Just as the title says, why do you play pool? I am curious what drives certain players to continue to strive to play this game. Especially if you have been playing for many years, like to hear why you continue and what pulls you into the pool area to rack up yet another game.
It seems like I've always loved pool.
I’ve been a student and fan of the game for over 40 year taking up my first cue when I was a teenager and started out playing at The Palace and Cochrans’ in San Francisco, I’ve been lucky enough to have played pool all over the country and overseas. I’ve taken 1pocket lessons from Steve "The Cookie Monster" Cook when he lived in Ohio and 14.1 lessons from Dallas West and Ray Martin. For the last 15 years or so I’ve tried to play in two or three major tournaments a year, like the DCC and the US 1Pocket Open.
I’ve read or own almost every book written on pool going back to Mosconi, through Grissam’s “Billiards, Hustlers & Heroes”; Fench’s “The Lions And the Lambs”; and most recently Dyer’s “Hustler Days” which mentions players like Fats, Lassiter, Red, Ervolino, Professor, Puckett, Allen, Detroit Whitey, Blackie, Shorty, Marcel Camp, Joe Canton, Squirrel, Don Willis, Cornbread, Cuban Joe, Detroit Slim, Eufemia, Goose, Johnny Irish, Ed Kelly, Kid Galahad, Bear, Wimpy, Johnny Layton, Johnnie Lineen, Mike Massey, U.J., Earl Shriver, and Johnny Vevis, among others.
I recall reading Tom Fox’s stories in Sports Illustrated, like “Hustlers’ Holiday in the Lion’s Den” and “You don’t Beat Wimp at the Game He Loves”; and the six page illustrated story “Battle of the Hottest Sticks” all of which mention players like Procita, Lingo, Cornbread, Shorty, Handsome Danny, Fats, Weenie Beenie, Pots and Pans, Wimpy, Squirrel Tugboat, Whitey, the Knoxville Bear, Daddy Warbucks, Youngblood, and NY Blackie.
Off and on, I’ve been a regular subscriber to BD, P&B, Inside Pool, and The National Billiard News and love reading stories like the “Legends of the Road” and the late George Fels’ column on everything pool. And I still love it.
I love the way the balls just sit there on the table in all their shiny, pristine, geometrically perfect insolence and whisper, "Come on, big boy. Show me what you can do."
How can you resist?
Lou Figueroa