[Ryuichi]

Jack White just visited our campus today and put on a show. He was taking challenges, and I beat him 2/5 games, playing last pocket 8-ball. He was impressive, but his performance wasn't exactly to die for. Most of the shots I reproduced a couple hours later, or have seen before (hehe, some taught to me by Larry).

What are your thoughts on this guy?

Also, I bought his DVD. Haven't looked at it yet, but it might be interesting.

[Sodapop]

My thoughts are last pocket 8 ball is a dumb game. the better player will clear his balls first most of the time. Last pocket makes it harder to get out. So the weaker player can just leave all his balls on the table and hope the better player screws up with just the 8 ball or 1 or 2 balls left on the table, with any pocket the weaker player will probably not get that chance. 8 ball last pocket gives the weaker player a chance.

[Ryuichi]

As long as I plan ahead for it, I can usually still pull off the game. The lock on the table was still off after he left, so we sat it back in, and secured it with a folded piece of paper so it looked closed... and I was winning 5 games or so of 8-ball, then losing one, in a 4-man rotation. Then they decided the game was last pocket (even with my objections), and I just got used to playing an extra shot to set everything up, then coming off a rail or three to get shape for the same pocket, or a bank.

It's an interesting game, handicap or not.

[Sodapop]

I grew up in Windsor Ontario trust me I am very aware of 8 ball last pocket we are pretty much the only place in the world that plays it. People here think your nuts if you don't play 8 ball last pocket, they don't believe that 8 ball any pocket is even a rule. But with 8 ball last pocket just play smart, and you should win almost all the time. 8 ball is hard enough playing any pocket last pocket is way to hard and once you miss the guy just has to hook you from one pocket I could do that all day long, and half the time it turns into a 3 rail bank fest.

[ Edited by Sodapop on 2005/10/12 22:06 ]

[Edz]

I saw him at DeVry in Phoenix in the early 90's.

He was a total Joke! He is very entertaining, claimed to be champion of this and that, x number of times, but I had never heard of him. I was pretty heavy into the pool scene and I spent a lot of time in the pool hall. As we all can recount about pool halls, I heard a great many stories of many players. The only ones I heard about jack white were the college kids talking about his amazing ability right after they saw him. But impressing a bunch guys who couldn't play a lick is not really a feat. I played him and beat him, 2 in row....then I pissed him off. I guess it was an insult to ask him if he knew George Middleditch, who was truly an amazing player. He stopped before the break of the third game and asked if anyone else wanted to play. Jack, apparently, was put off by the subject.

-Edz

[Ryuichi]

The man can shoot relatively well, but yes, his attitude was pretty bad. His trick shots weren't that great, either. I duplicated most of them a couple hours after he left (it really is suprisingly easy to go three rails by pushing the cue ball against the rail with the butt of a cue and pot a ball.) He refused to play me again after I lost the set with him the first time. Doesn't like the chance to lose, I guess.

I was dumb enough to buy his DVD. Claiming an awesome 'diamond system', and 8 lessons... it was pathetic. The first lesson was how to hold the cue, saying an open bridge was flat out wrong. Most of the rest were little ways to get position with english.

The 8th 'lesson', was him saying to put them all together, and then shooting 6 balls into 6 pockets with one shot... that was all. Shots that had to be set perfectly have never really impressed me, as they take no skill to pull off.

The DVD was made with an off the shelf DVD creation package, and the footage was copied from an old VHS tape. His table was a barbox, and after a few of the lessons they played the whole thing back in slow motion with really cheesy 80's music in the background. The tracking wasn't even perfect on the tape, so there was a blurred line at the bottom of the window!

[vader93490]

Quote

Ryuichi wrote:
Jack White just visited our campus today and put on a show. He was taking challenges, and I beat him 2/5 games, playing last pocket 8-ball. He was impressive, but his performance wasn't exactly to die for. Most of the shots I reproduced a couple hours later, or have seen before (hehe, some taught to me by Larry).

What are your thoughts on this guy?

Also, I bought his DVD. Haven't looked at it yet, but it might be interesting.

I was under the impression that Jack had retired when I last spoke to him about 10-11 years ago. It's good to see that he's decided to start playing some pool & doing shows again.

My impression of Jack has always been favorable as a person & as an opponent. He had a Fats-esque demeanor when he spoke about who he'd beaten during his career. His suit & diamond rings completed that Fats-esque manner about him.

If memory serves, he did well at some California state tournaments when he played actively. He also earned the distinction some years back of being one of the most popular requests for trick shot shows by college campuses in Pool & Billiard magazine.

He had spoken of writing an autobiography when I last spoke to him. I guess he opted for the DVD route instead.

[ Edited by vader93490 on 2005/10/25 19:38 ]

[Ryuichi]

I suppose he could be considered fats-esque... I guess it was an experience. I might have set off some alarms when I played him... I don't know. I think I ruined any chances of making any money there this semester, but that's alright.

The DVD isn't an autobiography. It's meant to be a tutorial, and it's completely horrible. I think I might post a short clip that doesn't actually have any lessons on it to show the quality. If I had spent $5 or $10 on it, I probably wouldn't care, but $20?

It was an experience.

[vader93490]

Quote

Ryuichi wrote:
I suppose he could be considered fats-esque... I guess it was an experience. I might have set off some alarms when I played him... I don't know. I think I ruined any chances of making any money there this semester, but that's alright.

The DVD isn't an autobiography. It's meant to be a tutorial, and it's completely horrible. I think I might post a short clip that doesn't actually have any lessons on it to show the quality. If I had spent $5 or $10 on it, I probably wouldn't care, but $20?

It was an experience.

Ryuichi, I played Jack several times many years ago when I was in college & we both enjoyed ourselves during the times we did play, no matter who took the win. I remember when we matched up he would try just about every trick imaginable to try to throw me out of rhythm. He'd harass me, talk to me, make cracks & jokes about how "bad" of a player he thought I was to the spectators, etc. During one match-up, he tried the old "flash the cash" trick but when I pulled out just as big a stack of C-notes he put his away fairly quickly. It was all in fun though; he always made it a point to compliment me on my play afterwards when he had finished his show & offered some advice on things in my game he felt I was doing wrong which I felt was very kind of him to do so.

It never crossed my mind that Jack's DVD was an autobiography. I figured it was an instructional DVD of sorts judging by the way you were talking about it.

As I said previously, he had spoken of writing an autobiography during our last conversation many years ago when he told me he was retiring. Whether or not he will actually write one remains to be seen but if he does decide to pen one I think it would be an interesting book as I'm sure there would be some interesting stories in it.

I would be cautious in posting video clips off of his DVD, Ryuichi. There may be copyright issues to consider where that is concerned.

It's good to see that he has come out of retirement. He was fun to play & I will continue to respect him as a person & a player both, no matter if his game has slowed up or not.