How many of you play pool?

[asofel]

A number of professional poker players started their gambling careers with pool. How many here play? What's your favorite game? How good are you? Anyone like to gamboool in the DC area? /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[codewarrior]

I will whip you at one-pocket. Alas, I'm not near DC anymore...

[mostsmooth]

[ QUOTE ]
A number of professional poker players started their gambling careers with pool. How many here play? What's your favorite game? How good are you? Anyone like to gamboool in the DC area? /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[/ QUOTE ]
i use to play about 4-8 hours a night 4-5 days a week 9ball. havent played in years and years though, went back the other day for the first time and now i stink

[HDPM]

I play. Not well. Not anywhere D.C. I like straight pool and 9 ball. 3 cushion when available

[Shajen]

I used to play quite well, but as with anything, if you don't stay on top of your game, you lose it.

At the top of my game, I could run a rack pretty regularly. Now, I'm good for maybe 4 or 5 balls a rack. /images/graemlins/frown.gif

[asofel]

[ QUOTE ]
I play. Not well. Not anywhere D.C. I like straight pool and 9 ball. 3 cushion when available

[/ QUOTE ]

3 cushion looks hard as hell to me...i've seen videos of the pros and its just amazing the [censored] they can do...

[asofel]

[ QUOTE ]
I will whip you at one-pocket. Alas, I'm not near DC anymore...

[/ QUOTE ]

yea that would have been fun...i can currently beat a semi-pro friend of mine at one pocket just because he's still learning the moves...pretty soon he'll be smoking me i'm sure...

[CCass]

I played a lot of pool in HS. 9 Ball and snooker mostly. I haven't played in years.

[Tyler Durden]

I'm pretty good. One of my buddies is a semipro and he's tutoring me a little bit. I can't beat him yet tho. Prob in like two weeks max I will be able to destroy him.

P.S. Oh yea, he's kind of a [censored].

[ElSapo]

I play in D.C. There are a number of leagues in the area, wth a wide range of players from absolute beginners to semi-professionals (the leagues don't allow players on the major tours, I think -- and frankly, I can't see anyone on a tour bothering).

There are a couple of good places to play in the District...

ElSapo

[Phat Mack]

I guess one-pocket is the game I play most often, which isn't that frequent.

I like 3-C as well, when I can find it. 3-C is a good game for us old guys who can no longer see. 3-C can look intimidating, and it takes a little longer to get up to speed, but it is worth checking out and is a lot of fun. They hold an international 3-C tourney in Vegas every couple of years that is worth checking out.

When I walk into a pool room, all I see are 9-ball and one or two one-pocket games, but there are a lot of other game that I enjoy that are virtually extinct: two-ball, line up, Kelly pool just to name a few.

[asofel]

[ QUOTE ]
but there are a lot of other game that I enjoy that are virtually extinct: two-ball, line up, kelly pool Kelly pool just to name a few.

[/ QUOTE ]

its called kelly pool Kelly pool, or that's a remnant of last nights drinking? How do you play the others?

[asofel]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm pretty good. One of my buddies is a semipro and he's tutoring me a little bit. I can't beat him yet tho. Prob in like two weeks max I will be able to destroy him.

P.S. Oh yea, he's kind of a [censored].

[/ QUOTE ]

Nice. I'm in the reverse situation. This guy I know plays damn good cards and is the same way. You know, the type that'll say "if i show a bluff its good for the game, right?" and make you look like a chump...its all good though because he'll need more than two weeks to come close to beating me /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[Phat Mack]

[ QUOTE ]
How do you play the others?

[/ QUOTE ]

Two-ball: 1-ball on the foot spot; 2-ball on the head spot; break is to the 1-ball from behind the line. To score, you must sink one ball and carom the other. Balls are spotted on the nearest unoccupied spot when sunk. Game is to an agreed number of points.

Line Up is just like straight pool, except that pocketed balls are lined up behind the foot spot after each inning, or when the table is cleared.

[asofel]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
How do you play the others?

[/ QUOTE ]

Two-ball: 1-ball on the foot spot; 2-ball on the head spot; break is to the 1-ball from behind the line. To score, you must sink one ball and carom the other. Balls are spotted on the nearest unoccupied spot when sunk. Game is to an agreed number of points.

[/ QUOTE ]

that sounds like fun...have to give it a try tonight...

[ QUOTE ]

Line Up is just like straight pool, except that pocketed balls are lined up behind the foot spot after each inning, or when the table is cleared.

[/ QUOTE ]

lined up behind the foot spot? so when the tables cleared what to you start with? all the balls on the rail? or lined up perpendicular to the rail?

[Phat Mack]

[ QUOTE ]
perpendicular to the rail?

[/ QUOTE ]

Right. You start lining them on the spot, and work towards the rail. Depending on the size of the table, there will be a couple of balls left over that go in front of the spot.

Working the "line" is so different from working the "pack" that it'll teach you some interesting moves for your one-pocket game. I've heard that they still play this game in Canada, but I haven't seen a good line-up player in decades.

[HDPM]

It was hard to get tired of 90 year old Bronco Bob ask what is the highest run you ever saw in line up straight pool and hear the story of the run back in '39....

[Phat Mack]

[ QUOTE ]
It was hard to get tired of 90 year old Bronco Bob ask what is the highest run you ever saw in line up straight pool and hear the story of the run back in '39....

[/ QUOTE ]

Funny, I was just thinking that I had never met a line-up player who was born after 1920. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[youtalkfunny]

I played all through my teen years. Could run a rack if they were laid out nice and easy for me.

Actually, I could run 1-8, get position for a "gimme" on the 9...then I'd choke. Even in PRACTICE! It was all psychological.

Later in life, I would learn that compulsive gamblers often lose because they've heard their whole lives that "You can't win at gambling," and losing re-enforces that core belief. Psychologically, winning would upset them terribly--that's why they can't sleep after a big win, but will sleep like a baby after they blow it all back (see James Caan in "The Gambler" for an illustration of this).

So I couldn't get past choking, even after playing for years.

I was OK at 3-C, given my lack of experience. I think my highest run was an 8 or 9. Saw Dick "Rah-Rah" Reid run 14 once (his high was 17) at George Rippe's place in Lawrence, MA (one of Rippe's trick shots is listed in Byrne's book).

I used to tiptoe around the table, like Jackie Gleason.

Now, I can't even remember how to STAND. My stance has no balance, my bridge is unsteady---and I can't get the object ball within a foot of the pocket.

(For those who think 3-C looks hard, you just need to adjust the settings in your brain, and focus on moving the cue ball instead of the object ball. Takes a few days to totally get your mind around the concept.)

[Ray Zee]

it was like watching mosconi or wimpy play straight pool. you left and went to lunch and came back and they were still running balls. they ran hundreds and hundreds until the gold crown tables got the tighter pockets. then they just ran hundreds.

[HDPM]

You DC players owe yourselves a look at Mike Capone's cues. Capone is now in the aptly named Poolesville Maryland. By the map it doesn't look too far from DC. I know Scruggs is in Baltimore and the east has a ton of cuemakers, but buy yourself a capone. Plays GR8, will hold value. Maybe will appreciate someday. Prices reasonable, similar to scruggs I think. I need a scruggs too, but like my capone a lot.

[deacsoft]

I used to make a nice little chunk of money here and there playing foosball.

[Phat Mack]

[ QUOTE ]
I used to make a nice little chunk of money here and there playing foosball.

[/ QUOTE ]

That takes me back. I used to sweat some surprisingly big action on foosball and shuffleboard, but haven't seen any in years.

[deacsoft]

Foosball is alive and well in Madison. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[scrub]

[ QUOTE ]
A number of professional poker players started their gambling careers with pool. How many here play? What's your favorite game? How good are you? Anyone like to gamboool in the DC area? /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

I used to play a ton of straight pool. I was mediocre.

scrub

[Randy_Refeld]

I used to gamble a lot at pool. If anyone wants to play one pocket we can come to wherever you are in the US or Canada.