What was your first experience like playing a pro?

my first time was filling the field in a 14.1 event where I worked. I had no use being in the field, but I played. It was invitational with guys like Rempe, Varner, Hopkins, Sigel, Calovito....you know, all those slouches :embarrassed2:

First draw, I get Bob Maidoff, not a household name, but a room owner here in PA....he hit me with a pain free 125 after my glorious break leaving a dead one. I got some quality rack time in.

2nd match I beat "Reading Rich" Sluzalis, another local room owner, and I actually played straight pool that match running a few 30s/40s.

Then I got to play a 14.1 legend, Jack Calovito. Named the best player to actually have a career outside of pool. We went back and forth, but he got me. He was past his prime, but strong enough to run numbers when he needed to. The best part was sitting and chatting with all those guys. Priceless.

G.
 
In the 90s, I played this woman in Brighton Billiards in Boston a few games, she played OK but not super, left me several shots, and don't remember her running out a rack. A few years later I figured out that this was Karen Corr probably a week after she came to the US.

Another time I was in Sweden for business and found a place to play with some co-workers from Germany. Had to buy a membership card as I guess they have, or had at least, some law about playing pool in that country. A woman was playing with a great looking McDermott cue, I asked to take a look at it and she said it belonged to the "World Champion". Did not really pay attention to that. I played a few games with her, and also some guy in a wheelchair. Lost pretty much every game. Literally a week later, I turn on ESPN and there is my wheelchair opponent playing on TV. Seems I was playing with Henrik Larsson :-)
 
didn't even know I was doin' it ! might not have if I did . . .

First time I ever played a pro , I didn't even know I was doing it . This was sometime in the late 70' , early 80's. . . .
In High School , I was devoted to the big 9' furniture table in our basement - spent all my spare time on it , and I could destroy all comers there .
So when I reached legal age , I was rarin' to go !
Tried some of the local bars , and made abit of money shootin' .
One of the bar players said I should go up to Cue Time Billiards in Succasunna , and try my luck there . So I did , and I made a nice piece of change there too . . . .
Man , I was on top of the world ~ couldn't be beat !
One of the players there 'made friends' with us , and said he wanted to show his buddies how good I played . . . .
So he had us follow him to Clifton Billiards .
Nice older fellow there was willing to play a few games with me . . .
By the time I left , he had all the money I'd made shootin' pool , plus that months payment on my car in his pocket !
Of course , he was a total gentleman about the whole thing .:)
Found out later that I'd been playing one of the world's top professionals , Ray Martin .
Went back to watch Ray play a few times after that , but I was never cocky enough to pay for the privilege again.

Wonder how much my 'new friend' made for steering me there that night ?? :grin:

p.s. - I WAS a cocky kid , and I deserved everything I got . . .I know that now , anyway.
 
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About 25 years ago, Allen Hopkins was playing racks of 9-ball after an exhibition and I broke and ran all the way to the 9, when the nerves/starstruck set in and I jawed an easy shot.

I've also been on the receiving end of a 150-and-out in 14.1 playing Dave Daya.
 
insanepoolgod said:
My first match against a pro was against Wade Crane. I was definately star struck. I jumped out to a 3-0 lead, but ended up losing the set 9-6. His safety play destroyed me. I had never been hooked like that before and it certainly rattled me.

Fortunately, I learned from the experience. Although it was clear he was a better player, I learned I was no slouch. I also learned that controlling your nerves regardless of the score or the situation is the key to being able to hang with the better players. If you can't master controlling your nerves, controlling the cue ball becomes an impossibility.
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I was running a search for a post I made a long time ago and I came across this post I made (not the one I was looking for, but I'm glad to have found it). I guess I should call myself fortunate for having had the chance to play him. I wish I would have taken the time to take lessons from him and learn about his legendary break.
 
My first time playing a pro happend to also be the very first match of the very first pool tournament I ever played in.

I was brand spankin new to pool...Had not seen TCOM...and did not know who Earl Strickland or Efren was....Prior to this tournament I had set foot in a pool room all of about 2 or three times.

I saw a flyer on the front wall as I was leaving advertising a $10 entry Monday night Open tournament......I have a competative nature so I though I would give it a try....I aske what the rules were and they were explained to me.

It was race to handicap single elimination...I was rated a 5 for the event.

I had no clue who this guy was when they called the match of me against Louie Roberts....

I kicked all of three times in the match....other than that I watched him run rack after rack...He was super nice but also super good...

It was not until later that I was introduced to the movie TCOM and who Louie Roberts was...:wink:

May have been the worst thing to ever happen to me....it hooked me on pool!!!
 
Well i played tom vanover (which was a top player on the east coast),we played several times,i was getting the 5 and break,i knew out of 10racks with the 5 and breaks iam going to win 3or4 before he ever gets to shoot,that is a great advantage,it didnt matter i still couldnt win,i never did at that game,i still cant believe it!
 
m79a said:
Last night I was playing a tourney in Clarksville Tn. Don't play too many tourneys away from my local room. But I may start after last night. Fist I see Karen Corr in there playing and what do you know my first match is against her. Before I started playing I watched this woman play a lot of pool on ESPN. I tried not to worry to much about who I was playing, Tried to get it my head that was gonna beat her just like she was anyone else. Then she promptly whipped my ass 5-0. A very nice woman and a great pool player. I went on and finished one match out of the money. A lot of people would piss and moan about someone like that playing in a tourney like this, but I enjoyed it. I left when I got put out, but I'm sure she probably won it.

What were some of your experiences? Did you let your self get star struck or just not worry about who it was?
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I had to think about this for a moment and then realized the first time I played a pro was Frank McGowan,14.1 World Champ, in an exhibition.

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I've told this story before, but whaddahey, it fits:

Back in the late 70's I was stationed at Malmstrom Air Force Base, just outside of Great Falls, MT. One year, The Corner Pocket up there decided to bring in Frank McGowan, former 14.1 champ, for an exhibition. The manager asked if I'd be willing to be the sitting duck and play him 125 points of straight pool, before McGowan shot some trick shots. I said sure.

Well, I don't know what I was thinking. But I had seen Mosconi do his exhibition several times before. And I kinda suspected that McGowan would follow the usual routine for these affairs and show up in a suit, or a coat and tie. So, for reasons that are still unclear to me today, I decided that the appropriate thing for me to do in this situation was to also wear a suit. The only problem was that, at the time, I only owned one suit. It was a perfectly fine suit: a three-piece; in light gray; white shirt; bright red tie.

Think Bond. James Bond.

So it's time for the exhibition. There's a room full of people around one table and McGowan comes in, and I don't know, he takes one look at me -- three-piece suit; in light gray; white shirt; bright red tie -- and he kinda goes catatonic or something. I guess it would be like going out duck hunting and the first duck you see flies by in a tux.

Well, somehow I get the first shot. Clearly, I've thrown Frank off his game.

I start to run the balls. I get into the second rack. And then the third. Frank goes to the bathroom. I get into the fourth rack. The balls are *wide open.* And then comes the shot that I still remember today: a little baby two ball combination on the rail behind the rack that, as Danny McGoorty would have said, a drunk Girl Scout could've made if you held her up to the table long enough.

And I took it for granted and I hung up the ball.

I was told afterwards, by a friend who went into the bathroom at that point, that McGowan was in there washing his hands. When my buddy told him that I had just missed, McGowan went, "He missed?!" And McGowan comes flying out and quickly proceeds to make a dish of, "Shredded Duck ala Lou," with an 80-something run and then a 50-something.
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My First :-)

Lou Figueroa
 
Robin Bell a.k.a. Robin Dodson circa 1993-1994, I think it was a $1500 added tournament that was at Hard Times in Bellflower. At the time I was working at Varsity Billiards which was owned by the Markulis family, they knew I was an up and coming young player so they played our match on table 6 which is right at the entrance to the tournament room and gets the most spectator traffic. It was the 1st "big" tournament I had ever entered and was ready to try and take on the big boys since I had been kicked out of the local "C" tournaments in our area.

It was like someone put batteries in me and became a woman's best friend, I was shaking like a leaf under the pressure and I'm surprised I didn't faint. For some odd reason I played very well though and missed very few balls but the ones I did miss were the 8-ball, an 8-ball, another 8-ball and maybe..............an 8-ball.

Ended up losing the set 2-9 while never making an 8-ball during the whole debacle and luckily won the 2 games through combinations, after that set I didn't make an 8-ball for probably another month. I remember that set like it was yesterday including the razzing I took for months/years afterwards due to the amazing dogging ability I displayed that day!!
 
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Well he robbed me and i let him..I didnt know who he was.
This guy comes to our pool hall and i get a call from the owner there's some action here.So me and a buddy of mine who's a bookie go check it out.
Anyways i get in action with the guy for 200 a set.After about 2 hours im
stuck a few sets.We want to keep playing but the guy playing good and i see i cant win.I ask for the 8 and he say's no.
That was alright with me cause im figuring he would probably of beat me with the 8.
Then i find out who he was and im thinking this guy is a pro and im just a local banger and he wouldn't even give me spot.
What a turd..Really a nutless turd...
 
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The first pro I ever played was Danny Hewitt who is still considered one of the best canadian 9-ball player. He gave me a few lessons when I started to play and after a year or 2, we started to hang out more and practice. Obviously I couldn't make 2 balls in a row against him because I was intimidated. A few years down the road, I decide to try my luck at a pro tournament and test my game against the big guns so I asked Danny for a ride to the event and off we went.....I drew him first round!!!

I won the lag and the guy on the next table told me 'That's probably the only thing you'll ever win in this match'. I was really nervous because everybody was watching but surprisingly I wasn't intimidated during that match, I was in the Zone....I ended up losing 11-8.

Still today, even with the experience I have, I can't play well against him in practice....hard to beat a guy who taught you how to make a stop shot.
 
The first time I ever played a pro player was in 1987. I entered a qualifier for a Professional tournament and drew the tournament director Railroad John for my first match. He ran the racks so smoothly that I left there knowing my game was no where near pro level. I went there thinking I played pretty good as I had been winning a good bit in smaller tournaments, but I got a lesson in humilty and a reality check at the same time. I gave up my aspirations to be a pro player and started doing more cue work.
I came one round out of the money in several pro tournaments after that. The first time I ever got in the money I was playing Tommy Kennedy and I have him 8 to 5 in a race to 9 and I have just run the rack down to the 9. I was playing some of my best pool ever and I shoot the nine and miscue. I look down at my tip and I had no chalk on it. I had shot the whole rack without chalking up. When I get back to the table it is 8 to 8 and he leaves me a really long tough nine. I fire it in without thinking as I knew nerves would get me if I took too many strokes. Many of those one round out of the money matches were lost because I blew it, from thinking about finally breaking the curse and getting into the money. I have only cashed a couple of other times since then in pro tournaments.
 
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8pack said:
Well he robbed me and i let him..I didnt know who he was.
This guy comes to our pool hall and i get a call from the owner there's some action here.So me and a buddy of mine who's a bookie go check it out.
Anyways i get in action with the guy for 200 a set.After about 2 hours im
stuck a few sets.We want to keep playing but the guy playing good and i see i cant win.I ask for the 8 and he say's no.
That was alright with me cause im figuring he would probably of beat me with the 8.
Then i find out who he was and im thinking this guy is a pro and im just a local banger and he wouldn't even give me spot.
What a turd..Really a nutless turd...
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Why's he a turd? So, he gives you a spot, then more spot and more spot until you get even? Where does it end?
 
If you have the chance to compete with world-class players from time to time-just do it. It s an experience for your pool-life.
 
The first pro I played was Morro. I was a C player back then...I thought he was a C player too! He just never missed. lol.
 
I didn't know he was a pro. All I knew is that all my money went away. I just couldn't stop. It started out like I was playing the luckiest guy in the world. He was riding the 9 on almost every shot. If it didn't go in I was locked up behind something. It wasn't long though before I realized it wasn't luck. After that I just kept handing him my money to watch him play! Turned out to be Little Joe Villapando. After $150 @ $5 a game I finally quit. After that he started teaching me stuff, and so it went for a couple years. I would roll through Davenport and hand him my dough and he would teach me more stuff. Joe's a stand up guy and a great instructor. See ya Joe. Don the Truck Driver
 
I drew Terry Bell in the first round of a 9 ball tournament. He could tell I was starstruck - nervous - a bit apprehensive.

Then he did something that caught me completely off guard - he asked I wanted to bet something on the side... Looking back, I think he did that just to see the expressionless look on my face -(LOL)- it was either that, or he could tell that I had to dig change out of the couch cushions just to get there that day.

With a red face, I decline the side bet due to mismanagement of funds.

He breaks and runs out. In between games, I tried to engage in pleasantries with him. He ignores me, just wiping his hands with a towel and never looking at me or acknowledging what I said. He was all business, and all killer instinct.

Naively, I figured that because I was young and inexperienced that he would try to take it easy on me - give me a few pointers along the way ... not a chance. From the moment we met at the table and shook hands, he went for the jugular. When he wasn't running out, he left me shooting at rails.

I did manage to clear a 7-8-9 run after he missed a tough cut - I broke and put the cue ball in the side pocket and IIRC, he closed out the match from there.

I call it an awful experience that was beautiful to watch.

After the match, he shook my hand, smiled, and told me, "Good luck. I hope you have a great tournament."

I felt like I just got my ass kicked by Superman, but I tried to keep a positive attitude. It was a great opportunity to learn some valuable lessons from one of the greatest players in the world. He had introduced me to what it was like to go up against a world class player.

Right after that, I won two matches in the loser's bracket. I still believe I was able to win those matches because playing against Terry Bell had heightened my awareness at the table. That experience actually made me play better. When I played against Terry, I sat there wishing and hoping just to get back to the table. In my next match, my opponent missed quite a few shots, and I took full advantage of every opportunity I was given. I think I was able to draw in some of Terry's strengths and incorporate them into my game.

I still look back on that as my baptism by fire. A lot of people associate Terry Bell's name with the APA, but to me, he is still one of the best players I have ever had the pleasure to rack for.
 
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