i thought the game was easy. Sheeesh then ended up to this guys house everyday playing on his table more then him, then i wanted a table to myself. So my cousin said you want a table i said yep, he said come on, took me to our aunties house and took me to the back and there was this table in pieces all weather worn out, had big holes in the felt, and no pockets. Got much guys to help carry it cause the legs were the only things off so there was about ten guys carring this big piece of junk. Got speaker boxes and bags fixed them up as pockets and made my own rack outta cardboard and masking tape. And played all night, then i couldn't sleep at nights cause i wanted to play pool so i would do nothing but play and practice pool from that day on. I began watching pool on t.v, playing internet pool, and playing abuot 16 hours a day. This has been six and half years ago. Cole 'TheConArtist'
 
My grandfather was quite a drinker and everyone just kind of laughed at him. I couldn't figure out if he had any substance or not. One day he took my brother and I with him to a little bar while we were waiting for my grandmother, she was shopping. There was a bar box there and my grandfather was pretty well lit and one of the guys challenged him to a game. I thought he was going to get beat but he played great! He tore the guy up. He didn't take any credit for it and as a matter of fact, he tried to make light of it. He played good and it was the first time that I started to see him in a different light. I was only about 10 years old at the time but I still remember it because I finally realized that he was more than just a drunk.

I found out much later that he was an accomplished singer and a radio evangelist. He was driving home one day before he started drinking and his first wife and two kids were in the car. His kids were fighting in the back seat and he turned to scold them and lost control of the car and went into a ditch killing his wife. He started drinking shortly after that and never stopped. He was always a happy drunk and was never mean. He never sought any praise or notoriety. He was quite a man even though he was considered by many to be a drunk.
 
Started playing when I was about 10 in 1962. A year later my uncle took me to see Willie Mosconi put on a clinic and challenge match at a local pool hall in Silver Spring. I was hooked. I saw him run over 100 balls (14.1) without breaking a sweat. Beat the local hero (who wasn't exactly chopped liver himself) easily. Started following the pool scene. Lassiter, Mosconi, Butera, Weenie Beenie, Caras, Crane, all the greats. Hell even ABC televised the Johnson City stuff. Started sneaking into the late night pool halls around D.C. and saw Ervolino, Jersey Red, Larry Johnson, and many others running strings. It was the golden age of pool. Been a shooter and cue collector ever since.
 
When I was in Elementary school, my grandfather would pick me up from school and we would go back to his apartments until my mom would pick me up after she got off of work. These were apartments for retired people, and they had a pool table. I started to just bang balls around until my grandfather started teaching me how to make a few shots here and there. Once I got a little better and started running a few balls at a time, I wanted to learn why my grandfather was so good at the game. It turned out that he didn't work for 15 years while he was still in Mexico. His only work was playing pool, and with this he was able to feed my grandmother, my dad, and my two aunts. I played with my grandfather up until a few years ago when he has his stroke, which ended up putting him into a retirement home. Up until that, he could still run a table with ease. When I went to college, I had a lot of free time on my hands and liked to go to our student center where there were 2 tables. I started going to weekly tournaments and would make a few extra bucks to help out my college budget. I've been hooked ever since. :D
 
When I was 15 years old...........

I had taken the wrong streetcar from downtown St. Louis on my way home from Christmas shopping. I had to transfer at Sarah Av and walk over two blocks to catch the right line.
In the first block I look up and see a sign saying Sarah & Olive Billiards. I walk up the stairs and IT CHANGED MY LIFE FOREVER.
On the back table there was a big game going on as I could see about 25 or 30 people gathered around watching. I asked an old man what was going on.
He says "That’s NY Fats playing One Pocket with Long Beach for $500 a game".
Now I had only played a little pool at this point but I was mesmerized by the action. I didn't really know of NY Fats OR Long Beach at this time but I had heard of the local money people involved. They were in the newspapers quite often if you get my drift and all their last names ended in vowels. I didn't know anything about One Pocket and had only played 8-Ball at my neighborhood poolroom.
After watching for an hour or so the old man asked me if I wanted to play some 8-Ball for 50 cents a game. I play and he beats me out of $9. A little while later another old man sells me a watch for the last $8 I had. It did work for over 2 days.
I LOVED IT - I LOVED THE ACTION, THE HUSTLES, THE ATMOSPHERE - AND MOST OF ALL - THE OPORTUNITY I COULD SEE AHEAD IF I GOT BETTER.
I never had any idea that this BIG Time pool even existed and so I went back to my local poolroom and played daily for 50 cents & $1 and learned to manage and win. Then on the weekends - I would go down to Grand & Olive OR back to Sarah & Olive and give it all to the hustlers.
At that age (if your dedicated & determined) you can learn to play pretty fast. Your like a sponge just sucking up everything you see. The hustlers thought I was a big sucker (and I was) but I was only losing what I was winning at the local poolroom.
The best part was that I was not only learning to Play Pool BUT most importantly - How To Hustle.

TY & GL
 
It was a tool to get the guy..........it backfired and I was the one sucked in. (Maybe that was his plan all along??? :confused: )
 
My father used to play in a softball league out of Central Park in NY and afterwards, the families would all go to a family oriented social club. In this club there was a foosball table and a pool table. I was 7 at the time and I remember the green cloth and colorful balls looking like fun. My Dad had his own cue (although I don't remember him playing--at least not here in the states) and he started to show me how to play. I could only use the shaft since the whole cue was too big. Oh, and he used to put I think was a crate by the table so that I could reach. I don't know what kind of cue he had and I'm sure it's somewhere in my parent's house, I do remember that it doubled as a walking cane. The shaft was stored in the butt portion. I need to look for that thing.
 
My dad used to take me and my brothers up to the VFW give us money to buy a Coke, candy, and play pinball. All the while he was shooting pool and we watched him play. All the old men time after time told us how great a player my dad was which he always humbly denied. I remember guy's arguing over who would be his partner. I also remember him tucking away big bankrolls of cash. He bought a table which I played on at 6-10 years of age. My father passed away at the age of 44 when I was 15 years old.

I didn't really want much to do with the game after that. He told me I was good, a natural and all of that. I don't know if it was just encouragement or fact. I just didnt have the interest anymore. My cousins down in Florida (who were older) remembered my fathers play and recounted many stories of him playing for big cash and winning because he knew how to match up.

I was 23 and in the Navy when I entered a pool tournament every week. I took second the first three tournaments I played in. I was surprised how other players couldnt draw a ball back. The best player around who won all those tournaments grabbed me to play on other nights. He tried his best to teach me position play but I must have been to hard headed, full of pride, or both. It didn't take.

When I went into the reserves and back home I found out my youngest brother had been playing. Everyone said he was real good. Yeah right, I thought. He was. He beat me good. I asked him what started him on playing the game. He said everyone told him how good his dad was. A dad he never knew who died before my brother had started school.

I started practicing to beat my brother initially. It was then I noticed I was playing position and making beautiful shots. I was winning more and losing less. At 28 years of age I started late falling in love with the game. I put plenty of time into leagues and tournaments.

While I was in the Navy Reserve I got to travel around the country and play tournaments. It was "eye opening" the talent I saw. I became a sweater for the first time watching these talents play. Sure I gambled. I won. I lost and I became more entwined in the game. I enjoyed teaching the game to young sailors. All of them walking around acting like Vince from the "Color of money." After I would beat them all, one of them would ask me to show him something. Soon I would have 3-8 avid listeners. I would show, then have each of them do what we were going over. It was very enriching returning something back to the pool brotherhood.

My job and my family keep me grounded to what's important. My game suffers the consequences. But it's worth the trade off...
 
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How I really got hooked

I had played rotation at the Boy's Club from the time I was 9. Actually just knocked the balls around. At 14 I was playing snooker on a very loose 9' table 2 blocks from my school. By the time I was 15 I had run over 100 points and thought I was really good. Some friends and I go to the big time gambling room in Jackson, Miss. and watch this guy from Yazoo City, Miss. named Don Ballard play another guy, what turned out to be, one pocket. Don beats the guy for about $100 and says, "Next". A guy hitting some balls on a 9' pool table told Don he would play him some lucky 9 ball on the table he had been hitting balls on. Don told the guy he wouldn't play him any 9 ball but would play his backer and pointed to the guy sitting watching him play, some one pocket. The, so called, backer told Don he didn't play one pocket but would take 8 to 5 and the break and try him some for $20. Don told the guy he had stalled long enough and walked over and racked the balls. The guy beats Don the first 3 games and Don tells him he will play some more 8 to 7 and winner breaks for $30.

The final adjustment was, Don GETTING 8 to 5 and the break and the, stake horse, played one handed with just the shaft of his cue. Don goes busted and never won a game.

This is when I knew I had seen pool played the way it was suppose to be played and I fell in love with it. The things this, stake horse, had done with the cue ball totally amazed me. This was also the first time I watched Ronnie Allen play and I knew it surely wouldn't be the last.

To this day when Ronnie's name is mentioned within earshot of Don Ballard he says, "That Son Of A *****", tongue in cheek of course. He loves the guy, NOW.
 
My friend recommend me a very good arcade near to my house,i was 13 at that time.My intention to go there is not to play pool,but to play the game called counter strike.

So i get in there and started to play counter strike,while waiting for my turn,i look around and saw some pool tables behind me,so i take a look at them playing.Without noticing,it was my turn,but i was concentrating on the pool table,that i forgotten its my turn.

After playing counterstrike,all my friend, including me had to go back home for dinner.

The next day,i saw one of my classmate playing pool,so i asked them more about the game,the hand position,etc.They tell me all the rules of the 8 ball, to me,they were pro at that time.I became interested in pool from there.And im going to get my first ever pool cue this early November.

And im lovin it!
 
Great stories guys!

My father was a billiard and snooker player and bought a 6' table that went into my bedroom when I was about 8 or 9. A year later he added a billiard room to the house and put in a 12' snooker table. I used to bash them around a bit and try to beat my dad at english billiards pretty often getting 60 start race to 100 which gradually declined over the years.

Later in my early 20's. An old friend, who had been a golfing buddy, who I used to thrash at pool had gotten serious about the game and had started winning money in tournaments. We played a few times and he would get the better of me. I still had good skills but little knowledge of 8-ball.

We started going in a few tournies together and I was able to pick up some cash myself in the smaller competitions.

Later I moved to the Gold Coast and found there were a lot of bar tournaments. I called him up and told him to move up there. Within 4 days of his arrival we had won the first 3 bar comps we had entered. Two of them we managed 1st and 2nd I believe and also picked up couple of money games with the locals. So we'd picked up close to $1000 between us and a couple of cases of beer. The partying began and went on like this for pretty much 5 years.

Gradually it got harder and harder to win money as the bar comp scene slowed down and other players found our little oasis. But I became a pool player in that time and still get thrill at the thought of having a big tourney to prepare for. It's been a while though. I'm now on the IPT 153 player list and so hoping the game goes on and I get a run.
 
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Mr Wilson stole my answer :D

I started playing in my aunt's bar before finding the local pool hall. One day while I was playing, a road player approached me and saying I was really good for a girl, had me shoot some shots he set up (to which he said he hadn't thought I would make them lol), and from there he kinda took me under his wing. I was there from about five in the afternoon to after four in the morning.

That was over ten years ago and we're still friends.
 
I had played a few games here and there growing up but never really played until I got to college. There were two old 9' Brunswick Anniversaries in our dorm. I would play down there and get whopped by the upper classmen that had been playing a while. I do not take losing at anything easily..unless it is a 100 yard dash...go ahead and run "guy".

So I played...and played..and played. The dorm room was open 2PM-2AM and I was there for most of it...ate dinner, studied, played pool/ping pong/airhockey. Evetnually I began to win a little bit more against the better players being mainly a shot maker. But I watched their english and they taught me a little. Then for a few weeks they weren't around very much and I found out they were playing at the Union building where there were more tables. I went down to check it out and there were BETTER players there on the 13 9' Anniversaries and Centennials, 10' snooker and billiard tables. PARADISE!!!

So I started going there between classes and had bigger fish to try to overcome. I was there alot so I figured why not work there. So I got a job handing out the balls, running the bowling etc. Which was perfect cause I could play a little and sit there and do my homework. Getting paid to do my homework and get better with pool. Eventually I became as good as the players in the dorms and eventually surpassed them and aimed for the better union players...mostly grad students who had been there for 8+ years. I overtook them as well and became the top stick for a few years before I graduated. There was a group of about 6 of us who were addicted and had to read all books/watch all videos/talk about pool till the early morning. We all got good real fast. I think at ACUI regionals one year we got 2nd/3rd/5th/8th/12th places out of the 80+ players who entered. CUCK THE FOUGARS!!! hehehe

After that I started playing bar/pool hall tourneys and playing the best sticks around to work on the mental game. Nothing like trying to get down on a shot when someone is singing Alanis Moirsette (sp?) drunk at the top of their lungs during nightly karaoke. Waiting to get a table at my house to practice seriously and work on my game to further raise it....oh wait I need a house first. That is next summer....always gotta have a goal.

Shoot well....
 
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I really don't remember not playing. We had a Gold Crown I in our giant basement before I was born. I'm the youngest of 10 kids, so that table was my sanctuary from all the commotion of a busy house. I remember pulling up a stool to reach the table and roll the balls around. I remember being pissed when my older syblings would have parties and crap up the table! I would get up early the next morning and brush the cloth, and chuck the beer bottles away. My uncle Clyde taught me how to play, he was a regular at most of the Philly haunts like The Boulivard Billiards, and always filled me in when he went to see Mosconi, or Caras play. By the time I was 8 I could run racks of 8-ball,. I was also the king of "trash" as we called. Actually it was 14.1, but you racked all the balls , broke, and kept shooting as long as you did'nt miss. My friends hated playing with me cause I never let up, hell thats MY table, I wanna shoot!:) My Parents split up when I was 12, so went the pool table to a friend of the family. When I was about 22 when "The Color of Money" came out, rooms started opening, and lit the fire once again. Waliking into those beautiful new rooms, I felt just like I used to when I would be down in our basement playing as a kid. I still get on the tables by myself, zone out, and play. This game has always been my best friend!.......Gerry
 
No long interesting story here...my parents bought a mini-pool table for me when I was about 5 years old and I immediately got hooked on the sound of those balls clicking together and knocking them into the pockets. It also had a metal ball return and I like the sound as it rolled down to the end. I played for hours at a time...which is pretty unusual for a kid with short attention spans at that age.

I just graduated to bigger stuff from there.
 
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