Did I ever tell you how much I love to shoot pool?

I'm ok, you really have to play all the time to become very good... I was rated as a 4 in the APA, I would sometimes push up to a 5 but never held it long. I played for a few years on the team sponsered by On The Rocks in Dublin Ohio. I was my teams big number killer. I was always put up against the best player on the other team, not because I could or would win but because I would always force them to a lot of innings and a full set of games. We would all stay after and drink and play some more... ahhh, good times.

I gotta find a local team here in Denver soon, I miss it.

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... in Michigan around 1980 or so. The money shooters would know to come
to this bar -- nothing fancy and just one table... but it's where all the local
hustlers hung out.
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The pool hustlers I knew ALL had a serious alcohol or drug habit... it's a very...
VERY stressful occupation and they needed something for their nerves. Not
drunk or wasted -- that would have been counterproductive... but high on
something MOST of the time.
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I used to trade them lessons on the video games for lessons on the pool table.
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Never got to hustler level -- but I could drink for free almost wherever there
was a table.
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Took a long time, but I finally assimilated the soft caress necessary to excel.
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Same thing with a pool cue.
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:rofl:
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Just how soft your caress was...

:rofl:

When I first joined the league, I barely knew the rules and I would always shoot with a lot of force and really... A soft touch can be much more effective.

I have a Brunswick "Harrison" from the 1930's. It was one of the first tables with a "ball return". My Uncle Jim (RIP) was a brakeman on the railroad and used to hang out at an old bar at the end of a dirt road outside of Pocatello, Idaho when he was on the rails. He lived outside of Boise.

One day he walked into the bar, and was told the bar was closing and that everything including the table, pipe organ, and bar top was up for auction. Having spent a lot of time there, he was very fond of the place and its regulars. At the auction, which he took time off of work for, and drove to from Boise, he placed winning bids on the table, the pipe organ, and the bar top. When he bought his dream house outside of Boise, he added a "man cave", and in it he placed the table, the organ, and the bar top. It was his lair. The bar was the ONLY place the Brunswick had ever been. It was purchased new after the bar opened.

When I was a young boy, I idolized him. He as a Viet Nam Vet, rode a Harley fashioned after Captain America's, and laughed at everything. He recieved a battlefield commission in Viet Nam and spent a lot of time as a Second Lieutenant but came home an E-5. I was his only nephew, and he took me everywhere before he moved my Aunt and cousins to Idaho.

One day, when we were visiting from CA, him, my Aunt, and I were playing pool and he told me that someday the pool table would be mine. At the time, it didn't seem like such a big deal.

Fast forward a grip o' years and I bought my dreamhouse in the mountains outside of L.A. I happened to be visiting in Boise and reminded my Aunt that Uncle Jim told me I could have the pool table. My cousins, both girls, were ready to kill. My Aunt, true to form, told them that yes, their Dad DID say that and the table would be mine until such time as I was done with it, and then it would go back to their family.

It was so big and heavy that I had to have it professionally assembled. I had the guys put new rails on.

This table has history. I wish there were some way to tap into its soul and see the people who placed their beer mugs on the rail while they were shooting, and find out how much money changed hands while it was being used... and how many guys got their asses kicked for sharking or sandbagging.

Here's a crappy picture I took of it while hanging out with some friends in my own "man cave".

Here's my favorite:

:wtf:

Either that or the two beers I had tonight...

:P

And your mothers even dress you all the same :P

I miss shooting pool, used to be pretty good. grew up with a regulation table so those little tables at the bars were lots of fun. been a long time.

Someone tried to warn our parents that this would happen someday...

I'm a damn good shot to begin with, but I've found it is very easy to take over a table with the "drunken monk" method. Essentially, I pretend I'm missing shots when what I'm doing is covering all of the pockets. Then I can clean up in one turn and the table is mine. After that, I shoot for blood. It is really fun because my wife and I almost always play partners. She's often the one who gets the kill turn.