OT: The 9-ball comeback
First time posting, never felt the desire to because I honestly don't feel like I contribute anything other than some humor. I'm pretty happy about how my night went so here it is: I quit playing pool several years ago. I always loved playing so much, and it was a way to keep the competitive fire burning in me when baseball and football were no longer a possibility. I won $30 tonight for finishing 4th in a 9-ball tournament. I won another $160 gambling against the guy who finished 2nd. By the way, my sister won(she's phenomenal). Anyone up and have a good pool story?
August 16th, 2012 at 4:13 AM ^
One time, I knew a dude who tried to do a dive into a pool off of a diving board and lost his front tooth.
August 16th, 2012 at 4:18 AM ^
Not what I was expecting, but I'm curious how you lose a tooth diving into a swimming pool. I did a belly flop off the 3 meter board once, but all I suffered was a little embarrassment and a great deal of pain.
August 16th, 2012 at 4:37 AM ^
Was trying one of those backward dives (toes on the board, heels off), slipped, face first into the board.
August 16th, 2012 at 4:38 AM ^
By the way, sorry about the snarky response, but I don't really play pool so I can't help you there. : (
August 16th, 2012 at 4:44 AM ^
No apology necessary. Humor is always good for me. Hope your buddy wasn't doin his best Greg Louganis impression!
August 16th, 2012 at 4:38 AM ^
August 16th, 2012 at 4:42 AM ^
It looks nice there. Wish I could play, but it's a long drive from Tallahassee. FSU's pool room is junk.
August 16th, 2012 at 9:59 AM ^
Tallanastyyyy! Go Blue from Gainesvegas! If we weren't 3+ hours apart, I'd say let's meet up and watch some Michigan Football!
August 16th, 2012 at 10:41 AM ^
August 16th, 2012 at 9:21 AM ^
Almost 20 years since I've played pool in the Union. Back in in the day there were snooker tables in there which was pretty cool. My dad grew up playing snooker so I knew the rules, but never knew how hard it was to play on a giant table that has tiny pockets with rounded corners. However, it makes the pockets on a bar pool table look like 5-gallon buckets.
August 16th, 2012 at 10:09 AM ^
I swear the union billiard room has an advertising budget 8 times my annual salary. You cannot swing a dead cat on campus without hitting yet another reminder that YOU CAN PLAY POOL IN THE UNION
August 16th, 2012 at 1:55 PM ^
The Union Pool Hall: the best place on campus to mack on asian girls!
August 16th, 2012 at 4:39 AM ^
August 16th, 2012 at 6:22 AM ^
pee in the pool.
there---I finally confessed, and I feel better for it.
August 16th, 2012 at 6:29 AM ^
August 16th, 2012 at 7:07 AM ^
August 16th, 2012 at 12:11 PM ^
August 16th, 2012 at 12:12 PM ^
Great reference. RIP, Mitch. (for the unitiated, here's an 8 second clip of the line: http://www.hark.com/clips/tmbtykjbhz-used-to-do-drugs and if you like funny stuff, check this link, you won't be disappointed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCOrn413qlM)
August 16th, 2012 at 7:30 AM ^
August 16th, 2012 at 7:11 AM ^
I liked it better before you started making new threads.
August 16th, 2012 at 8:10 AM ^
August 16th, 2012 at 2:51 PM ^
Better yet....I won a game once without ever shooting, when a buddy of mine broke, sank all the solids, and then scratched on his 8-ball shot.
August 16th, 2012 at 8:59 AM ^
but when I was in high school me and a bunch of friends would always hang out at a local pool hall while skipping school because a friends family owned it. Through doing that we all got pretty good at pool. It wasn't something I ever played until then but it didn't take long before I could hang with the other guys.
There was one of my friends though, that was head and shoulders above the rest of us. All the times he played over the couple of years we hung out there and he might have lost 10 times.
Anyway, he switched to nine ball because there was a national tournament coming through our province and he wanted to play. He ended up winning that tournament and after a few more ended up turning professional and is still competing today.
My pool highlight was one weekend we had a tournament and the championship was a 4 out of 7 and I made the championship and beat this guy 4 games to 3. He said that one day was more lasses than he had the previous 6 months. Anyway, that was the highlight of my pool playing career.
August 16th, 2012 at 11:20 AM ^
So then did a man come to your town selling instruments and music lessons?
August 16th, 2012 at 9:00 AM ^
i played pool once at a place, and was squaring up a shot. Little did I know that a young hot, chick with short shorts was lining up a shot at the table behind me at the same time. you can guess where the back end of my pool stick went on my backswing.
Sincerely,
EVERY MOVIE SCENE IN A POOL ROOM, EVER
August 16th, 2012 at 10:01 AM ^
Do they call it a backswing in pool? Officially? Or are you just adapting golf terms to pool?
August 16th, 2012 at 10:22 AM ^
On the third or fourth date with my current girlfriend (picture 5-2, 100 lbs blonde), suggested we go to the local pool hall for a game, saying she plays "every once in awhile." I think it will be fun and on the first game I have a chance to win it with a fairly easy shot on the 8 ball. She still had four balls on the table so I decided to play nice and miss to keep the game going. Well I didn't get another turn. She hustled me, and said, "Yeah I come here two-three times a week." I guess that's her definition of every once in awhile. The next game I got one turn before she won. It took me three months to finally beat her. I found out real quick I was dating the best pool player in town.
August 16th, 2012 at 10:58 AM ^
So have you stopped beating your girlfriend?
August 16th, 2012 at 11:17 AM ^
I was a regular in the Union pool hall back in day. I knew almost all the people working there so I got to play for free. I tied for 5th or so in the campus tourney one year. I played in APA leagues for a while, but haven't so much as touched a cue in a couple years now. Just kinda lost the bug.
Best story is at a bar, some random dude bet me $100 for a game, he had the table so I had seen him play (and he wasn't very good) and he hadn't seen me play yet. I ended up running the table on him while his friends were laughing their asses off. I ended up just having him buy me a beer because I felt bad. I'm Asian, so he really should've known better. :)
Edit: Best story 1B: On my birthday one year I managed to hold the table at the bar from 9 to closing, drunk off my ass during most of it. I was playing some pretty good competition too including two guys from my APA team that usually kicked my ass. Just one of those nights where the pockets look like buckets
August 16th, 2012 at 1:19 PM ^
It's my 1st year doing so, I'm rated a 3 (players are rated anywhere from a 1-9 with 9 being the most skilled) I've beaten some 4's and 5's and believe me when I say, there is a big step up from a 3 to a 4 or 5.
I plan on becoming a 4 or 5, I think I have the game for it once I get better at not blasting the ball, finesse is where it's at. League APA play is way different than hanging at the bar and playing. You have ball in hand which is picking up the cue ball and handing it to your opponent when scratching or not making contact with your ball and they can put the cue ball anywhere they want.
Last weekend was our 1st round match in the playoffs, only 5 out of 16 teams made it, 1st place team gets a bye into the city championships, we won and are two match wins from an all paid expense trip to Vegas for the Nationals. If we make it, I'm wearing an M t-shirt while I play, wish me luck!
August 16th, 2012 at 1:57 PM ^
One thing that pissed me off about APA was the rankings and the way people manipulated things by sandbagging. I was an 8 most of time and would get smoked by guys that were 6 and 7s during playoffs because they'd spent all season playing down their ranking by tanking games and missing shots on purpose. It's a fun league though, they do a good job of making it exciting with the tourney's, playoffs, etc. You should try a 9 ball league, that's where the real strategy and defense comes in.
August 16th, 2012 at 2:41 PM ^
I will look into it. I have two cue sticks, one for breaking and one for playing, that one came w/two shafts (hold the jokes wiseguys).
I never tried to tank a game, even if I'm way better and can afford to do it, it's just not part of who I am, I hate that kinda shit, reminds me of a certain badminton olympics situation.
If you were getting smoked by a 6 or 7 than there's no way you're an 8, probably a 5. Guys that are 6 or 7 are highly skilled.
August 16th, 2012 at 3:35 PM ^
It's probably a bit of both, they weren't 6 or 7's because they'd played down all season and I probably was on the low end of 8 since I spent the first half of the season beating guys that were rated high, but were blowing games on purpose to get their rating down from the last play-offs. It sucks when you get to the playoffs and all of a sudden these guys are doing jump, kick, bank and masse shots like the pros and you have no chance of beating them even without the handicap you have to spot them.