Why did you START playing?

I grew up in the video game era and then a pool hall opened up just down the main drag in the little hick town that I live in....So I went to check out what new games they might have...the owner of the place was a strong player with an incredible stroke....watching him spin the CB around the table just captivated me....I started playing more pool than video games....:D also he let certain devoted kids buy a McDermott on payments....I was 13 then in 1980....
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Well it all started when my parents got divorced. I lived with my mom in a 2-bedroom trailer with my 2 sisters. She worked 3 jobs and i worked at a restutaunt at the age of 16.Mom told me if i don't go to school i better find a job. I was running a little wild at the time and found out about this poolroom was just 2-doors down from the resturaunt. I played with the local drunks (hehe) and i realized that i might could really play this game. Well i didn't really start playing until i got me a DWI just 2months after i got my license so i could walk to work and of course i spent the rest of my time playing pool. The owner was my first match for 1 dollar. He told me he would play 1-handed and i accepted. Well i won and thats how it all got started. I guess i was forced into the situation. Well my game has gotten good enough to win several 9-ball tourneys and my highlight of my career was to beat Scott Kitto in Raliegh at their annual professional tourney in front of all my friends from home.The score was 9-5. Scott was ranked 13th in the world at the time.
 
I've posted this story before, but I always come back to it when someone ask the question:
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I think I was 9 or 10. I went with my Dad to pick up my sister at the
Masonic Temple. She was waiting at the Temple in a rec. room playing 8-ball on this 9' table. I'd never really played before but was fascinated by the click of the balls. Neither my sister nor her friend had a clue as to what they were doing, but occassionally, one of them would catch a ball just right. The ball would hit the leather pocket with that wonderful *thwap* sound.

My sister let my father and I play a bit before we went home. For a guy who never plays, my dad has some obvious natural talent. My father only knew one game: rotation. So that was the first game that I knew as far as rules go.


In that first magical rack, I couldn't make a straight shot to save my life. I was able to make all of two balls: a bank on the 5, and a kick on the 13. My father apparently feeling no need to praise his young son on these accomplishments rewarded me with "lucky shot" on each.


And such was the spark that lit my burning desire. I never wanted to hear him tell me "lucky shot" again. Gee, dad. Thanks.


Fred
 
It started in High School. Back in the 1980s, Barney's pool hall in Houston, TX offered free pool till 6:00 if you bought a drink (even a coke). So after school, and often during school, that became the thing for my friends and I to do. I had a bit more talent than my other two friends, so I ended up sticking with it. Then pool was the thing to do at the student union at college.

Then I moved to Chicago in 1993, thinking I was a decent player. After not too long, I made my way over to Chris's, where I quickly learned that I was a hack. So I date the beginning of my starting to try to really play pool to the first time I went to Chris's.

Cory
 
I am originally from the UK and moved to ATL in September 2005. Back in 1983 when I was 7 years old my parents bought my brother and I a fold-away 6' x 3' snooker table. We banged around on that thing for hours at a time with no instruction and only the televised snooker coverage to guide us. We loved that thing, but as we got older other teenage life distractions meant that I spent less and less time at the table.

Fast forward to September 2005 and not having played for years I finally bought a house big enough (you gotta love the US :)) for a table and this has re-kindled my passion for the game. I didn't have the space for a 12' x 6' snooker table and haven't found too many in this area (the best pool room in my area has just got rid of theirs to make space for more poker tables aaaargghhh) so I figured I would concentrate on pool.

I have a couple of cues on order and am religiously practice drilling and steadily improving. I plan to join a pool league in a few months but want to hone my skills a little more before I take on that challenge....
 
I remember being around 3 and my mom taking me to see my dad at the pool room. I remember looking up at this TALL desk with stacks of balls, rows of tables and briefly seeing my dad before we went on to somewhere else. It all seemed cool.

Around the age of 7 my dad bought a kiddie table to play on in the basement. This will do NOTHING to help a pool game, but it was fun!

Around 8 and 9 my dad's friends would tell me how good my dad was, etc, etc....and for locals he was pretty good. I started getting him to take me out, so about once a week on Friday night my dad would take me to poolroom near our house, that is no longer there. We would play 8 ball and 9 ball. People would come by and talk with him, but he would only play me --- and encouraged me with every shot and every mistake. One thing he NEVER did was let me win. I learned how to lose gracefully because I didn't win a game for years until I started getting lucky rolls at 9 ball. I never really tried to get better, just had fun, was more of just a shotmaker and my dad didn't teach me anything. He didn't push me at it. Just pretty much enjoyed the time we spent together "playing".

So, from age 9 to roughly 15 my dad and I played at least once a week. My mission was to be able to beat him......and beat the pants off of him....but I devoted no more time to this during the 9-15 range than the once a week we played together.

At about 16 when I got my driver's license and a car. My friend from school mentioned that we should go to a poolroom in Nashville and gamble at pool. He asked if I had played...well YEAH I had. We went there and played partners against the owner's son for $5 smackers a man. We were all of the same age. My partner (friend from school) SUCKED....while the other two were about as experienced as me, if not more. I enjoyed gambling, and played well enough to keep us even.

From there, I started exploring other pool rooms, and people to play, but my progression was slow. I had some natural ability...but I hated to practice (still do). I would just always play, and learn from playing. I think if I had done this, along with practicing I would have gotten better faster....but such is life.

Finally when I was around 19 and came home on my first leave from the USAF, I beat the pants off of my dad. The taste of this long awaited victory was not very sweet. It was a narrow margin. As years went by and my game got better and better, my dad got older and older (he's 65 now) and played worse and worse. I would come home and just beat the pants off of him. Beating him 11-0 in 9 ball sets, etc, etc. If I missed a shot he would yell at me, telling me not to throw off on him. I admit, sometimes I would let him win games, but I tried to be real slick about it. Apparently i wasn't, because he could always tell when I did it on purpose.

It's funny. I always thought my dad was a pool GOD...before I got out there and learned some things. Once I could beat him, and learned his real "game" it kind of took the "awestruck" aspect away. But I'll tell you, for a 65 year old man that is blind in one eye, he still breaks and runs out 9 balls pretty darn good, and beats 90% of the players in his room. That in itself is kind of cool. When I played him a month ago, he made one of the toughest outs I've ever seen....and that spark of greatness shined through briefly. It was great to see!

My dad always tells me that when I come home for a visit he will stake me to play anyone in Nashville. I think it is more of a pride thing with him. He told great local players like Bobby Pickle that when I get back he was going to put me up against them......but I've carefully maintained a busy schedule on my visits home. My dad may be mad at his money, but I'm not. :)

Anyhow, I guess..to answer your question after such a long story, the reason I started playing pool was to have fun with my dad. Pretty cut and dry. And I look forward to our matches more than anyone else I could ever play.
 
When and Why I started playing

I was a competative golfer as a kid, from 12 - 18 and played in tourneys throughout Tx, Ok, Co, NM, AK areas. I have always loved sports, all kinds, still do. The very first time I picked up a cue was when I was 18 in Lubbock Texas. I was with my best friend at the time and her boyfriend who had a table in his parents garage. He wanted to show my friend how to play one afternoon. I was kind of a third wheel, but he was a nice guy and was cool with it. Well, as it turned out she had zero apptitute, but I ended up having some natural ability. He saw this and decided to focus more on teaching me a bit. He was a lefty and while I am not naturally left handed, I still play that way.

After that day I didn't play except here and there until 10 years later when in a horrible week of snow storms that hit the east coast, I decided for some unknown reason at the time to use my snow day from work to go by myself to a pool room in Virginia. I didn't know any, so I called everyone that was in the yellow-pages. Found a great one near my apartment and never looked back.

Pool became my world and still is. Years ago, I had a very narrow-minded former employer come up to me and say, "Holly, you know seedy people don't you." Now in all honesty, I was a little dumbstruck, first that he would say such a thing, so I asked him to repeat it. He did. I asked why he was asking such a question. In all stupidity and with a benign tone of voice, he said, "because you play pool." After containing my anger and incredulousness as his complete idiocy, I calmly replied, "Actually Rob, I know all kinds of people because of Pool, I know Doctors, Welders, Writers, Lawyers, Plebotomists, Housepainters, all kinds of people and I don't consider any of my friends seedy."

I love the world of pool, everything about it, even I have to admit, the frustrating aspect. I am grateful for that snowy week and my friend's former boyfriend and that little table in his garage.

It goes to show how one moment in time can shape our lives doesn't it?
 
My Mom was in a Bowling league, and I would go with her to the Bowling Alley on Tuesday nights to play Pinball & hang out. I was hanging out in the Gameroom and some kid asked me to play him in Pool. So I started playing every Tuesday night, this was when I was 13 in 1973.

In 1974 we moved into an apartment complex that had a Rec room, and the had a 4X8 Pool Table, so I played everyday, some older guys showed me how to play shape and draw the Ball. I have been playing ever since.:)
 
My grandfather had a table at his house. It had to be one of the noisiest ball return tables ever but I loved that sound of the ball rolling down the gully. When I was 7 or 8 he taught me the rules of eight ball and how to make a few bridges. He was a decent player and shot with such style. I loved watching him play, he didn't seem like an old man when he was at the pool table. Ever since then I have loved the game.
 
I've just always been mesmerized by the physics of the game. Even before I knew what physics were, I was facinated just watching what the balls did after I took a shot. So I always loved to play, but never really did play much until after I graduated college.

I was visiting my ex-girlfriend's family, and her cousin was apparently just starting to play in an APA league, and had just purchased a new stick, and had never lost with it. So I challenged him to a few games and I beat him (on reflection, now that I know how an APA 5 is supposed to play, he must have let me win, unless he wa lying about being an APA 5).

So that convinced me to call up my local APA rep about joining a league. That was May of 2004. I rapidly became obsessed with the game and with improving my abilities, I bought a cue, then a 314 for it, then a break cue and a nice case.

Now two scant years later I'm still playing in that APA league as a 6, and several teams are already grumbling that I'm underrated and should have to play as a 7, and I'm still as hungry as ever to improve.

-Andrew
 
I remember the first time I walked into a pool hall when I was a kid. Harold's Pool Parlour in the burb's of Chitown. I remember the aroma(the sweet smell) of the cigarette infested air, the burger oven burgers and fries, the seedy looking characters(railbirds) hanging out, the cool looking players with their fancy sticks, the money hanging from the overhead lights,the 12 beautiful green covered tables, the drunk guy eating a beer glass for a free sandwich, two players arguing over a shot and one guy making uncomplimentary comments about the other guys woman, a group of guys pitching quarters against the wall, then this dude walked up to me and said....." hey, you wanna play some". Oh yeah baby I was hooked. It doesn't get any better than that.....Heaven!
 
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My love affair started when we went from southern California to Eugene, Oregon for my aunt and uncle's 25th wedding anniversary. It was a huge party and there was a pool table in the car port. There were some kids playing on it, so I joined in. We were playing Kelly pool. I was hooked, but didn't know it yet. 5 or 6 years later, my mom died so I finally had a chance to do some of the things I wanted without having to get permission or explain where I had been. The recreation center in back of our house put in a small pool table and there was a church close by that had a really nasty pool table in it where I could play by myself. These two places became my hangout whenever I got the chance. We moved a year later and pool went to the back burner as I didn't have much money or opportunity to play. After I left home, I started playing pretty frequently either by myself or with my best friend. For the next 5 or 6 years whenever I had some extra time and money, I would go play. It was pretty hit or miss, so I never got really good, just good enough to give most people a good game. When I started having kids, it was bar pool off and on and the occasional trip to the pool hall. That lasted until about 15 years ago, when I pretty much gave up the game altogether. I moved again and started a new job. All the kids were gone and I got into cars. Then a series of events started to get the ball rolling again. After work one day a small group of coworkers went to one of those indoor golf places. I was never much into golf and quit after the first game. There was a pool table and one of my buddies asked if I wanted to play. I gave him some crap about giving him lessons, etc. then got my butt whipped. My wife lost her job and the cars started to go away, one at a time. Then I reunited with a cousin I hadn't seen for over 20 years. We started talking about snooker and decided to match up. Again, I got beat pretty bad. That did it. I decided to get back into it with a vengeance. Since I didn't have the cars anymore, I didn't really need the garage, so I decided that pool was the one thing that I had always loved and that I needed a pool table. It didn't take long until I had one. Now I have a snooker table, too and neither my cousin or my buddy has a chance against me anymore. My evil plan worked!
 
Island Drive said:
Most of us here on the forum either enjoy, love or are addicted to the game, but your originating interest was stirred How? For me it was a combination of my first 'easy' score, not much mind you but to me at the time it was a good feeling, plus I could escape from all the BS at home when growing up. Now as I have aged reigniting that interest seems to be my most difficult task, how about you?
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I started because I had mastered Super Mario Bros. at the local pool room (1 block away) and had a pocket full of quarters. So I hit balls on the bar table. Then I saw "The Color of Money"! I played a guy for a dollar a game and won! That was it!

By the way, I still like that $1 a game action ;)

Oh yeah, and spending 10+ hours a day in the pool room was a great way to smoke cigarettes and avoid high school.
 
Golf was my previous obsession.

Yeah, I was trying to qualify for the U.S. Amature (golf), working my ass off spending a ton of money. I was down to a 3 handicap and needed to be a 2.5 to get into the sectionals. Sure I could have fudged a score to get in, but that wasn't what I wanted. ( I posted my score from every round, counted all of my penalty shots, no mulligans, and always played it as it lied ) During the peak of my effort one July afternoon, my appendix burst and the surgery required grounded me from swinging a club effectively for the rest of the year.

I kept trying for a couple years, but I really needed more time and money. For business reasons, moved into the city from the suburbs. I started hanging out at new places, one of which had a bar box that was buzzing all the time. I jumped in a couple times and loved it. I sucked, but I was a blast! This place was wild. People obnoxiously heckling you, girls waving their a$$es behind the pocket when you were trying to shoot. This stuff doesn't happen on a golf course.

The room had a great competitive vibe going considering what a bunch of hacks we were. In the few years I have been playing pool, I have made more new friends, including women, than I have made in 20 years of hanging around a golf course. I have simply channeled my previous obsession with one that is a lot more socially productive, and a hell of a lot less expensive. You can play pool year around, no matter what the weather is, and any time you want!

It's a great game!

Da Poet
 
I first started when I was in the 6th or 7th grade... I musta been 11 or 12 then... 'bout 1960/61... playing down in the basements of several friends' houses... just bangin' 'em around.

From there it was to the local pool halls in the western surburbs of Chicago during HS... and then to playing snooker on 5x10s in Leonard's Pool and Domino Parlor in Siloam Springs, Arkansas while pretending to be going to college for the first time. From there, it was Army base rec halls and then the bar scene after I got out and returned back to school, this time in southern IL.

Left the game entirely for 15 years... from '81 to '96... essentially to raise my two boys.

Came back to the game in '96 and became a student of the game in 2000 or so.
 
Even before I had ever picked up a cue I always watched snooker on television when it was on. I would always watch the trick shots championships as well. Nevertheless I never searched for these, I would just watch it if I happened upon them.

I didn't actually play my first game until about a week before I turned 20. I used to work in a video store and I was looking for a movie to rent one night, and I saw Pool Hall Junkies on the wall. I always enjoyed pool sequences in movies and tv shows, I decided what the heck.

Watching the movie, I thought the pool scenes were so cool, especially Mars Callahans character. I went to games room in my university to play my first game ever. Sadly I didn't play as well as I dreamed I would, lol. Nevertheless everyday I would spend $10 in quarters (it was a bar box), playing.

Soon after I started hanging out with one of my old friends from high school and we, along with some other people, started going to a pool hall once a week. I was not aware that the tables at the pool hall were far larger than the ones I had been playing on in the games room. I was surprised at how badly I had been playing every time I went, until I realized the difference between the tables.

It was at this pool hall that I met the house pro. I would watch him play and I was always in awe, I wanted desperately to play like him. I have since been mesmerized by the game. I get better every time I play, and by my very nature I am driven to be the absolute best that I can be, which I don't see myself reaching for a long time.

I really became serious about a year after I started playing. My friend who I use to play with every week got bored of the game, as he played every day when he went to college. I lost a practice partner but I started practicing solo once or twice a week for 5-6 hours at a time. I would play anybody who was willing. I got my fair share of beatings, but as I got better losing became rarer and rarer.

Pool, Snooker and Billiards are unique. They are as much art as they are a sport. The control that top players exact over the entire table is phenomenal when you think about it. The game is the pursuit of perfection, and I think that is part of its attraction. There is no natural high like playing your best game.
 
My uncle owned a dry bar/arcade. My dad would take us boys there and me and him started playing when I was about 11 yrs old. I didn't become serious til I was 16-17. Now I'm 34 and I'm still obsessed!!lol
 
Through work I sponsored a charity pool event. Each year they would ask if I wanted to play and I always said yes. We'll after losing to the same girls two years in a row, I figured I'd practice two weeks before the tournament to beat them and win.

Well, after losing three years in a row, I practiced 10+ hours a week for a year. Didn't lose to those girls (they were both bumped up a division), but I still lost the darn tournament. I'll get them next year. Rarr...
 
I started playing because I live in a small city in Iowa and didnt have anything else to do :) but hey Im glad at this point, I love the game, glad I got into it....Been playing about 6 years, but only a year or two of more serious play to where Im actually trying hard to get better and learn the game.
 
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