Re: Anybody Ahead?

90% of the men and women on the pro tours are not making money. Most
have now taken day jobs and are pros on the weekend. Many state that
it is simply a very expensive hobby and an addiction they can not
control. The Dali Lama, our enlightened one and most holiness states
that any thing you undertake that brings you happiness should be done
even if it costs you money or you lose money on it. The reason for
doing a good thing should never be financial, for that should never
enter into the equation. If you can do a thing you love and make money
at it, you are one of the few fortunate ones Budda smiles upon. There
is a thread and discussion on this on www.poolchat.net. Here are some
of the things said on this subject for your reading.
Charles Martin IV.

A reason not to become a touring 9 ball pro? - 2005/10/30 16:59




Billiards Professional

Posts: 2560 Players Name 2005 Prize Money, Note Shawn Putnam, ranked #2
in the UPA, walmart pays better and you get some benefits. Only two
pros in history made over 100K and both times it was barely over that.
Now to put this in perspective for you, most of the top 10 have
sponsors behind them and they are sent expense free to events all over
the world which increases their winnings money. The top 5 will pull
down endorsements and exhibitions ranging from 100K to an extra 400K.
The tops is Jeanette Lee with 500K. Earl when he was on top was getting
400K. They are OK, it's the 90% out of this silver spoon group that
starves to death. Most work an 8 to 5 job and attend these events on
their week ends taking an extra couple of sick days. Some end up in an
underworld of gambling and selling or doing drugs to survive and keep
playing and most of thier lives will be destroyed. These figures are
right now posted on AZ. If you dispute them, write AZ and not me.
Willie Hoppe stated that in the 1920's he was pulling down a million on
the side. To put that in perspective, into todays money, 20 to 1, 20
million, now he paid no income taxes, there were none then, there is
another 7 mil in his pocket, so at 27 mil a year, Hoppe was a giant
superstar even in todays money market. He got 15% of the gate in cash,
today players get rubber checks.

The women's prize money is so low because all of thier income is spent
paying ESPN to put them on TV, yes they pay ESPN, ESPN should be paying
them. This makes 4 or 5 who get seen on TV all the time stars and in
demand. The other 90% once more can not make a living and work day
jobs.

Efren Reyes
$68,669.00

Alex Pagulayan
$33,324.00

Corey Deuel
$27,382.00

Francisco Bustamante
$25,272.00

Allison Fisher
$23,000.00

Shawn Putnam
$18,729.00

Kelly Fisher
$17,500.00

Gabe Owen
$16,355.00

Jui Lung Chen
$13,905.00

David Matlock
$13,650.00

Gandy Valle
$13,606.00

Dan Basavich
$13,024.00

Helena Thornfeldt
$12,720.00

Vivian Villarreal
$12,700.00

Brian Gregg
$12,310.00

Charlie Bryant
$12,244.00

Santos Sambajon
$12,169.00

Tiffany Nelson
$12,000.00

Karen Corr
$11,700.00

Gerda Hofstatter
$10,700.00

Now do you know why Gerta has gone back to school to get an education?

Let's now look at golf which makes every pool player puke when they do.
Tiger Woods winnings this year, 11 months into 2006 is $10, 628,024.
Last place pays 15K, pool's first place usually pays 10K. Mickelson
make 11 million in off the course endorsements last year, Tiger booked
a cool 83 million. They offer him a million just to walk on the golf
course in appearance fees.


Re: A reason not to become a touring 9 ball pro? - 2005/11/5 11:41




Billiards Professional

Posts: 2560 The results from the recent Viking tourney in Ohio.
1. $1120 Shannon Murphy
2. $700 Kevin "The Crow" Tomlin
3. $500 Adam "GQ" Smith
4. $300 Chris Mtchell
5/6 $100 each - Howard Vickery, Mike Cantrell
7/8 $80 each - Joe Brown, Shawn Putnam
9-12 $60 each - Paul Hartley, Joey Arbuckle, Dave Csornok, Shane
Albaugh
13-16 $40 each - CR Henderson, Rocky Phipps, Justin Daniels, Dallas
Smith


--
Mike Janis
The Viking Cue 9-Ball Tour
1-800-200-POOL
vikingt...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Viking Tour Information - link below


Let's see, I drive up and back, $250 gas, cheap motels $300. Food $125,
entry fee $75, the minimum you can make this trip is for $750 and
usaully add in beer and misc things and its a grand.

You come in 5th and win $100 and lose $900. Welcome to the world of
pool in 2006. It is a sick joke. Shawn Putnam ranked #2 in the upa wins
$80. The problem is you can't get in the money because always 3 or 4
big time UPA PROs show to play becasuse they don't have enough tourneys
and they just want to stay in stroke and compete. That's the bad news.
The good news is these events are affordable to enter and not the pro
$500 entry but usually $67 to $75. So if the event happens in your home
town and your expenses are nill you can get in and maybe get lucky and
play one of the top pros in the country for $75. That is a bargain
beyond belief and a real opportunity for the newbie coming up to cut
his teeth and get some hair on his ass cheap.

The only one making money on the Viking tour is the guy running it
banking most of the money. On the SE tour the payouts are almost as
bad, the only guy there making any money is Tommy Kennedy and he
usually wins 1st or 2nd so he keeps his pay out.

Pool today is nothing but a very expensive hobby and week end outing
for people who have real jobs that pay a living. Only the top 10 with
all the endorsements have ever made a decent living on pool since WWII.
Most of their living does not come from tourney prizes but from
sponsors and exhibitions

When I am at shows entertaining I have teenagers and early 20
something's come up to me all the time asking me this.
I want to become a pool pro, can you teach me and make me one? I go
sure, no problem, but why would you even want to. I spend 20 minutes
trying to explain why not to and when I am done they want to any way.
They are blinded to this TV image and have seen the color of money film
too many times. Now I save the 20 minutes and just email this article
to them. If they ignore it, at least they had the warning and the
chance not to destroy their lives.

The usual guy with the delusions of grandeur is 24 years old with
average talent at best playing at a strong apa 6 level. By 30 he might
get there and then have maybe 6 to 8 years left in a career. The ones
getting there have been playing since they were two in their daddy's
pool rooms. By 16 they are beating everyone in the state and region and
taking down tour pros that come through. By 18 they are world class and
no longer miss a ball. That is what the dumb 24 year old kid is going
to run into 8 years from now, the 16 who is now a 26 year old killer
who will eat him alive and spit him out.

I want to become a pool pro, what are the odds of that occurring and me
becoming successful in 2004. Answer 1 in 4 million. With those kinds of
odds why even think about it, go learn a trade in construction; at
least you will not starve doing that. People who become pros are
naturals, they just pick up a cue and the game is easy, as some kids
can pick up a violin and play it from the git go and others will take
lessons for years and never get with it.

What do a medium pizza and a pro pool player have in common?
Neither can feed a family of 4

What do you say to a pool player in a three-piece suit???

"Will the defendant please rise"

These jokes are funny but they are also cold hard reality. I have been
tracking where the number 11th place male pro 9 ball tour player has
came in after the end of the year for now over 15 years and every year
he makes the same in prize money, $11,000. To travel across the country
to Las Vegas and stay there for a week costs over $1000, airfare, hotel
and food, entry fees that range from $250 to $500 to get in events or
the US Open. You will normally spend $2000 and you need to clear at
least $500 for your weeks work. If you do not win $2500 in that event,
you lost money attending it. You will win some events and the promoter
will take the money and run and write you a rubber check. The PBT tour
wrote checks that never cleared for 3 months and 3 events and Danny
Medina lost his house over that fraud. Mackey took Camels money and
ran. He even sued them, made more and never paid the players what he
was owed. The same thing even happened at the US Open, players got
stiffed there. Who runs the event, a convicted criminal and drug dealer
they let out of jail to run this years event. You wonder why these
kinds of people steal from you.

Let's do some arithmetic, when there were 11 tourneys a year a few
years ago you spent $11K to win 11K if you became the 11th best player
on Earth and out played 50 to 100 other players, how about those odds
and reality.
Pete Margo years ago said I am working my *** off 14 hrs a day for
peanuts. If I put that kind of effort into a real job I would get rich.
He thought about it, quit pool and got rich. Jimmy Mataya a former
world champion and one of the main players in the game wrote in
Billiards Digest on 12-04 that when he was a world champion and ranked
8th in the world, at the end of that year when he did his income taxes
what he made in prize money was exactly what he spent to attend the
events. He worked all year long for nothing, no gain. He said how he
ate was gambling and that if you do not gamble on your game your can
not survive on the tour.

Today you may have 6 events to go to, so the opportunity to make that
11K is now cut in half. This means two things, one to make a living,
you need to be inside the top 10 where you get the top endorsements and
sponsorships and then you have a 6 figure income separate from the
tourney prize money and you have it made. You are out of the top 10, or
11th, or 25th, you are really in bad shape. You will sleep in cars and
be a regular diner in the local McDonalds dumpster.

When you get tired of fighting the rats for the old fries you get smart
and become a criminal and gamble and or sell drugs to make a living.
Then you are on the highway to hell.

Your other option is to take a day job at UPS and drive a truck or work
in a warehouse 9 to 5 and play pool in the evenings. They play in the
tourneys on the weekends or take vacation or sick leave for the long
event. These people strut around like pros but they are not pros. A pro
is me, somebody who makes their entire living with their cue as I have
for over a decade that is a real pro. When you have a day job, you are
an amateur, a semi part time pro at best. When you bust out, go belly
up and take a day job, you are an ex failed pro and now back as an
amateur again. They all bust out, somebody robs them, double dumps them
or they go into Poker games and then get cheated blind by real crooked
pro card sharks who are nothing but slight of hand cheaters. I am
repeating a lot of things 3 or more times, over and over. There is a
reason for that; I am trying hard to hit you between the eyes with this
message kid hoping I might save just one.

A typical example was at a SE tour spot where the local guy has been
the main star since he was 16. Now at 26 he is as good as it gets.
Let's call him SM. He gets into the finals with the former US Open
champion Tom Kennedy, is down and losing, then runs 5 racks to win.
That is as good of play as you can see any world class player
performing at. He won $700, $325 for two full days of work, $43.75 an
hour. Kennedy won $500 or $250 a day for 4 days work; he had to drive
up from Florida. He grossed $15.63 an hour and lost money when you
consider his expenses. The 3rd place guy who drove in also won $400 and
made $12.50 an hour. 4th place got $200.
Nobody is making any money and other than the tour promoter, nobody can
make a living or feed a family here.
SM, the best in the area. After 10 years he is now the bartender in a
pool hall because he can't make a living on the tour. There is your
future, where you end up, a desk man making minimum wage that is your
long term future here as it now stands.

Your next option is to wake up like Mike Sigel who won more100 events
and more 9 ball than any one else. At the Rivera in Vegas he got
knocked out early by nobodies he used to sweep the floor with and once
more he was headed home broke. He decided to make something and sell it
for a living, cues. He quit pool in his prime; the greatest of his
generation ended up dead broke after 20 years. What chance does that
give you now? If that one does not wake you up, then nothing will.

A player writes: What if somebody told Efren or Hoppe not to be a pool
player what a mistake that would have been.
FL RESPONDS: Do you want to know when Efren started playing? Or Mike
Sigel? ANY of the top 10 players? With a few exceptions, they almost
all started playing at a young age virtually as babies.
A player writes: Would you have told a young Efren to go get a job?
Probably. How about a young (very young) Willie Hoppe?
FL RESPONDS: Efrens parents were indigent jungle people. They breed in
the alley, pop out a kid and walk off. The kid at 4 was on the street
eating out of garbage cans. He was given to an uncle who owned a pool
hall and put him to work as an owned slave dumping the spittoons and
cleaning up the joint. He grew up in the joint with a broom in one hand
and a cue in the other hand and got good by constant gambling all of
his life from a baby on. Hoppe was put on the road at 7 with his 9 year
old bother 9 where they gambled every day to feed their Mom and Dad.
They had no problem living off of the kids. Neither had any childhood
and neither spent a day in school. Neither one voted on becoming a pro,
it was win and eat, lose and starve. That is what it takes to become a
real pool champion. No life, you sell your soul to the devil to become
a pool pro and the devil gives you nothing back and instead robs you of
your health and your life. You must live in a pool hall morning, noon
and night and have no other life, then you become Efren.

This beginner teacher Lee says let them have and pursue their dreams
even if they are doomed to almost certain failure. He then tries to
compare success in Golf to pool, which has to be the dumbest analogy
every written by anyone on any board. Don't forget to ad in Fats to
this also since he missed one. Fatty never spent a day in school either
and grew up in pool halls as a baby. Here are 3 success stories, for
every success, I can find you 100,000 losers who ended up in the
gutter. Most get smart after being a degenerate pool bum going no where
and eventually get a real day job. They wake up after wasting 10 years
that they are now only making now the same money as an entry level job
pays kids right out of school. The ones, who don't, end up going out
real bad and real ugly. Detroit Whitey, a great player in the Johnston
City days ended up sitting out front of pool halls on the cement
selling pencils from a can pretending to be blind.

These 3 guys, Efren, Hoppe and Fatty never went to school and were
illiterate, Fatty could hardly sign his own name so he used a rubber
stamp to hide he could not remember how to spell Minnesota.
He did not have a social security card until has was over 50. He never
paid taxes until the IRS busted him. All these guys did was play pool,
they never did any thing else. They did not know anything else. They
had no other choice.

Efren lives in a tree in the jungle or in some shack with a tin roof
over his head when he is a kid. He comes into this country and can't
even speak English and still can't. His teeth all fell out before 40
because of bad diet and a lousy non healthy life style. He is nothing
but a miner for our gold, a carpet bagger. He's been doing this for
20 years now, as do all the Pilipino. If you go over there and beat
them and clean them out, you get robbed in the parking lot trying to
get back to your hotel. He as a kid either goes into town or hustles
rotation for dimes or he starves, what other option did he have,
answer, none. His sister's only option is to go down to Subic Bay and
sell her self to the sailors, that was their reality of life there.
That is if he had a sister, I really do not know, but most from his
part of town did face that situation and most now do in 3rd world poor
countries all over the Far East. They have no birth control and being
strict Catholics most families are 10 to 12 kids and the kids can't
go to school because they must work the streets to feed the younger
kids. That was their only two job opportunities. Pool hustlers or
ho's, both are street hustlers, they just use different instruments
to hustle the johns and marks.

Hoppe was put on the road when he was 7 yrs old by his father and his
daily gambling at pool fed the entire family. Today they would put his
old man in jail for that. In a few years of putting on shows and
exhibitions at balk line he became the sole support of his family. His
older brother Frank failed as a pool hustler and got a day job. Willie
went on as a billiard player. If Hoppe lost, his father, mother and
brother and he starved. It was win or starve, now that can steel your
nerves real fast. It was that same mentality that made Lee Trevino such
a great golfer. He said playing on the pro tour after opm has no
pressure because he was assured of a paycheck.
He said win or lose it did not really matter. He said when you have not
eaten for two days and you are now playing a match for $20 and only
have $5 in your pocket and are on the make on your nerve, that's
pressure.

Mosconi came up supporting his family almost the same way when his Dads
one table in a barber shop room could not pay the rent. Willie went out
and spent the night gambling and if he lost, they did not eat the next
day. Fatty never sat foot in a school class room and neither did Hoppe,
they grew up in pool halls, never knew anything else. All they did all
their lives was move from one pool hall to another in search of money.
How many of the Pilipino over here do you think even graduated from
grade school? They are nothing but a pack of roving wolves in search of
new weak meat. The gambler criminals here buy them a ticket, bring them
over and drive them around the country to hustle you out of your money.
They take the biggest cut out of the tour of thieves.

With no education and no work resume, without pool Hoppe would have
become a barber cutting heads like his dad who barely made a living at
that in his one barber chair room and single pool table which was his
business. He put the kids on the road because at ages 7 and 9 they were
making more money hustling his customers on the pool table in the
barber shop than he was making cutting heads.
He closed the barber shop and made them roadies. The kids did not vote
in this decision. He would not have forced his two kids on the road and
made them hustlers if it was not all about money. Fatty at best would
have become a janitor sweeping out the joint and dumping the spittoons.
Efren would be out picking bananas and eating out of dumpsters or
running with a street gang now stealing, robbing and selling drugs.

Mosconi would have been a desk man in a pool hall. Keith McCreedy would
be back at the Orphanage he grew up in making up the beds for the kids
and doing their laundry every day. Tom Kennedy was another abandoned
child. Pool was their only out just as basketball to day is the only
out for many inner city black kids. They did not have parents who were
going to send them to prep school and then to Stanford like happens to
most golfers who come on tour. The country club the kids came up in
takes up a collection and drops 200K in his checking account so he can
go play for 2 years and feel no pressure. If he fails, then the top
country club in town hires him to be the club pro and teach members and
run the pro shot where he will have a 6 figure income. If he makes it
on tour they tell him he can pay them back when he hits, if he does
not, it gets forgiven. Pool sends its youth off to do battle with
nothing. The most some get is gas in and out of the event, motel 6 paid
for and the entry fee, nothing else.
There is your reality of the situation. Your real 101 pool education
and history lesson today for you kiddies who think you are going to be
some big pool TV star.

This was the original post: By Drivermaker.
There have been a number of threads in the past on the current state of
pool, what's wrong and right with it, what the fixes are for the
future, etc.
There are a number of people here that had kids that are grown, some
currently have kids, and others never had any children. If you do, did,
or didn't...would you try to guide your kid into becoming a
professional at the game even if he showed some early talent? I know
many parents that are doing it or trying to do it in golf.
What's the general consensus here on the forum amongst a lot of
veteran pool players and maybe that will gauge the real future of pool.
Would you want to see your kid going from pool room to pool room to
make a living?

Driver made a good post and it was right on. When you do not like the
message, do not shoot the messenger, which is what you all did here to
driver. Go back and re read what the guy wrote, then get off the guys
back.

Kids come up to me and say I want to be a pool pro and I ask why, are
you a criminal, just get out of the joint, have a long record and rap
***, been fired off of a zillion jobs, are you unemployable in the
work force where nobody in their right mind would hire you. Are you a
dope smoker or crack head? Are you a little, puny, geeky looking, anti
social, introverted punk with zero social skills? Do you have tattoos
on your arms and look like a jungle snake with an ear ring in your nose
and are you a total ***? That can qualify you for pro status as no
large corporation wants you on their side? If you are some punk who
looks like a carnie freaks in some side show, forget IBM ever hiring
your butts, you might as well make a living in pool.
You just reduced your options to near zero in life or do ditch digging.
Keep piling on the tattoos; see where that takes you when you hit 30,
grow up and try to join the establishment.

Are you a lazy no good bum who is a total degenerate loser who simply
does not want to work for a living? You find it more appealing to
become a predator and take from others; it gives you a feeling of power
and revenge, a loser beating winners in life. You finally found a game
you can succeed at after losing every other game you tried to play in
life.
Do you refer to your senior year as the third grade; if you flunked out
of school, can't keep a job, are now unemployed with zero future or
prospects then you qualify. Go be a pool pro. You must live in a cave
never seeing daylight again. You will have a tan like the belly of a
fish. You can never have a wife, all attempts at this end up in divorce
and your losing what little you did save and earn, you can't hold on
to any woman when you are out gambling, drinking and doing drugs every
night until 4am. After losing two wives you get smart and then just run
with ho's. You find a woman who is what you are, a street hustler.
When you bust out and lose your sock, she will go out and raise the
loot on her back to get you to the next town and game. She will hide
the dope under her skirt for you. Without a good ho, you are called a
homeless person. These ho's will come and go on your like street cars
and when you lose one you will be sleeping nights in your car.

The joke is: What do you call a pool player whose girlfriend with a
full time job has just left him. Answer, a homeless person living under
a bridge.

You wake up the next day at 2 pm in the afternoon and watch the soaps
on TV and hit the 5pm after work crowd and begin to hustle marks.
After spending your entire youth and 10 years of this non stop, 24/7
you get good enough to be a pro and play on the circuit with the big
boys. You get out there and soon find out there are at best 6 tourneys
worth a crap and 6 minis paying peanuts and only the top 3 make out,
the rest of the field are losers. You have to pay all of your travel
expenses and you will spend 12K a year going to 12 tourneys and if you
earn the number 11th rank on tour you can earn gross 11K a year in
prize money.

Now a moron who passed the 3rd grade and passed simple arithmetic
should be able to figure this one out is a dead end door going no where
fast. I am going to spend more money than I can earn playing a
professional sport, then why do it. That is the question they never ask
their selves, and the answer is until the money is up to support you
and your family, you do not do it. When you see the top 10 players all
making over a million bucks a year and the world champion getting a
Rolls Royce and a Ferrari as side gifts, then you go for becoming a
pro. That is what the Snooker champions in England get, Steve Davis has
made over 100,000,000 lbs. He has made as much money with a cue as
Arnold Palmer did with a golf driver. During this time, the American
pool players starved and continue to starve. The top 35 golfers on tour
now make over a mil a year. Even the ham and eggers at the bottom will
become a millionaire within 2 to 3 years just by making the cut a lot.
They never ever have to even win or hit the top 10 to do that.

On 12-4 I watched Colin Montgomery go out for 4 hours and win 1.25
million on a golf course. On that same day, I was SM spend 8 hrs to win
$700. The top 10 in pool gets all the sponsors and backing and most are
making a couple hundred grand a year and driving cool cars and on TV.
Some kids see that and think they all are living like that. No, you
have big tour top players driving 20 year old cars with over 400,000
miles on them. A few drive jags and it no longer matters to them what
the prize money is as their nuts are now well covered. If you are a ham
and egger who gets none of this and are totally ignored then plan to
live at the poverty level. If you're a golfer ranked #35 you make a
mil a year, if you are a pro pool player ranked #35 and you do not have
a day job you are simply starving.

You soon learn to live, you must begin to sell drugs, gamble all night
long or sell the ho you travel with to eat. Your ho don't mind going
back to work on her back, she kind of likes it anyway. You soon become
nothing but an animal and a predator. You have no morality or honor, no
rules of religion and you ignore all government laws as things you
simply work around and avoid or ignore. You pay no taxes and are just a
leach. You are a low rent con. You become a simple criminal. Nothing
more than a petty thief. When you hit 40, your body is spent and you
look 60 and your body is aged to 80. Burning the candle at both ends
soon destroys your total neurological system, you now can't beat any
one and you now do starve.

When you pull the cue back your hand trembles and shakes. You are now
like an old lion that has lost its teeth, you are doomed. It is nothing
but the highway to hell. You sold your soul to the devil to become a
pool pro and got nothing back from him but a wrecked and destroyed
body. The devil has hell packed high with suckers like you son.

The smart ones see this and take a day job and become semi pros. Pros
who think they are but are not and act the game and part they failed
at. The go to the mini events on week ends and strut around like they
are some big shot and not the failed player they really are. A real pro
makes his living with his cue and has no day job. Today, you will find
well over half of the men and lady pros are no longer true pros because
they can't make a living with their cues playing tournament pool. The
really smart ones learn to make and sell something, like cues or tables
and they become rich. Hustling with a cue only produces poverty.
Such an example is Sigel, after winning 100 events and being #1 for a
decade; he woke up dead broke with nothing. If that was his fate, what
chance do you think you are going to have? Mike began to make cues and
is now finally making money off of pool.
Fatty ended up broke. Greenleaf, the greatest player of the 20th
century died broke and was put in a poppers grave with no tomb stone.
Let this one open your eyes if nothing else I have said has sank in so
far. Mosconi and Hoppe did go out millionaires so some did escape the
doomed fate, but most did not.
Here is your dose of reality and the 10 teeny bopper kids trashing
driver maker now are not going to like this message either because it
throws mud on their dream. They will now hate me for doing this like
they now do the driver. You kids have watched color of money too many
times. You kids do not know squat that is your problems.

Other smart ones like Mike Massey who lost his wife, all of his money
and ended up dead broke playing 9 ball as did his road partner Steve
Lillis. Mike went into Artistic trick shots and became an entertainer
and showman. He is now quite well off. 9 ball had Sleeping in his car;
Artistic has him now sleeping at the Ritz. Lillis who was a road man
for a decade was beating everybody every where he went. Everyone backed
him. One day he began to lose. Soon the backers left. In a decade he
made a normal living and had only amassed 7K in savings. He took all he
had and gambled on it and lost every dime. His wife left him and took
the kids. His life ended up in the sewer that is where gambling goes,
it's a train wreck that has to happen. The only thing that is in
question is the date of the wreck and how long you can stay out there
until it all blows up. Steve left pool, went back to college, graduated
and is now a teacher. He rescued his life and is a minister and a man
of God. He went from a gambling predator to a man I now highly admire
and I call him a friend.

Here is what you do kids, stay in school, get good grades, do not smoke
or do drugs. Drink in moderation; protect your bodies and health.
Graduate from college and get a damn nice job with a big company and
obtain your experience. Marry, have a couple of kids, buy a really nice
home and set up a killer game room. Put in a 9' gold crown and set it
up right. Invite over your upscale friends in your new corporate life
to play with on weekends and never ever allow any of the pool hall
trash you play with in your tourney outings to ever come by your place
to play, they will return later just to rob you.

Pool is a great and wonderful game; it's the scum bags hanging around
the pool halls winning all the events that have always trashed the game
and its reputation. You just learn to minimize your exposure to these
bums and develop your own circle of nice people you play with in the
rooms and avoid having anything to do with the druggies and hustlers.
You view them as nothing but criminals you have no time for now. I
won't even let them land at my table or give them the time of day. I
have heard their BS all my life and most of their hustlers are so bad
they make me laugh.

Keep playing this game that great kings and queens and presidents all
played and loved. Stop playing the criminals and bottom feeders. Ignore
their insults and hustles to goad you into playing them. Play your game
with your new friends. Ignore their world; make your own new pool world
where you and your pals enjoy it with each other. If you want to become
the top stick in the room or in town, or a pro, then you have to enter
and live in their world. Remember, if you begin to hang around ducks,
soon you will walk like a duck, quack like a duck and soon, become a
duck as well. You will find many rooms that do not cater to the
hustlers and gamblers and do not want them around. Find these upscale
places and frequent them.

Pool is on its ass and every year it gets's worse. Pool has no future
for you. You want to be a pro, get really rich and famous, and find a
basketball, football, tennis racket, golf driver, table tennis racket,
anything but a pool cue. The players have been raped and are only used
and now play for peanuts. The only winners here are the people making
and selling the equipment, the BCA, ESPN and Matt Braun.
All you players are just their marks and suckers they enslave and
control. It's been this way since 93 and it keeps getting worse every
year, not better.

The dumbest thing any kid could ever do in his life is to even
entertain ever becoming a pool 9 ball professional. Your odds of
pulling that off and becoming successful at this are roughly 1 in one
million. There are now 40,000,000 players, now, only 40 males are even
on tour now. One in a million. I am trying hard to teach you boys
something of value and let this become a big does of reality check. No
father or mother worth his salt wants any of his kids having a life of
a pool hustler or becoming a pool pro. Parents know.

Go back and study where most of the champions have came from and you
will find they grew up in their daddies pool rooms and knew nothing
else. I.E. Mosconi, Greenleaf, Hoppe and dozens more I can list. That
is where our champions are produced; they are trained as babies, like
Hoppe and Mosconi were. They grow up in an upside down world of
hustlers and gamblers and believe this is a normal life because that is
the only life they ever saw or knew. They never ever had any other
options in life. Go to these big events and the pool hustlers have
their 8 and 9 year old kids there matching them up and backing their
gambling matches. That is how you do it, corrupt them young and raise
them as criminals, for that is all criminals know how to do, that is
their world. Pool is an underworld, upside down and opposite of how the
real world operates and how real people function and interact. Most
gamblers raise their kids to become gamblers just like they are.
Titanic Thompson's dad was a gambler and walked out on his family
when he was a boy. He did the same thing to his kid and wife. His 3rd
generation son did the same thing.

Demo posted this on RSB: One of my buddies just finished in the top 15
at the Glass City Open this past weekend. His prize money was $750. If
you pay your own way into the tournament its $350, then tack on hotel
room for the week. It all adds up to about $745....he makes $5 to eat
with! Now that's the life of a pool player.......no money.

If you read this far, you may be saved. If you are some punk, who knows
it all and has all the answers already, 7 gets you 11 you did not get
past the 1st page of this article. You're probably right now watching
the color of money for the 89th time and dreaming of being Vincent.

Now the IBT comes along promising million dollar tourneys with first
place of 200K. Maybe this article is simply an obit of the past and a
historical lesson of what went on before the IBT. When I see them
actually operate, pay off, stay in business and enter their 3rd year
and players making real money, they I will believe it. Until then I say
show me the money and your success. Many before have tried this all all
have failed. I do pray they do succeed. If they do put the money up,
then the talent will come out of the woodwork for it.

Pool Pro why be one?

Players by name 2005 Prize Money through 10 months of 2005. Note Shawn
Putnam, ranked #2 in the UPA, Wal-Mart pays better and you get some
benefits. Only two pros in history made over 100K and both times it was
barely over that.
Now to put this in perspective for you, most of the top 10 have
sponsors behind them and they are sent expense free to events all over
the world which increases their winnings money. The top 5 will pull
down endorsements and exhibitions ranging from 100K to an extra 400K.
The tops are Jeanette Lee with 500K. Earl when he was on top was
getting 400K. They are OK; it's the 90% out of this silver spoon group
that starves to death. Most work an 8 to 5 job and attend these events
on their week ends taking an extra couple of sick days. Some end up in
an underworld of gambling and selling or doing drugs to survive and
keep playing and most of their lives will be destroyed. These figures
are right now posted on AZ. If you dispute them, write AZ and not me.
Willie Hoppe stated that in the 1920's he was pulling down a million on
the side. To put that in perspective, into today's money, 20 to 1, 20
million, now he paid no income taxes, there were none then, there is
another 7 mil in his pocket, and so at 27 mil a year, Hoppe was a giant
superstar even in today's money market. He got 15% of the gate in
cash, today players get rubber checks.

The women's prize money is so low because all of their income is spent
paying ESPN to put them on TV, yes they pay ESPN, ESPN should be paying
them. This makes 4 or 5 who get seen on TV all the time stars and in
demand. The other 90% once more can not make a living and work day
jobs.

Efren Reyes
$68,669.00

Alex Pagulayan
$33,324.00

Corey Deuel
$27,382.00

Francisco Bustamante
$25,272.00

Allison Fisher
$23,000.00

Shawn Putnam
$18,729.00

Kelly Fisher
$17,500.00

Gabe Owen
$16,355.00

Jui Lung Chen
$13,905.00

David Matlock
$13,650.00

Gandy Valle
$13,606.00

Dan Basavich
$13,024.00

Helena Thornfeldt
$12,720.00

Vivian Villarreal
$12,700.00

Brian Gregg
$12,310.00

Charlie Bryant
$12,244.00

Santos Sambajon
$12,169.00

Tiffany Nelson
$12,000.00

Karen Corr
$11,700.00

Gerda Hofstatter
$10,700.00

Now do you know why Gerta has gone back to school to get an education?

Let's now look at golf which makes every pool player puke when they do.
Tiger Woods winnings this year, 11 months into 2006 is $10, 628,024.
Last place pays 15K; pool's first place usually pays 10K. Mickelson
make 11 million in off the course endorsements last year, Tiger booked
a cool 83 million. They offer him a million just to walk on the golf
course in appearance fees.

So why did I never go on the men's pro 9 ball tour. Answer, around this
time of year, back in the mid 80's, I got the flu and was so sick I
could not get up but just talked on the phone for 3 days and made half
what Efren has made in 10 months of 2005.
Even if I had done that and became number one in the world I would have
taken a 100% pay cut.
For the last 20 years I have studied this, 11th place at the end of the
year has paid 11K and they spent at least 12K to make llK. I did pass
the 3rd grade and math and I do know spending 12 to make 11 and lose 1
is not too smart.

The results from the recent Viking tourney in Ohio. 11-2005
1. $1120 Shannon Murphy
2. $700 Kevin "The Crow" Tomlin
3. $500 Adam "GQ" Smith
4. $300 Chris Mtchell
5/6 $100 each - Howard Vickery, Mike Cantrell
7/8 $80 each - Joe Brown, Shawn Putnam
9-12 $60 each - Paul Hartley, Joey Arbuckle, Dave Csornok, Shane
Albaugh
13-16 $40 each - CR Henderson, Rocky Phipps, Justin Daniels, Dallas
Smith

Let's see, I drive up and back, $250 gas, cheap motels $300. Food $125,
entry fee $75, the minimum you can make this trip is for $750 and
usually add in beer and misc things and it's a grand.

You come in 5th and win $100 and lose $900. Welcome to the world of
pool in 2006. It is a sick joke. Shawn Putnam ranked #2 in the upa wins
$80. The problem is you can't get in the money because always 3 or 4
big time UPA Pros show to play because they don't have enough tourneys
and they just want to stay in stroke and compete. That's the bad news.
The good news is these events are affordable to enter and not the pro
$500 entry but usually $67 to $75. So if the event happens in your home
town and your expenses are nil you can get in and maybe get lucky and
play one of the top pros in the country for $75. That is a bargain
beyond belief and a real opportunity for the newbie coming up to cut
his teeth and get some hair on his ass cheap.

The only one making money on the Viking tour is the guy running it
banking most of the money. On the SE tour the payouts are almost as
bad, the only guy there making any money is Tommy Kennedy and he
usually wins 1st or 2nd so he keeps his pay out.

Johnny Archer ranked #1 went to the fall 2005 UPA event in Manhattan
and placed high in the top 10 but won only $1000, the trip cost him
$1500 add the entry fee of $500 so he went a grand in the hole.
You want to get on ESPN trick shot magic and be a star. To get invited
you must first play in their events which pay out like the Viking tour
and you will spend two years 10 grand running around the country
building points and when you finally get in the top 3 or 4 rankings you
might get invited. I said might, it's all who like's who. If they
don't like you, the 10 grand went for nothing. You get invited to
play against the top 10 winner takes home 25K. Guess what the others
win, nada, you get nothing. That is right, they only pay one guy, the
winner and brag about the 25K lst prize but are too cheap to pay the
field a living wage. Instead they just rape them. The odds are 50% you
wont even be seen on TV. Mike Massey won the last 3 of 4 so your odds
on wining a dime stink.
Welcome to pool, 2005, it is simply, insane. It is simply a disgrace
the industry has allowed it's pros and stars to starve and has not
organized to stop this.

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