Whiny Pool Players - The Cueist Project

The Cueist shared with me once that he really doesn't like to compete against whiny pool players.  He shared an instance when he was playing a match against a guy named Oscar.  I don't live in the same town as him, but I immediately asked him, "Does he have a regular day job?"

He replies, laughing, "LOL, no. How did you know?"

The one thing I can say that I don't miss about playing pool anymore is the pool players who play pool for a living, who look to place in tournaments as their sole income.  I'm not talking about pros, I'm talking about the guys who have been only pool players their entire life, with no other source of income.  

Those players are THE TOUGHEST to play.  Not because they are good, everyone can play good, it's because when they start to lose, they cause a fuss, vent openly during a game, and/or bitch and whine, which of course can sharks us.

Most players look at tournaments as simply extra income. One friend of mine, every time she got an envelope, she would put it into a jar and at the end of the year she added how much she had and then went and bought herself something sweet!

Some players, when they finally maybe place in the top three and for the first time dip into a few hundred dollars, they might buy themselves something special with that extra cash.  When I won the Women's 9-Ball Singles at ACS Nationals, I took that $800 first-place-prize-money and went out and bought myself a tablet!

A majority of people use their winnings as extra money. Yes, we may use it to pay some bills, but we're not solely dependent on how we finish to pay the bills.

While I understand the frustration to need to pay your bills if pool playing is your sole income, but they take it out on us day-job-peeps if we start to beat them in a match or defeat them in a match.

I saw this in another way one time as well. I played scotch doubles in Vegas a long time ago with one of the local guys in San Antonio (where I lived at the time). He is a pretty even-keel guy, but he got onto me pretty badly when I made mistakes in our matches.  Of course back then I didn't even know what shape or patterns were, lol. Turns out he got mad at me because he was relying on us finishing well to pay his flight and hotel bills.  Damn that's a lot of pressure!  No wonder he got mad at me.

But, I just think it's unfair to us who play pool for fun or because we love the game, to have to play against players bitching, whining, cussing, slamming cues, whatever because they are losing. Yes, they are losing lunch money, bill money, etc. and so it is a pretty big loss when they depend on the win to pay their bills.  But, it's not our fault they decided to play pool for a living. But, they sure take it on us, huh?

Cueist said he got into it with Oscar.  "I got out of line when I lost my cool w/ him...but, I'm actually glad I stood up to him. I usually try and avoid conflict especially in the poolrooms b/c we see everyone so often. And plus, it's totally unnecessary. But at the same time, I felt like I needed to stop him and say something that a lot of guys wouldn't have said. "