The Matching Up Thread I promised

[The Truth]

Excellent read.

Thanks for posting it,
blake

[RR]

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When you are gambling and feel there is future potential, it is often wise to allow an oponnent (especially one with a healthy stakehorse) to get a shot at at least one win before the match ends. This helps to both insure goodwill as well as future potential action. Yes this can backfire and instill confidence in a player who can then beat you with the same spot he had been losing with to you just a while earlier. It is like bluffing on the river at poker, sometimes you get called down and lose but it is worth it in the long run.

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One spot where this can go wrong is when your opponent plays even worse when behind. Say you get hte 8 and have a small edge. This day your opponant plays bad and you murder him getting the 8. Now you can adjust and play even (where you would normally be taking the worst of it) and beat him even. Now he quits as he has enough for that day. The next time you match up it will be harder because he will point out that you beat him even.

[CCx]

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I'd buy your book the day it came out.

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[Wetdog]

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Thanks to everyone who took the time to comment but especially to Myrtle. Maybe I should save my stories for a book. Anyone think 2+2 would deviate from Poker? LOL

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I believe they have books on Blackjack (card things) and Craps (cube things). Why not one on sphere things?

[Myrtle]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Thanks to everyone who took the time to comment but especially to Myrtle. Maybe I should save my stories for a book. Anyone think 2+2 would deviate from Poker? LOL

[/ QUOTE ]

I believe they have books on Blackjack (card things) and Craps (cube things). Why not one on sphere things?

[/ QUOTE ]

.....awwwwww

Don't bust his balls, willya!

[img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[James282]

more please

[bernie]

I always like Jimbos pool stories. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Other stuff like this can also be found in the book 'Playing off the rail'. Great book about taking one's pool game on the road. It reminded me of an article Jimbo(I think this Jimbo) wrote for 'intelligent gambler'.

Thanks for the story Jimbo.

b

[bernie]

[ QUOTE ]
Have you read the book "Playing Off The Rail"? What is your opinion of it?


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I thought it was a great read. Especially the story where the guys are flipping a coin for their bankrolls.

b

[Jimbo]

So I am pretty slow with updates, but here it comes. Here is a brief story about both having the best of it while getting weight with an additional bonus of the importance of reading your opponents carefully and accurately.

It was a Saturday morning at opening time for my neighborhood lounge sometime around 1986. I was inspecting the cleanup crew's work and the daytime bartender had just arrived.

In walks Safeway Jim and Mark Coates looking for me. They immediately offerred me the 8 ball in a race to nine sets of nine ball action for $500 a pop. Now on a 4 1/2 by nine table this would have been a fairly close match but on my bar tables it was, as Tom Cruise said in Color of Money when asked what he had in his case, DOOM!

Not only were we playing on bar tables but we were playing on my bar tables. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] My club was pretty large for a neighborhood joint with 4000 sq feet and five bar tables. I had three Valleys near the bar and two Dynamo's somewhat isolated on the band side of the club. This is where I played my cash games as well as all of our weekly tourneys and League pool matches. I'l briefly mention that a Dynamo coin-op pool table requires a heavier cue ball to operate properly. This had proven to be quite an advantage for me many times in the past and would be so in the future as well.

Anyway the first match isn't all that exciting. I play Mark first getting the eight and win the match easilky. Here they made their first mistake, instead of asking me to adjust they just put in Safeway Jim giving me the same weight. Naturally this is like stealing but I keep it close and am up two sets and $1000 in less than an hour. Now thay want to adjust to even and put Mark back in, I win the set, Jim's turn, you got it, up four sets and $2000.

Now for the best part of the story, at least IMHO. Before now they had been very quick to act and offer the deals with little to no delay between each set. This time they huddle over in the corner whispering to each other for about five minutes before offering to play another set asking for either the eight or the last two. This unusual action prompted me to wonder what was up so I recalled my past experiences with these two fellas and all I knew about them, nothing would lead me to believe anything was up but it still didn't feel quite right.

We had been "gambling friendly" with no trash talk nor posting up front. This is less common these days since the younger generation of pool players have much less honor and will stiff you in a heartbeat but in the 70's and 80's people still often took it on faith that they would be payed off as long as all parties knew one another. I won the coin toss for the next match after offering Mark the last two. Before I broke the balls I decided to request we post the $500 for the upcoming set before we began. You should have seen the look on their faces, it was like a slo motion sitcom watching them turn to each other wondering what to do. Finally Safeway Jim blurted out somewaht awkardly, "How did you know we were busted?". Ha Ha, I explained to them that I had been gambling when they were still in grade school and had seen it all before but no hard feelings. They just wanted to shoot an "air barrell", and I understood. What I didn't tell them was it was just my spidey sense that tripped them up, not X-Ray vision. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Feel free to ask for any definitions or elaboration you might want for this post.

Jimbo

[chisness]

What would've happened if you won?