Where did you first play pool, who taught you?

Mike the Bike

Mike the Bike

Banned
OK old guy's, Poolrooms used to be educational and dangerous (all the smoke) and more fun than the balcony at the movies.
I started at Frank's, A converted WW2 quonset hut long and dark. 5x10's and always a ring game up front. Smoke so thick you could save a lot of cash on cigs just by breathing. I learned and then some......

I walked into Franks, Langhorne, Pa. It was 1957, I was 12 years old. The house man, Potter, a WW2 Vet with a missing left hand replaced by a hook device with a gold ring welded on it to put the cue through ran the place. Potter was a very good
player, pool and billiards. I bought my first good cue from him, a brass jointed Hoppe baseball bat. I loved that cue. I could hide it from my parents. There were lots of good players in there. Dave Dimillio, Potter, Frank, Larry Ponzo, Henry Dredge. There must be some old guys from Philly or Trenton that could name a bunch more. I cut school alot to play there. Fairless Hills Fats owned a poolhall in Levittown Pa. used to come to Franks and play for good money. Anybody remember Franks?

mike the bike
 
I'll chime in. I grew up in north eastern PA in an old coal mining hillbilly town called Lansford. My dad was always a good bar player and gave me my start but the real meat and potatoes was at a place called the Lansford Athletic Association. I'm only 24 now but I started going there when I was 14 or so. This place was basically a gentleman's club house. It was actually a house with a living room with tv, the dining room was where the card tables were, there was a full kitchen, a bar in the basement and two beautiful brunswick 9 footers upstairs with spectator chairs all around. Now get this, ony the men hung out there. It was there "escape" from the wives. It only cost $10 a year for membership and you got a key to the front door. The best part was that it was right around the corner from my house. You could play all the pool you wanted 24/7 for $10 a year! For the first six months I didn't even play. I just sat and watched, then eventually I started playing and those boys taught me SO MUCH about the game. It was a great learning experience playing with all those older guys, especially at that age. You learn so much from those one hole and straight players. I can go on and on about the fun I had in that place. It is definately my golden years of pool playing. I left to join the military and went back on one of my vacations and someone had bought it and converted it back into a regular looking house. What a shame. I remember sitting outside in my car thinking what a shame that place is gone. You just don't find places like that anymore.

John
 
Boy's Club Miami Florida in 1954, and we were all self taught back then. No formal instruction was too be had.
 
I would say my first exposure to pool was my dad and his friend shooting pool on the table in his friends basement in the early 70's. I probably would have been around 5 years old or so. I can remember my dad putting me up on a chair and letting me shoot the balls around.

As I grew older pool was always somewhere in my life. There was a community center pretty close to our apartment that had 3 tables. I used to shoot pool there all the time from when I was about 10 to about 13 years old. Then I moved in with my dad and we had a table in the basement.

By the time I walked into Beechmont Billiards in Cincinnati, Ohio, when I was about 17 years old, I had already been playing pool long enough that I could make a closed bridge comfortably, I could pocket balls fairly well, but I had no concept of using english or how to play position.

I went into Beechmont with my 22.00 cue, that I had bought at Watson's Home Center, like I was the cream of the crop. The first day I was there I was shooting by myself, no one else was in the room, and the owner came over and said "You make balls pretty good but you wouldn't have to shoot so many hard shots if you played better position." I was hooked. He started showing me some things and invited me to come back later when some of the good players would be there. Luckily I was invited/accepted into the "group" from early on. I learned a lot from a lot of different people but I consider myself very fortunate to have had some bank play instruction from Gary Spaeth. He was a regular in the room and every once in a while he'd show me some things about banking. To this day I think I bank fairly well. I'm no world beater by a long shot but I have confidence in my banking. I don't know if I'd take it as high as wanting to gamble with a real bank player but when a bank comes up in a game I don't shy away from it.

Anyway, I don't think there is really any one person that I can give credit to for everything so I'll just thank the A players that frequented Beechmont Billiards back in the late 80's.
MULLY
 
I started playing at my Univeristy games room. They had eight 7 foot bar tables and a snooker table. It was about two months before a friend took me to a pool room, which was where I played on a 9 footer for the first time. The transition from 7 footers to 9 footers was painfull.

Although, I have had a lesson or two before, no one has really taught me much. I learned much what I know from books, studying players on DVD's (incessantly) and the AZ forum.
 
I learned to play pool in a little pool hall called Corner Pocket in York, PA (closed years ago). It was just a pool room, no liquer, although there was a poker machine in the corner which gave me my first exposure to gambling when I was 15 or 16.

No good players except for Smooth (Kevin Shaffer) and Craig Rineman.

I first learned how to play poker (7-card stud) on the center table after closing, losing all of my money (not betting with locked hands, not knowing I had a flush when I did, stuff like that...we've ALL been there at some point).

Honestly, if it weren't for Corner Pocket sucking me into pool and ruining my grades in high school, I probably would have went to the Air Force Academy and done something other than start my company.

Thank God for pool.
 
First time I ever picked up a cue, I was about 4-5 years old. I was in a bar in southern Ohio called the Oasis. Grandpa was a drunk, who watched me during the days before I started school. I was a big kid, and had no problem navigating a bar box. He would hand me a fistfull of quarters and belly himself up to the bar. I would bang them balls around for hours on those quarters. Then as time passed, I started having to ask grandpa for more quarters. :D
Grandpa was a rotation player, and he started showing me stance, and stroke. My pocketing was getting to a decent point, so he started telling me about what pool was about. Once I learned you could actually CONTROL the cue ball..... I was like wow, now it makes sense.
Through the years I played in barrooms with grandpa and my dad until I went into my first pool hall at 14 or so. Mr Billiards...... There I learned about big tables and about 9 ball. I watched guys Like Varner, Rempe, and Vickery come through every once and a while. I was hooked big time.
Chuck
 
My karate instructor told me that I had no focus or concentration during sword class. He said that learning how to play pool would fix that problem. I started frequenting On Cue Billiards every thursday night because it was ladies night and pool was half price. Eventually, I made friends with people that worked at the pool hall and would start hanging out there on the weekends to.

One of the regulars, Paulus Bagunda played well talked me into coming to the regular weekly tournament at College Billiards. I was hooked. I played the tournament even though I could barely hold a cue and started playing the tournament regulary after that. At that same tournament I met my ex boyfriend (whom I was with for 7 years) Sam Manaole. He tried teaching me but I was stubborn and would never listen, lol. To this day, I still don't listen but now-a-days I don't waste instructors time... And I still have no concentration and don't know how to focus. I never went back to sword class either:D .
 
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milford rec in milford CT. don't know if its even still there. it was a huge facility with a full blown arcade, mini golf, food court. but the beauty to me was the full size pool hall. in the neighborhood of 25 to 30 nine foot gold crowns. my friends chris and herb taught me how to play the old fashioned way, they beat my ass with a shot until i asked how they did it and then they'd show me. it was also my first exposure to action. you could walk in there at noon and some one would be betting. if anyone who reads this thread played in milford in the late 80's early 90's feel free to drop me a line i'd love to know what happened to the rec.
 
Who inspired my pool addiction.

Well both grandparents had those old wood bed sears tables in their basements. Oh how straight they were. It didnt matter. I remember as soon as i could see over the edge of the table feeling the same excitement i feel today as i see the shiny orbs roll around the green cloth.

My dads dad was the one. He shot with a smooth style and grace. He always left you a tuff shot and we just didnt understand why. I guess this is where my kicking skills come from. My grandfather would tell stories of characters he ran across during lunch hour. He would goto the STATE MUSIC THEATER basement. They had a great poolroom. The stories were captivating there were awsome niknames for all the players. When i turned 21 and was in the bar i overheard a group of men rehashing the old days and the same characters were all there. It was amazing, almost like de javu.

My love for the game thrived. The first time he showed me low english i thought it was magic. The way the cue ball just snapped back like a yoyo. I had 7 uncles and by the time i was 12 i was the reigning champ. My uncles would put me in to gamble against their friends for Skoal cans. I won a ton, yet never found the guts to put that crap in my lip.

The years went on and when i graduated high school i put a table in my dads garage. My grandfather, stricken with parkinsons, shuffles in the garage one last time and couldnt resist one last game. To watch the one that taught me struggle to walk around the table brought a tear to my eye. He bent over the table and for those 5 minutes he was in another zone. It was like the first time i played him, the first shot he missed i was hooked and had to kick. He looked at me and smiled, he knew what he did. It wasnt long after he was chalkin his cue with the best heaven has.

Cheers to the man that gave me the gift of pool.

PAt
 
I was 18 years old in Chestertown, MD when a boyfriend dumped me and I decided to go down the the Tavern and get drunk. Just because I could.

They had 3 tables and I sat with my back to the bar watching several people play. Soon a guy came over and asked me if I wanted to play. I told him I had never played and he said that was ok, he'd show me.

Turns out he (Jim Naumann) and his best friend (Mark Coleman) were two of the best players in the joint, and they would show me where to hit the cue ball and hold their finger on the rail, and I would make the fanciest shots which tickled me to death. Soon I started dating one of them and playing for 4-5 hours a night, 6 nights a week, and after about 2 years I wasn't afraid to go up against anyone - anyone in that podunk town, anyway.

But that was 20 years ago. I'm just now getting back into it so my husband and I can have some quality fun together. And I can't believe I let it go for so long!! I just always associated playing pool with dive bars where strangers weren't really welcome. But I've found a really nice pool hall here in Asheville, NC, and I'm having a total relapse - my addiction is back full blast!
 
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first pool room

The Uptown cigar store. 1940. I am the only, as far as I know, person still alive in this town who still remembers the original location. Nick is dead, and Sailor doesn't quite remember. Shortly after I began playing they moved to a larger location just a few blocks away but still in Uptown. This was the establishment that Sailor took over some years after WW2. I am a year or two older than Sailor. I served 2 years as an enlisted man on a Destroyer in the south Pacific in WW2. I am now known among my closest friends as The Admiral. Sailor, I think, also served on a Destroyer and was known as The Oil King.

Dave Nelson
 
Self taught, look at that form!

accutane.jpg
 
jrt30004 said:
milford rec in milford CT. don't know if its even still there. it was a huge facility with a full blown arcade, mini golf, food court. but the beauty to me was the full size pool hall. in the neighborhood of 25 to 30 nine foot gold crowns. my friends chris and herb taught me how to play the old fashioned way, they beat my ass with a shot until i asked how they did it and then they'd show me. it was also my first exposure to action. you could walk in there at noon and some one would be betting. if anyone who reads this thread played in milford in the late 80's early 90's feel free to drop me a line i'd love to know what happened to the rec.
Click to expand...
AFAIK there isn't any action there anymore. I used to work there from 1998-99...and Eddie Cugan (chk sp) was the only one left still playing there...and maybe Dom Ferriera. I think a few players used to pass through now and then...but I never saw anyone matching up while I was there. Eddie used to tell me stories about the one-pocket tournaments they used to have, and the games he used to get. They would give me stuff to work on and I used to practice every day that I was workin'...but the management there was terrible and I left after a year or so.

They changed the name of the place to "Smiles" and the new management doesn't really do anything to bring in any pool players. The tables are still there but they're in terrible condition since there are kids spillin' drinks on them all the time. I hardly ever go there anymore...only when I'm takin' my niece to the arcade and then I might bring my cue with me. But I still like going back there from time to time since it's where I first started to love the game.
 
Rocky's

Rocky's Pool Hall in a small iron mining town in Michigan's Upper Pennisula...
8 Tables...4 - 8 footers, 2 - 9 footers. All spotless.
Short little Italian, Rocky sat next to the head table. It was the only table not available on time. Challenge only. Nickel or a dime a game, one or the other, I can't remember.
Rocky racked and refereed the games on that table. He wouldn't let you on the 9 footers until he was sure you wouldn't tear up the equipment. You got a problem...take it outside. Banned from Rocky's was a ban for life. No reprieves.
Soda pop the only refreshment available.
I lived in the next town over and would hitch hike over there after school.
Yeah, yeah I know 3 miles in the snow uphill both ways...
Never seemed to bother me then.
Thanks for allowing me to remember back to a much simpler time.
Tommy:)
 
Comet Bowling Alley..Grand Rapids, Mich

Partners snooker with 3 cherries on a 5x10 for quarters in the mid 70's. Learned how to play safe, get your partner a shot, what it felt like to get DUMPED and had many great afternoons all through college. One of the drop ins was George Ellis who in his time was a sparring partner for Harold Worst, and teacher/mentor for Bobby Hunter. I soaked it all in!! Good times.

td
 
Puck said:
AFAIK there isn't any action there anymore. I used to work there from 1998-99...and Eddie Cugan (chk sp) was the only one left still playing there...and maybe Dom Ferriera. I think a few players used to pass through now and then...but I never saw anyone matching up while I was there. Eddie used to tell me stories about the one-pocket tournaments they used to have, and the games he used to get. They would give me stuff to work on and I used to practice every day that I was workin'...but the management there was terrible and I left after a year or so.

They changed the name of the place to "Smiles" and the new management doesn't really do anything to bring in any pool players. The tables are still there but they're in terrible condition since there are kids spillin' drinks on them all the time. I hardly ever go there anymore...only when I'm takin' my niece to the arcade and then I might bring my cue with me. But I still like going back there from time to time since it's where I first started to love the game.
Click to expand...

thanks for the update. when i first started going there the pool hall was about it. they had arcade games down the side rails, a small arcade, and mini golf. everything else you know there was added later. that is a shame that the condition has gone down hill. and yes back in the day you could see some lights out one pocket and straight pool. when i was learning the color of money had just come out so nine ball was huge too, but my friends taught me straights first then nine. i didn't learn 8 ball till i joined the apa in 93.
 
I kind of grew up in sports bars and played a bunch as a kid. But I took a pool class in college, believe it or not. It was taught by an apa 7, just some guy they hired to teach the class, not a prof. or anything.

I learned in one semester pretty much all the fundamentals of pool and my game got way better. THat was it, I was hooked. This was at UC Colorado SPrings, then I started playing at the pool rooms.

And now Im off to Vegas next week for the APA tournament. Who ever said college is a waste of money.
 
Pool

mbippus said:
I kind of grew up in sports bars and played a bunch as a kid. But I took a pool class in college, believe it or not. It was taught by an apa 7, just some guy they hired to teach the class, not a prof. or anything.

I learned in one semester pretty much all the fundamentals of pool and my game got way better. THat was it, I was hooked. This was at UC Colorado SPrings, then I started playing at the pool rooms.

And now Im off to Vegas next week for the APA tournament. Who ever said college is a waste of money.
Click to expand...
ALL THE FUNDAMENTALS
BALONEY. HAL HOULE
 
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