Win a free Jay Flowers Style Cue Case

JB Cases

JB Cases

www.jbcases.com
Silver Member
This contest is the easiest one ever.

Tell me why you play pool. Everyone who gets in the contest with any entry at all will be eligible to win a Jay Flowers style 1x2 case and the most creative answer will win a case of your choice in size, style, and color. In another OLD SCHOOL throwback, I am going to nominate IN PRIVATE several of my forum friends to judge who has the best answer. To find the reference go to google RSB and GO10 together to see what I mean.

This is the basic case that you can win.

JF1.JPG


More information about these cases here:
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=114362

That's it - enjoy. I WILL NOT BE ANSWERING QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS CASE IN THIS THREAD. PM me or ask in the other one. This thread is for everyone who wants to tell us why they play to do so and possibly get a free new leather hand tooled case out of it.

I will start even though I am not eligible and I get all the free cases I want anyway. Just no time to use them.

I started playing pool at the boys and girls club in North Ft. Lauderdale, FL when I was like 12. I immediately started making balls and won the little tournament they had. I was hooked. The act of controlling the balls and making them disappear was magical to me. I had zero concept of english, speed control and so on. Turns out my mom could play a little and she showed me a little bit. A couple times she tried to hustle people by making a partners game. "What, are you afraid of a woman and a kid?"

Fast forward a few years in Oklahoma and I discover Johnny's Game Room and gambling. I start playing the Mexican guys, Spanish speaking guys, for a "peso" a game which means a dollar. Each day I left with $20-30. Until I ran into the Indian kid who hustled me out of the grocery money. Turns out he played at a place called Truelove's on something called "big" tables. I had to go there and find out how to get that good. I never did make it to Truelove's as a kid.

Things happened and I gave up the game until I was 17 and found Tiger's in Edmond, OK. Until this point I had never played a game of 9-ball in my life. I learned to play Golf there. And some 9-ball. Then I saw the Color of Money and promptly decided I was gonna be a hustler. Right from the movie theater I went to the poolroom by Will Rogers Park and laid a hundred dollar bill on the table like Fast Eddie did. No one even looked at it. - I guess that they hadn't seen the movie yet.

Anyway for the next few years I paid steadily for the "hustler" lessons. Good thing I didn't earn much working or I would have lost more. The thing is that I discovered a real love for staying up all night, betting enough to "hurt" if I lost and make me euphoric if I won. But ONLY if it involved playing pool, no cards, horses, dice or other gambler things.

I only ever wanted to PLAY, to control those balls and control the game. That has never left me and I have been fortunate enough in my career to rub shoulders with many of the world's elite. So much so that I understand and appreciate the difference between Joe the Indian Kid from Truelove's and 14 year old me and Johnny Archer and I love thinking about what it really takes to master this game.

Such a small space with infinite possibility, a universe at my fingertips is why I love to play pool.

John Barton, pool player.
 
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JB Cases said:
This contest is the easiest one ever.

Tell me why you play pool. Everyone who gets in the contest with any entry at all will be eligible to win a Jay Flowers style 1x2 case and the most creative answer will win a case of your choice in size, style, and color.

This is the basic case that you can win.

JF1.JPG


More information about these cases here:
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=114362

That's it - enjoy. I WILL NOT BE ANSWERING QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS CASE IN THIS THREAD. PM me or ask in the other one. This thread is for everyone who wants to tell us why they play to do so and possibly get a free new leather hand tooled case out of it.

I will start even though I am not eligible and I get all the free cases I want anyway. Just no time to use them.

I started playing pool at the boys and girls club in North Ft. Lauderdale, FL when I was like 12. I immediately started making balls and won the little tournament they had. I was hooked. The act of controlling the balls and making them disappear was magical to me. I had zero concept of english, speed control and so on. Turns out my mom could play a little and she showed me a little bit. A couple times she tried to hustle people by making a partners game. "What, are you afraid of a woman and a kid?"

Fast forward a few years in Oklahoma and I discover Johnny's Game Room and gambling. I start playing the Mexican guys, Spanish speaking guys, for a "peso" a game which means a dollar. Each day I left with $20-30. Until I ran into the Indian kid who hustled me out of the grocery money. Turns out he played at a place called Truelove's on something called "big" tables. I had to go there and find out how to get that good. I never did make it to Truelove's as a kid.

Things happened and I gave up the game until I was 17 and found Tiger's in Edmond, OK. Until this point I had never played a game of 9-ball in my life. I learned to play Golf there. And some 9-ball. Then I saw the Color of Money and promptly decided I was gonna be a hustler. Right from the movie theater I went to the poolroom by Will Rogers Park and laid a hundred dollar bill on the table like Fast Eddie did. No one even looked at it. - I guess that they hadn't seen the movie yet.

Anyway for the next few years I paid steadily for the "hustler" lessons. Good thing I didn't earn much working or I would have lost more. The thing is that I discovered a real love for staying up all night, betting enough to "hurt" if I lost and make me euphoric if I won. But ONLY if it involved playing pool, no cards, horses, dice or other gambler things.

I only ever wanted to PLAY, to control those balls and control the game. That has never left me and I have been fortunate enough in my career to rub shoulders with many of the world's elite. So much so that I understand and appreciate the difference between Joe the Indian Kid from Truelove's and 14 year old me and Johnny Archer and I love thinking about what it really takes to master this game.

Such a small space with infinite possibility, a universe at my fingertips is why I love to play pool.

John Barton, pool player.
Click to expand...

I play because I have found no other game that employs so many elements and thought processes at the same time. It is a living, breathing thing that grows on you and in you. I was 14 the first time I hit a ball and played sporadically throught the years and have recently taken the sport back up and found a new joy. The beauty and self satisfaction of a run out is something that makes me want to play like that every time. The goal is just past the next ball.

Edit: First... lol

Dwight
 
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i started playing pool at 14. for me it was a way to spend that much more time with my father. i would go to leagues with him and shoot with him to warm him up. lets just say i learned to rack really quick. ive always looked up to my father and strived to make him proud. it soon become a goal of mine to be better than my father and to play on the same league team with him. now after all these years i can say i have accomplished my goals. the other night my father and i were at the pool room and a guy that was there challenged the table. after a game or two of just tooling around i heard the guy ask my old man, "who's better? you or your boy?" my father replied, "the kids got me beat hands down." that was the first time i ever heard him admit it. i will never forget that moment as long as i live. i now have a son who just turned a year old last month and i cant wait until the day i get to teach him the game of pool and be able to say "the kids got me beat hands down!"


I guess you could say that i have come full circle!~
 
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This game has taught me so much more than how to control the movement of balls on a slate surface. In my quest to become better at a game that many people only associate with drinking and hustlers, I have learned so much. Topics of this knowledge include ( but are not limited to) physics ( applied and theory), people, competition, matching up, gambling, hustling, psychology, myself, human nature, how to handle pressure situations, teamwork, composure, etc, etc. It never ceases to amaze me how much my pursuit of ths silly little game has taught me. Much of this has transcended the pool hall and carried over into all other areas of my life.

I love this game. I have played 8-10 hours every day for some stretches, and have gone for more than 8 months without hitting a ball. Even if my schedule does not allow me to play, I am never more than one offer of " wanna shoot some" away from jumping back in with both feet. I do not smoke, drink to excess, or do any drugs, but I know I will never be able to kick this habit. Once you are hooked, you are hooked. As a teen I started helping out in a pool room by cleaning tables and taking out the trash in exchange for free pool time and lessons from the owner. I could not afford to pay the table rate for all the hours I wanted to play. The owner used to spot me 50 balls to 100 in 14.1, while he was working and running the place. I never won. I still remember vividly the one time I was ahead 94 to 60 ( with a 50 ball spot). I was so close I could taste it. I finished out a rack still needing 4 balls, got an okay break, made one more ball and stuck myself. The score sat at 97-60. The owner came back from helping a customer, checked the score, and decided to focus a bit. This is still the most painful 40 ball run I have ever had to watch.:angry: Final score 100-97.

I would never trade any of it to be a member of another group. I have worked in 5 pool rooms in 2 different states. I love the pool culture. You can have millionaires and unemployed bums in the room everyday, and if have the skills you will be treated with respect (most of the time). The people I have met and the experiences I have had because of this game make it all worthwhile. I can't think of any other game or activity that has such a diverse following. I have met and bonded with all kinds of people who I may otherwise never had anything else in common with.

The real appeal of pool for me is the constant quest for self improvement. Each match is a new opportunity to test your skills and self control. No matter how bad you mess up, every game is a new opportunity all over again. No matter how well you played the last game, it becomes a quest to see how long you can keep it going. You are reborn evrey game with a chance to be great or fall on your face. It is the most frustrating and rewarding thing I can imagine all at the same time.

The process is never ending. I am confident that I could play this game everyday for another 50 years and still be learning something new about the game and myself the entire time. You never wake up one day and say " okay, that's it, I am finally done. There is not one more single thing I can learn about this game". That is why I play. It is all about the journey not the destination.

Jason W
 
Pool Why I play!

My answer would bring me to several years before ever playing pool. I can remember seeing a pool table or people playing and the scene was always an awakening. It?s odd that I can remember being about 6 years old and my uncle and father taking me to a Cuban bar in Miami for sandwiches. The thing I remember most behind the smells was the sight of the pool tables. I can still picture it today. I can remember staying at a KOA that had a pool table and wanting to play. Having never played I asked others and no one seemed to want anything to do with the table. I couldn?t keep my eyes off of it.
A table was present at a friend?s birthday party when I was an early teen. However, it was pushed to the side and covered. Where was I? I was looking under the cover and touching the table and balls. I wanted more. It just has always intrigued me. It has always drawn me. It has always been a challenging endeavor that stimulates my mind as well as my competitive nature. I want to play and excel. It also baffles me how hot and cold a persons (especially me) shooting ability can be from day to day.

I was first "turned on" to pool by a friend that invited me to a local cafe and pool room. First game I ran 6 ball and out and was betting $1. The rest of the night I could hardly make two in a row. After that I was just as infected as a victim of a serious illness. I watched and listened to the good players and was amazed. Then the unbelievable happened. I went to Herman and Ann's pool room in Dothan Al.
Herman's pool scene added a new excitement. Now my local heroes were hardly worthy of playing with the top guys there. I again sat and watched and listened. Action was always going and the characters were amazing. An older legend still battling the young guys, the local hot shot that actually worked all day and played all night, the loud and at times scary guy, the calm cool character that was always unflappable and of course the 20 railbirds there telling you every truth and non-truth there was. I was now beyond hooked and couldn?t wait to be able to fit in with the regular "players".
The timing was perfect as everyone was playing and the Color of Money had money on every game. Dothan had a couple of big bettors and loads of guys to choose from to match up. Once I watched a local who was almost bust call his wife for more $$$$. She shows up with a shoebox full of $100s and
dumps them on the table next to where he and a road guy are playing $300 a game six ball. His only comment was ?now he had something to bet?. There was about 30k on that table. The road guy could stop looking at the money and ended up going bust. I was in awe. I watched every ball and listened to every nugget I could hear. To others it could have been boring. It was simply unbelievable to me.
Now, all of the memories, competitiveness and characters still drive my interest in pool. While "real life" has hampered my time involvement I remained a pool player. Even for roughly 6-7 years of spotted playing while basically having quit pool while traveling and working I still kept in tune with the sport as well as its diverse group. For most of us pool FANATICS something lit a fire or spot in our heads and won?t let go.
Best friends are divided and changed over passions and pool is no different. The same night I walked into Annie's Cafe and Pool Room I went with my best friend. I left knowing that I had found something and excited about the future while he just left after "banging some balls around".

Who knows how smart I am for loving the game, its characters and its lack of respect but I know that I still am drawn to the game and its community.
A comparison would the old saying about a child having a face only a mother could love. As a player all the nuances of pool are something only people infected with pool could enjoy. I am very guilty or
loving its ugly face.
 
I play pool for two reasons... first I have fond childhood memories of my grandfather teaching me the game when I was very young...

second I play for the escape..

the game is to intricate and complex to give it anything less than 100% attention.. and by doing so temporarily removes all the burdens of my real life from my shoulders for a few hours a day..its like therapy without as much BS LOL
 
Honestly, I play pool because I don't get sweaty (most pool halls here are air conditioned), I don't get exposed to the harmful UV rays of the sun, and I get free ab workout while enjoying the game, and I can play it no matter what the weather is outside! Most importantly, I find it as one of the safest sports (unless you get into a fight). :smile:
 
I play pool because of the friendships I've gained playing over the years, because I enjoy physics and geometry, and because I love to learn :)
 
Pool itself always caught my attention when I was younger. I remember seeing a infomercial when I was between the age of 7-10 selling a video of Mike Massey doing trickshots. Wehn he would make that cueball draw I thought it was a hoax..."NO WAY HE JSUT DID THAT"... but he did! It caught my attention!

Now and then from that age on when I would go to a Rec hall there would be a table but always a group of kids on it and I never had the chance to play. Also I knew noone with a table.

When I hit the rightful age of 18 Barrrooms got my attention. Me and a couple of friends would go to hangout with the older crowd but there were atleast 2 tables in every bar in town. Finally I get the chance to play......Needless to say I was lucky to even know which end of the stick to shoot with. Several months later my Parents caught the hint of me and my friends always at the bar when they popped in one night at the local joint and seen us bang balls around. About 2 weeks later they got me my first cue....A budwieser 18.5oz screw-on tip Bar Beater.....I was in love..

I never was really into much sports growing up. Sure I played basketball and a little football and quite a bit of Golf thru highschool but the drive was there for any of those sports. When I finally got to be able to play it was like I found my soulmate....and then getting to watch on ESPN and watching HOW THE PROS PLAY really peaked my interest.

I probably could have done a many other things but my lov and interest in pool jsut kept growing and growing. Sure I could have been hanging out riding with my friends gettin drunk, doing drugs, or gettin in all kinds of other trouble but I actually seperated myself from my friends just so I could play. Pool was my drug.

It really got worse when just a few months later I discovered pool league. I joined up on a team and saved my cash and got me my first REAL cue..... a Players!!! SO proud of that cue I was.

I ended up leaving home and moving in with a roommate who's brother that lived next door had a table. All my free time was devoted to playing the game. Gave up huntin and fishing. Played pool....All hours of the night with the radio going. Rack after rack. I never gave up. Only time I wasnt shooting 40+ hours a week was probably cause I was sick.

Here I am 5 years later still hittin them balls around more than ever. I stayed to the game....Discovering this great website/forum devoted to the Pool. Learning everything I can to master this sport. Practice and more practice. League and more league. Tournament after tournament. The interest never shallowed a bit!

I fully expect myself to be playing this game 30-40 years from now if I live that long. Sure Im sure everyone has a desire to turn "pro" but Im not really into that. Would I like al lthe fame and glory.... Sure.... But it isnt my goal with this. I just want to be the best player I can be. And if fame and some fortune comes to play along the way then I'll welcome it in. But as the days and years start to roll by I'll still keep practicing and playing.....Nothing is ever gona stop me!
 
I play pool because when i was younger i had a hard time making friends and fitting in i was quiet and just didn't feel comfortable around people. I started going to the pool hall during the week when it was practically empty there were just a few people. Eventually i started playing more and more and now i go to that pool hall at least three times a week and it feels like i am with family. That is why i love the Game.
 
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when i was a kid, i read a lot of comics. bruce wayne and dick grayson were often playing pool together at bruce's mansion ( over the bat cave).
i always wanted the mansion and the pool table. somehow, i managed to get both.
 
I play pool because, I figured I better learn how to play, since I am a member here. I figured I should kind of know what I am talking about before I post here. I have tried many other sports and sports forums, but sometimes they didn't work out. I was too small to play football, wasn't tall enough to play basketball, can't float, so I had to pass on swimming. I started training for MMA, but the first guy I fought beat me so bad, I figured I should look into something less violent and dangerous to my health. I also am not smart enough to be an intellect, and am not good looking enough to model or interact with the opposite sex at all. This all got me to thinking about taking up pool, or as I have learned, sometimes called billiards or pocket billiards. Some people here are mean, but some are nice and help me and my pool game out. I just can't wait for the day that I can come on here and tell everyone about my first table run or making my first trick shot. Thanks to AZBilliards, I am breaking free from myself and living life for the first time in years. My therapist told me I need to get out and make friends. I have made lots of friends on here and I thank AZBilliards and pool for making me happy again. My therapist also told me to be positive and surround myself with positive things, and what could be more positive then a Jay Flowers Style Cue Case? With a case like this, I could be the next Minnesota Fats!
All in all, I play pool because it is fun and I like fun and think fun stuff is fun. I have tried other things that are not fun to me, and always come back to pool, which is fun to me. I LOVE POOL!
 
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Why do I play pool? The first time I saw men play the game when I was a kid I loved it and I still do. Part of it is the beauty of watching the balls roll on the table, and part of it is the puzzle solving aspect of the game.
 
Why I play pool...

When I was still in grade school, one of my uncles bought a pool table. He would not allow me to play because he was afraid I might damage the table. When he was not around, I would sneak downstairs to the basenent where the table was located and try to play. I was probably six years old at that time. From the first time I touched that table, I was hooked. Whenever I could get away with it, I was down there hitting balls.

Once I got older, and taller, I was allowed to play, without trying to do it on the sly. Played on and off for many years after playing on that table. Once I got to the point I was working, I saved money and bought myself a Brunswick, 8 foot, slate bed, home table. Nothing too fancy, but it was slate, it was level and it was mine. Played on it constantly for the first six months. After that I went to a real pool room for the first time. That was when I REALLY started my pool education.

After high school, I enrolled at Marquette University, which was a local school, for me, seeing that I lived in Milwaukee at that time. As luck would have it, the student union had a game room with some 9 foot Gold Crowns in it. You can probably guess what I studied more than books. My freshman year, the day before my eighteenth birthday, there was a pool tounament at the student union's gameroom. I had never been in a tournament before and decided to try it. I wound up winning that tournament by running the entire rack after my opponent broke and didn't make a ball. First tournament ever and I won by not letting my opponent back to the table.

That sealed the deal for me. Since then, I have been fortunate enough to play with teams that have taken league championships and played in lots of local room and bar tournaments. Some of which I played well enough to win. Now I try to play whenever I can get the time, which is all too seldom. Spent way too much money on cues in the last 31 years and have now gotten into repairing and building them.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it, thanks for taking the time to read it.

Shoot straight and keep your head down.
 
I play because I love the game...multidimensional, therapeutic, endless progression, immediate gratification/punishment...
thx JB!
:p
 
...and even if you COULD learn everything there is to know (Efren probably fits this description better than anyone else on Earth), nobody (not even Efren) can "bring it" all the time, on every shot, in every game, in every match. That's the biggest challenge of all!

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com

poolpro said:
You never wake up one day and say " okay, that's it, I am finally done. There is not one more single thing I can learn about this game".

Jason W
Click to expand...
 
I play pool because it's a great challenge every time out - you never stop learning. It allows you to be as creative as you want to be. You must look deep inside yourself and learn and admit what you can do and what you can't to make the right decisions for you. And after you have decided on what you want to do, you have to execute it. It really is a facinating game.

And...I'm too lazy to do anything else :thumbup:.

On a serious note, finding pool and 3-cushion at about 17 helped me through a tough situation after my 1st year of college. It allowed me to immerse myself into something positive to use as a crutch until I figured out some stuff in my life. Some of you may know what I'm talking about :o.

Dave
 
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I play...therefore, I am. :yeah:

I play because the game taunts me....over and over again. Once it get's in your blood, there really is no going back. The game is continually changing, and just when you think you have it figured out...it changes up on you again. And like a drug....it keeps you coming back to it. If it were any other way, it would be boring.

I wake up thinking about how I am going to get some table time every day....and go to sleep thinking about what I did right and what I did wrong...replaying it in my mind over and over again. If I go a few days without playing, I tend to get a little bit on the 'b*tchy' side. All that can be cured when I step to the table....heck, when I walk into the room. The sound of racks breaking can be intoxicating. Yeah, I'm whacked! :banghead:

I also love bringing new players into the game. As captain of a women's league team, I try to add at least one or two new players every year. I really do not care how we wind up in the overall standings...as it is more important to me to foster the love for the game in these players, than merely present the competitive side of it. Whether they return the next year to play for me, or someone else's team....the goal is to get them to come back.

Hi, my name is Lisa, and I am a poolaholic...and darn proud of it! :joyful:
 
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