Owning the table.

Jeff sparks

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Apr 2, 2015
Messages
3,317
From
Houston, Texas
Newman's description to Piper Laurie about how it felt to own the table was really good, I can't recall any of it off hand, I just remember thinking he had to have a technical advisor who had experienced that type of "ZONE" in order to talk about it like he did. Being a member of the billiard fraternity, it held special meaning for me.
I know some of the members here personally and have played with a few of you who I know have been in that ZONE many times.
I would enjoy hearing from some of you who have personally experienced being in that ZONE, and how it felt to you while you were in it. If you wouldn't mind, in your own words, share how it felt to you.
 

mr3cushion

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Joined
Sep 17, 2008
Messages
7,617
From
Cocoa Beach, FL
I can tell you, from my own experience playing 3C and on occasion playing Pool, the very first indicator that you know you're, 'in the zone' is NO shot you approach looks difficult!

In 3C, the brain in micro seconds tells your eye to envision the lines on the table of the OB and CB traveling to their respective final destinations on the table! Just as it did for me in Golf, when I was in dead punch!

The pre-shot routine feels like it should, ever element of it falls into place, 'automatically!' The warm-up stokes feel exact and pertinent to each individual shot! The timing, tempo, rhythm and speed are once again, just a matter of fact! And again, as in in Golf, when you contact the CB no matter how slow or fast, it feels like it's effortlessly, as if the CB wasn't even struck by the cue tip and the CB has 'life' in without much effort.

To 'Me' the players who have the BETTER strokes are that produce the, 'MOST amount of effect on the CB, with the minimum amount of effort!'

This is when you know you're, 'In the Zone!"
 
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Tom Wirth

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Joined
Jul 5, 2004
Messages
2,972
From
Delray Beach, Florida
Okay, I'll bite first. In the mid seventies I made a game with another local player. We decided to play some $20 One Pocket and I won the flip and broke a ball in and ran eight and out. Fletcher, the guy I was playing broke and sold out a shot. I ran out again. My next break I again made a ball on the break and again I ran eight and out. Fletcher's next break was more of the same for him. He sold out the corner ball and again it was eight and out. Four straight games and all Fletcher did was break the balls twice!

In the end I won $240 in less than two hours at $20 a game. Yes, I'd have to say I was in the "zone".

In the finals of Strawberries 2nd International One Pocket tournament 1993 I played Jose Parica in the finals. It was a race to five and I won this championship match 5 - 4. I made a ball on the break four times running eight and out three of those four, running six in the other game. I never beat Jose on his break so I was fortunate to have won the first break. At the conclusion of the match Jose said to me, " Your break is Awesome." And it certainly was during that tournament.

Before anyone asks, we were racking of each other.

Tom
 

jrhendy

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Joined
May 24, 2004
Messages
5,717
From
Placerville, CA
Zone

Zone

Early 90"s and my son had a new pool room in Spokane, WA. He told me they had a nice 9 ball tournament in Missoula, Montana about a three hour drive away. I flew up to visit and my two oldest sons and I went to Missoula.

64 players, race to 9 double elimination. Cole Dickson was there with Tony Annigoni and promised to take me fly fishing after the tournament. I lose my first match to a player from my boys room I could probably give the seven to, but that is tournament life.

My next match was to an up and coming young Canadian player who had watched my first match and thought he had an easy go of it. I beat him and he was totally embarrassed the old man beat him. I got into stroke and started mowing them down. After I had won five or six more matches I could hear the young guy tell a buddy, pretty good potter eh! He was not so embarrassed anymore.

I am playing Rich Geiler near the end of the tournament and I am really in the zone. The next thing I know, as I am running out the game when I am on the hill, Rich has tied a white hanky to his cue and is waving it in front of me.

I lost my next match to Mike The Marine from Seattle and he lost to Stan Tourangeau who won the tournament. I still had a nice payday and a part of the calcutta. More importantly, I redeemed myself in front of my boys.

They had a bar and a poker room upstairs from the pool room and Cole got wasted and busted so we did not get to go fishing.
 

Jeff sparks

Verified Member
Joined
Apr 2, 2015
Messages
3,317
From
Houston, Texas
I can tell you, from my own experience playing 3C and on occasion playing Pool, the very first indicator that you know you're, 'in the zone' is NO shot you approach looks difficult!

In 3C, the brain in micro seconds tells your eye to envision the lines on the table of the OB and CB traveling to their respective final destinations on the table! Just as it did for me in Golf, when I was in dead punch!

The pre-shot routine feels like it should, ever element of it falls into place, 'automatically!' The warm-up stokes feel exact and pertinent to each individual shot! The timing, tempo, rhythm and speed are once again, just a matter of fact! And again, as in in Golf, when you contact the CB no matter how slow or fast, it feels like it's effortlessly, as if the CB wasn't even struck by the cue tip and the CB has 'life' in without much effort.

To 'Me' the players who have the BETTER strokes are that produce the, 'MOST amount of effect on the CB, with the minimum amount of effort!'

This is when you know you're, 'In the Zone!"
Bill,
Wonderful description of how you felt during the time you were in dead punch.
You knew, there was no doubt, everything was crystal clear to you and you knew you couldn't MISS. I'll bet you can still remember that feeling! It just doesn't happen all that often, and when it does, it's a really special moment.
I enjoyed how you told it, makes me know how much you love the game Bill.
Thank you
 

lfigueroa

Verified Member
Joined
Jul 17, 2004
Messages
2,493
Newman's description to Piper Laurie about how it felt to own the table was really good, I can't recall any of it off hand, I just remember thinking he had to have a technical advisor who had experienced that type of "ZONE" in order to talk about it like he did. Being a member of the billiard fraternity, it held special meaning for me.
I know some of the members here personally and have played with a few of you who I know have been in that ZONE many times.
I would enjoy hearing from some of you who have personally experienced being in that ZONE, and how it felt to you while you were in it. If you wouldn't mind, in your own words, share how it felt to you.


I was living in San Francisco, my home town, in the late 70’s, graduating from college by the thinnest of margins (having majored in pool), and killing time waiting for the USAF to finally put me on active duty. I’d been commission a 2nd Lieutenant, but there were so many guys in the pipeline they told me to get lost for a couple of years until the backlog cleared and I could come on active duty.

So, I was working the swing shift at Wells Fargo headquarters in downtown SF and playing a lot of pool when all of us at the pool hall started to notice the sporadic appearances of these funny looking pool cues everywhere. They all had a lot of plastic inlays and skinny shafts. BUT the thing that really got us all salivating were the countless reports of how much spin you could get on the ball with a Meucci. (Pool room scholars of the time would spend endless hours in Talmudic-like debates about the proper pronunciation. “It’s ‘May-oo-chee;’” “No, ‘Mew-chee;’” “”I think it’s ‘Moo-key.’” And so it went. Regardless, we all recognized that no matter what you called them, these pool cues really spun the rock in a way no other pool cue of the era could.

Then one day a pile of Meucci brochures appeared at the pool hall desk and we were all *really* hooked. They were 8x10” color brochures that folded open. The cover was a heroic George Washington crossing the Delaware, standing in a row boat with, incredibly, Meucci pool cue in hand.

I took a couple of brochures home and didn’t see anything that I really liked. Most of the cues where either too plain or too gaudy for my traditional sense of pool cue aesthetics. So I pulled out one of my X-Acto knives and actually glued together a ring here, a butt there, and a wrap from that one, until I had what was, in my mind, the perfect Meucci. I called the number on the brochure and, incredibly, somewhere down in Olive Branch, Mississippi, Bob Meucci himself answered the phone. I told Bob what I wanted, asked for two shafts, and about $300 and a few weeks later, it was in my hands.

Right off the bat, I hated the shinny sealed wrap. The wrap itself was a traditional white-with-flecks, but coated with almost the same finish that was on the butt itself. Thinking that maybe, just maybe, it was some sort of “protective wax” I took a wet paper towel to it. Big mistake. The coating was indeed water soluble but my paper towel and hands immediately started turning purple. Why purple, I have no idea -- the wrap, after all, was white -- but purple it was and though it eventually came off, it was at the expense of raising the threads of the underlying wrap and a few stains that made it look like I’d been playing while eating jam (don’t go there).

The Air Force finally granted me asylum and off I went to Great Falls, Montana. Like I said, this was all late 70’s. At about the same time I was to own a Gina, a McDermott (made by Jim McDermott), a Richard Black, and a $25 Viking which was to play a memorable role when I entered my first Montana State 8Ball Tournament.

Back in 1977 I was lucky enough to win a qualifier for the National 8ball Championship, held that year in Dayton, OH. At that tournament, every player was given a free Viking cue. As I recall, it was a merry widow style cue and had a clear plastic sleeve in the butt underneath which said something like "National 8ball Tournament" in gold on black. I came home and threw it in my closet.

A few months later I'm playing in the State Tournament. This is a big deal up North because basically every bar up there has two million teams playing 8ball all winter and so there are several hundred players playing in a hotel in downtown Great Falls. My tip had come off my playing cue a few days before and I was concerned the re-glue job might not take, so, just as a back up, I pull the freebie cue out of the closet.

Right off the bat, my first match, I could tell I wasn't playing well. (Yes, the tip was glued on just fine.) After a few shots, out of pure desperation, I pull out the freebie cue.

Suddenly, everything was right with the world. I couldn't believe the difference. Everything looked right when I got down on the shot. Everything worked right when I pulled the trigger. A little while later, I switch back to my regular cue, a very nice, expensive job, to see how it felt by comparison and immediately, after just a couple of shots, I can tell that it's not right. So I go back to the $25 special. To make a long story short, I end up in the finals, go hill-hill, play a safe on the Jack Larson’s last ball and lose on what may have been one of the greatest kick shots anyone has ever played on me. If not for that cue, I probably would have gone two and out.

So back to the Meucci: After my failed experiment with the wrap I played intermittently with the Meucci until on one visit to San Francisco, to see family, I take it to Whitehead and Zimmerman, the main pool table and cue distributor in the city. It was a great old, musty place down on Howard Street in the downtown area. I think it was Earl Whitehead hisself that I showed the Meucci to and asked if he could re-wrap it with black Irish linen. He said, “I don’t have any black Irish linen in stock but I can do it in black nylon.” So I say, “OK” and a couple of days later it was ready and Meucci, wife and I drive back to Montana.

At the time I was, pretty much like today, an aspiring player. As a 9ball player I was capable, and with perfect alignment of the stars, could run a couple of racks. And so I entered a 9ball tournament at The Corner Pocket in Missoula, one weekend in 1981 -- the last year of my four year tour of the Northern Tier. And, for whatever reason, I decided that my newly nylon re-wrapped Meucci would be my weapon of choice.

It was a pretty big field, with guys like Mike Chewakin and Panama Ritchie leading the pack. I found out later that two of the guys from Great Falls, Parks and Tim Nelson -- part owner of TJ’s, my home room in Great Falls -- bought me (not too surprisingly) on the cheap in the Calcutta, all the big established names driving the total side purse up into several thousands of dollars.

And we began to play.

You know, we all talk about the Indian or the arrow thing, but I can honestly tell you that sometimes, without question, and with zero doubt: it is the arrow.

With the newly re-wrapped Meucci I am running out from everywhere. My safety play is stellar. I am thinning balls by the thinnest of margins, sending whitey to the end rail and gluing it to the other, consistently leaving my opponents 9’ away. One after another they drop by significant margins. Mike “Chewy” Chewakin is so incensed at the beating he is taking at my hands that he makes a scene and Parks and Tim have to pull me away from the table, urging me, “Don’t let him get under your skin.” (As I continued to go deeper into the tournament, Parks and Tim begin to pre-celebrate and tap into their anticipated calcutta score and get increasingly drunk, hooting and hollering as they repeatedly calculate the exponential return on their $20 calcutta investment). Next, I demolish Panama Ritchie in the semi-finals. It was so ridiculous that at one point Ritchie turns to the crowd and disgustedly says, “I’ve beaten champions all over the country and here I am losing to this kid.”

So let me just say this, because I don’t think I’ve adequately conveyed at what level I’m playing at that day, in early 1981, with the re-wrapped Meucci: I am not only playing run out pool, I am in mortal dead punch. I am walking up to the table and casually drawing the ball back to the rail with reverse spin and popping back out two rails for perfect position; I am over spinning the cue ball off the end rail bending it to go cross table to slip under an object ball and come out perfect on my next target; I am playing caroms and tickies to make 9balls sitting near pockets disappear. There is not a cross-side bank that I am not drilling. It is completely and totally ridiculous and I lose in the finals to a fantastic black player whose name escapes me, and he wins, but just barely. Parks and Tim can barely stand. They are drunk as skunks and are hooting and hollering and laughing their asses off at the thousands they’ve won with their $20 dark horse bet.

After the tournament, a guy who was a local cue maker comes up to ask me about the Meucci. We talk and I tell him about the wrap and how Whitehead and Zimmerman only had black nylon in stock and he says, “Well, I can re-wrap it for you with black Irish linen if you want.” And I say, “Sure” and give him the cue. A week later it is my hands and, as advertised, is beautifully wrapped in black Irish linen.

And I never play 9ball again as well as I did that weekend with the Meucci wrapped with nylon. Ever.

Nowadays, the Meucci sits at the bottom of my closet in its brown Fellini case. I haven’t played with it in years. But every once in a while, like now, I think about it and consider having it re-wrapped in black nylon.

Lou Figueroa
 

mr3cushion

Verified Member
Joined
Sep 17, 2008
Messages
7,617
From
Cocoa Beach, FL
Bill,
Wonderful description of how you felt during the time you were in dead punch.
You knew, there was no doubt, everything was crystal clear to you and you knew you couldn't MISS. I'll bet you can still remember that feeling! It just doesn't happen all that often, and when it does, it's a really special moment.
I enjoyed how you told it, makes me know how much you love the game Bill.
Thank you

Thanks Jeff, Once in a great moon, I still get that feeling of, 'knowing all at the able!'

Jeff, for me that in the zone anomaly lasted an entire year for me! 1983 in ABA tournament play, I won 62 'Consecutive' matches without a loss! Winning 9 straight tournaments! NO ONE has ever even come close, so far!


View attachment 12192
 
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Jeff sparks

Verified Member
Joined
Apr 2, 2015
Messages
3,317
From
Houston, Texas
I was living in San Francisco, my home town, in the late 70’s, graduating from college by the thinnest of margins (having majored in pool), and killing time waiting for the USAF to finally put me on active duty. I’d been commission a 2nd Lieutenant, but there were so many guys in the pipeline they told me to get lost for a couple of years until the backlog cleared and I could come on active duty.

So, I was working the swing shift at Wells Fargo headquarters in downtown SF and playing a lot of pool when all of us at the pool hall started to notice the sporadic appearances of these funny looking pool cues everywhere. They all had a lot of plastic inlays and skinny shafts. BUT the thing that really got us all salivating were the countless reports of how much spin you could get on the ball with a Meucci. (Pool room scholars of the time would spend endless hours in Talmudic-like debates about the proper pronunciation. “It’s ‘May-oo-chee;’” “No, ‘Mew-chee;’” “”I think it’s ‘Moo-key.’” And so it went. Regardless, we all recognized that no matter what you called them, these pool cues really spun the rock in a way no other pool cue of the era could.

Then one day a pile of Meucci brochures appeared at the pool hall desk and we were all *really* hooked. They were 8x10” color brochures that folded open. The cover was a heroic George Washington crossing the Delaware, standing in a row boat with, incredibly, Meucci pool cue in hand.

I took a couple of brochures home and didn’t see anything that I really liked. Most of the cues where either too plain or too gaudy for my traditional sense of pool cue aesthetics. So I pulled out one of my X-Acto knives and actually glued together a ring here, a butt there, and a wrap from that one, until I had what was, in my mind, the perfect Meucci. I called the number on the brochure and, incredibly, somewhere down in Olive Branch, Mississippi, Bob Meucci himself answered the phone. I told Bob what I wanted, asked for two shafts, and about $300 and a few weeks later, it was in my hands.

Right off the bat, I hated the shinny sealed wrap. The wrap itself was a traditional white-with-flecks, but coated with almost the same finish that was on the butt itself. Thinking that maybe, just maybe, it was some sort of “protective wax” I took a wet paper towel to it. Big mistake. The coating was indeed water soluble but my paper towel and hands immediately started turning purple. Why purple, I have no idea -- the wrap, after all, was white -- but purple it was and though it eventually came off, it was at the expense of raising the threads of the underlying wrap and a few stains that made it look like I’d been playing while eating jam (don’t go there).

The Air Force finally granted me asylum and off I went to Great Falls, Montana. Like I said, this was all late 70’s. At about the same time I was to own a Gina, a McDermott (made by Jim McDermott), a Richard Black, and a $25 Viking which was to play a memorable role when I entered my first Montana State 8Ball Tournament.

Back in 1977 I was lucky enough to win a qualifier for the National 8ball Championship, held that year in Dayton, OH. At that tournament, every player was given a free Viking cue. As I recall, it was a merry widow style cue and had a clear plastic sleeve in the butt underneath which said something like "National 8ball Tournament" in gold on black. I came home and threw it in my closet.

A few months later I'm playing in the State Tournament. This is a big deal up North because basically every bar up there has two million teams playing 8ball all winter and so there are several hundred players playing in a hotel in downtown Great Falls. My tip had come off my playing cue a few days before and I was concerned the re-glue job might not take, so, just as a back up, I pull the freebie cue out of the closet.

Right off the bat, my first match, I could tell I wasn't playing well. (Yes, the tip was glued on just fine.) After a few shots, out of pure desperation, I pull out the freebie cue.

Suddenly, everything was right with the world. I couldn't believe the difference. Everything looked right when I got down on the shot. Everything worked right when I pulled the trigger. A little while later, I switch back to my regular cue, a very nice, expensive job, to see how it felt by comparison and immediately, after just a couple of shots, I can tell that it's not right. So I go back to the $25 special. To make a long story short, I end up in the finals, go hill-hill, play a safe on the Jack Larson’s last ball and lose on what may have been one of the greatest kick shots anyone has ever played on me. If not for that cue, I probably would have gone two and out.

So back to the Meucci: After my failed experiment with the wrap I played intermittently with the Meucci until on one visit to San Francisco, to see family, I take it to Whitehead and Zimmerman, the main pool table and cue distributor in the city. It was a great old, musty place down on Howard Street in the downtown area. I think it was Earl Whitehead hisself that I showed the Meucci to and asked if he could re-wrap it with black Irish linen. He said, “I don’t have any black Irish linen in stock but I can do it in black nylon.” So I say, “OK” and a couple of days later it was ready and Meucci, wife and I drive back to Montana.

At the time I was, pretty much like today, an aspiring player. As a 9ball player I was capable, and with perfect alignment of the stars, could run a couple of racks. And so I entered a 9ball tournament at The Corner Pocket in Missoula, one weekend in 1981 -- the last year of my four year tour of the Northern Tier. And, for whatever reason, I decided that my newly nylon re-wrapped Meucci would be my weapon of choice.

It was a pretty big field, with guys like Mike Chewakin and Panama Ritchie leading the pack. I found out later that two of the guys from Great Falls, Parks and Tim Nelson -- part owner of TJ’s, my home room in Great Falls -- bought me (not too surprisingly) on the cheap in the Calcutta, all the big established names driving the total side purse up into several thousands of dollars.

And we began to play.

You know, we all talk about the Indian or the arrow thing, but I can honestly tell you that sometimes, without question, and with zero doubt: it is the arrow.

With the newly re-wrapped Meucci I am running out from everywhere. My safety play is stellar. I am thinning balls by the thinnest of margins, sending whitey to the end rail and gluing it to the other, consistently leaving my opponents 9’ away. One after another they drop by significant margins. Mike “Chewy” Chewakin is so incensed at the beating he is taking at my hands that he makes a scene and Parks and Tim have to pull me away from the table, urging me, “Don’t let him get under your skin.” (As I continued to go deeper into the tournament, Parks and Tim begin to pre-celebrate and tap into their anticipated calcutta score and get increasingly drunk, hooting and hollering as they repeatedly calculate the exponential return on their $20 calcutta investment). Next, I demolish Panama Ritchie in the semi-finals. It was so ridiculous that at one point Ritchie turns to the crowd and disgustedly says, “I’ve beaten champions all over the country and here I am losing to this kid.”

So let me just say this, because I don’t think I’ve adequately conveyed at what level I’m playing at that day, in early 1981, with the re-wrapped Meucci: I am not only playing run out pool, I am in mortal dead punch. I am walking up to the table and casually drawing the ball back to the rail with reverse spin and popping back out two rails for perfect position; I am over spinning the cue ball off the end rail bending it to go cross table to slip under an object ball and come out perfect on my next target; I am playing caroms and tickies to make 9balls sitting near pockets disappear. There is not a cross-side bank that I am not drilling. It is completely and totally ridiculous and I lose in the finals to a fantastic black player whose name escapes me, and he wins, but just barely. Parks and Tim can barely stand. They are drunk as skunks and are hooting and hollering and laughing their asses off at the thousands they’ve won with their $20 dark horse bet.

After the tournament, a guy who was a local cue maker comes up to ask me about the Meucci. We talk and I tell him about the wrap and how Whitehead and Zimmerman only had black nylon in stock and he says, “Well, I can re-wrap it for you with black Irish linen if you want.” And I say, “Sure” and give him the cue. A week later it is my hands and, as advertised, is beautifully wrapped in black Irish linen.

And I never play 9ball again as well as I did that weekend with the Meucci wrapped with nylon. Ever.

Nowadays, the Meucci sits at the bottom of my closet in its brown Fellini case. I haven’t played with it in years. But every once in a while, like now, I think about it and consider having it re-wrapped in black nylon.

Lou Figueroa
WOW,
What a wonderful story, and you tell it like it was yesterday!!
Was that a great feeling or WHAT!!
I would definitely have it re-wrapped in nylon, you never know?
Thanks Lou, I felt like I was right there with you.
 

Jeff sparks

Verified Member
Joined
Apr 2, 2015
Messages
3,317
From
Houston, Texas
Okay, I'll bite first. In the mid seventies I made a game with another local player. We decided to play some $20 One Pocket and I won the flip and broke a ball in and ran eight and out. Fletcher, the guy I was playing broke and sold out a shot. I ran out again. My next break I again made a ball on the break and again I ran eight and out. Fletcher's next break was more of the same for him. He sold out the corner ball and again it was eight and out. Four straight games and all Fletcher did was break the balls twice!

In the end I won $240 in less than two hours at $20 a game. Yes, I'd have to say I was in the "zone".

In the finals of Strawberries 2nd International One Pocket tournament 1993 I played Jose Parica in the finals. It was a race to five and I won this championship match 5 - 4. I made a ball on the break four times running eight and out three of those four, running six in the other game. I never beat Jose on his break so I was fortunate to have won the first break. At the conclusion of the match Jose said to me, " Your break is Awesome." And it certainly was during that tournament.

Before anyone asks, we were racking of each other.

Tom
Tough opponent, finals, race to 5, win it 5/4! Running 8 and out 3 times from the break, and getting 6 one time! Did you feel like you had a magic wand in your hands? Have you ever done anything like that again, or had that type of a feeling again and were you able to sustain it over any length of time like Bill Smith did?
I'd have told you a little more than your break is awesome!
Thanks Tom
 

Jeff sparks

Verified Member
Joined
Apr 2, 2015
Messages
3,317
From
Houston, Texas
Early 90"s and my son had a new pool room in Spokane, WA. He told me they had a nice 9 ball tournament in Missoula, Montana about a three hour drive away. I flew up to visit and my two oldest sons and I went to Missoula.

64 players, race to 9 double elimination. Cole Dickson was there with Tony Annigoni and promised to take me fly fishing after the tournament. I lose my first match to a player from my boys room I could probably give the seven to, but that is tournament life.

My next match was to an up and coming young Canadian player who had watched my first match and thought he had an easy go of it. I beat him and he was totally embarrassed the old man beat him. I got into stroke and started mowing them down. After I had won five or six more matches I could hear the young guy tell a buddy, pretty good potter eh! He was not so embarrassed anymore.

I am playing Rich Geiler near the end of the tournament and I am really in the zone. The next thing I know, as I am running out the game when I am on the hill, Rich has tied a white hanky to his cue and is waving it in front of me.

I lost my next match to Mike The Marine from Seattle and he lost to Stan Tourangeau who won the tournament. I still had a nice payday and a part of the calcutta. More importantly, I redeemed myself in front of my boys.

They had a bar and a poker room upstairs from the pool room and Cole got wasted and busted so we did not get to go fishing.
You were embarrassed, in front of your sons, and it got your blood pumping.
You caught a gear didn't you, and started shooting lights out! Everything was working and you couldn't miss. I think you would have won the whole thing if Rich hadn't waved the white hanky and knocked you outta that trance.
Good story Mr. Henderson
Thank you
 

Tom Wirth

Verified Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2004
Messages
2,972
From
Delray Beach, Florida
Tough opponent, finals, race to 5, win it 5/4! Running 8 and out 3 times from the break, and getting 6 one time! Did you feel like you had a magic wand in your hands? Have you ever done anything like that again, or had that type of a feeling again and were you able to sustain it over any length of time like Bill Smith did?
I'd have told you a little more than your break is awesome!
Thanks Tom

I've had numerous occasions where I felt in total control of everything on the table. I can't put my finger on how it happens but I can tell you that this sense of ownership is not restricted to pool players alone. I've seen tennis players play like that. Federer as an example. Golfers, bowlers, rodeo clowns too. I've played poker, and for hours felt I had absolute control of the table and all the players. It just happens and it cannot be forced.

When this happened to me there was no sense of self. No thought of the how. I just knew, and just did it. There was no self doubt about anything I was planning. I knew and saw the outcome in my mind well before I took each shot. It was as though it were a step along a road I had traveled many times before. The cue stick was an extension of my arm. It wasn't a tool anymore. It was part of me.

This feeling never lasted more than a few hours at a time. Most of the time I knew I was playing well, but being in the zone was something else entirely. It's the greatest feeling in the world and if you ever experience it, you will never forget it. Anyone who has had this happen to them knows exactly what I'm saying but the words cannot express this feeling adequately.

Tom
 
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Jeff sparks

Verified Member
Joined
Apr 2, 2015
Messages
3,317
From
Houston, Texas
I've had numerous occasions where I felt in total control of everything on the table. I can't put my finger on how it happens but I can tell you that this sense of ownership is not restricted to pool players alone. I've seen tennis players play like that. Federer as an example. Golfers, bowlers, rodeo clowns too. I've played poker, and for hours felt I had absolute control of the table and all the players. It just happens and it cannot be forced.

When this happened to me there was no sense of self. No thought of the how. I just knew, and just did it. There was no self doubt about anything I was planning. I knew and saw the outcome in my mind well before I took each shot. It was as though it were a step along a road I had traveled many times before. The cue stick was an extension of my arm. It wasn't a tool anymore. It was part of me.

This feeling never lasted more than a few hours at a time. Most of the time I knew I was playing well, but being in the zone was something else entirely. It's the greatest feeling in the world and if you ever experience it, you will never forget it. Anyone who has had this happen to them knows exactly what I'm saying but the words cannot express this feeling adequately.

Tom
Expertly put. Now that's golfing the ball! That's the description of that elusive feeling I was hoping someone could express, and this expression says it all to me. ( as though it were a step along a road I had traveled many times before ) Wonderful Tom, just wonderful. Can't wait for your book. I'm sure it will also be filled with expertly crafted advice and highly thought out situations and solutions.
Thanks so much.
 

Ross Keith Thompson

Verified Member
Joined
May 19, 2010
Messages
168
From
madisonville, texas
My first zone

My first zone

I was 16 yrs. old and the best teenage player in the world until I was steered into none other than Cole Dickson at the LeCue Club in downtown Houston by Ten Percent Denny. Denny wouldn't bet two big dogs could whip a little one unless two of its legs were tied, LOL. He gave me a ten spot and said play this kid some nine ball and I'll take half of it. I walked to the table where he was practicing and we played some five dollar nine ball. Four games later I quit even and knew Denny was trying to bust my ass. So this hippie kid offers me the call eight and I was flabbergasted. It was almost insulting for an eighteen year old kid to spot the Mighty Squirrel a ball playing nine ball. We cranked it off for ten a game and I should have won an Oscar for racking balls, I was 19 games down and had watched this kid play nineball as good as anybody. He ran four racks 2 or 3 times and 2 or 3 was a given every time he shot. The next hour I put the same mustard on him, running rack after rack and coming from 19 games down, even though I was getting the eight from him I played better nine ball than I had ever played and needed every bit of it to get even and he quit! From there I vowed to never a play him nine ball again, rather have a tooth pulled,LOL,. Didn't want to play the big guns around the country in nineball. but male ego's are stupid so I played Buddy Hall when I was 18 yrs. old, (That was stupid), played as good as I could play, missed one ball in four hrs. giving up a 10 game lead at 25 a game and he got even. I was in a zone I guess but if you are or think you are a great player you have to bring the zone with you every time you play or you don't make it as a top player. But the simple fact is if you have to bring the zone with you playing another player what are you doing playing him, can't make a living doing that. Tall Jeff, Cardona, Greg Stevens, Kelly, Rempe, Lassiter, Florence, Marino, Cole Dickson,Jersey Red and so on were players you didn,t want to play unless you wanted to find out where you were in the pecking order. Played Cole in 1968 and again in 1970 in the 9 ball division, I was 18 and he was almost 20. We were rooming together and had to play each other. I won the lag for first break and hit him with 6 racks from the start. won the match 11 to 5, he shot twice in the match. I stayed at that level of play for about two yrs. and quit even though I loved the game. I loved the challenge of playing a known Great player such as Tall Jeff but the results were usually devastating. Point is find your zone and bring that to the pool room every time you go you have to play at that level. Back in the day in the late sixties every foreign pool room I visited I knew with out doubt that I was going to beat any player in the place at nine ball or one pocket unless Tall Jeff, Cardona, Dickso,..... was there LOL.
 

androd

Verified Member
Joined
Dec 10, 2008
Messages
7,718
From
New Braunfels tx.
I was 16 yrs. old and the best teenage player in the world until I was steered into none other than Cole Dickson at the LeCue Club in downtown Houston by Ten Percent Denny. Denny wouldn't bet two big dogs could whip a little one unless two of its legs were tied, LOL.

He gave me a ten spot and said play this kid some nine ball and I'll take half of it. I walked to the table where he was practicing and we played some five dollar nine ball. Four games later I quit even and knew Denny was trying to bust my ass.

So this hippie kid offers me the call eight and I was flabbergasted. It was almost insulting for an eighteen year old kid to spot the Mighty Squirrel a ball playing nine ball.
We cranked it off for ten a game and I should have won an Oscar for racking balls, I was 19 games down and had watched this kid play nineball as good as anybody.

He ran four racks 2 or 3 times and 2 or 3 was a given every time he shot.

The next hour I put the same mustard on him, running rack after rack and coming from 19 games down, even though I was getting the eight from him I played better nine ball than I had ever played and needed every bit of it to get even and he quit!

From there I vowed to never a play him nine ball again, rather have a tooth pulled,LOL,.
Didn't want to play the big guns around the country in nineball. but male ego's are stupid so I played Buddy Hall when I was 18 yrs. old, (That was stupid), played as good as I could play, missed one ball in four hrs. giving up a 10 game lead at 25 a game and he got even.

I was in a zone I guess but if you are or think you are a great player you have to bring the zone with you every time you play or you don't make it as a top player. The simple fact is if you have to bring the zone with you playing another player what are you doing playing him, can't make a living doing that.

Tall Jeff, Cardona, Greg Stevens, Kelly, Rempe, Lassiter, Florence, Marino, Cole Dickson,Jersey Red and so on were players you didn,t want to play unless you wanted to find out where you were in the pecking order.

Played Cole in 1968 and again in 1970 in the 9 ball division, I was 18 and he was almost 20. We were rooming together and had to play each other. I won the lag for first break and hit him with 6 racks from the start. won the match 11 to 5, he shot twice in the match.

I stayed at that level of play for about two yrs. and quit even though I loved the game. I loved the challenge of playing a known Great player such as Tall Jeff but the results were usually devastating. Point is find your zone and bring that to the pool room every time you go you have to play at that level. Back in the day in the late sixties every foreign pool room I visited I knew without doubt that I was going to beat any player in the place at nine ball or one pocket unless Tall Jeff, Cardona, Dickso,..... was there LOL.

Nice story Keith. :)
Rod.
 

mr3cushion

Verified Member
Joined
Sep 17, 2008
Messages
7,617
From
Cocoa Beach, FL
I was 16 yrs. old and the best teenage player in the world until I was steered into none other than Cole Dickson at the LeCue Club in downtown Houston by Ten Percent Denny. Denny wouldn't bet two big dogs could whip a little one unless two of its legs were tied, LOL. He gave me a ten spot and said play this kid some nine ball and I'll take half of it. I walked to the table where he was practicing and we played some five dollar nine ball. Four games later I quit even and knew Denny was trying to bust my ass. So this hippie kid offers me the call eight and I was flabbergasted. It was almost insulting for an eighteen year old kid to spot the Mighty Squirrel a ball playing nine ball. We cranked it off for ten a game and I should have won an Oscar for racking balls, I was 19 games down and had watched this kid play nineball as good as anybody. He ran four racks 2 or 3 times and 2 or 3 was a given every time he shot. The next hour I put the same mustard on him, running rack after rack and coming from 19 games down, even though I was getting the eight from him I played better nine ball than I had ever played and needed every bit of it to get even and he quit! From there I vowed to never a play him nine ball again, rather have a tooth pulled,LOL,. Didn't want to play the big guns around the country in nineball. but male ego's are stupid so I played Buddy Hall when I was 18 yrs. old, (That was stupid), played as good as I could play, missed one ball in four hrs. giving up a 10 game lead at 25 a game and he got even. I was in a zone I guess but if you are or think you are a great player you have to bring the zone with you every time you play or you don't make it as a top player. But the simple fact is if you have to bring the zone with you playing another player what are you doing playing him, can't make a living doing that. Tall Jeff, Cardona, Greg Stevens, Kelly, Rempe, Lassiter, Florence, Marino, Cole Dickson,Jersey Red and so on were players you didn,t want to play unless you wanted to find out where you were in the pecking order. Played Cole in 1968 and again in 1970 in the 9 ball division, I was 18 and he was almost 20. We were rooming together and had to play each other. I won the lag for first break and hit him with 6 racks from the start. won the match 11 to 5, he shot twice in the match. I stayed at that level of play for about two yrs. and quit even though I loved the game. I loved the challenge of playing a known Great player such as Tall Jeff but the results were usually devastating. Point is find your zone and bring that to the pool room every time you go you have to play at that level. Back in the day in the late sixties every foreign pool room I visited I knew with out doubt that I was going to beat any player in the place at nine ball or one pocket unless Tall Jeff, Cardona, Dickso,..... was there LOL.

That's a great list you have there of the pecking order of TOP players back in the day! Definitely some REAL tough players that were hard to beat!
 

Ross Keith Thompson

Verified Member
Joined
May 19, 2010
Messages
168
From
madisonville, texas
Playlist, pecking order

Playlist, pecking order

I'm going to attempt to name some of the players I've knocked heads during my day as a pool player, even though I quit I've always thought of myself as a player.
Tall Jeff, even one pocket, twice in 71.
Greg Stevens even one pocket 71.
Cole Dickson 68, gave me the call eight when I was a baby.
Grady Mathews even one pocket, 70,71.
John "DUKE" Powel, even one pocket, 70,71
Danny Jones even one pocket, 71.
Freddy The Beard even one pocket 70,71.
Hawaiian Bryan even nine ball 70, twice.
Mike Massey even nine ball, 68,72.
Larry Liscotti even one pocket 68.
Jimmy Marino nine ball with the eight in 70.
Buddy Hall even nine ball and one pocket, 71.
Wimpy Lassiter all games, 70. tournament play.
Ronnie Allen all games, 70. Tournament play.
Eddie "THE HAT" Burton even nine ball, 71.
Weenie Beenie one pocket, 72, tournament play.
Irving crane nine ball, 70.
Boston Shorty nine ball tournament play.
And many more whom names I have forgotten, I gave as good as I got trying to find my pecking order, OH BUT WHAT FUN IT WAS! LOL
 

oldspurguy

Verified Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2007
Messages
346
From
Beaumont, Texas
Danny Jones played around Texas and Louisiana a lot in his later years. I've nominated him for the OPHOF a couple of times but he hasn't made it in.

Keith, can you tell us a little about your match with Danny?
 
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