What Games Did You Start With?

Johnnyt

Johnnyt

Burn all jump cues
Silver Member
I started with 14.1 and 3 cushion at the poolroom. When I started bar hopping it was almost all 8 ball with some 9 ball. In the 1960's I played a lot of 15 ball rotation and different types of games with 15 balls. For the next 50 years I played 90% on the bar box playing 8 and 9 ball. Johnnyt
 
Started with 8-ball.
After seeing 14.1 first time.....infected^^ must have been in 1984 when i saw George Fels *Mastering Pool* the first time.

:)
 
Started with 8-ball. Learn to play in a frat house, complete with house rules such as moving the cue ball 1 butt diameter away from the rail, and no concept of safety or BIH penalization.

When I joined my first team 8-ball league, I was introduced to the game of 9-ball.
 
Bumper pool!

Johnnyt said:
I started with 14.1 and 3 cushion at the poolroom. When I started bar hopping it was almost all 8 ball with some 9 ball. In the 1960's I played a lot of 15 ball rotation and different types of games with 15 balls. For the next 50 years I played 90% on the bar box playing 8 and 9 ball. Johnnyt
Click to expand...

The first time I picked up a cue was to play Bumper Pool with my Dad at age 12. Began playing 8-ball on small tables soon after, then sneaking into pool halls during the day to play 8-ball on the 9-footers. Was introduced to 9-ball and rotation a year later. Like you, I went to the bar table action in the '60s, and returned to the big tables in 1990. Nowadays I'll play on any size table I can find that's in decent condition and away from cigarette smoke...

Donny L
PBIA/ACS Instructor
 
Kind of 8-ball played on 9footers, but with small holes!!! Like a ball size!
Looks like rotation, I guess! So 1 & 15 must go in center pocket.
Than 3 cushions....
Now pool from 14.1 to 8 -9 -10
 
Sat afternoon was rotating partner "Odd Ball" (variation of Chicago Pool) for .25 a way.
1 Ball was my favorite. Still is. Played like straight pool. Game ends when you pocket the 1 ball in your designated corned pocket.
5 ball...a short game of 9 ball.
 
14.1, one pocket or rotation isn't played as often (or perhaps never at all) by people in Malaysia (unless those that are exposed to it or know it). We usually play 8 ball, 9 ball or 10 ball.
 
When me, and my friends first walked in to Joe's place it was like entering another world. A grown-up world.
The floor was wood, the tables had webbed pockets, and there were lines of Willie Hoppe's along the walls.
We played rotation. :smile:
 
Johnnyt said:
I started with 14.1 and 3 cushion at the poolroom. When I started bar hopping it was almost all 8 ball with some 9 ball. In the 1960's I played a lot of 15 ball rotation and different types of games with 15 balls. For the next 50 years I played 90% on the bar box playing 8 and 9 ball. Johnnyt
Click to expand...

Rotation. 14.1. Home made up rules of 8-ball, 2-shot 9-ball. In that order.
 
It's barbox 8 ball country here, so that's what I started with. I really don't even play the game except during league and tournament play. I HATE 8-ball. would much rather play 9/10 ball or 1P.

I didn't learn any other games until I started hanging out at Dakota Cue Club, in Sioux Falls. First time I watched Shane practicing 10 ball, I thought to myself, I can do that. I was wrong, but I was hooked any way! 1P is now probably my favorite game. Easier to match up with better players.

Either way, it all started with BB 8-ball for me.


best,

Justin
 
first was 8 ball, one pocket, 15 ball rotation, check (pill) pool (both 10 and 15 ball), keno, 9 ball, banks (9 and 15 ball), and scratch pool all in a period from 18-25 yrs old. i don't think i've learned any other games. i never played straight pool. one pocket was king in my neck of the woods and 9 ball was the big money game and then banks.
 
Was first introduced to Rotation 5 cents a point.
Then found the wonderful game of 14.1.
Went on to two shot 9-Ball, 50 cents on the 5 and $1.00 on the 9.
Golf on the local snooker table.

Now I play all the games,
randyg
 
Bumper Pool and Cutthroat were the 2 games I remember playing as a kid...

When I got older it was 8-ball and 9-ball...

Now I like to play all games...
 
Wish I'd been born at a time where I could start with 14.1, and there were only big tables.

But like the Poni-Tails, I was Born Too Late. So I learned on barbox 8-ball.

Still love 8b, but keep away from the 7-footers.
 
I started with 8ball but when I started getting more serious I moved to 9 ball. (not that one is better than the other) I spent years on 9 ball and really developed most of my skill while playing that game.

If I had it to do over again I would have cut my teeth on 14.1, I think I would be leaps and bounds better now if that was the case.
 
As a child my parents use to take me to a lodge where my pops would cater to clients over dinner... I started hitting balls around age 6, and it was bumper pool in the lounge, between the restaurant and bar area. :sorry:...:grin-square:
In my teens, 8 ball was the game of choice...
Clint
 
8-ball on a coin-op 8-footer. Yep, for some reason, in the "blue ghetto" where I was born and raised (some areas of the Bronx and later Yonkers, neighborhoods of which were lived in by NYC and local police), the bars had coin-op 8-footers.

I can't recall the brand name of these tables, but for some reason -- in these clusters of neighborhoods that we called "blue ghettos" -- the bars (mainly Irish) had what would be considered by today's standards "very large barboxes."

I grew up on these tables, and right from the first time I picked up a cue, the pool playing bug was caught on "big"(-ish) tables. Going to a 9-footer (or in a few poolrooms way back then, 10-foot "Big Bertha" Brunswicks with ashtrays molded into the pocket castings) was easy. Not like going from today's 6-foot Tonka toys to a 9-footer.

I still remember those days like they were yesterday:

http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?p=1461890#post1461890

-Sean
 
To do my back story would take an eternity to write as well as an eternity for others to read.

So I'll keep it simple.

Bar box 8 ball.
 
I was sent to a Catholic boarding school in the early 60's to get straightened out...didn't work real well. The rec room had two 9-footers and a snooker table, we played Arkansas 8-ball for cigarettes...3 cigs was a big game.
 
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