Playing pool

In Honduras we play classic pool as you can see in the picture. As an interesting note, I have been watching pool games from Colombia on Facebook and they play clockwise, we play counterclockwise, I mean the way the balls are placed when the game starts, the small balls here are on the left side of the table, there they are on the right side. I really have no idea which is correct, or if both are actually within the rules.

Source:https://www.radiohouse.hn/2016/07/15/mr-pool-62-anos-entre-buchacas-y-carambolas/

This picture is from a pool hall in Tegucigalpa which is now called Mr. Pool, back in 1980 it was called Billares Valboni, I was in University and used to play a lot there, won some money too, not much but enough for a college student to go to a movie or have a nice meal at a good restaurant.

I started playing pool when I was 16, well the small town where I lived was limited to playing football, getting drunk, having a girlfriend or playing pool, so practically everybody knew how to play pool. I also played football, girlfriend only by eyesight, I was not quite a ladies man yet. Well since the very first day I played I was hooked. I just went to sleep thinking about how I should have made a shot and how I would not miss it again. I lost money initially because I was actually a mark, I played good enough but to play money you have to have a different attitude. I got that attitude later. and now that I am 63 I can say that I have won at least five times what I have lost.

No, I was never a great player, but I was good enough, so I could play with most people and put up good resistance and I always found people willing to lose their money despite seeing I played way better than them. But Honduras has a lot of good pool players, in fact I think a few of them could play against anyone I have seen on TV. I will tell you an anecdote, there was this guy who was in his prime the best in Honduras but he was an alcoholic so another guy who played not as well but never drank was considered the best, he always lost against the drunk though. Anyway one day the drunk showed up at the pool hall I play in, and found a guy to play against for twenty Lempiras. This was a while back, so i guess this was about $4.00. They played eight games and the drunk just put in every ball from one to eleven every time, like seeing the same table eight times, never missing. Well his rival asked the pool hall owner to loan him 500 Lempiras to play for a hundred a shot, because he figured that would get the other guy nervous. the pool hall owner told him, are you dumb? You've played eight tables and haven't pocketed a single ball, you can play him a hundred years and you'll never win.

And there is the most important lesson I ever learned in pool, always know when someone can beat you, I am so good at that, that after three games I know if I can beat someone or if it would be a fools errand to play against the guy. But this is after decades of experience, I started in 1978, so I am closing in on half a century of playing pool. And you know something? A few years back I just lost interest in the game, I got no kicks out of it any more. So I hardly ever played and my game just went to the dogs. But lately the feel is coming back, I again want to play and beat people up. And I am finding the touch I had once again.