Snooker Masters

[Ricardus]

Holy cow did Ronnie get his ass handed to him today. Wow. Just Wow.

Ronnie definitely wasn't on his game early, and got better, but Trump almost never missed.

 

[JohnRoberts]

I don't think I've been on a snooker table since the 70s. When stationed at FT Riley, I would sometimes spend a few hours on a big snooker table (at KSU) before going to a bar to play on the tiny coin operated tables (for beers).

After shooting on a 5x10' table, the small bar table was literally like shooting fish in a barrel (never give a sucker an even break, or a fool a second chance).  8)

JR

 

[Ricardus]

I grew up on full size american tables playing straight pool and 9 ball. Practiced a minimum of an hour a day for like a decade. Got burned out. In the past 6 months I've become obsessed with Snooker online. I could see my passion for cue sports coming back if a local pool hall had a proper snooker table.

I've only been on a snooker table once. We went to canada to waste some time in college and looked for a pool hall. Well imagine that, we got there and they were snooker tables. We ended up playing on them, but they had a set of smaller balls with numbers 1-15 on them for heathens like us who didn't know snooker.

I wish I had gotten on a table when I was at my peak, years ago. Woulda played pretty well, I think.

 

[JohnRoberts]

yup, the rounded banks around the pockets require precision... on standard pool tables the pockets help you sink balls, in snooker the banks work against you. 

I spent too many hours as teen in a pool hall, played well enough to drink from it in the army...

I recall the first day I showed up permanent party at Ft Riley... It was the middle of the month so all the soldiers were already broke (we only got paid once a month). Some of the GIs decided to show the "new guy" (me) the break room with a pool table  hoping to separate me from my traveling money... I think they had about $0.75 between the two of them, and after I won that from them they quit even poorer.  8)

JR

 

[Ricardus]

I didn't play for money too much. Mostly tournaments and friendly games. For the first time in about 30 years, my town has TWO pool halls. We had just the one for the longest time.

 

[JohnRoberts]

Back in the 70s we had a regulation pool table in our rented house. I would sometimes accompany a friend (better player than me) when he was out hustling in bars that didn't know him (he probably wanted me to help protect his thumbs). That friend actually declared pool and poker gambling as income sources when he borrowed money to go back to school (MIT). He got the loan.  8)

I never gambled for serious money, and when those pukes tried to hustle me in the army dayroom almost 50 years ago they learned the universal lesson, "Don't try to hustle a hustler".  :

I haven't held a cue stick for decades. Back in the day I owned a nice two piece stick (Willie Hoppe). Might be worth something today but it is long gone.

JR

 

[Ricardus]

I've got a McDermott D-Series in the closet. Nice cue. About $400 in the day. It has served me well.

Maybe I'll go down and practice this week for kicks. Who knows, maybe I can even talk one of the halls into putting in a Snooker table.

 

[JohnRoberts]

I've got a McDermott D-Series in the closet. Nice cue. About $400 in the day. It has served me well.

Maybe I'll go down and practice this week for kicks. Who knows, maybe I can even talk one of the halls into putting in a Snooker table.

Snooker is hard, and billiards is not trivial either, but good practice for multi-rail banks.

Neither is a mass market everyman sport, so don't invest your own money.

JR

 

[Ricardus]

Hard schmard. If a few months I'll be knocking out 147s.