Your 1st big time gambling match...

S

sharpshooter

Registered
Happy holidays Louis!

Do you recall your 1st big money gambling match and how well you were able to maintain your composure and nerves under this pressure. Do you remember who you played and if you performed up to expectation? How do you try to overcome the nerves that most players must feel when competing either in money games or large tournaments.

Also, I've heard that San Diego used to have some pretty strong action/betting back in the day. How do you remember those days and do any particular match ups come to mind that you really enjoyed sweating or playing in. Thanks for your responses.
 
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Gambling is illegal, so Louis would never condone such a thing! :-)

Regarding the action in San Diego/SoCal, I know Louis witnessed and participated in some incredible matchups (because I was there, too) at College Billiards, On Cue, and the old downtown Hard Times in San Diego, as well as Hard Times in Bellflower. The Bellflower Hard Times remains the toughest pool room I've ever been in.

Louis, you've played in more pool rooms across the country than I ever will. Which room do you feel had the highest calibre players?
 
sharpshooter said:
Happy holidays Louis!

Do you recall your 1st big money gambling match and how well you were able to maintain your composure and nerves under this pressure. Do you remember who you played and if you performed up to expectation? How do you try to overcome the nerves that most players must feel when competing either in money games or large tournaments.
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Hi sharpshooter,

I actually don't recall my feelings during money games when I first started. I can remember that I started off playing for $2 per game, that was it. No more, no less. After I got bored of that I would look to play for $3 per game, then $5 per game then so on. I can remember that each time I would jump a monetary level there would be a certain degree of pressure that wasn't there before, but it seems that it didn't last too long because I tried not to play outside of the limitations of my bankroll. For example, I wouldn't play for $20 per game with $80 in my pocket. I wanted to alway have enough barrels to eliminate losing from a lucky run by my opponent.

Anyway to answer your question about overcoming nerves in pressure situations, you just have to keep putting yourself in that kind of situation over and over until you can learn to control your nerves. Being nervous is a good thing. It lets you know that you care about what you're doing.

A little tip that I can offer is to try to enjoy and even thrive off of the anxiety that you may feel during big matches. When you've got the blood pumping and the adrenaline flowing, it's a great thing. I wish I could feel that way every time I got up to play.

Also, I've heard that San Diego used to have some pretty strong action/betting back in the day. How do you remember those days and do any particular match ups come to mind that you really enjoyed sweating or playing in. Thanks for your responses.
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There was better action before my time I've been told but there was some pretty good match ups while I was there during my teen years. Road players would come through from time to time or the Filipinos would come there to get into some action. It was a fun time. I played with Rudolfo Luat, Santos Sambajon, Junichi Kosugi (Japan), Danny Harriman, Morro Paez, Efren and many others.

Danny Harriman was one of my favorite match ups during that time. I think I was 19 or 20. He was 21 or so at the time. We battled all night long playing 9 ball. We had the whole room sweating it. After the room closed, we continued to play but the spectators were told to leave. They all went outside and had their faces pressed to the window watching as we finished the last set. It was a great battle and a good memory.

I lost by the way. I don't know how many sets we played or even what we were playing for but he came out 3 sets winner for the night.

Thanks for the post and happy holidays!
 
LanceRichardson said:
Gambling is illegal, so Louis would never condone such a thing! :-)

Regarding the action in San Diego/SoCal, I know Louis witnessed and participated in some incredible matchups (because I was there, too) at College Billiards, On Cue, and the old downtown Hard Times in San Diego, as well as Hard Times in Bellflower. The Bellflower Hard Times remains the toughest pool room I've ever been in.

Louis, you've played in more pool rooms across the country than I ever will. Which room do you feel had the highest calibre players?
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Hey Lance,

That's a pretty tough question but I'd have to say that at the time action was good at Hard Times, that was probably the toughest room in the country. In addition to the road players, the locals were just plain tough action. There was Keith Mcready, Morro Paez, Ernesto Domingez, Tang Hoa, Jose Parica, and don't forget all of the super strong players whose names might not be recognized nationwide.
 
Thank you for all the responses Louis. I got into pool just after Jay Swanson passed away in 1996. I wished I could have seen him play while he was alive. Everyone tells me he was the smoothest player around and pretty much owned the San Diego pool players. Did you pick up pointers from his style as I have always noticed a nice flowing smoothness to your game as well? Best of luck at the DCC!!
 
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I nearly beat Jay "Swanee" Swanson in a tournament at College Billiards once, nearly 15 years ago.

In a race to three, I broke and ran two racks. After breaking and not making a ball, Swanee ran three, looked at me, and said, "Sorry 'bout that."

Jay remains the best player I ever saw.

Louis, you're a close second. :-)
 
I actually had a videotape of Swanee playing a super young Johnny Archer (from around 1989 or 90) in a San Diego challenge match called Heavyweight Billiards. All the commentators including Robin Bell, Howard Vickery noted how smooth and effortless Swanee played. Race to 15 and Archer won 15-14. I think shortly after that they became road partners and I'm sure Johnny owes much of his early success to Jay.

I actually don't recall my feelings during money games when I first started. I can remember that I started off playing for $2 per game, that was it. No more, no less. After I got bored of that I would look to play for $3 per game, then $5 per game then so on. I can remember that each time I would jump a monetary level there would be a certain degree of pressure that wasn't there before, but it seems that it didn't last too long because I tried not to play outside of the limitations of my bankroll. For example, I wouldn't play for $20 per game with $80 in my pocket. I wanted to alway have enough barrels to eliminate losing from a lucky run by my opponent.
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Excellent advice Louis. How long into your pool career before you felt ready to get involved in big money matches with some of the top players?
 
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sharpshooter said:
I actually had a videotape of Swanee playing a super young Johnny Archer (from around 1989 or 90) in a San Diego challenge match called Heavyweight Billiards. All the commentators including Robin Bell, Howard Vickery noted how smooth and effortless Swanee played. Race to 15 and Archer won 15-14. I think shortly after that they became road partners and I'm sure Johnny owes much of his early success to Jay.
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I watched that live. It was very exciting at the time. I was talking to Swanee before the match and he said that he felt funny playing while wearing lipstick (they actually put make up on Swanee for tv).

One of the funniest things happened at that match. They had hired a "precision rack girl" to rack the balls and walk around the table with the score after each game. Her name was Carlotta. I remember her more than the match itself because she was so pool ignorant that it was cracking up everyone in the audience. Putting aside the fact that she couldn't rack the balls, she had this "beauty mark" type mole above her lip that actually fell off her face while trying to rack. She daintily picked it up and carried it out of the arena, then returned to finish racking. You had to be there to appreciate it. I don't know if that made it on the video but it should have!
 
Wasn't on the video but a great story LOL! Hey Louis, a question for you: How many years into your pool career before you felt ready to get involved in big money matches with some of the top players?
 
sharpshooter said:
Wasn't on the video but a great story LOL! Hey Louis, a question for you: How many years into your pool career before you felt ready to get involved in big money matches with some of the top players?
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Not too long actually. I was pretty arrogant as a kid so I was pretty much getting into the mix around the age of 16. It's hard to say for sure but I probably lost more than I won for quite awhile. I think I started winning against the better players more often then I would lose at about 19. It's hard to say. It's been awhile.

I never really played for too high of stakes anyway. If memory serves me correctly, 4 bags a set was my largest. Usually the stakes were much lower.
 
Thanks Louis for all your responses and valuable information. It's very interesting hearing of a seasoned pro's early days in pool and all the struggles and hardships encountered before finally breaking thru. Did you travel much on the road early on looking for action and if you did, do you recall your first road trip, any road partners, where you went and how it turned out for you? Did you find bar hustling succesful, as I would be fearful of violent confrontations from drunk losers in unfamiliar settings. Wishing you a great 2008!!
 
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sharpshooter said:
Thanks Louis for all your responses and valuable information. It's very interesting hearing of a seasoned pro's early days in pool and all the struggles and hardships encountered before finally breaking thru. Did you travel much on the road early on looking for action and if you did, do you recall your first road trip, any road partners, where you went and how it turned out for you? Did you find bar hustling succesful, as I would be fearful of violent confrontations from drunk losers in unfamiliar settings. Wishing you a great 2008!!
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I did go on the road quite a bit. My friend and mentor Russ took me on many road trips in my teen years. I also traveled around a bit with Jeff Beckley. With the exception of Maine and a couple other of those little states way up in the corner of the map, I've pretty much been everywhere at one time or another. I usually made out alright but I did more sneaking around then looking for tough action.

I've done my fair share of bar hustling as well and I'll probably never do it again. Too many bad things can happen and rarely is it worth the risk. I've left places wondering if I would make it to my car.

I think that if I could go back and do it again I would not have been a hustler. It's just that during the time I started playing, that's what the elders were teaching, so that's what I learned. One of the first lessons that I got was that if you haven't won the game before the coin flip then you shouldn't be playing.

I don't mean to drag your thread off in a new direction, and I too love a good road story, but I just think that pool might be in a better spot these days if hustling wasn't the way of things for so long. I hope that in the future people can have a reason to try and become great players and leave hustling as a thing of the past.
 
Wow! So much being discussed in this thread! I will try to remember all I wanted to say after reading some of the posts.

First, the match that comes to my mind that was a big money match for you was in Reno I think in 93, maybe 94. There were a couple people going in with you, but I thought you won about 10k after many hours work. You were playing that drug dealer from Northern California, Jason something or other. It was truly a great defeat since not only you had to outrun a great player, but someone who was used to playing on the juice.

I really liked Danny as a player also. He at the time I remember, was always honorable to play, wasn't playing on anything other than the caffeine in his Coca-Cola, and believed you shouldn't curse at the table. You could be assured that good play would ensue, without all the theatrics.

I think my favorite matches to watch were the couple of all nighters you pulled playing Riverside Alex, and the time you played Jeremiah Johnson in Anaheim. The good thing about playing Alex from a spectators perspective was that you played him long enough to where you could really see that what ever you werent doing well in the beginning, you saw the match long enough that you could see that change. When you watch 24 hour sessions you can truly see the shifts, ebbs and flows that players go through. For you many times I saw how you just got stronger through out the night. Very exciting to see.

I actually used to own that videotape of Jay and Johnny. I gave it to Richard (x breaker) because I thought he would appreciate having it. I had sold all of my other pool related dvd's and tapes, so I threw it in with the bunch after I got sour on this whole industry. I didnt know you were watching it live. It seemed like quite a production. I actually got to take one lesson from Jay, it was cue ball position off the rail between balls. (If that makes any sense!) It is that lesson I think of when any one mentions him and the time when I broke the balls halfway decent when playing him, he said once, Wow! I wish I could break like that! :)

I dont go on this site very much anymore, and only came on to post you a quick question. I'll go do that right now!

girlwon1
 
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