Were YOU Born To Play Pool?

Question

HOW did you become a pool player, trickshot artist, snooker, and/or billiard player? Do you think that some people are just born to play pool? Do you think it's a matter of location or environment that initially steered avid and professional players to the game?

WHY did you become a pool player?

WHO or WHAT influenced you to become a pool player? What intrigues, or intrigued you, to play pool?

If you are NOT a pool player but have an interest in becoming an avid pool player ......WHY?

What is your ultimate goal or purpose in playing pool? What does playing pool do for you?

Fun? Passion to play? Career? Hobby? Fame? Other?

What's YOUR story?

Answer 1

search "efren reyes".....maybe he can inspire you...

the best of the best in playing pool...

Answer 2

A poolroom in east Tn was my daycare center when i was a kid My Aunt that raised me did vol.work on weekends at a local hospital so she would leave me at uncle Jacks poolroom all weekend every friday about 6 PM him and a fella from Knoxville would play bank pool in the back room all weekend and i could stay up all night and watch them

In fact the very first time i held a cue in my hand it was set up by Eddie a kiss shot in the side & corner  I stood on a old wooden coke box to shoot He told me to see if i could hit the balls ,I hit them they both went in and i must have looked funny as H to them but that was my first shot in pool that was 55 years ago ,the last shot I made was about 9:30 this morning

Not exactly born to it but caught up pretty quick my first pool name was Little Johnny some over there still call me that

I remember what color Grady Mathews hair "WAS"

and fats being called Rudy

Answer 3

not sure if i was born to play, but from a very early age i was always obsessive compulsive, and naturally wired. i think i need 2 thank people who made lead paint 4 that lol, funny, but very true. the caluking was on the old windows, and painted over with lead pain in the early 70's, and the paint covered caulk, and paint chips peeled away, and i hid sucking on it, figuring i would get in trouble, but it taste very good to kids, and i ate a ton of it. reason i mention that, is i always knew i was different than others, at a very early age. b4 my 1st neck injury, i was highly obsessive about running, push up, sit ups. my 1st real encounter will pool i guess is when i would spend the night at my aunt and uncles. they had a pool table, and i would play 3 ball, and see my record of how many balls i could run, reracking if it got all 3(which was rare) but i had so much fun playing it, i absolutelly loved the game, and especially loved playing it by myself. 4 as athletic as i was, i thought i'd be the next ozzie smith shortstop in baseball. i was extreamlly fast and could leap extreamlly high. then i went through a phase where i wanted to become a boxer(which i still would like to try when i heal, if my neck allows) train anyway 4 the exercise. about 15 years ago i met my best friend, and we were always competive against eachother. we started 2 play pool at the bar once in awhile, then at my friends house, and then we both decided that we were going to become pro pool players. we played like crazy whenever we could. he even told his parents, what he was going to do 4 a living, and they supported him. he never did, but could have easially, been a top pro at about archers speed, if he would have kept it up. then i got my 1st house, and immediatlly ordered a table, we had the light set up, and the beer signs up b4 it got there, and sat around and couldn't wait til the table arrived. i got off work at about 11 pm every night, and played at least 6 to 10 hours, almost every night for about 8 years there. i actually have some old recording of myself playing. i couldn't play enough. i guess my friend started 2 burn out on it, as he would want to stop, after about 3 to 5 hours, and i wanted to play together at least 8 to 12 hours. he has a table now, but now has a family, and today if i go to his house and play, it's about 2 hours max. kinda dissapointed me, but i wasn't going to let that slow my goal down. i obsessivelly watched the seigel runout series. read every book possible, and got every tape possible. today playing is totally 100% relaxing, and very euphoric to me. worst thing i ever did was follow instructional's! now that i look back, and have reached my goal, they set me back many years in reaching my goal. i can hear alot of people cringing right now lol but i honestlly believe that the game is taught backwards, and alot of people get frustrated and give up trying to lean. so called stance, stroke, arm straight, ect. if you think the right things at the right time, that will automatically fall into place. and every shot, has a different stance, stroke length, ect. my goal if i wanted to do this, i wanted to be the best, so i studied the best, and now understand why efren sees the shots as clearlly as he does, and why his speed control is impeckable. with this soft stroke style of game, i dont believe in deflection. i dont want a whippy shaft. this is why efrens stroke seems to be like a pump handle, and goes from side to side a little. off subject i know, but my dvd's when i release them will break a ton of treaching myths. if i had this 15 years ago, it would have saved me a ton of heartach, trying to reach my goal. the game is extreamlly simple, if you know what to look 4 at what time. not going on about that anymore but said that because its a part of my game growing to what it is now. and soon as i expose my face, ill release the dvd's and my goal is not only money, but will let the upcoming players, understand the game much much faster. there are alot of great players who are mechanical. thoes players will reach a peak, and will not be able to surpass that level, no matter how much time they put in! there is a reason efren as is goog as he is, and players 4 example archer's game is peaked out, and cannot get to that next level, with being mechanical, and looks the same on almost every shot. im not putting that down, but just explaining on my crusade to be the best player i could be, i see so many great players, who go step to the next level, and get efrens speed control. and to be able to put a high volume of spin on the cueball with the least amount of force, where he can hold the cueball up on many shots, and can get into tighter position, where others need to use 1, 2, or 3 rails to try to obtain the same position. i said all of that because that is a huge part of my story, of how i reached my goal about 3 years ago. i can takes weeks n months off, and be in dead stroke everytime within 5 minutes! and it feels great and relaxing finally. nothing is happening until i make a full recovery. to kinda understand what im going through now go to www.youtube.com and type in rem murray botox. his case is alot like mine.  my future? hope to fully recover within the next year or 2, and depending on the tour's condition at that time, i'll probablly hide my face a few years and just be a road player. im not out to set any records in tourny wins, im not going to spend my life in a pool hall, i have many other interest in screen writing, and film production. im not in it for fame, it just makes me feel good playing, and i enjoy watching other in aww, getting enjoyment when i play. when i release the dvd's i hope many more people will learn at a much much faster rate, and my ultimate goal is to bring the sport more in the mainstream. thats about it 4 now. guess i'll have to wait to see what the future brings?

Answer 4

I like swimming! :*

Answer 5

I agree with johnnyki. EFREN REYES!!! The greatest to ever  play in my opinion. Came from humble beginnings to become one of the most , if not the most, popular players in the game. A style all his own and a keen eye for kick shots and patterns that many players do not see. Truly a joy to watch and a very nice guy to be around at tournaments.

Answer 6

To quote an old fleetwood mac song ( with peter green ) cause'' I can't sing , I aint pretty and my legs are thin''. I really don't know why I became a pool player. It might be because when i was a kid pool was the only thing i could do better than my friends and enemies for that matter. I wasn't the star quarterback on the football team or the big slugger at the baseball game but give me a cue and i owned those guys. Looking back on it it seems kinda silly or superficial but that's how it was. I guess pool kinda gave me my place along with the other guys who were good at something. I also learned that when i got old enough to drink i could go into a bar , play pool all night , get about half tanked up and go home with a lot more money than i went in with. I don't drink anymore though , quit back in 86 because it got to be more than a habit. I've seen too many people live in the bottle and die in the bottle and i wanted more out of life than that. I got started playing when i was 8 or 9 years old. We moved into a house that had an old junky plywood 7 footer in the basement. There were no balls or cues but my grandpa came to visit us 1 time and he brought some balls and cues with him. We leveled it up the best we could and he taught me the basic mechanics of the stroke. We played 3 ball and 8 ball and i've been hooked ever since. I definitely believe some people were just born to play pool. Fatts , Mosconi , Reyes, guys like that, I just couldn't imagine them doing anything else. Myself , i don't think i was born to do it though. At one time in my life playing pool was actually important to me but nowadays it's just a way to go out and have some fun with my buddies and have a little friendly competition. All of us answering this question seem to come from different walks of life and i think it would be neat as h**l if we could all get together some time and shoot some pool and some bull at the same time. Bye the way i've got this swimming pool problem and i was wondering.............LOL!      good question

Answer 7

I don't know if it's born to you or ingrained at an early age but I think to enjoy pool or snooker you must first enjoy the patterns and geometry (not like in school) of the lines the balls take. I had an etch-a-sketch and a spirograph set as a kid and preffered drawing circles and straight lines to actual things.

I was also never a team sports kinda a guy for playing but do like competition

Then when I watched snooker on TV as a young kid, it was kinda hypnotic that i could see where the balls should go and that way they went. I think the pub/bar/gentlemens club atmosphere of it was also enticing, making it a mans game (as opposed to a kids game, not being sexist).

never really had the funds or the time, together at the same time to actually get good at either of these sports, but it is enjoyable.

Answer 8

I think if I was actually born to play pool, I should be a lot better than I am. I played sparingly as a kid, only when I went over to my neighbors house since they had a table. But that wasn't often and even if I did go, there was no guarantee of playing as they often used it to store stuff.

The intrigue of the game is the analytical aspect. Everything can be explained using physics and math. The human element only comes in with execution.

I shoot trick shots because that's where the most fun is for me. It's fun entertaining people and it's very rewarding when you can put a smile on someone's face. I've also received a few emails about how inspirational and joyful my website has been for people and it's far more of an impact than I could have imagined when I first set out to make the site. It would be great if I could make a career out of it, but it's not the end of the world for me if I can't. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

Answer 9

Not born to it but about 6 years ago I fell for a guy that was

I was working at a Bar in Texas one night a bunch of the guys were playing pool .And a old Black Harley pulled up out front the biker walked in ask if we serve coffee kinda surprised me but I made a pot he turned his stool around and was watching them play pool  for a few mins ,One of the cowboys knocked the cue ball off on the floor he just kinda laughed and turned around and drank his coffee

I ask if he ever played pool .He said a few games but not like that And complained because it was raining

One of the better shots ask if he wanted to play He told the guy yeah but i dont know much about it ,But its better than riding on to Houston in the rain ,that was about 8:30 by closing time he had just about broke the bar made about 10 or 12 new freinds including me, That was the first time I saw Indian Johnny

The whole story would take 6 yrs its been diffrent

Answer 10

pool is really all about geometry, i am too FN old too do anything!!!! much less play pool!!!!

Answer 11

I became a pool player because my spouse is one and got me involved in the APA/CPA.  If you saw me play you would know that when I say I was absolutely NOT born to be a poolplayer I wouldn't be kidding!  I am still learning and at the low end of the skill levels but the more I play the more I love it.  My goal isn't to necessarily win but to be as good as I can be.  I enjoy the challenge of trying to make that ball and better yet make the ball and make shape for the next one...it is just a lot of fun and shouldn't be taken too seriously.