I was involved the first time I played. I've played ever since, and I'm not going stop till I get it right.
What was the moment that got you involved in pool?
- Thread starter Rio19
- Start date
I've always like playing but didn't get serious with it until college. Playing for my first beer! LOL. After a while, I didn't have to come with beer money. One night I picked up a partner playing doubles at the local Knights of Columbus. We won every game and every drink! One of the best nights of my pool life. I'm a much better player now, but for back then it was a big thing for me.
I remember as a kid watching Minnesota Fats play UJ Puckett, Irving Crane and Willie Mosconi (mid-70's) on Wide World of Sports. I was watching one such event on TV one day with my Uncle and he said that he would take me down to the bar where he and his friends would shoot pool in Del Ray (neighborhood in Detroit).
One of his friends was a guy he called Dollar Bill. I learned later that this was Billy Burge (Cornbread Red). Both my Uncle and Mr Burge were there more for the beer than the pool. But I really got the bug from watching those guys play and shooting a little myself whenever I could get over to my Uncles house and beg him to take me to that nasty ancient bar.
I have only recently (past year and a half) gotten serious about my game. I've always had a good eye, but I'm actually starting to be good enough to make people worry in tournaments. The picture in my signature is of Cornbread at a Tournament where he was shooting against Earl, Buddy and Nick V.
Nice thread...
Lesh
One of his friends was a guy he called Dollar Bill. I learned later that this was Billy Burge (Cornbread Red). Both my Uncle and Mr Burge were there more for the beer than the pool. But I really got the bug from watching those guys play and shooting a little myself whenever I could get over to my Uncles house and beg him to take me to that nasty ancient bar.
I have only recently (past year and a half) gotten serious about my game. I've always had a good eye, but I'm actually starting to be good enough to make people worry in tournaments. The picture in my signature is of Cornbread at a Tournament where he was shooting against Earl, Buddy and Nick V.
Nice thread...
Lesh
…F-ing APA
I started playing in an APA league about 8 years ago basically as a reason to to drink on a Monday night. I really enjoyed the competition and kept at it. Then I had my first break and run, and I guess that was the moment. It was against one of the biggest smart asses in the league. I beat him good with a 9BNR and a 9OS. He looked at me and said "You couldn't do that again in a million years!"
"I don't have to do it again, I did it just now!"
I know that line's from a movie, but there's no way what I said sounded that good, and that's how I like to remember it.
I got a DUI two years ago and quit drinking entirely, but the itch to play stayed. Even though I couldn't drive I would find a way to play. When I couldn't play I got on the internet, which led me to AZB.
In between the BNR and the DUI I made a great friend whose AZB handle is StuartTKelley. Stu and I have played a lot of pool together and I'm sure we'll play a lot more in the future.
Each rack is like a snowflake, no two are the same. Every opportunity at the table is a new challenge, a new problem to solve, and that's what keeps me coming back.
Thanks for sharing your stories, and allowing me to share mine.
Benjamin Crowgey
Edit: GREAT THREAD!
I started playing in an APA league about 8 years ago basically as a reason to to drink on a Monday night. I really enjoyed the competition and kept at it. Then I had my first break and run, and I guess that was the moment. It was against one of the biggest smart asses in the league. I beat him good with a 9BNR and a 9OS. He looked at me and said "You couldn't do that again in a million years!"
"I don't have to do it again, I did it just now!"
I know that line's from a movie, but there's no way what I said sounded that good, and that's how I like to remember it.
I got a DUI two years ago and quit drinking entirely, but the itch to play stayed. Even though I couldn't drive I would find a way to play. When I couldn't play I got on the internet, which led me to AZB.
In between the BNR and the DUI I made a great friend whose AZB handle is StuartTKelley. Stu and I have played a lot of pool together and I'm sure we'll play a lot more in the future.
Each rack is like a snowflake, no two are the same. Every opportunity at the table is a new challenge, a new problem to solve, and that's what keeps me coming back.
Thanks for sharing your stories, and allowing me to share mine.
Benjamin Crowgey
Edit: GREAT THREAD!
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I started playing when I was 28, I'm 36 now! I started playing with my brother, he was going through a rough time in his life with his now X wife! Anyway, one night he called me to hang out so went over and we decided to go out and eat and the place had 8 9ft Brunswicks! So we were shooting for a while and decided it was time to go! Next night, same thing(but I'm exhausted from work! Third night, I get that call, he wants to hang out and play some pool! I said, listen, I'm not going out to play that stupid game tonight! I'm going home to sleep! He begs me to come over just to hang out! So me being the brother that I am, fine! Get to the house, I quickly sit on the couch and almost fall asleep! He says, hey, let's go eat! Fine, let's go I said! Where did we go? That stupid place with the stupid pool tables! So we are eating. He says you wanna lose? Not really, &uck that stupid game!!! He convinces me, we start playing! Few games into it, I shoot a shot and I draw the ball like 7-8ft! Don't ask me how I did it,,, but I did!!! I got hooked right there and then! Next night, like clockwork, he calls! What r u doin tonight? I said I don't know about you, but I'm going to play some pool!!! Played everyday for almost a yr! Got into the APA, in one month, I was an 8! A yr later, a was a 7 in 8-ball and 9 in 9-ball! I've been playing almost everyday ever since! I had to take a month off because I had surgury on my arm(bone cancer) my rotator cuff was completely off! I thank god and the doctors I'm still here and still playing! Although this game has taken a good part of my life, it also saved it! I was on the verge of suicide due to my now X girl friend telling me "I'm not sure I can handle your situation)(the bone cancer)! I was close, but realized, besides my family, the only thing that has treated me exactly the way I treat it is the great game of pool! I work 12-14 hr days, 7 days a week and put in 2-3 hrs a day in the basement hitting balls! I will never let go of something that loves me,,, this game loves me and I love it!!! It's been great, it is great, and it will be great!!!
My story sounds cliche, and im no old timer, but heres my story dad always played pool and i spent a lot of my early years in pool halls at a very young age watching my dad play for money with a lot of his friends, and their game was a 7-8 man game of 6 ball at $5 a head. It was amazing to me that one guy could stay there and win hundreds before another guy got a shot, when i could barely reach the table enough to put the balls in with my hands. So i told my dad i wanted to learn to play. He had an old crappy pool cue that was in a small rectangle box (a 5 piece cue) and he gave me that to play on the back tables while they played the front. He never showed me anything. I just picked it up by watching what they did. So after years of spending my weekends just playing by myself in the back, i naturally got pretty good. And im not that old now, just 26, but i still enjoy thinking back to how amazing it was to watch those guys run rack after rack. And nice thread OP, i really enjoyed reading all these.
1982
In 1982 i was 12 years old and the video game arcades were really hot at that time. one opened about a block from my house and within days was the neiborhood hang out for the teens. they had a little 7' bar box table and one saturday they put on a teen pool tournement. I think there was one guy about 16 who could run 3 in a row playing 8 ball and we all thought he was a pool God. So i enter this tournement and by luck and a couple of guys scratching on the 8 ball i made to the final against Ray the guy we worshipped who proceeded to beat me handily in the final game. they gave a trophy to the 1st 2nd and 3rd , I still have that second place trophy and am still mighty proud of it because from that day on I was hooked.
I am 44 now and my passion for the game is still as strong as it was that saturday 31 years ago
In 1982 i was 12 years old and the video game arcades were really hot at that time. one opened about a block from my house and within days was the neiborhood hang out for the teens. they had a little 7' bar box table and one saturday they put on a teen pool tournement. I think there was one guy about 16 who could run 3 in a row playing 8 ball and we all thought he was a pool God. So i enter this tournement and by luck and a couple of guys scratching on the 8 ball i made to the final against Ray the guy we worshipped who proceeded to beat me handily in the final game. they gave a trophy to the 1st 2nd and 3rd , I still have that second place trophy and am still mighty proud of it because from that day on I was hooked.
I am 44 now and my passion for the game is still as strong as it was that saturday 31 years ago
Good equipment helps
As a kid I tried damn hard to make cue ball obey my commands. Unfortunately there is only so much English a 9 year old can get out of old valley barbox, HUGE banged up cueball, the worst effing tips, no chalk, and ancient cloth. English=NONE. I settled for just making balls & if anything a stopshot. After awhile I got pretty good at just making balls. I didn't give crap where object & cueball were if I could see it I was cutting or banking it in. I would play whenever I could in the rec hall after school or at grandmas in the basement. Both tables were very similar as noted above. Fast forward 6-7 years my father takes me by chance to actual pool hall that has new cloth, clean unblemished cueballs, 9 foot brunswicks, & house cues that actually have tips. Sweet! One of the first shots I hit-old whitey starts a bending with some draw. WTH?! I couldn't do that on rec room or grandma's barbox. I hit it harder-whitey arcs off to the side. Wow the ball actually does different things when I hit it in different spots-ok I'm hooked.
25 years later & I'm still trying to hit whitey in the right spot.
As a kid I tried damn hard to make cue ball obey my commands. Unfortunately there is only so much English a 9 year old can get out of old valley barbox, HUGE banged up cueball, the worst effing tips, no chalk, and ancient cloth. English=NONE. I settled for just making balls & if anything a stopshot. After awhile I got pretty good at just making balls. I didn't give crap where object & cueball were if I could see it I was cutting or banking it in. I would play whenever I could in the rec hall after school or at grandmas in the basement. Both tables were very similar as noted above. Fast forward 6-7 years my father takes me by chance to actual pool hall that has new cloth, clean unblemished cueballs, 9 foot brunswicks, & house cues that actually have tips. Sweet! One of the first shots I hit-old whitey starts a bending with some draw. WTH?! I couldn't do that on rec room or grandma's barbox. I hit it harder-whitey arcs off to the side. Wow the ball actually does different things when I hit it in different spots-ok I'm hooked.
25 years later & I'm still trying to hit whitey in the right spot.
Great life story! Just want to point out something. Pool will have a better future if we can make it a better environment for kids to play too. Family friendly place. Many of the other posters here have started earlier in life. If we can make it so for more kids, there'd be a better future for billiards.
when i was a kid - around 10, we'd play and run around pool tables. sometimes play underneath it. i remember people would ask us to broom/clean dust under the table. if a ball jumps out, we would race to get/pick the ball. it's basically kids, looking for stuff to do/play with (besides playing pool) in a pool hall. when no one plays, we would borrow 2 or 3 balls, get a cue, and start shooting on the table. it's ok because the pool hall is just right across the street from my house, and the owner is a good neighbor.
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