Any Pool Players Out There?

As a public service to my fellow guitar players, I’d just like to say that I tried to play in the pool once and suffered a very bad electrical shock.

So no, not a pool player. I’ll stick to dry environments after that experience.

 

My father-in-law was a competitive 9-ball player in the '70s & '80s (John 'Jack' Madden). He is retired from competition and now makes custom cues. My wife and her siblings all grew up shooting pool. Needless to say when we bought our house we had to get a table for when he comes over to visit.
At 76 yrs old 'Jackie' can still whoop most average players. I have somewhat learned a few things from him over the years but I'm still below average when it comes to playing. A nice perk is that all the cues we own are custom made Madden-cues.

 

He sure has some stories. His basement in Montana is like a hall of fame exhibition of pool players. Tons of pics from that era (personalized, tournaments, etc.). I'll mention the names in your post next time we chat and see how he reacts.

 

Had a table in my bedroom when I was 10 (Dad left the table when he split so I moved in with the table). Did the barroom pool league for a few years : I'd say a decent player, no more no less. Bad thing about shooting pool in bars is that there is always "that guy" who is a better fighter than pool player and who wants to "make it interesting $$$" . You beat him fair and square but his memory becomes cloudy where the house rules are concerned. ("that aint how we play in ...Fill in a city...)
Rules to ponder...Never gamble with a guy who's name begins with a city or state.

 

The secret is in the stick? I have beaten many a boy that brought their own cased stick into a bar.

I never gambled much in pool, but I have on different occasions. I used to sit back and watch the play unfold. If I thought that I could beat the guy holding the table, I’d put my money up.

 

Keep the cue. It obviously doesn’t take up much room and contains memories of your life. Don’t sell your memories.

 

I have an early 1960s Brunswick Gold Crown I that is scheduled to be professionally re-assembled on the 30th of this month. We are finally finishing our basement remodeling project.

Can't wait.

This is what it looked like when it was last assembled at our previous house over 10 years ago:

 

I was very good when I was a kid, about 7 or 8. We lived in a warehouse loft with my dad's friend, and there was a bar sized pool table in the place. I played against myself, probably at least 10 games a day, for the period of about 18 months that we lived there. Never learned anything "tricky" or "amazing," but I could do probably 90 percent of what I intended to do with my shots. None of the adults could routinely beat me, even the guy who owned the table.

Basically haven't played since – just here and there.

 

Had a full size table at work for many years and got pretty good at it. Worked in Ireland and got to show off my long shot skills at Snooker. I could hold my own, but could never keep up with the pints intake.

There was another ancient billiard game in Ireland using the cue stick in a whole new way. Fun, but never could get the hang of it. Fun times with fun people there. If I went back to Ireland for a visit, I'd be hanging out at the snooker tables every night.

BTW, sold my stick just before moving to Montana about 23 years ago.

 

I LOVE Pool.
Too bad I stink the place up with how badly I play.

 

True that!

 

Most of the pubs in Oz have a pool table.... often it's a winners table and you play for beers.... keep winning, keep getting free beer until the beer takes over and your game goes off...

 

My wife and I finally got the basement remodeling project to a point of completion where I hired a billiard company to come out and re-assemble my table. New rubber cushions were put on it (the original rubber bumpers were almost 60 years old and started showing signs of dry rot in some spots) and a slate gray color of Simonis cloth now cover the table.

I am very happy with the results and my wife and I have been having fun playing 8-ball and rediscovering our collection of vinyl records.



One cool thing is that the date stamp mark on some of the castings showed a date that was exactly 3 weeks after the day I was born in 1963.