Pool and Gambling from the Duchess Eyes

Pool and gambling always have been associated with one another. Obviously, not everyone is happy with it; pool associations prefer the term billiard and pool players insist on being referred to as sportspeople. For women pool players the battle is double: they do not only have to prove that pool players are as hard workers as any other athletes, they also do it in a masculine, often hostile, environment.

Take Allison Fisher for example. The leading 9-ball pool player talked with R.A. Dyer, the righteously appraised billiards writer, about maintaining the classy image of pool in the action packed and testosterone filled air of pool tournaments such as the Derby City Classic.

The gambling association of pool especially harms the sports when major sponsorships are called for, says the Duchess of Doom in the interview, and notes that almost every pool movie ever produced was dealing with pool hustling in fishy pool halls instead of playing respectable tournaments. Pool tournaments, she adds, is a much safer place for a girl who wants to improve her pool skills, than a pool room full of sharks where once you win you've got to have a body guard watching your back on your way home.

Allison Fisher "The Duchess of Doom" at the 2007 US Open final

Pool Accessories

When you are playing pool off-line, does your bridge hand often get too sweaty to grip? Does your glasses frame disturb you from seeing the full picture? Lucky for you, greater minds have found solutions to these issues.

Pool Gloves

Wearing gloves while playing pool often feels awkward and makes it difficult on the bridge hand, on the other hand, pun not intended, bare hands tend to get too sweaty, and the result is a chain reaction that starts with the cue stick slide and ends with a miss. Nancy Cote special "ungloves" or "finger slides" were designed to prevent such occurrences. This unique pool accessory is made of breathable fabric and it covers only the part of the hand in touch with the cue at a closed or an open bridge, i.e. the middle and the index fingers, the web between them and the thumb. The pool finger slides come in 4 different sizes and 4 colors, and they are priced at 15$ a pair.

Pool Glasses

Being a bespectacled pool player is not easy: when aiming the glasses slip down your nose, when trying to peep at the cue ball above the lenses, a blurry image of the pool table appears in front of your eyes. So, if you don't want to wear contact lenses or look like Dennis Taylor, special billiard eyeglasses can solve this problem. There are several products designed especially to deal with short sighted pool players. Most of them offer more or less the same thing: undersized frame, large spectacles (usually start from the middle of the forehead all the way down to the middle of the nose), higher bridge and those handle extensions to protect the glasses from falling or moving out of place (as in children's glasses).

Billiard Players Mental Injuries

Though billiard is one of the safest sports, professional pool and snooker players are not 100% bullet proof. Not long ago I mentioned the Repetitive Strain Injury, known as RSI, the most common pool injury, which also attacks people with keyboard attached to their fingertips. And in an amazing coincidence I read about the mental injuries typical to snooker players.

The World Snooker Championship, which ended yesterday with the triumph of Ronnie "The Rocket" O'sullivan, drew millions of viewers mainly from the UK and China. So while the home viewers were fascinated to O'Sullivan, or whoever was playing at the moment clearing the table, his match opponent had to do the same thing. Or in the Telegraph's words: "…the mental strain of being forced to sit powerlessly through your opponent's century break can scarcely be underestimated. Protocol demands that you have to sit there and watch it… Plugging yourself into an iPod, or reading a newspaper, would probably be frowned upon…"

It is not surprising why top ranked snooker players (O'Sullivan among them) tend to suffer from clinical depression, while others develop drugs and alcohol dependency.

But that's nothing comparing to the comment committed by one Wilson, who witnessed, a rare but apparently true, snooker physical injury: "Playing a shot, on a rather old table, his hand ran along the side of the table and a large splinter of wood came off and was embeded between his thumb and forefinger. He did miss the pot."

OUCH! THAT HURTS!!!

Is Pool Bad for your Masculine Image?

Georgina Chang, the host presenter of the Guinness 9 Ball Tour on STAR Sports, writes to The Star Online about the low sex appeal of pool, especially when compared to more sweaty, muscular and masculine sports such as football, car racing and even swimming.

You must admit that her points are quite convincing. Pool players are not the typical alpha males, yet playing pool has some advantages to your self esteem.

On one hand, you don't have to look like this to play pool:

On the other hand, pool players get to wear suits and compete in air conditioned halls and they hardly ever face this kind of danger:

And to be serious for a moment, the level of concentration demanded from pool players is very high or in Chang's words: "They need a computer-like brain that works in lightning speed to compute and process the many permutations one can take to pocket a ball… under the pressure of just three minutes".

What a way to get rid of your billiards table...

Two guys in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic had to chop down their billiard table after both men's hands got stuck inside the table while looking for lost billiards balls. Just like me, the folks thought it was funny, but spending too much time motionless they had to use their spare hands to call the fire squad, which had to slice the billiards table to set the men hands' free.

Ha, what a relief. It reminds the time I had to cut off a straw chair when my cat's got his head stuck. :-)

What's an old pool hustler to do?

Austin American Statement interviews Joel Cromleigh aka Showboat Joe, a veteran pool hustler who toured Atlantic City's pool halls back in the 1970's with legends such as Minnesota Fats and Willie Mosconi. At 74, connected to an oxygen tank (result of decades of passive smoking in pool halls), Showboat favors the domino board over the pool table but states that he misses the action.

Some highlights from the article:

On the origins of his nickname Showboat Joe:

"When he made the nine-ball on a break, he'd jump up in the air and do the splits when he landed. That's when they started calling him Showboat."

On the different types of pool games:

"Golf on the snooker table was strictly a money game. One-pocket required strategy, patience...Nine-ball was faster. You had to sink the nine-ball before your opponent. Making the nine-ball on the break was mostly luck."

On playing pool today:

"Last year, after being out of the game for years, Showboat Joe entered a local tournament just to see if he still had it. He came in second place."

Family Billiards

Newport Billiards is a family oriented billiards hall in more than one meaning. The new, Newport pool hall, retailer deli and espresso bar is a smoke-free venue, conveniently located across McDonalds. Owned and managed by a married couple, Darla and Joe Berry, who've opened the place in thought of their grandchildren's future. As Darla says to the Newport News reporter, "It's (pool - o.p.s) a lifetime sport - you see families connect and come together as something to do together." Joe is a good example for his wife statement: both of his parents were pool table builders who now run several show rooms in California.

Newport Billiards offers pool tables in variety of sizes to all ages and selection of pool games (9-ball, fourteen in one) on top of billiards and other gaming accessories. The bar doesn't serve any alcoholic drink and the deli offers delicatessen such as hotdogs, nachos and sandwiches. If you must have beer with your pool game, you can locate here more pool halls in Oregon.