What's the best compliment you've ever received about your pool game?

I know this about Brian

Brian in VA said:
The best one I got was recently when one of the better players in Richmond mentioned to me that he had rededicated himself to the game and was now spending far more time practicing. And that was due to the fact that I'd taken him out of the State 9 Ball championships the prior summer. He'd seen how much my game had stepped up and he wanted to do the same. That felt good!

I've taken to playing in a local 8 ball tournament here on Friday nights. I've shown up about half the time for the past 3 months. Several of the better players have said to me that they can't believe I haven't won the thing yet. It's good to get recognition from players that you perceive to be better. :) It also means, I'm getting into their heads. I like that!

Brian in VA - enjoying the journey!
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I've played with him and he CAN play!!!
 
I like it when they say "Dude you're a monster" or "Hawkeyes over here..."
But the best thing is making better players play safe on you like others have said. I mean... sometimes the balls roll right for you :)
 
I was with an Italian, hot-tempered, superstitious, schizophrenic pool player who just couldn't stand losing. There were times when he had left many a "friend" out at the horse track without a ride home when he went bust, leaving them to fend for themselves. I saw him smash an ice cream cone in a guy's face after he lost a race, as an another example of his outbursts. Heck, one time he left me in Tennessee after a loss, resulting in a long 25-hour bus ride back home with only a fin in my pocket. :mad:

One evening, after dark, we ended up going to a topless bar out in Riverdale, MD, which we got steered to. I didn't know it was a topless bar until we arrived, and I didn't like it one bit. The place was full of motorcycle gang members, huge and muscular, wearing their colors and brandishing tatoos. I truly wanted to wait outside in the car while my friend was doing his thing, but even the parking lot was an uncomfortable environment. :rolleyes:

So we went inside to the back room where the bar boxes were, and my friend asked if anybody was interested in playing some. Two surly-looking bikers said they'd gamble with him, but only if he took ME as his partner. Well, there I was, stuck in a titty bar, with bikers galore and a schizophrenic pool player, getting ready to play a little friendly partners game of 8-ball for the cheese. :eek:

At that time, I knew I could hold my own on a pool table, but dealing with all of the distractions, I was one Nervous Nellie. Things went from bad to worse when our opponents shot their way to the money ball and were getting ready to sink it in for the win. 'Bout that time, you could fry an egg on my partner's head, but, lo and behold, our opponents MISSED! And that was the good news. :p

The bad news, it was my turn to shoot, and the damn 8-ball was FROZEN right in the middle of the end rail, and the cue-ball was on the opposite end rail, about 6 inches from the corner pocket, but FROZEN as well. I was shaking in my boots when I addressed the shot. I looked at it long and hard. I don't know who I was scared of most, the bikers or my partner. It was like a nightmare! :D

I took a deep breath, bent down, stroked my stick back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, hoping I could just hit a piece of that cue-ball with the correct english. However, making contact with the 8-ball and the rail at the precise point was the real toughie. :o

I fired at it. The cue-ball traveled down table, hit the rail and the 8-ball at the SWEET spot, and wouldn't you know it, the 8-ball rolled on in the pocket like butter, and we won. I couldn't believe I even hit the 8-ball, much less sink it. The bikers threw their money down on the table, glared at me, and said, "That was a real manly shot!" I'll never forget it. It was the BEST compliment I ever received on a field of green, bar none! :cool:

JAM
 
I have heard people call me "The Magician" before. A guy locally here with many years experience calls me "The Kid".

"I used to play real good but never as good as you"

"This kid breaks like King Kong, if I had your break i would be 3 balls better"

"Do you give lessons?"

"Oh yea, oh yea, he's a bad mother fker now." (A guy that hadn't seen me play in like a year.)

"He grew up on a table that's all there is to it" (I have been playing for three years)

I love it when people start calling people to come play me.

Eric.A.
 
> I was playing in the 2000 U.S. Open,a loser's side match against Hideaki Sakamura. I gave him everything I had,but lost 11-10. After the match,I was outside talking to some people when Jimmy Reid walked up and told me he had watched pretty much the whole match. He asked where I was from,and asked what kind of equipment I had been playing on. He said it looked to him like I was a little tight due to unfamiliarity with the tables. I told him that was probably the case,since it had been 6 months since I had hit a ball on a 9 foot table,and that I had only seen 3-4 Gold Crowns that tight EVER,even though I wasn't trying to use that as an excuse for losing. He asked what I had been playing on again,and who I had been playing against. I told him the tables in my local room were 8 foot Steepletons with very slow cloth and great big pockets,and had no competition other than my own expectations and standards. "Well,it's pretty obvious to me that you have talent,desire,and heart. Virtually no one gets to be your speed without serious help,and it sounds like you didn't have much over there,so you did all you could on your own,that is desire. Your stroke is as solid as 85% of the people here,and that is a manifestation of your talent. It takes heart to get up here,in the most difficult tournament in the world to compete in,and try to prove yourself on equipment that is so unfamiliar. As far as I can see,it's a pure miracle you even learned to play AT ALL under the conditions you describe". I've never felt as good after a tough loss as I did that day. Tommy D.
 
i get told quite often that i shoot pretty good for a guy that's blind in one eye and colorblind ( extremely colorblind) in the other ​
 
There are 2 that spring to mind. The first was back when I was captain of our league team in England. During the season there would be several Cup rounds, including the Captains Cup. The one guy I played had played me twice before during regular season games & as soon as he realised he was playing me his comment was "I haven't got to play you have I? I might as well have stayed home!" He was right! I lost one rack in that competition & that was the first rack of the final!

Second was an exhibition night with Jim Rempe. I was first up to play him & nervous as hell! He broke, sank 2 reds (they used red & yellow balls) & scratched. I chose yellows, sank 3 & missed. Game over. He told me he liked the way I wasn't afraid to go for my shots & take the full group of yellows over the reds. Must be the only time I've felt good after getting my ass handed to me!:D
 
2 From the same person.

"Your Break is really good! Better than alot of the pros out there."

"You're definately not helpless around the table.

Both from Danny Harriman.
 
ive got 2 that stick out

1 time i was playing a local room and i had been talking to a sweator and stakehorse, just makin convo and he was telling me about meeting keith mccready at a tourney and what a hoot he was to hang out with, and i was sayin id never met him but had read about him where he used to wear the tshirt sayin the "world has the 8". Well later on i matched up with probably the 2nd best player in our area and i was just on fire, races to 7 and i was rolling over him. After one shot where the cueball was at about the 2nd diamond on the long rail, and i had to masse around a ball that was at the side pocket and cut in the object ball sitting at the first diamond on the other end, he said "damn scott you might not know keith but you sure play like him"

i was at a pool school and after i was hanging around with the instructors and Scott Lee told me I didnt need to work on my stroke, it was the best in the class. Dunno if it was for real or just being nice but it made me feel good.
 
Staying after league night matches were over, a clearly intoxicated brunette with summer teeth, slightly overweight, and wearing cowboy boots with tight jeans in the North East region, came over and told me I looked good while shooting. I don't know if she meant my cue, clothes, or what, but it sure was nice hearing it from her, and I saved a pic of that special night on my cell phone;
obese970922.gif
 
I used to play with this guy.... he was a roadie back in the 60s and 70s, played pretty well all his life,. I was in my late teens - early 20s, he was late 40s or early 50s. The guy was the first player I ever saw who could string together racks pretty much at will. Well, when he played anyone, he had this thing.... he wouldnt play for free. Did not matter if it was a buck a game...... wouldnt play ya for free. So Im playing him a buck or 2 a game one night, and Im playing over my head. Running out where there wasnt a forseeable run. I get like 12 or so games ahead on him and he starts unscrewing his cue. He looks at me with a grin on his face, and says "Son, that was some nice damn shooting". He pays me and leaves. Im in freakin heaven. Playing in dead stroke, and a compliment from a guy I looked up to BIG TIME.
Of course the next night, he comes in and wants to play for 5 a game and takes like 200 off of me. But this particular night, his grin was a little bigger........ :eek:
Chuck
 
Larry Nevel used to run our amature tournament at my local pool hall, and one night I was shooting the final match for first place and missed a straight in shot on the 8 for the win on the final game of the match. Anyways, Larry just looked at me and goes "Justin, what the hell are you doing?" laughing the whole time he says it. I looked right back laughing as well and said, "I don't know! if I knew I wouldn't have missed that shot" :D My opponent then scratched on the 8 to give me the victory, hehe. I used the money from that win to buy my first decent cue, a 20 year old viking I bought off of Nevel. O.K. so I guess it wasn't a compliment, but I've never gotten one of those about my pool playing. :rolleyes:



Naw prolly the best compliment that I ever have gotten was from my father, he used to play leagues and such when he was younger, and now that I am into pool he decided to get a pool table for christmas (I think as a ploy to get me to come over and visit) The first night we ever shot pool together on the new table he made a comment about noticing how confident I was on the pool table, and how he could really tell the time that I had invested in practice, that's honestly one of the nicest things my father has ever said to me. :o
 
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