That being said, I do agree with your premise that the stereotype of lowlife players is overblown because people like the stories and repeat them over and over. The fact is that it is relatively rare. The point of my post was simply to help promote the idea that it’s nothing to be proud of and arm people with a method to communicate that to anyone who thinks it is.

the reason pool continues to have such a poor reputation is because the stereotypes of “the hustler” and gamblers in pool being low life scum are continually repeated over and over again – and a post like yours is unfortunately a great example of it.

in this day and age – with camera phones and smart phones – do you really think people can “hustle” and “go on the road” the way they use to?

it’s the information age, it’s going to be very rare indeed that a player who’s any good can indeed “hustle” someone. i know about players and their speed from all across the country and i’m just a hack.

so if you’re gambling you usually know who you’re gambling with – how good the guy you’re playing is – and what you need in weight to make it a fair game right?

Now if people are going to use TAR as an example of how gambling is DONE RIGHT then they should know the first thing TAR does is MAKE THE PLAYERS POST. wouldn’t this eliminate half the horror stories about gambling you see on azb?

it’s time to change the image of the gambler in pool. why can’t the representatives of gambling in this day and age be jeanette lee? or shane van boening? both are constantly in action and both are nothing if not professional.

poker, once thought to be full of lowlifes as well, has remade it’s image – isn’t it time for pool to do the same?

This may be easier then it sounds but it takes having the courage of our convictions. I call the solution: the racist joke response. Has another player ever come to you or a group you were in with a war story about how he hustled some “sucker?” How he/she was so skilled at the ploy that they actually got a weaker player to give up a handicap.

There’s a technique that I learned in a business seminar that works great in a lot of situations. You give the person a look of surprise and say, “Wow Sally, it’s not like you to take such unfair advantage of someone,” (even if it totally is). “I know you’re better than that.” (Apologizes to all the Sallys of the world.) Then just shake your head subtly with a slightly furrowed brow and wait for a reply or even walk away.

You could take a more direct approach and lecture them about your true feelings about hustling pool and how it brings dishonor to the sport. But this will often open up a debate on the topic. I prefer the first because it’s not as likely to get a defensive response because it has a compliment of their “true” character built into it. People want others to see them in a positive light. It can get that person to rethink their point of view in order to become the person you said you saw in them. Try it, I think you’ll be surprised at the results.

The incidence of mean spirited racist jokes has decreased enormously over the years because people made it known that they don’t like them or think they’re funny. The social pressure to stop was so great that only a few serious racists still insist on telling them. We can start a similar movement regarding hustling by simply letting people know what we really think about it (or that we are shocked that someone we like/respect could participate in the practice) and that it’s not just part of the sport and hence needs to be tolerated or even respected.

Surely you aren’t saying that the persistent reputation of pool being a game of lowlifes, hustling and gambling their lives away isn’t based in some measure on reality. I do not mean to say here that all players are like that, far from it, but gambling, especially high stakes gambling is a big part of the cause of this reputation, IMHO.

TAR matches are exciting, I have no problem admitting that. I myself watched and wrote about TAR17 – Donny Mills vs Shane Van Boening and loved every minute of it. I did find it ironic to see the “No Gambling” sign on the wall directly behind the table Donny and Shane were playing on.

The match didn’t make me want to gamble, I’m just not into gambling, but I bet that the excitement of that match and others like it does raise the likelihood that audience members will participate, though maybe at smaller amounts.

If all gambling was via TAR type matches I wouldn’t have written this post because the harm to pool would be non-existent. But most gambling does not happen in environments like that, and I don’t think it ever will.

As to basing my opinions on stereotypes and conjectures, I would say guilty. I do not know most pool players and certainly don’t know most people, and cannot show you 3rd party authenticated statistics to back up my claims. But based on all I’ve seen, experienced and read about, I’m satisfied that I haven’t misrepresented pool’s poor reputation. That reputation is much better inside the community than outside it, since we have a much better idea what a small fraction of the pool playing world hustlers and their cohorts really are, but pool’s reputation outside of the pool world is important too, if pool is to grow and pro pool is to prosper.

“but most gambling won’t be done on TAR and as TAR gets more popular it will encourage more people to gamble more than they do now.” – this is like saying that violent video games encourages kids to go out and kill. it’s simply untrue or, at the very least, unproven.

i think the issues i have with your post is that none of it is based on any facts. it’s all stereotypes and conjectures.

Public gambling, via a mechanism like TAR, eliminates the negatives, hustling, debt collection, fighting, cheating, etc., but most gambling won’t be done on TAR and as TAR gets more popular it will encourage more people to gamble more than they do now.

While I believe each person should be allowed to make their own decisions and live their lives they way they see fit, that doesn’t prevent me from lamenting the results.

Your post made me want to comment but what I wanted to say would take up far too much space. So instead I made an entry on my site addressing the matter.

http://brooklynjay.blogspot.com/2010/03/thats-why-they-call-it-action.html

It’s definitely an interesting topic.

Big Buddha