Shooting Pool...Billiards...You Know Wha t I Mean!

“Shot some pool tonight at the local backward watering hole, and I was shooting some serious chit tonight. Sometimes when I'm on, I'm reeealy on, and tonight was the night. I could not be stopped!

It felt good. Reeealy good!”

“My buddies and I used to go shoot pool all the time. It was an expensive habit though...the cheapest you can get a real table around here is about $3/hr per person. If we were going to play straight 8-ball we'd just use the cheaper/smaller quarter tables...but if we were going to play any better games we had to pay the price and get a real one.

I always get better after a couple of beers...then around beers 4-6 I start messing up. So it's an art to have just enough alcohol in my system to play well.”

“The Color of Money Staring Paul Newman and Budder.”

“Hmmmmm. I guess there's a trail around the table.”

“Buddur, sounds like you had a great night. I used to play most everyday I when I was back in the barracks in the service. We had a table in our dayroom. I wont say I was ever good but I was consistent.”

“I love to play pool. I'm rarely good and never consistent.”

“the best shot i ever made was a combo and a bank shot in the same shot. i was pretty proud of that one. the best shot i almost made was jumping the cue ball over a ball in one corner, sending it to the opposite corner for a combo that was rolling in the right direction but stopped short of the pocket, on a full-sized table.

i make shots where you say "how did he make that shot?" followed by missing a shot where you say "how did he miss that shot?"”

“Great game. I'm a solid 5 in league play. I haven't played in awhile but to me its like riding a bike.

We used to stuff the pockets on quarter tables with newspaper when we wanted to play 9-ball.

Nothing makes me feel greater than beating some punk that brought his own cue with some warped pool house cue.”

“I play in a league every Thursday, which is probably why I'm hungover every Friday.

An 8 handicap playing to a 9, this week.”

“New one on me--handicap for pool?”

“In league play, you get 10 points if you win the game. If you lose, you get as many points as balls pocketed. There are four players on each team. Each player on each team, play all players on the team you are playing that night. So, in league play, there are 16 games played each night.

Your handicap is the number of points you scored, divided by the number of games you played. This goes on all through the season, so your handicap can change throughout the season. (i.e. it's a cumulative thing) The best you can do is a 10.

Is it clear as mud now?”

“You'll want to take care whilst shooting pool. That is how G00SE got his nickname, you know.”

“Well, you don't want to hustle too much in an upper East TN bar either.

I have a nasty little scar over my eye that resulted from one our "beer money raising" episodes.”

“Chief - What you described sounds like a rating or an average scoring system.

handicap:- A competition in which advantages or penalties are given to individual contestants to equalize the odds.

”

“To further elaborate then.

When playing in league play, there are four rounds of four games each. Each round is worth 1 point. After each round the scores are totaled. You also add up each teams handicap. If my team has a 32 handicap, and your team has a 34 handicap, you spot us 2 points each round. If we score 32 points and you score 32 points, we win the round because we get to add the 2 point difference in handicaps to each round.

Now to confuse you even further. There is a total of 5 points available each night. 4 points from the four rounds played, and a fifth round which consists of adding each players total points for the night. All four players scores are then added up for the teams fifth round and the handicap is added to that. In my example, we would get a total of 8 points added to our final score.

Confused yet? Tonight's pool league, so if you want to meet us at Cooter Browns in Cody at 7:00 pm MST, I'll explain it better, AND I'll buy the first round.”

“I don't think that is how we did it. I can't remember a balls and points. I only remember like if a 3 was playing a 5, the 3 had to win less games while the 5 had to win more. Like 2 wins for 3 handi and 3 or 4 wins for a 5 handi,,Or something along those lines. Our handi I think came from % of wins to games played with the opp.'s handicapp maybe mix in???

8's and 9's are few and far between in this town. At most, these co-ed teams would have a solid 6 borderline 7 handi with a slew of sandbaggin 3 and 4 handi's to boot.

Slop counted,,,call the 8.”

“We play by the Valley rules for 8-ball.

Main differences between Valley and Bar 8 are:

Call pocket, not call shot. If a ball caroms off another ball and goes in the called pocket, it counts.

Must make a legal shot. You have to hit your ball first, than either a ball has to go in, or a ball has to hit a rail.

If you scratch or fail to make a legal shot, incoming player gets ball in hand, anywhere on the table, except on the break. If a scratch is made on the break, it's ball in hand behind the head string (aka kitchen).

When playing the 8 ball, you must move the marker next to the pocket you intend to shoot it in to.”

“LOL That was a lot of explaining!! I'm not saying how much of it I filed in my head.”

“Chief - Thanks for the clarification. That does make it a handicap system.

I'd love to watch you in action. Maybe some day.”

“At pool tournement nights, I used to be the guy at the bar chatting with the lonely ladies.”

“Ahhh, chili36, I'm sorry. I forgot to impart a few suggestions to you at Ocala and at TC-3. It's nice to see that you are already above average.”

“To hear me tell it, I am way above average, LOL.”

“On pool league nights, I leave my wife at home to watch reality shows.”