Why do you play pool?
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Why Do I play
The reasons I play pool are simple and complex at the same time .
Pool was the first game/sport that i came accross that i was very good at or better to say i had affinity for.
For me each rack and learning new shots was a new challenge , to feel a really great hitting cue in your hands and that unique feeling you get when you hit a ball really well, man its magical, a feeling i never tire of
To walk into a new pool room and get on a table and you feel the other players sizing you up , and you are doing the same. Even if action is the furthest thing from your mind
Those too rare instances when you match up with a really great player who like you was there just for some practice and you wind up playing for hours
And then spending hours swapping war stories and wondering how it was you never locked up before now
Walking in the room and seeing those exceptional players who can make a cue ball seem alive, no other sport has as many unsung heros and for each known player on the tours there are 10 others who's names are widely unknown outside some very small pool circles but very may be some of the best to play to game
Any player can walk into an unknown pool room in a strange city and find familiarity what other game can be so serene and so intense and loved by both the loner and the extremely social
To me Pool feels like home
The reasons I play pool are simple and complex at the same time .
Pool was the first game/sport that i came accross that i was very good at or better to say i had affinity for.
For me each rack and learning new shots was a new challenge , to feel a really great hitting cue in your hands and that unique feeling you get when you hit a ball really well, man its magical, a feeling i never tire of
To walk into a new pool room and get on a table and you feel the other players sizing you up , and you are doing the same. Even if action is the furthest thing from your mind
Those too rare instances when you match up with a really great player who like you was there just for some practice and you wind up playing for hours
And then spending hours swapping war stories and wondering how it was you never locked up before now
Walking in the room and seeing those exceptional players who can make a cue ball seem alive, no other sport has as many unsung heros and for each known player on the tours there are 10 others who's names are widely unknown outside some very small pool circles but very may be some of the best to play to game
Any player can walk into an unknown pool room in a strange city and find familiarity what other game can be so serene and so intense and loved by both the loner and the extremely social
To me Pool feels like home
I play the game just to piss off my wife. It's certainly not for the enjoyment, or recreational value, or de-stressing from the day-to-day adventure of trying to run a (usually successful) small business. No, it's just to piss off my wife. Go ahead, ask her. She'll tell you.
Pool is one of the hardest games in the world in my opinion. It has many different factors that you must consider. It is also one of the only sports that you must do two things correctly at once. You must not only make your shot, but also get good position for your next shot, and the shot after that as well.
It puts you so far into the moment that nothing else matters anymore and it takes control. It allows you to play competitively or just to unwind and have fun. It is one of the hardest games to be the best at and to be consistent. It can also be played by almost anyone at a competitive level as well and there's not many games that allow that. I love pool because it doesn't discriminate against anyone, it is challenging, and there are many different ways/games to play, and it is a mediation for me; A way to unwind and become centered.
It puts you so far into the moment that nothing else matters anymore and it takes control. It allows you to play competitively or just to unwind and have fun. It is one of the hardest games to be the best at and to be consistent. It can also be played by almost anyone at a competitive level as well and there's not many games that allow that. I love pool because it doesn't discriminate against anyone, it is challenging, and there are many different ways/games to play, and it is a mediation for me; A way to unwind and become centered.
Why do I play?
Simple. "I live my life one pool game at a time. Nothing else matters. For those few minutes it takes to run a rack, I'm free and nothing else matters."
Simple. "I live my life one pool game at a time. Nothing else matters. For those few minutes it takes to run a rack, I'm free and nothing else matters."
I grew up in my fathers pool room. It was like a magic world to me. From the time I could reach over a table it's all I wanted to do whenever I could. The room, the players, the action was intoxicating. Played well its one of the most beautiful things to witness I believe. To play it well is one of the most satisfying experiences I've ever known. It's one of the most difficult games to master, it requires time and dedication but if you put in the work it rewards you for it. Even after all these years I'm still excited every time I take the table to play.
I was and still am too thin to play football or any heavy hitting contact sports so I chose pool. It was 1966 and pool was just about the only game in town! Taken some long breaks along the way but now I play a couple times a week and still shoot a good solid game, IMO!!
I'm not really sure. I'm not very good at it, I try but I don't have much in the way of natural ability. I guess I like that I ultimately control the outcome of events on the pool table. I may not always execute what I want, but it's all within my control so the errors are my errors and the successes are my successes.
It's an amazing feeling when you make the object ball and that little white cue ball obeys your commands and ends up exactly where you willed it.
When it comes down to it though, I just get lost in the pool table, I could stand there for countless hours and never get tired of watching the physics at play on a pool table.
It's an amazing feeling when you make the object ball and that little white cue ball obeys your commands and ends up exactly where you willed it.
When it comes down to it though, I just get lost in the pool table, I could stand there for countless hours and never get tired of watching the physics at play on a pool table.
Why do i play pool
Hi i started playing pool back in the sixtys in fact it was Snooker started at age 17 years old. Back in those days there was a lot of action at the Mount Royal Snooker Club. You had to survive because there was a lot of Hustlers and you won some and lost some.
For me its a way to get out of the House and you had to learn by your self and nobody used to teach you how to play
Simply enjoyed it my second hobby is Fishing
Cheers Leonard
Hi i started playing pool back in the sixtys in fact it was Snooker started at age 17 years old. Back in those days there was a lot of action at the Mount Royal Snooker Club. You had to survive because there was a lot of Hustlers and you won some and lost some.
For me its a way to get out of the House and you had to learn by your self and nobody used to teach you how to play
Simply enjoyed it my second hobby is Fishing
Cheers Leonard
Tony Robbins gets the 6 out.
There is nothing else I ever did where I enjoyed being with the same people for hours. Pool is the most fun a person can have with their clothes on. It is timeless fun every time the table is approached. The ups and down of a match. That great shot...that dogged hanger. The personalities we meet throughout the years. I met most of my friends playing pool. Started in 1961 and never stopped loving it.
I just love to play it.....don't know what else to really say. No two games are alike, so its not like its the same thing over and over.... I'm not all that good at it anymore, I'd be no competition for a solid B player....but it can make for a fun night of goofing off with friends or even a little friendly gambling.....or if I'm by myself, its a great way to kill off some time and improve your game in the same instance.
Having spent a fair amount of time studying psychology, I can tell you that "why" is a harder question to answer than some people realize. Of course this is not a blanket stab at everyone in the world, but you'd be surprised at how hard it is for some people to answer a simple question about something as basic as " how do you really feel" .
Some folks, like myself, have or had never seriously considered "why" they do it. They simply answer ( without giving it much thought) " because its fun" or something along those lines ..
But way down deep, the truth is that this game 'draws you in' ....it attracts you. Your mind is almost irresistibly drawn to the simple yet complex task of converting chaos into order. We are hard wired for this. Your mind is constantly looking to make sense of things that don't make sense. It wants to categorize the uncategorizable. It wants to find the spot where the puzzle piece fits. It wants to reveal the hidden. It wants to find the answer to the question it cannot answer.
I distinctly remember seeing the first pool table I had ever seen in my life when I was very very young. Perhaps 6 maybe 7 years old and I truly had no idea what it was. But I also remember not being able to take my eyes off it, even though I could barely see over the rails. I had no idea what a cue was, or how to even play, but I did find myself wanting very much to understand what I was looking at. What were the numbers for? Points? Why did the balls go into the pockets? Was that good or bad? What were the little chalk cubes for? Even though I had never even seen it done, I wanted to play badly and had no idea why.
Now I do ...
I was going to be drawn to it no matter what. If not then, it would have eventually happened anyway. We all are.
Some folks, like myself, have or had never seriously considered "why" they do it. They simply answer ( without giving it much thought) " because its fun" or something along those lines ..
But way down deep, the truth is that this game 'draws you in' ....it attracts you. Your mind is almost irresistibly drawn to the simple yet complex task of converting chaos into order. We are hard wired for this. Your mind is constantly looking to make sense of things that don't make sense. It wants to categorize the uncategorizable. It wants to find the spot where the puzzle piece fits. It wants to reveal the hidden. It wants to find the answer to the question it cannot answer.
I distinctly remember seeing the first pool table I had ever seen in my life when I was very very young. Perhaps 6 maybe 7 years old and I truly had no idea what it was. But I also remember not being able to take my eyes off it, even though I could barely see over the rails. I had no idea what a cue was, or how to even play, but I did find myself wanting very much to understand what I was looking at. What were the numbers for? Points? Why did the balls go into the pockets? Was that good or bad? What were the little chalk cubes for? Even though I had never even seen it done, I wanted to play badly and had no idea why.
Now I do ...
I was going to be drawn to it no matter what. If not then, it would have eventually happened anyway. We all are.
Had one love of my life and it was baseball... UT recruited me as a sophomore... I weighed 155# and threw my fastball at 86...... I am 6'2 and my inseem is 31 inches... The long torso made for some serious leverage...
That summer I ruined my shoulder moving the pool table in my grandparent's basement... I had been playing pool at that point for maybe 6 years but it was just a game... When I lost baseball the only game I found that I had the same chance to dominate like being on the mound was pool... And Steeltip darts... I averaged a 7 round out playing cricket until the money dried up and I went back to pool....
Back in the day surgery was a crap shoot... I have a friend who had knee surgery the year I got hurt... It was supposed to be elementry but he never walked without a cane again....
I did my own rehab and at 28 our company had an outing at the local minor league stadium... The owner of the company had hired some minor league prospects from the local highschool including his son for the summer... He offered to pay for the drinks and food for whoever posted the highest speed on the radar gun at the booth they had setup......
At 28 I now weighed 210 and I hit 93 on my 3rd pitch.... Wingtips, Tie and all....
I play pool because it's my second love... But in reality it has became my first... The old guy that took his time to open my eyes was 82.... Show me another game where you can be a threat at 70+ years of age beside poker where all you have to do is hold your head up while you sit in a seat....
That summer I ruined my shoulder moving the pool table in my grandparent's basement... I had been playing pool at that point for maybe 6 years but it was just a game... When I lost baseball the only game I found that I had the same chance to dominate like being on the mound was pool... And Steeltip darts... I averaged a 7 round out playing cricket until the money dried up and I went back to pool....
Back in the day surgery was a crap shoot... I have a friend who had knee surgery the year I got hurt... It was supposed to be elementry but he never walked without a cane again....
I did my own rehab and at 28 our company had an outing at the local minor league stadium... The owner of the company had hired some minor league prospects from the local highschool including his son for the summer... He offered to pay for the drinks and food for whoever posted the highest speed on the radar gun at the booth they had setup......
At 28 I now weighed 210 and I hit 93 on my 3rd pitch.... Wingtips, Tie and all....
I play pool because it's my second love... But in reality it has became my first... The old guy that took his time to open my eyes was 82.... Show me another game where you can be a threat at 70+ years of age beside poker where all you have to do is hold your head up while you sit in a seat....
This topic, with some variation, comes up from time to time. I have posted the following passage a few times now, but maybe some new eyes will see it here. It's the best thing I've ever read about the appeal of the game of pool. Beauty ... heart ... renewal -- it's all there in two brief paragraphs.
It's from the book Playing Off The Rail, by David McCumber, Random House, 1996, pages 276-277. It is presented as the author's thoughts while watching Tony Annigoni's 9-3 9-ball masterpiece over Johnny Archer.
It's from the book Playing Off The Rail, by David McCumber, Random House, 1996, pages 276-277. It is presented as the author's thoughts while watching Tony Annigoni's 9-3 9-ball masterpiece over Johnny Archer.
"Tony broke, and made two balls, and I could see the table unfold in my mind, and I knew he could see it even better, and would run it. As he made the shots I was overpowered by the beauty of this game, at once immutably logical, governed by physical inevitabilities, and at the same time infinitely poetic and varied. This game at its best, as it was being played before me, had the transcendent power of a Handel chorus.
I thought about what an impressive mental exercise it was for Tony, after a miserable session against an unremarkable player two hours earlier, to reinvent himself so completely. It was a question of heart, a gathering of everything stored inside a man, a refusal to fall after stumbling. It was a very rare thing for a player to take such advantage of the game's intrinsic quality of renewal, the fresh start with each match, each rack, each shot. Nothing pharmaceutical could ever exceed the jolt of bliss that comes with the self-mastery that sort of play entails: knowing the ball is going in, knowing the cue ball is going to stop precisely where you willed it to, knowing that the next shot is going in too. I thought of Willie Hoppe, running an astonishing twenty-five billiards in an exhibition in 1918, seeing all those rails and angles and spins and caroms in his head like presents waiting to be opened. It was no accident that Hoppe was the most disciplined and controlled player of his era. Power over the cue ball, over the object ball, is power over ourselves. It is the sweetest irony that pool has gathered the reputation of being a game for louts and idlers, when, to be played well, it demands such incredible discipline of movement, of thinking, of emotion."
I thought about what an impressive mental exercise it was for Tony, after a miserable session against an unremarkable player two hours earlier, to reinvent himself so completely. It was a question of heart, a gathering of everything stored inside a man, a refusal to fall after stumbling. It was a very rare thing for a player to take such advantage of the game's intrinsic quality of renewal, the fresh start with each match, each rack, each shot. Nothing pharmaceutical could ever exceed the jolt of bliss that comes with the self-mastery that sort of play entails: knowing the ball is going in, knowing the cue ball is going to stop precisely where you willed it to, knowing that the next shot is going in too. I thought of Willie Hoppe, running an astonishing twenty-five billiards in an exhibition in 1918, seeing all those rails and angles and spins and caroms in his head like presents waiting to be opened. It was no accident that Hoppe was the most disciplined and controlled player of his era. Power over the cue ball, over the object ball, is power over ourselves. It is the sweetest irony that pool has gathered the reputation of being a game for louts and idlers, when, to be played well, it demands such incredible discipline of movement, of thinking, of emotion."
I've always played pool. Off n on since I was a lil kid. I remember learning the basics at around eight or nine. In my 20's, I hung out at a pool hall and played a lot. That was THE PLACE to be then! Smokey, dark and a lot of questionable people hanging around. Fights, drugs, booze, music and a lot of betting. I thought I was pretty good and had about 5 or 6 years playing there. Good times.
Then work came and playing in bands, etc. I still played but not regularly. I got into downhill mountain biking and rode for many years. My body can't take the punishment anymore. My two friends here both have their own tables and we play a lot.
We bought a house a few years ago and decided I had room for a table. I've always wanted one. Got it and now half of my downstairs is my "Mancave" with a bar, too. I like the challenge of knowing I'll never master the game. I'm competitive amongst my peers and we even have a "league."
We rotate playing every Wednesday night, it's fun and I love the company of people that can shoot. There is something about the game that I can always learn. I shoot both left and righthanded pretty well! Having my own table makes it easy to practice.
Why do I play pool! I've done it my entire life. I love the game, I love the science involved and I love learning new things. I can play whenever I want and it doesn't beat up my body. I have thousands of dollars of bikes n gear collecting dust in my garage now. I can't wait to get home and shoot. One more thing, I can do it all year long....
Then work came and playing in bands, etc. I still played but not regularly. I got into downhill mountain biking and rode for many years. My body can't take the punishment anymore. My two friends here both have their own tables and we play a lot.
We bought a house a few years ago and decided I had room for a table. I've always wanted one. Got it and now half of my downstairs is my "Mancave" with a bar, too. I like the challenge of knowing I'll never master the game. I'm competitive amongst my peers and we even have a "league."
We rotate playing every Wednesday night, it's fun and I love the company of people that can shoot. There is something about the game that I can always learn. I shoot both left and righthanded pretty well! Having my own table makes it easy to practice.
Why do I play pool! I've done it my entire life. I love the game, I love the science involved and I love learning new things. I can play whenever I want and it doesn't beat up my body. I have thousands of dollars of bikes n gear collecting dust in my garage now. I can't wait to get home and shoot. One more thing, I can do it all year long....
Enjoy it
I started pool when I was 8 on a little table my parents bought. Quit playing at 19 and never got into it after returning from over seas duty. Then 4 years ago after about a 40 year break my good friend got me back into it. At age 64 I am better then I ever was and enjoy it immensely. It is right up there with fishing, hunting and shooting. Now that I am retired I want to play more. It is a fun thing to do and helps to keep my mind active and keep me young. I have no illusions about my game or where it is going, but I hope to find more tournaments to play in.
I started pool when I was 8 on a little table my parents bought. Quit playing at 19 and never got into it after returning from over seas duty. Then 4 years ago after about a 40 year break my good friend got me back into it. At age 64 I am better then I ever was and enjoy it immensely. It is right up there with fishing, hunting and shooting. Now that I am retired I want to play more. It is a fun thing to do and helps to keep my mind active and keep me young. I have no illusions about my game or where it is going, but I hope to find more tournaments to play in.