[Pin]

I was playing a local 8-ball singles tournament recently. In an important frame this happened:

I made my second to last group ball. It was a thin cut and I lost control of the white. As it eventually came to rest - leaving me a very tough cut (with good prospects of landing on the 8 if I made it) - my opponent - a smart old player who's been around a long time, said "oh, he can pot it".

In truth I didn't like the shot - I knew I was playing badly so it was pretty low percentage. However, I was undecided on what to do, and settled on trying it.

I missed, left the white in position for the 8 and my opponent sank it.


In hindsight I should have played a lay-up that would have left OB over the pocket and CB close to the top cushion leaving my opponent a really tough shot, and giving me a great chance to win if he blew it.


It grates to admit it, but I believe my opponent's speech play affected my decision. His expressed point of view set the idea in my idiot mind that I should be able to pot the ball.

If he'd done it to someone else I'd have praised it as magnificent. (Since it was me, I just feel horrible.)



Does anyone else use this kind of gentle gamesmanship as part of their pool weaponry?

What advice can you give me on using it as part of my game?

[FASTLARRY]

Pin, on Jun 5 2009, 06:43 PM, said:

I was playing a local 8-ball singles tournament recently. In an important frame this happened:

I made my second to last group ball. It was a thin cut and I lost control of the white. As it eventually came to rest - leaving me a very tough cut (with good prospects of landing on the 8 if I made it) - my opponent - a smart old player who's been around a long time, said "oh, he can pot it".

In truth I didn't like the shot - I knew I was playing badly so it was pretty low percentage. However, I was undecided on what to do, and settled on trying it.

I missed, left the white in position for the 8 and my opponent sank it.


In hindsight I should have played a lay-up that would have left OB over the pocket and CB close to the top cushion leaving my opponent a really tough shot, and giving me a great chance to win if he blew it.


It grates to admit it, but I believe my opponent's speech play affected my decision. His expressed point of view set the idea in my idiot mind that I should be able to pot the ball.

If he'd done it to someone else I'd have praised it as magnificent. (Since it was me, I just feel horrible.)



Does anyone else use this kind of gentle gamesmanship as part of their pool weaponry?

What advice can you give me on using it as part of my game?

Ah so Grasshopper, U C laddie, old age and treachery will defeat bold youth and their inexperience most of the time. Some of these old timers are pretty caggy. They have been around a long time and have some cool moves.
When one of them gets ya, no problemo. Remember how it was, do a simple obit on it, live and learn. They he will never do it again, and perhaps you can pick it up and use it. Life is on learning experience. Losing is never a problem, if you know why and how, and commit a plan to keep it from continuing.

[Demondrew]

Your opponent never says anything you can hear without purpose.

[headmuses]

The art of massaging your opponents ego without them knowing it takes many years of practice. He played you like a Stradivarius.

[FASTLARRY]

headmuses, on Jun 6 2009, 10:17 AM, said:

The art of massaging your opponents ego without them knowing it takes many years of practice. He played you like a Stradivarius.

My Fiddle

My Jr, Jack Russell plays me like I am a cheap fiddle. He gets whatever he wants. Believe it or not, as a kid I grew up playing one, my Grandfather had one that was handed down from the family. Do you know anyone else, who has actually played with an authentic Stradivarius, a Balabushka and sang on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry?

Go fade that one. All 3 are true.


My Grandfather had a Stradivarius which had been handed down to several generations in Europe and came over on the boat with my great grandfather around 1870. When my Grandfather died in the early 50's, one of his oldest sons decided to sell it and sent it to Europe to have it appraised and put up for auction there. The fool should have hoped a ship and taken it over there himself and never let it out of his sight. We were dirt poor at the time and the only thing of real value we had was the violin. At that time, it was very valuable but they did not command the super high prices they do today, 60 years later. They go for a mil and up depending on one’s condition and age. Yes, you guessed it; the Wop grabbed the fiddle and ran. Never could track him down, the guy was a con and a thief. My uncle was never the smartest dude I ever met; he was always one can short of a 6 pack. He was about half nuts and a drunk. I guess, that gene runs in the family.

I got even with that SOB. He had not seen me in years and when I grew up he would not immediately recognize me from the kid I was, to now a grown man. When I went on the road and began traveling Kansas I went to Wichita to look him up. He was a locksmith, ran around town in a truck fixing locks and getting you back into your car operating on cash. So I knew he was a flim flam man and dirty, that was a given. I drive up in front of his house on a Monday late morning. My company car was a big Ford with black walls and looked like a cop car. I had on a stock business suit, borrowed a real cop badge from one of my bull pals and knocked on his door. He finally answers and looked like something the cats dragged in. I could see he was badly hung over and about half dead in the head.

I did my best Sergeant Friday imitation, flashed the badge, and introduced myself as an enforcement officer from the IRS criminal division. I told him we had done a 5 year investigation of all his tax returns. We had been following him around town and had numerous cataloged cases of where he took money and did not pay taxes on his income.
I said, you are in very serious trouble sir, I would estimate the judge will throw the book at you and give you 7 years, with good behavior you might make parole and be out in five. I must now arrest you sir and take you into custody. We are going straight to Leavenworth which is going to be your new home. You may go back inside and pack a small bag but be quick. Say goodbye to your wife and have her hire a good lawyer, it won’t do you any good, but it’s your only chance not to get life.

He goes ape she-yit, breaks down, begins bawling, he is saying, I always knew you guys were going to get me, I knew some day you would come for me. I said, sir, do the crime, you have to do the time. I got real stern saying, face this like a man. Don’t make me cuff and stuff you in front of all your neighbors and drag you out to the car.

He said, maybe there is some way to work me out of this? I said, you mean you want to pay your fine now, directly to me in cash? He said, yes. I said, you mean you are offering me money just to drive away and forget the entire thing, and loose the file. He said, yes yes yes... I said, that would be a thousand cash. He said, Ok, you got it; I have some money stashed under my mattress. We have a deal. I said, no we don't. I will have to testify you tried to bribe a federal agent and that will add another year to your sentence.

He has now dropped to his knees and is begging me. His wife, who was over in the corner of the room, listening to me, but could not see me standing out on the porch, comes to his aid and helps him stand up, then looks right at me, and says, oh she-yit Vern, that's Doris's boy Larry from Kansas City, he just got you good. He is a salesman, he is not with the IRS, this is one big practical joke he pulled on you.

He begins crying and falls to his knees again sobbing like a baby. He is saying, I don't know whether to bite your leg off, or kiss you. I said, neither, I bet you could use a real stiff drink right now, let’s go find a bar, I am buying. At the bar he kept saying, all I could see was me going up the river. And I said, it would not have been so bad, free rent, free room and board, 3 squares a day, free sex from the 7’ ape who just killed his momma with an ax, it could have been a wonderful adventure. He would say, shudda up.
It took him years to live that one down.


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[Pin]

Supurb :-D

When did you sing at the Grand Ole Opry?



I'm feeling better about this now. I could have denied to myself that he did me like a kipper and that it was mostly through my own stupidity, but I've faced facts and am coming away with a new tool I can learn to use myself.

It's easy to talk about learning from your defeats, but I think this is the first time I've learned so much. It still stings because I pride myself on playing a very solid tactical game, and this was an utter failure. But at the same time I feel pleased with myself for facing the aftermath well.



I suspect this would generally only work when someone's in two minds about what to shoot - and you recognise very quickly that taking the shot on would damage them.

I'm not sure if it'd only work on certain suckers (ahem), or if it could be widely used.

I'll try to experiment with it.



Are there any other good speech tricks out there?

[FASTLARRY]

Pin, on Jun 6 2009, 07:27 PM, said:

Supurb :-D

When did you sing at the Grand Ole Opry?



I'm feeling better about this now. I could have denied to myself that he did me like a kipper and that it was mostly through my own stupidity, but I've faced facts and am coming away with a new tool I can learn to use myself.

It's easy to talk about learning from your defeats, but I think this is the first time I've learned so much. It still stings because I pride myself on playing a very solid tactical game, and this was an utter failure. But at the same time I feel pleased with myself for facing the aftermath well.



I suspect this would generally only work when someone's in two minds about what to shoot - and you recognise very quickly that taking the shot on would damage them.

I'm not sure if it'd only work on certain suckers (ahem), or if it could be widely used.

I'll try to experiment with it.



Are there any other good speech tricks out there?

In Nashville, there is the new Grand Old Opry, where all the stars perform on TV. The old one, which was like an old church they used for years, is right next door to the downtown convention center. It is one big museum now. I just walked in there one morning, nobody was there, I walked up on the stage with Max the Wonder dog, and sang God Bless America to him, and walked off. I think the security guard was talking a dump at the time.

So it is true, I sang on the stage, of the Grand Old Opry, Fl always tells the truth, but sometimes yo sarah say the truth according to me, and the way she see's it, is sometimes like shades of gray.

My singing sucks royal dick. Nobody would pay a brass farthing to hear me sing. I never had a dream to be a singer, I did have a dream to be a pro pool player and I had to wait 50 years for that one to come true.

To be a star in singing, you have to get on a big stage and knock them dead.

I seach my mind to come up with a better or a more moving and emotional performance and I cannot. Total kick ass by a nobody. A loser, finally gets to win. She dreamed her dream, and it came home.

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

[huebler]

Pin, on Jun 5 2009, 04:43 PM, said:

I was playing a local 8-ball singles tournament recently. In an important frame this happened:

I made my second to last group ball. It was a thin cut and I lost control of the white. As it eventually came to rest - leaving me a very tough cut (with good prospects of landing on the 8 if I made it) - my opponent - a smart old player who's been around a long time, said "oh, he can pot it".

In truth I didn't like the shot - I knew I was playing badly so it was pretty low percentage. However, I was undecided on what to do, and settled on trying it.

I missed, left the white in position for the 8 and my opponent sank it.


In hindsight I should have played a lay-up that would have left OB over the pocket and CB close to the top cushion leaving my opponent a really tough shot, and giving me a great chance to win if he blew it.


It grates to admit it, but I believe my opponent's speech play affected my decision. His expressed point of view set the idea in my idiot mind that I should be able to pot the ball.

If he'd done it to someone else I'd have praised it as magnificent. (Since it was me, I just feel horrible.)



Does anyone else use this kind of gentle gamesmanship as part of their pool weaponry?

What advice can you give me on using it as part of my game?

My dad talked **** the whole time you played with him, always running a con of some sort. Good training to avoid verbal manipulation. He often tries to get his opponent to make a bad decision. He would often talk someone into taking a shot when they should safety.

With me, he would try to talk me into missing. "You know you can't make the long shot" or "you know you always choke on the money ball". Used to get me too. I got to where I was better than him and could run out on him, but he would talk me out of the 8 ball often and get an extra round or two to catch me. If we are playing cut-throat, be is quick to point out an easy shot that is not his ball, of course. I have developed some immunity against this from all the hours playing against him. When I first got my table and he was visiting for the first time, he tried to talk me into missing the 8 ball. Doesn't work anymore and we had a good laugh that I do not let him talk me into missing anymore.

The power of suggestion is strong, either to miss or try to attempt a weak shot when you should safety.

[FASTLARRY]

I used to run the same con, you learn to turn it all off, not hear a word they say, just drop into the zone and hear nothing.

When you miss and sit down, you then begin talking to them, I am sorry, I did not hear what you said, you asked what, and you keep talking to them non stop while they are shooting. When what they are doing stops working, they will stop doing it.