What Best Describes Your Attraction to Pool?

The story tellers... pool has TONs of them... doesn't even matter if the stories are true or not.. or even if they are told over and over with different endings or characters.

The crucial shots in a game. How the I react to them or how others react to them.. I like that action.

Showing off. Making that crucial shot when it matters and hearing the roar or gasp off the rail that comes when the shot is made.

Seeing two gamblers matching up for huge bucks.. not just $20.. but for $10,000 ... how it all becomes a church.. no one talks.. only the ever so quiet whisper of the rail bird with his hand over his mouth like his is directing the sound to only your ear... sharing his expertise of what the next shot will need...

Watching that C player make that shot you shared with him to win a match, and then that player turns around to see if you were watching... that is a good feeling.

Running a tournament and have the majority of the players thank you for running such a good tournament and quickly letting them know that it is them that make a good tournament possible.

Seeing owners keep equipment and added money a huge priority in their business. Seeing the same owners take pride when the customers compliment them on having such a wonderful room.

Hand shaking between players at the start of a match. Somehow that just seems to go above and beyond the regular salutations/greetings...

Players saying 'good luck' or 'play well' before a match.

Tight pockets that make the playing field challenging.

New cloth. Love to play on new cloth. IMO one of the best allures of the game. Shots just respond so much better and you can stay closer to Center when you hit the cue ball and get the same results (as you would expect on old cloth)

The Derby City Classic
The US Open 9 Ball
Anything Mark Griffin offers to Pool Players

Just a few of my favorite things...
 
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Back in the old days it was the easiest way to make chunks of money..."legally"lol....now it's just to satisfy the competetive spirit !:smile:
 
Terrified, Petrified, Mortified, Stupefied, Confounded, Mesmerized

Head over heels, live, sleep, eat & and do number 1&2, even when i tie my shoe I think about the game.

Its beautiful
honest
insane
shocking
gritty
grimey
sublime
undercover


It's the duality of the game
it'll get you in like flynn or stuck like chuck....
when they lay right we call it a duck....
when they lay wrong onlookers say your ******:thumbup:
 
The hot chicks crawling all over me, the gobs of easy money, and
the respect of the community at large. :rotflmao1:

Oh! Don't let me forget the pretty sticks.
 
I enjoy the challenge of both the game and the competition, and I find it meditative.
 
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a long travel

I started out as perhaps the world's worst pool player. I stunk, stank, stinked, wuz just plain terrible on a table. Being in my mid-teens and highly competitive I focused on pool for many hours a week. After six months I was an OK player in a bar. After two years I was an OK player most anywhere. Unfortunately somewhere along the line pool became a cash cow and the money became the main appeal. I loved tough competition but I liked easy money more so while I would chase somebody awhile if they beat me I never went to much effort seeking tough competition. That was the pattern for over a decade. Horses, wife, kids, sidetracked me for awhile, with them all gone I don't have anything to do and the competitive spirit is still there. I like pool and there is a simple pleasure in hitting pool balls but right now it is just a convenient way to compete with myself and others. I don't have a decent pool hall nearby and I'm starting to feel the pull to move on again. Poker, pistols, rifles, who knows? I'm done with ponies and race cars.

As you can see my attraction to pool was caused by different things over the years. Financing my drinking and partying had a lot to do with it in my teens and early twenties. :D

Hu


JAM said:
Whether you're a pool enthusiast, railbird, industry member, social shooter, tournament soldier, weekend warrior, professional player, hustler, gambler, or a lemonade man, there must be something about pocket billiards that keeps you coming back for more. :)

In the year 2010, pool just isn't a good spectator sport, attracting large masses of viewers, whether on TV, Internet, or in person. This is unfortunate but true. :frown:

Of course, there's exceptions to this school of thought. Some may enjoy partaking in a little side action on the outcome of a match, and others may have enough spare time in their lives to sweat pool for long durations, as that's what some pool races/matches end up being, especially the ahead games. :grin-square:

Watching abbreviated pool on TV isn't much fun when portions are cut out, but that's how it is on TV. Matches are edited because the media people, like ESPN, think it's just too much content to hold the attention of mainstream viewers. :D

It would be interesting to find out the demographics of the pool culture, at least as it pertains to the readers of AzBilliards discussion forum. I'm not sure how statistically significant it is or what the plus/minus ratio is. :embarrassed2:

If I've left out a category and you want to describe the reason you like pool, please share! :p
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To describe my attraction to pool requires a description of me becasue my life is defined by the things that get and hold my attention:
1. A personal challenge to become the best I can with out regard for what others think.
2. A complicated problem that requires physical and mental skill.
3. A long term goal and all the learning that is required to achieve that goal.

And now in my retirement years I also need to lower my expectations for what I can physically accomplish.

I suppose that when I can run 100 in 14.1 I will lose interest. Ain't going to happen any time soon. :sorry:
 
I guess I'm a little bit of all of them. I'm an instructor, so I guess that means I'm in the industry. I enjoy playing, so I guess I'm a player. And I enjoy watching a good match, so I'm also a railbird.

My passion for the game comes from the feeling I get when I can figure out what I want the balls to do, and then see it happen. I look at a game of pool as a series of puzzles. Each shot is just one piece, and to be successful, you have to put all the pieces in the right places. When it happens like it is supposed to, it is a thing of beauty. When it doesn't, it gives you something to work on.

Steve
 
My Attraction

Jennie,

You know me very well! I had limited success as a Junior playing such greats as Dennis Hatch, Max Eberle, Charlie Williams & others. I realized early on that pro pool could not support me accordingly and I had to pick up some college books. Now, I work and play once a week and a major tournament once a year.

So, I am not a road hustler! I am not a rail bird! I am not a pro! I guess I am a weekend warrior and proud of it. Plus, my kids appreciate my sacrifice and career decisions that keep me at home right where they need me.

Its kind of hard to walk away from something when you are so close to its highest level. I like most of us pool players, believe that world championship level play is just around the corner and one lesson or one cue/equipement change away. Just stay away from the a$$ weights and tennis tape. Earl the pearl debunked those myths for us. Thanks Earl! Your the greatest!!!!!!!

Kid
Dynomite
 
I play because it's a lot easier to play than skateboard when your high. THE END.

p.s. and it takes stress away so i don't kill my girlfriend
 
I honestly don't know why...

...I am attracted to pool, though it began at a very young age. I had an aunt and uncle who lived near the I-90 floating bridge in Seattle (the Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Floating Bridge to be more precise) and they had a pool table upstairs. I just fell in love with the game, and in my early teen's to mid-20's I simply couldn't get enough of it- pool was like a Schedule I controlled substance to me.

And for some very odd reason that desire is coming back like gangbusters!

So for me it's awfully hard to describe my attraction in a single word... however, if there was one couple I know of which I would say truly modeled my attraction toward pool to the letter, it would be Ebenezer and Florence.
 
I don't know why

Asking why I like pool is like asking why I like the color green, I don't know. And both are something that I've liked since I was a child. It's something that is a default setting in my brain. I've been in awe of the game as far back as I can remember. I remember passing by the local pool hall as a child, and wonder what went on in there. I knew it wasn't a place for kids, which added to the allure.

I was too poor to have a pool table growing up, and put it aside for through my teenhood. But once I bought my own house as an adult, I put a table in it, and connected with what I remember as a child. For me, it's a way to reconnect to my childhood. I want to pass this on to my son, to give him a small part of the childhood things I never had.
 
great thread JAM

great thread. my love for the game is becouse it is such a simple concept that is so hard to master! the game is the puriest sport on the planet i think! its the only game that both players can play perfect and 1 has to lose! and the game itself is just pure, cue ...balls....pockets... i mean its pure its fun its challenging and yet its got the frustration level of any other game also! i beleive its the best game becouse the cue never knows who is stroking it and the balls dont know who hit um! and the more i play the more i respect the ABILITY of the pros men and women!its a game that we all can compete at and we can do 50% of the same things as our heros of the past and today on the table. But its the other 50% that frustartae us and keep us coming back to the game! i often watch the younger c players play and watch them laugh and i find myself jealous of them! becouse its just a game to them! and i miss that! great thread jam!:thumbup: as for your answer i am a lover of the game, on the table!
 
I just love the game, can't explain why.

I also love to compete, and what is most important to me today is travelling and meeting other with the same passion.

I feel blessed having a hobby that allows me to become friends within seconds with people, no matter where in the world I go.

I love the pool-family, and I am proud of being a part of it
 
Roy Steffensen said:
I just love the game, can't explain why.

I also love to compete, and what is most important to me today is travelling and meeting other with the same passion.

I feel blessed having a hobby that allows me to become friends within seconds with people, no matter where in the world I go.

I love the pool-family, and I am proud of being a part of it
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We love you too Roy, especially your One Pocket game. :grin:
 
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