what criteria constitutes being a professional pool player?

schon267

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I think people throw this label out without thinking. I am a good regional player, in pool terms, a good shortstop. I used to play on the florida tour 5 years ago and had some success. I have always had a job, pool is just a hobby for me, it has never been the only source of income. lol I would starve!
I also play APA, and valley pool leagues.

heres the question, what criteria should be used to call someone a professional? in my opinion, if you derive your income, and support yourself from that activity, your a pro. if your ranked on the men's major tour in the top , say 100, your a pro. being an amateur in a sports activity means you do it as a hobby, and it's not your way of supporting yourself. I get very tired of people telling me, your a pro!, because I play pool good. since when is it a crime to be good at something that you do for a pastime, or hobby?

look in the dictionary under professional, then under amateur. read what it says, that should be the answer right? let me know what you think azer's
 
I agree

The line between amateur and pro is very blurry due to the fact that there is no ONE major tour in men's pool. The line should be drawn when someone makes his living playing the sport. In most professional sports, the players are paid to play if they are pro and not paid if they are amateur, that simply won't work in pool, no one would play tournaments if there wasn't a payout.
 
If you file schedule C for pool related income you are a pro.

If you do not, you are either not a pro or you are a tax evader.
 
If you live at your girlfriends house and owe a lot of money to people you might be well on your way to being a "Professional Player".
 
I think people throw this label out without thinking. I am a good regional player, in pool terms, a good shortstop. I used to play on the florida tour 5 years ago and had some success. I have always had a job, pool is just a hobby for me, it has never been the only source of income. lol I would starve!
I also play APA, and valley pool leagues.

heres the question, what criteria should be used to call someone a professional? in my opinion, if you derive your income, and support yourself from that activity, your a pro. if your ranked on the men's major tour in the top , say 100, your a pro. being an amateur in a sports activity means you do it as a hobby, and it's not your way of supporting yourself. I get very tired of people telling me, your a pro!, because I play pool good. since when is it a crime to be good at something that you do for a pastime, or hobby?

look in the dictionary under professional, then under amateur. read what it says, that should be the answer right? let me know what you think azer's
This is a very good question.

It becomes even foggier when tournament organizers stagger entry fees based on designations like "semi-pro"...?

I would love to know what a semi-pro is.

Since there does not seem to be an American Governing Body of Pool/Billiards or a National Professional Ranking System, this will remain foggy.

Some people shoot good enough to be called a professional, assuming all professionals should be better than the amateurs.

Conversely, I am sure many of us know a few "pros" who get beaten fairly often by shortstops and regional champs.
 
someone should beat you with a house cue...and i don't mean on the table...:)

agree with you inside english! Blackballed is a little out of line i think. I guess i can't ask a question without a negative response from someone. Another thread does not exactly address my questions.

While there is technically no mens actual tour, some form of mens association just threatened to boycott u.s open i believe? Lol just saying
 
i think you should search before starting a new thread.

I find 73 threads in the main forum with the word 'professional' in the title.

Some even asked the same question you do!
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=72980&highlight=professional

this thread doesn't exactly cover my situation or question. This is why this is called a forum blackballed. To elicit responses from other people, if you don't care for the thread i posted, it's very simple, don't open it! That way your not annoyed, and the rest of us interested in other peoples opinions can read them without your negativity on the matter. Have a good day sir
 
simple, if a player can hold his own with other pros then hes a pro.....:thumbup:

simple?? Don't think it's quite that simple. A player that has a full time job, and plays sparingly is not going to consistently beat a player who plays everyday for a living. That player might win a set, but over the long run is way the underdog. Top level amateurs could beat a pro 1 set. That doesn't make them a professional pool player.
 
Hi Schon 267,

I think the answer is to win the lottery,

Pack in working for a living,

Then take up the hobby and try shooting Pool as a Pro.

Problem solved.

:thumbup:
 
I think people throw this label out without thinking. I am a good regional player, in pool terms, a good shortstop. I used to play on the florida tour 5 years ago and had some success. I have always had a job, pool is just a hobby for me, it has never been the only source of income. lol I would starve!
I also play APA, and valley pool leagues.

heres the question, what criteria should be used to call someone a professional? in my opinion, if you derive your income, and support yourself from that activity, your a pro. if your ranked on the men's major tour in the top , say 100, your a pro. being an amateur in a sports activity means you do it as a hobby, and it's not your way of supporting yourself. I get very tired of people telling me, your a pro!, because I play pool good. since when is it a crime to be good at something that you do for a pastime, or hobby?

look in the dictionary under professional, then under amateur. read what it says, that should be the answer right? let me know what you think azer's

im sorry i didnt read all the replies:o:o
by definition a pro is someone who earns their living at their PRO fession.

however you could play at a pro level and not play pool exclusively for your income
my 2 cents
to be at the very best level PRO you need to devote 100% of your time to pool
a short stop while VERY VERY GOOD
is not a pro:(
icbw
 
The problem is there is not much difference between a pro and an "amateur", we both play tournaments and recieve cash payouts and by definition anyone who gets paid in a tourney is a pro, granted the ones who play on tv are alot better then most of us.
Golf is more cut and dry pros get paid and amateurs dont, around here they get gift certificates and pro shop credits and alot of amateurs beat the hell out of most pros. I know pool will never go that way but pool will never get near as big as golf either. Its hard to make a line in the sand and say this player is to good so he is in the pro ranks and Im not because he beats me there will always be a grey area and players will always be on the wrong side of the fence untill there is one governing body over pool to make the rules on things but thats just my opinion
 
That's a very contentious questions. Something on the order of "What are the rules for 8_Ball? LOL It's all depending on the Promoter of a tournament or event. Everyone has

their own idea of what constitutes a professional. Nothing is really written in stone. If it was there's no way of making criteria that everyone will be happy with, for many

different reasons. Nor would it be fair to everyone.


Gary Spaeth and I were best friends and road partners for about the last 17-18 years of his life. We met at a local bar tournament one night and we immediately hit it off.

We had a lot in common and I was stubborn. I could not believe ANYONE could play 8-ball "THAT MUCH BETTER THAN ME!" BOY WAS I WRONG! Gary liked me and didn't want to

take advantage of me. He offered to play me one handed and/or he'd bank the 8 ball. I was too proud to take that spot beside he would play me $1 8-ball and I had the keys to

the table, so there was no cost for the table. I won some games once in a while, but not games that Gary got to shoot beyond the brake. We soon started going to all the local

tournaments 5 nights a week when we were in town. We usually spent a week to 10 days a month on the road elsewhere. We had to time our arrival of the local events to be

there right at the cut-off time for entry and we still had people who walked to the tournament director and begged to get their entry fees back on the days we'd showed up. This

was not about me at all, but a lot of people would not play if Gary was in the tournament. I always felt that the nits that would ask for their entries back were absolutely stupid!

First off, half of the tournaments were short races, luck of the draw, partners tournaments. Some were even a race to 1! And the entries were usually $5- $10! Just how much the

nuts do some people think they need to play in a tournament like this?? I mean, Shit! You have as good of a chance of drawing Gary for a partner ans anyone in the room! Gary

playing in a situation like this isn't much better that even money unless Gary draws a good partner! We always played alternate shot, not alternate turns! His opponent has to

shoot half of the time and he's depending upon their position play! Beyond that you always had the opportunity to watch one of the best players on the planet and hopefully pick

up some ideas from him which was worth many times the entry fee IMHO.


And what really gets me is that you'll see the same nits going out to the casinos, acting like a high roller who were just getting unlucky! This is one of the big reason that

pool's in a bad spot lately. People feel like they are suckers if they get beaten, even in a small tournament, at pool but could care less if they blew 10 times the money playing

Casino Games and on-line Poker! Also the leagues do less than nothing to encourage interest in professional pool. If the leagues were structured right it would be much more like

baseball having farm clubs and players working their way through the ranks to be invited to play in the Pro Tournaments. Japan and the Philippines are good examples of how

this work.

Well I'm off the soap box, rant over!

Sherm






I think people throw this label out without thinking. I am a good regional player, in pool terms, a good shortstop. I used to play on the florida tour 5 years ago and had some success. I have always had a job, pool is just a hobby for me, it has never been the only source of income. lol I would starve!
I also play APA, and valley pool leagues.

heres the question, what criteria should be used to call someone a professional? in my opinion, if you derive your income, and support yourself from that activity, your a pro. if your ranked on the men's major tour in the top , say 100, your a pro. being an amateur in a sports activity means you do it as a hobby, and it's not your way of supporting yourself. I get very tired of people telling me, your a pro!, because I play pool good. since when is it a crime to be good at something that you do for a pastime, or hobby?

look in the dictionary under professional, then under amateur. read what it says, that should be the answer right? let me know what you think azer's
 
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this thread doesn't exactly cover my situation or question. This is why this is called a forum blackballed. To elicit responses from other people, if you don't care for the thread i posted, it's very simple, don't open it! That way your not annoyed, and the rest of us interested in other peoples opinions can read them without your negativity on the matter. Have a good day sir
Don't be defensive about it. You asked a question that has been discussed ad nauseum.

It would be more appropriate for discussions on the matter to be included in as few places as possible.
 
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