What Games Did You Start With?
- Thread starter Johnnyt
- Start date
I grew up in South America, so the first games I played were carom and 3 cushion. Moved to the states and saw a funny little table with holes everywhere. That's when I got introduced to 8-ball on a bar box.
Now I play whatever billiard game my opponent wants to play.
Now I play whatever billiard game my opponent wants to play.
Begain in the late sixties at the YMCA..we played streight pool, bottle pool, some form of Spanish rotation..not sure how its even played now..so many balls on the rail, who knows it was probably made up, haven't seen the game played since.
We also played rotation..more str tho..and bumper pool..
mostly played in bars..still go to the hall once in a while.
At home, my freinds an I play a little of everything.
We also played rotation..more str tho..and bumper pool..
mostly played in bars..still go to the hall once in a while.
At home, my freinds an I play a little of everything.
LMAO. I love it. Johnnyt
I've watched that Spanish game where all the balls are put on the rails. I think 61 wins. Johnnyt
In my Rookie years.......
8-ball and occasionally 3-ball, but haven't played either of those games in over 5 years..
All rotation ,and the occasional 14.1 these days...
8-ball and occasionally 3-ball, but haven't played either of those games in over 5 years..
All rotation ,and the occasional 14.1 these days...
When I first started playing pool in my parents house it was rotation and when I went to the pool room it was 14.1. 8 ball at the bars for beers ..... lots of free beers. I didn't like 9 ball. We considered 9 ball a slop game back then and I still don't like the game very much.
When I was about 7 or 8, I really don't remember exactly how old, I played a lot of caroms. Now mind you this form of caroms was NOt on billiard table but this:
![327[1].jpg](https://forums.azbilliards.com/data/attachments/176/176895-46aa6b91791e6c42b49952b7daa4d4fe.jpg?hash=RqprkXkebE "327[1].jpg")
Years later my father would occasionally take me to the local bowing alley to play some pool. We would play either 15 ball rotation or 8 ball.
It wasn't until the last couple of months in my senior year of high school that I got hooked. I went to Lakewood Family Billiards with a couple of buddies from school and they proceeded to crush me at 8 ball. I vowed that wouldn't happen again and it all started from there.
In the beginning I played mostly with a friend I had from before kindergarten. We played a little 8 ball but it was mostly 14.1 and cowboy billiards. If Earl wasn 't around I played what ever game my opponent wanted to. So I played some 9 ball, 6 ball, snooker, pay ball, but like I said it was mostly 14.1 or cowboy billiards.
Gerry S.
Years later my father would occasionally take me to the local bowing alley to play some pool. We would play either 15 ball rotation or 8 ball.It wasn't until the last couple of months in my senior year of high school that I got hooked. I went to Lakewood Family Billiards with a couple of buddies from school and they proceeded to crush me at 8 ball. I vowed that wouldn't happen again and it all started from there.
In the beginning I played mostly with a friend I had from before kindergarten. We played a little 8 ball but it was mostly 14.1 and cowboy billiards. If Earl wasn 't around I played what ever game my opponent wanted to. So I played some 9 ball, 6 ball, snooker, pay ball, but like I said it was mostly 14.1 or cowboy billiards.
Gerry S.
I think I'm going to be in the minority here: Golf.
After twenty years of not playing at all, I've started back playing in a cheap golf game on a 5x10. It's like getting pool lessons from a half dozen infinitely better players for the low low price of about five bucks an hour. Or $10-15 an hour if I sell out and can't hold my man.
When I was growing up, I played eight and nine ball, but never very well. Something about golf just has me hooked. Every shot is a new challenge. Move my ball towards my hole, leaving the next guy safe, but making sure to give him a shot at *his* man if he's getting too far ahead. Two, three, and four railers are starting to make sense, and if I can control my speed, just getting close to my hole while trying them is a huge step in the right direction.
Probably not the best (re)beginner's game, but I've found that it's improved every aspect of my game drastically. And it's exposed every gaping flaw in my play to the ridicule of a whole crowd of commentators, every time I step up to the table. And after spending all my time on a snooker table, a tight 9-foot table feels like a barbox.
Now if I could just actually win a game of golf....About ten more years and ten grand wasted, and I'll be competitive at this damned game..
-Jeff
After twenty years of not playing at all, I've started back playing in a cheap golf game on a 5x10. It's like getting pool lessons from a half dozen infinitely better players for the low low price of about five bucks an hour. Or $10-15 an hour if I sell out and can't hold my man.
When I was growing up, I played eight and nine ball, but never very well. Something about golf just has me hooked. Every shot is a new challenge. Move my ball towards my hole, leaving the next guy safe, but making sure to give him a shot at *his* man if he's getting too far ahead. Two, three, and four railers are starting to make sense, and if I can control my speed, just getting close to my hole while trying them is a huge step in the right direction.
Probably not the best (re)beginner's game, but I've found that it's improved every aspect of my game drastically. And it's exposed every gaping flaw in my play to the ridicule of a whole crowd of commentators, every time I step up to the table. And after spending all my time on a snooker table, a tight 9-foot table feels like a barbox.
Now if I could just actually win a game of golf....About ten more years and ten grand wasted, and I'll be competitive at this damned game..
-Jeff
Grandpa taught me 15 ball rotation (he called it "Straights" or "Straight Rotation"), then I learned 14.1 and 8 ball from my father...played 8 ball almost exclusively for about 5 years, then picked up 9 ball and the rest followed. Both of them told me I can't call myself a Straight Pool player until I've run 100 balls...so topping out at 75 makes me NOT a Straight Pool player...and believe me I've been trying for A LONG TIME. 
Satuday afternoon, ring nine ball, 3,4,5,6 handed or more fifty cents on the five, a buck on the nine. 14/1,20,30 no count, line pool, snooker, six ball, russian billiards & 14/1 on the 5x10 snooker table. When I turned 21
(1963) I when to the bar tables, call the eight and no safeties, bet high. Great years great times.
JDale
Good memories.
Local Boys club in the summer. Play 'caroms' and nurse a glass bottle Coke with the cap cracked open just enough to allow it to leak, all afternoon.
I think we were allowed '2 fingers' relief from the 'cusion' in order to cue. Been a very long time.
- thanks for posting this.
This is a great game with the right bunch of players. The shifting sands of strategic alliances make this such a great game/or not.
Opinions differ constantly as to the right shot.
Ganging up on the leader, or being forced to become 'sheriff' when another player lets his man go are part of the learning process.
Being hung out to dry with your man hanging in the 6 hole is not fun, when sellout is paying double. "I was holding my man" (who is on the 2 hole) gets said a lot in those situations. Often the post game critique of the best sequence of choices at the end of the game-can be the most helpful in improving. Sometimes it just confirms that you got sold down the river.
The cueball double-kiss, clack-clacks are heart breakers at the end.
I don't win much, but I really like this game. Usually plenty of smack talking and second guessing-a lot of fun-until time to pay off.
ps: 1st game-'carom' board game. 1st pool game: In Army-bank 8 ball. bank em all, 8ball-3 rails or more, kick or bank. Took looonnng time.
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14.1 with a Palmer. Played my best pool then. Had the second highest run average in the ACUi (College) tournament. The year before Nick Varner won it. Got beat but loved it
"Shifting sands" is a great way to describe it. It's amazing how different each game, and for that matter, every phase in a game, can be. One guy manages to sprint ahead three holes, then everyone gangs up and pounds him into submission... Until somebody gets greedy and decides to try that four railer they're *sure* they'll hit. And leaves their man open. And so it goes...
My big complaint about golf is that to play it cheaply and regularly, you really need to play in the weekday, and that's a little hard with a job and all.
I've had a heckuva time figuring it out, and I have a long way to go. Many of the shots are unique to golf.. Try finding a book with diagrams of 3/4 railers into the side. Not many calls for those outside of golf. I've managed to dig thru carom books to figure out some of what I've seen, but there isn't exactly a golf book/website/forum out there.
It's also hard to find time to practice on golf tables... People tend to show up and start up games. And then I'm texting my wife, telling her that it'll probably just be another hour before I'm home....
-Jeff
Reminds me of the ring 9-ball games we had at Sheldon's Cigar Store in La Crosse, WI in the early '60s. We played cash on the 5, 7 and 9, and if you made one of those out of turn, it was spotted and you continued to shoot. Once saw 9 money balls made in one game this way!!
Donny L
PBIA/ACS Instructor