Your About.com Pool & Billiards Guide and his frequent collaborator, Donny Lutz, share why 8 Ball has meant so much to them through the years.
Matt: My grandfather shot pool overseas with other WW II servicemen before his basement was converted to a rec room with books, darts and Ping Pong, a card table and wet bar, chemistry and photography equipment, and my favorite, a quality pool table by Brunswick. I've played 8 Ball since I can remember.
Balls clacking then pocketing and returning beneath grandpa's table woke the whole house early in the morning. I wish I had a great 8 Ball instructor like Donny Lutz then, but memories of merriment with grandpa over stripes vs. solids remain.
Donny: My first exposure to pool was playing "Bumper Pool" with my dad in a Wisconsin tavern in 1955. After being banned from playing there (I won too many drinks for Dad!), I began to sneak into George's Pool Hall during the day to play with the old clay balls on a musty Brunswick from the 1920s.
My first tournament was an 8 Ball event for teenagers at the Masonic Temple in La Crosse. I lost to my best friend Carl, and vowed to become an 8 Ball player.
Matt: As a game and teaching tool, I find 8 Ball stimulating. You can't merely blast away at the balls but must consider table position, even before you take the break stroke. The player who thinks and plans best can defeat opponents who have better ball pocketing talents.
Donny: Eight Ball allows the shooter to make an error or two and still maintain control over the game, more so than 9 Ball for instance. You can also recover more easily from a bad roll or a good safety by your opponent. Yes, 8 Ball demands more thinking as there are almost unlimited options with any shot at any time.
Matt: Yes, 9 Ball is straightforward while in 8 Ball up to 7 enemy balls thwart one's best laid plans. I've enjoyed 8 Ball with some of the great pool thinkers out there including Mike "Captain Hook" Sigel, Billie Billing, Ray "Cool Cat" Martin, Nick "Kentucky Colonel" Varner, and of course my InsidePool debate nemesis, Donny Lutz.
Donny: Among the best 8 Ball players I've matched up against are Tommy Cramer, Billy Steele, Willy Munson, Bob Vanover, Seco Varani, Louie Lemke, Scott Kiddo, Greg Fix and Chris Walls. Among my most memorable matches are a 5-2 loss to Nick Varner in 1981, and a one-hour, 19 safety game that I lost to Pat O'Neill in Baltimore in '94.
Matt: 8 Ball speaks the language of pool internationally, too. I have fond memories of competition inside London pubs and Paris halls, in Germany, The Netherlands, and in hotspots in New York, L.A., Canada, here in Florida, and at many points between.
I have a trip to Chicago next month and plan to bust a few racks of 8 Ball inside Chris's Billiards and The Gingerman Tavern, both halls made famous by 1986's The Color of Money starring Paul Newman and Tom Cruise.
Donny: My only 8 Ball out-of-country play was in Tijuana on my eighteenth birthday in 1960. I once lost my entire bankroll of $7, playing at Lincoln Billiards in Minneapolis in 1962! To quote another old player, "I've never beat anybody or won anything!"
