Chapter 10- Secrets of Pool revealed
Pool is a gangster's game, a common misconception which is more or less true, haha. I thought so too actually. But if you watch real competitions on tv, westerners wearing vests and tight pants looking really serious, you will change your perception on pool. So how did pool start for the 5 of us? Wei zhou, teck siang, yuan hong and me? It all started at sabrina's house. At that time, we were all still nerds, it was only me, kenneth and shi xiong then. And at that time, shi xiong was a hero to us, a hero we all looked up upon. We were all noobier than noobs can be. Few trips to her house later, i figured that i wasn't a pool player, this is not my thing, so i stopped. A while later, they invited wei zhou to play and this was where wei zhou started to love the game, his father was a pro but he never had interest in it. In the months that followed, wei zhou was in a pool frenzy, the seed of pool was planted in his heart and the roots have taken hold, paralysing it...forcing him to PLAY PLAY PLAY PLAY!!! So he was crazy and his skills escalated as he took courses, had a coach and constantly played, he invited several people to safra where they started to go to play. One fine friday afternoon, teck siang asked me if i knew how to play pool. As i thought i had much more experience although i was a nooby noob then, i said i knew and i could even play better than him. So he and everyone else went to safra. That was my first time, and my last time, of my noob career. Teck siang thrashed me like he could never have thrashed me before. I was throwing a tantrum then, haha, i was pissed, dumbfounded, and pissed. The cocky me thought that teck siang was a new fry to fry, so i underestimated him.....So i continued to believe that i was not a pooler.
Many months later, in june 2005, my family went out to have lunch. My father then took up his handphone and called someone, he then told me he'll be going to some warehouse to look at foosball tables. When we went there, i saw a lousy pool table but still it was a pool table!!! So i begged my father to buy it. In the end, he bought one foosball table and one pool table. This was the beginning of my unnooby career. For days and days and weeks and weeks i trained myself at the table, lousy, yet it built my basics. In the middle of the summer of july, i decided to move on to my No1 target, Lee Teck Siang..a.k.a Teck Tea Siang. I challenged him, to one game of pure pool. That day, several people went, and i played. While we were travelling on the bus to safra, because murali was taking the same bus home, i stressed to him the importance of me winning teck siang that afternoon, i said that if i didn't win, that month of training at my home proved worthless and futile, then i would still end up the worthless lousy nooby player that i once was.
The game started and me and teck siang were neck to neck, pocketing balls after balls, there was definitely improvement in my game. Alas!!!! Teck Siang was down to his last ball, the black 8, and he missed. I had 3 striped balls and one 8 to hit in. I was stressed. Very stressed. first hit, pot, second hit, pot. third ball was sticking to the cushion, small roll, pot, and with ease, 8 ball, pot. I was happy.
I HAD FINALLY WON TECK TEA SIANG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes, he smiled at me, the usual dirty smile, but by the looks of his defeated face, he was depressed. Word travelled fast, i had evolved from noob to not noob, a miraculous evolution. Teck Siang was pretty sour about it, ok maybe not that sour, but he definitely wasn't that happy was he? So Wei Zhou invited both of us to his house to play. So, it wasn't nothing really, i only beat teck siang 6-0, so that wasn't much...haha....sorry teck siang. I promised him i wouldn't tell everyone the following day, but when i got to school, everyone asked me whether it was true in disbelief, hey ah teck, you told them yourself! HAha.
So that was how we began, and as the days went by, the ranking was: 1-wei zhou 2-kenneth 3-me 4-teck. We began to go more frequently, and the numbers lessened to the 4 of us, plus yuan hong. Teck was wei zhou's disciple, he had a huge advantage and he went to safra more than me. I learnt and trained myself and my table sucked. So that was how we were, although we were still quite amateurish.
As the months went by, i slipped in to the great depression, I felt i wasn't a good player, teck siang beat me game after game and proved that he was stronger in terms of his skills. To tell you the truth, no one knows who is better. People say he is accurate, he makes good shots, people say i have a great stance, accurate, make good pots...hhaa, isn't that all the same? But i'm an emotional pool player, emotions affect my game. When i'm in a good mood, i'll play relatively well, if i am not, i'll just get thrashed round after round. One thing I admire teck siang for is how relaxed and cool he is. HE IS EMOTIONLESS!! But he psyches alot!! He'll just have to make girly noises and give a dirty look on his face...that's enough to make me miss...Back to the depression days, I couldn't believe it but i accepted the fact as i kept losing. I realised that i was too rushed, too nervous, and too eager, when i am losing, i can't keep my cool and that spoils that game, and the game after the next, and the game after the next, in fact, it spoils every game for the day. I changed, i started to cut down on saying shit after missing balls, i started to praise opponents, laugh more, joke more, encourage more and be more quiet. But under such hostile environments when i sometimes feel left out, i can't help it. Wei zhou's always siding and giving tips to teck, and kenneth can be quite sarcastic at times, haha, which demoralises me and i feel alone many times. But teck can keep his cool quite well except on times when i'm on a run and teck goes crazy... In these few weeks, i proved to teck siang again i was the better player, always beating him, because of the improved way i played the game, but because i didn't want much competition among us, i told him that i'd settle for equal...But actually, i always seem lousier, i never keep my form when i play with people looking at me, i feel that they expect something good, something i can't deliver when i'm pressured to.
So, enough of boasting about myself, i ain't that good, the fact is, i am amazed the 5 of us 14/15 year olds can attain such a great skill of this game...really, i think we're pretty good for 14/15 year olds. No one has ever expected us to be good before, besides wei zhou, everyone knows he's good. Although, there are still alot of 14/15 year olds in this school or outside better than us, but that's the minority of singapore, and we belong to that minority of average 14/15 year old pool players in singapore. But many of them aren't good people to mix with, people who just play pool for the friends they make. That's why people always get the misconception that pool is a gangster's game, but for the 5 of us, we are the absolute opposite, haha. We're quite decent actually, although the other 4 do splurt vulgarities, haha, but we aren't bad, if not how do we get to e1 and e2? The thing that keeps us together is our spirit and our togetherness. For example when we play tag with strangers. It's really hard to keep your cool when you play with strangers, especially tag games, on top of feeling the pressure to win, you feel the pressure to make good shots so as not to cause the team to fail, and you will feel bad if you make bad shots. But our team has worked pretty well thru the months. The first thing kenneth says after he misses a shot is, '' Sorry hexun, sorry.'' Haha, that explains the pressure. But the trick is to boost the morale of your team mate, make him know that you don't mind him missing shots, and when he feels that, you enter his heart and you assure him, he knows that now you're with him 100%. When you're playing tag, your friend is somewhat like your enemy, i mean, in the sense of missing shots, you are afraid your friend blames you. So, make him know that you're rooting him 100% and he will do it. That was how we did it, and because the other team from another school couldn't do it, they lost 3-0 to me kenneth and yuan hong. Sometimes, one just feels proud of what he is today, honestly, we aren't bad for kiddies. Like last time at my friends house, there was a snooker table there. An old man challenged me to a game of pool on that table. I was so scared i wanted to pee in my pants for 1 hour. On top of that, there was a group of foreign teens watching us, on top of that there was a bunch of 6-7 year old kids, where one of the boys was boasting to his friends how well he could play and criticizing how i played, seriously, i felt pissed he was criticizing me, he kept snorting at every stroke i made and laughed at me. I told him i was sorry for being such a lousy player. Until i did a masse for him, wei zhou taught me this, the ball curled...that shut them up..haha. So, back to the game and by the look at his stance, i knew this wasn't an amateur, he was good. I didn't lose my cool, i just played how i usually played, in high moods actually..and also because my church friend was by my side. So in the end, i lost, he hit the black ball first...it was a close game. And luckily for him he won, could you imagine how embarrased i would feel if i was 70+ and i lose to a 14 year old? Haha, but nevertheless, i congratulated him and told him it was a good game, he just nodded and walked off.
So, pool isn't about the atmosphere, how it is always filled with undesireable characters, it is about the adrenaline rush, about the feeling of people behind you eyeing your every stroke, your movement, your execution. It's the sense of achievement. But to some people, it's a chance to get back or show people who's the boss to people they don't like. Sometimes, you don't really like a person and by peaceful ways, like playing pool, he steps back and respects you, and in some cases, it works for me, haha.
So this is my pool, not the cursing, not the fights, not the bad sportsmanship, not the gangsters, not the undesireable characters, but the sport, the adrenaline rush, the game.
Many months later, in june 2005, my family went out to have lunch. My father then took up his handphone and called someone, he then told me he'll be going to some warehouse to look at foosball tables. When we went there, i saw a lousy pool table but still it was a pool table!!! So i begged my father to buy it. In the end, he bought one foosball table and one pool table. This was the beginning of my unnooby career. For days and days and weeks and weeks i trained myself at the table, lousy, yet it built my basics. In the middle of the summer of july, i decided to move on to my No1 target, Lee Teck Siang..a.k.a Teck Tea Siang. I challenged him, to one game of pure pool. That day, several people went, and i played. While we were travelling on the bus to safra, because murali was taking the same bus home, i stressed to him the importance of me winning teck siang that afternoon, i said that if i didn't win, that month of training at my home proved worthless and futile, then i would still end up the worthless lousy nooby player that i once was.
The game started and me and teck siang were neck to neck, pocketing balls after balls, there was definitely improvement in my game. Alas!!!! Teck Siang was down to his last ball, the black 8, and he missed. I had 3 striped balls and one 8 to hit in. I was stressed. Very stressed. first hit, pot, second hit, pot. third ball was sticking to the cushion, small roll, pot, and with ease, 8 ball, pot. I was happy.
I HAD FINALLY WON TECK TEA SIANG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes, he smiled at me, the usual dirty smile, but by the looks of his defeated face, he was depressed. Word travelled fast, i had evolved from noob to not noob, a miraculous evolution. Teck Siang was pretty sour about it, ok maybe not that sour, but he definitely wasn't that happy was he? So Wei Zhou invited both of us to his house to play. So, it wasn't nothing really, i only beat teck siang 6-0, so that wasn't much...haha....sorry teck siang. I promised him i wouldn't tell everyone the following day, but when i got to school, everyone asked me whether it was true in disbelief, hey ah teck, you told them yourself! HAha.
So that was how we began, and as the days went by, the ranking was: 1-wei zhou 2-kenneth 3-me 4-teck. We began to go more frequently, and the numbers lessened to the 4 of us, plus yuan hong. Teck was wei zhou's disciple, he had a huge advantage and he went to safra more than me. I learnt and trained myself and my table sucked. So that was how we were, although we were still quite amateurish.
As the months went by, i slipped in to the great depression, I felt i wasn't a good player, teck siang beat me game after game and proved that he was stronger in terms of his skills. To tell you the truth, no one knows who is better. People say he is accurate, he makes good shots, people say i have a great stance, accurate, make good pots...hhaa, isn't that all the same? But i'm an emotional pool player, emotions affect my game. When i'm in a good mood, i'll play relatively well, if i am not, i'll just get thrashed round after round. One thing I admire teck siang for is how relaxed and cool he is. HE IS EMOTIONLESS!! But he psyches alot!! He'll just have to make girly noises and give a dirty look on his face...that's enough to make me miss...Back to the depression days, I couldn't believe it but i accepted the fact as i kept losing. I realised that i was too rushed, too nervous, and too eager, when i am losing, i can't keep my cool and that spoils that game, and the game after the next, and the game after the next, in fact, it spoils every game for the day. I changed, i started to cut down on saying shit after missing balls, i started to praise opponents, laugh more, joke more, encourage more and be more quiet. But under such hostile environments when i sometimes feel left out, i can't help it. Wei zhou's always siding and giving tips to teck, and kenneth can be quite sarcastic at times, haha, which demoralises me and i feel alone many times. But teck can keep his cool quite well except on times when i'm on a run and teck goes crazy... In these few weeks, i proved to teck siang again i was the better player, always beating him, because of the improved way i played the game, but because i didn't want much competition among us, i told him that i'd settle for equal...But actually, i always seem lousier, i never keep my form when i play with people looking at me, i feel that they expect something good, something i can't deliver when i'm pressured to.
So, enough of boasting about myself, i ain't that good, the fact is, i am amazed the 5 of us 14/15 year olds can attain such a great skill of this game...really, i think we're pretty good for 14/15 year olds. No one has ever expected us to be good before, besides wei zhou, everyone knows he's good. Although, there are still alot of 14/15 year olds in this school or outside better than us, but that's the minority of singapore, and we belong to that minority of average 14/15 year old pool players in singapore. But many of them aren't good people to mix with, people who just play pool for the friends they make. That's why people always get the misconception that pool is a gangster's game, but for the 5 of us, we are the absolute opposite, haha. We're quite decent actually, although the other 4 do splurt vulgarities, haha, but we aren't bad, if not how do we get to e1 and e2? The thing that keeps us together is our spirit and our togetherness. For example when we play tag with strangers. It's really hard to keep your cool when you play with strangers, especially tag games, on top of feeling the pressure to win, you feel the pressure to make good shots so as not to cause the team to fail, and you will feel bad if you make bad shots. But our team has worked pretty well thru the months. The first thing kenneth says after he misses a shot is, '' Sorry hexun, sorry.'' Haha, that explains the pressure. But the trick is to boost the morale of your team mate, make him know that you don't mind him missing shots, and when he feels that, you enter his heart and you assure him, he knows that now you're with him 100%. When you're playing tag, your friend is somewhat like your enemy, i mean, in the sense of missing shots, you are afraid your friend blames you. So, make him know that you're rooting him 100% and he will do it. That was how we did it, and because the other team from another school couldn't do it, they lost 3-0 to me kenneth and yuan hong. Sometimes, one just feels proud of what he is today, honestly, we aren't bad for kiddies. Like last time at my friends house, there was a snooker table there. An old man challenged me to a game of pool on that table. I was so scared i wanted to pee in my pants for 1 hour. On top of that, there was a group of foreign teens watching us, on top of that there was a bunch of 6-7 year old kids, where one of the boys was boasting to his friends how well he could play and criticizing how i played, seriously, i felt pissed he was criticizing me, he kept snorting at every stroke i made and laughed at me. I told him i was sorry for being such a lousy player. Until i did a masse for him, wei zhou taught me this, the ball curled...that shut them up..haha. So, back to the game and by the look at his stance, i knew this wasn't an amateur, he was good. I didn't lose my cool, i just played how i usually played, in high moods actually..and also because my church friend was by my side. So in the end, i lost, he hit the black ball first...it was a close game. And luckily for him he won, could you imagine how embarrased i would feel if i was 70+ and i lose to a 14 year old? Haha, but nevertheless, i congratulated him and told him it was a good game, he just nodded and walked off.
So, pool isn't about the atmosphere, how it is always filled with undesireable characters, it is about the adrenaline rush, about the feeling of people behind you eyeing your every stroke, your movement, your execution. It's the sense of achievement. But to some people, it's a chance to get back or show people who's the boss to people they don't like. Sometimes, you don't really like a person and by peaceful ways, like playing pool, he steps back and respects you, and in some cases, it works for me, haha.
So this is my pool, not the cursing, not the fights, not the bad sportsmanship, not the gangsters, not the undesireable characters, but the sport, the adrenaline rush, the game.
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