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#2371 – Fedor Gorst Podcast Episode Description
Fedor Gorst is a professional pool player whose career highlights include championship wins at the World Nine-Ball Championship, the U.S. Open Pool Championship, and the Derby City Classic.www.fedorgorst.com
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#2371 – Fedor Gorst Podcast Episode Top Keywords
#2371 – Fedor Gorst Podcast Episode Summary
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#2371 – Fedor Gorst Podcast Episode Transcript (Unedited)
Speaker: 0
00:01
Joe Rogan podcast. Check it out. The Joe Rogan experience. Showing my day. Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. Yep.
Speaker: 1
00:13
Meh. This, a company called meh theory sent this to me. And, this was when Efren Reyes snuck into America under the nickname Cesar Morales Yeah. And, won some big tournament at Reds, wherever that is.
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Speaker: 0
00:26
Probably in, Chicago?
Speaker: 1
00:27
I don’t know. Put the headphones on, dog. Let’s get real. I was like, oh, you you don’t have to. Or we could not have headphones. Do they feel weird to you?
Speaker: 0
00:34
That’s good. No. No. No. It’s good. You’re
Speaker: 1
00:35
okay? I don’t care. It doesn’t matter. It’s just good if, like, we show a video or something like that. Right. Dude, you came that close to being two year in a row US Open champion. That’s fucking close.
Speaker: 0
00:46
Yeah. How’s the day going? I mean, I feel super tired because my schedule has been hectic lately. Yeah. You know, I played the world championships in Saudi where I also lost in the finals. Did you
Speaker: 1
00:57
play the Florida Open too?
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00:58
Florida Open. Ai played the tournament in between that. Sai, basically, I played back to back to back to back four events.
Speaker: 1
01:03
Wow.
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01:04
It’s been over a month already, you know, staying on the road, constantly playing.
Speaker: 1
01:09
Dude, this is the real good argument. You’re the best player in the world. And if you’re the best player in the world, I think you are. You got my vote. If you’re the best player in the world today, you’re the best player of all time.
Speaker: 0
01:20
Oh, well. I mean, it’s really tough too.
Speaker: 1
01:22
A lot of old guys talk a lot of shah, but I’m just saying. Always. I mean, this guy ram my shirt, he certainly gets the like, as as far as, like, the greatest of all time, most achievements of all time, Efren. The z shot, like, all the crazy stuff that he could pull off with a cue ball.
Speaker: 0
01:35
Did you see the shot that I
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01:37
made recently?
Speaker: 0
01:38
Which one? The three
Speaker: 1
01:39
rail kick. I did see that.
Speaker: 0
01:40
Yeah. I mean, it it is tougher. It it is a tougher kick. It wasn’t as as, it wasn’t as, you know, the situation wasn’t like it was a hill hill
Speaker: 1
01:49
ai he
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01:49
played against Earl, you know, in the ai. So it’s a obviously, it’s a meh, much, different ai, But, the kick that I made was sick.
Speaker: 1
01:59
It was sick. It was pretty sick. Well, you know what? The Filipinos put kicking on the map. Right?
Speaker: 0
02:03
Oh, for sure. They’re the best.
Speaker: 1
02:04
Efren, when he came over here, he did they changed the whole game. Jose Parico was really good at it too.
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02:09
Carlo Ai is the best kicker.
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02:11
Sai good. It’s it’s amazing.
Speaker: 0
02:13
Yeah. That’s the one. That’s the one. Good thing I have a filmmaker traveling with me everywhere filming me now.
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02:21
That’s a crazy shot.
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02:22
Yeah. I was I was I actually lost that meh to, Duong Kwok. Almost made shape on the two wall too.
Speaker: 1
02:28
Yeah. That’s what’s horrible when you make an amazing shot and then lose a match.
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02:32
Yeah. That’s how it goes.
Speaker: 1
02:35
Yeah. Look. It’s a crazy game. And the game that you guys are playing right now the reason why I said I think if you’re the best player today, you’re the best player of all time because the conditions are very different for people who don’t know, who don’t play pool. Okay? If you’re going to a regular bar and you’re playing on, like, a bar table, the those pockets might be five and a half inches.
Speaker: 0
02:55
Well, also, in US, people are playing on seven foot tables versus we play on the front. Yeah.
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02:59
Sure. They’re nine foot tables and the pockets are four inches. And sai, when you get two cue balls, you try to put them next to each other and try to stick you can’t even get close to sticking them in a four inch pocket. It’s really tight conditions. And I think there’s better players now than I’ve ever seen in my life.
Speaker: 1
03:17
And I’ve been watching pool for thirty five years and playing pool for thirty five years. I’ve never seen better players than play today, and I think you’re the best today. So in my book, that makes you the best of all time.
Speaker: 0
03:28
Well, like you said, the conditions are completely different. The game changed even in the last three years. I think the game changed drastically. Yeah. You know, we went, we changed the breaking formats. Used to be one ball on the spot with the magic ram. No three point rule.
Speaker: 0
03:42
So
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03:42
All the people at home that don’t play pool go, what the fuck are they talking about? We’re talking about professional pool, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker: 0
03:48
Yeah. Yeah. We have, all kinds of little little rules. Yeah.
Speaker: 1
03:52
The nine ball on the spot made a big difference. Right?
Speaker: 0
03:55
Yeah. Nine ball on the spot, break box.
Speaker: 1
03:57
Yeah. When you were showing me today how to break that way, I was like, oh, that’s crazy. Like, you have to hit it with draw and you have to aim towards the back ball. Like, wow.
Speaker: 0
04:06
Yeah. Well, we we can’t really say that. Oh. Because the
Speaker: 1
04:08
other Too late.
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04:09
The others. The others.
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04:11
The others. Yeah. Yeah. It’s an insanely competitive, game now. And and shout out to Matchroom. Right? Because Matchroom with, DAZN, they’ve done an amazing job with boxing and a bunch of other sports. But what they’re doing with pool is crazy. It’s there’s so many events and it’s all over. You can get it on the World ai Ball Tour. It’s wnt.tv. Right?
Speaker: 0
04:33
Yeah. They so so they
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04:34
went ai.
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04:35
I think they moved from dozen to that to their
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04:37
subscription tyler, platform. Amazing. It’s amazing. And then there’s also their Matchroom Pool YouTube channel, which has tons of stuff on it for free. It’s like
Speaker: 0
04:45
They are elevating the game for sure, and they are the reason why pool is where it’s at today, you know, versus where it was five years ago, I think. Yeah. It’s huge.
Speaker: 1
04:53
I I have friends who send me videos now. Like, people just randomly find videos on TikTok or on Instagram, you know.
Speaker: 0
05:00
Pool is booming on social media and, you know, I I do my own social media. I have a filmmaker that follows me everywhere. We, you know, try to film as much stuff.
Speaker: 1
05:07
It’s very funny what you did in New York City or in Atlantic City rather, when you went to that pool hall and you went under skies.
Speaker: 0
05:13
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was Metro Metro’s idea. I think, it was pretty cheap budget. We could do it a lot better, especially when we go to Asia, I think. You know?
Speaker: 1
05:21
You can’t sneak around at any pool hall.
Speaker: 0
05:22
Well, if you put me and make me look like a grandpa or something.
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05:26
Okay.
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05:27
You know?
Speaker: 1
05:27
Ai, you’d have to get in disguise. Yeah. Yeah. Well, their disguises are really good today. Have you ever seen those CIA disguises that they use? Uh-uh. So apparently, this is a story. Apparently, and this was told to me by someone who I really trust. Obama was having a meeting with someone in, one of the rooms in the White House.
Speaker: 1
05:48
And he’s in the middle of having this meeting with someone who’s met before and had conversations with before. And then they inform him, mister president, we just sana let you know this is not who you think you’re talking to, and we just wanted to demonstrate how good the, special effects makeup is and masks are.
Speaker: 1
06:07
Mhmm. This is not that person. And he was like, what? Now, I haven’t confirmed this. Ai I don’t have Obama’s number.
Speaker: 1
06:13
Well, I’m like, where I can call him up and go, bro. Is that real? Yeah. But Ai believe it’s real. Because I’ve seen up close, like, really ins like, when, Tony Hinchcliffe does kill Tony, sometimes, they have makeup artists that dress people up and make them different people.
Speaker: 1
06:31
Like, they they did a Biden one, and, Kyle Dunnigan played Elon Musk, and I didn’t even recognize him. I was like, who’s this guy? Ai, this is this is this weird guy, like, acting weird. And they’re like, that’s Dunigan playing Elon Musk. I was like, no way.
Speaker: 1
06:45
And right in front of him, I thought it was just some didn’t look like Elon Musk. Ai like a weird guy. Mhmm. But it didn’t look like ai, and it looked like a person. It didn’t look like a guy in makeup. It didn’t look like a mask.
Speaker: 1
06:56
It looked like a real person. It just was weird looking. I was like, this is crazy.
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07:00
Yeah. That’s what we should do. And I think it’s gonna be really, really good if we do that in Asia, like Vietnam or Philippines.
Speaker: 1
07:05
You gotta work on that voice, though, son. You rush all day with that voice.
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07:09
I know. I know. I can only be like an undercover I don’t know. Yeah. Somebody from
Speaker: 1
07:16
And for people that are at home, how how could he be the number one in the world if he just lost? Aloysius Yap should be the number one in the world. He should be the number one of all time. It’s like long races are really what’s up. Right?
Speaker: 0
07:28
Well, it’s, by the rankings, I’m number one. By the rankings. And, what we have now with Meh, it’s two years of prize money combined throughout all the tournaments.
Speaker: 1
07:37
But I think the real matches that you play where you really get to see who’s the best, and this is only for, like, hardcore pool nerds. The real ones, ai, the one you did with Shane was, like, three days, race to 40 each day, a 120 games total.
Speaker: 0
07:52
Oh, yeah.
Speaker: 1
07:53
That way, there’s no questions. No. After three days and a 120 games of pool, you know, possibly 239 games of pool.
Speaker: 0
08:04
That’s how I almost won the first time we played.
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08:06
Really?
Speaker: 0
08:07
Ai lost I lost the first time.
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08:08
That’s right.
Speaker: 0
08:09
I lost 120 to 116. I was down and up, up and down. And last day, I was up by almost 15 games, I remember, and he came back and beat me. Yeah.
Speaker: 1
08:21
It was super impressive. But it was even more impressive you coming back the next year and steamrolling him. Like, you you won by quite a few games. How many did you win by?
Speaker: 0
08:30
By, 42, I think.
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08:32
42 games is crazy. Yeah.
Speaker: 0
08:34
That’s crazy. 20 to 78. I think that’s that was the score.
Speaker: 1
08:36
And that was for did you advertise how much that money wasn’t being We were gambled?
Speaker: 0
08:43
Well, we were advertising that it was for 50, but it was, a little bit more.
Speaker: 1
08:47
So you had a bunch of other people ai it, throwing money in?
Speaker: 0
08:50
Yeah. Yeah. Well, myself included.
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08:53
So you don’t wanna say the the actual total? I
Speaker: 0
08:56
don’t know. Okay. So Okay. Are we allowed?
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08:59
I don’t know. I mean, unless you’re lying to the IRS, which as a new citizen, I would say don’t do that.
Speaker: 0
09:05
So, yeah, we’ll we’ll play for 50. We’ll play for 50.
Speaker: 1
09:09
Oh, no. You’re sana get in trouble. You you I don’t think you were a citizen last time you were here. Right?
Speaker: 0
09:14
No. I’m not a citizen now. I have a permanent residency in my car. Yeah.
Speaker: 1
09:18
When do what do you have to do to become a citizen?
Speaker: 0
09:19
I think, you have to be a permanent resident for five years, and then you can apply if you, follow certain rules. Like, you have to stay in The US for six out of six months of the year, out of the calendar year each year.
Speaker: 1
09:31
Well, you better stay away from Home Depot because those dudes are getting crazy. Yeah. They’re snatching people up left and right.
Speaker: 0
09:36
Yeah. Yeah. No. I think I think I do everything ai. You know, I pay my taxes. Yeah. I follow I follow all the rules.
Speaker: 1
09:44
Well, you gotta play that’s weird that you if you’re not a citizen, but still you get to play for the Moscone Cup. That’s kinda crazy.
Speaker: 0
09:49
Well, Metroom Metroom changed the rules, you know, as soon as I got the green card. And I wasn’t able to play in any official tournaments back then.
Speaker: 1
09:56
Right. Because you were Russian. Yeah. Yeah. So the Which is really crazy. It was really weird.
Speaker: 0
10:02
Yeah. When you think about it, even the first ban that we got as a Russian athlete, happened because of hockey players. The WADA, Nevada, Anti Doping Association, they banned all the Russian athletes. Doesn’t matter what sport you’re in. What? Yeah. Really?
Speaker: 1
10:19
Yeah. Oh, so it had nothing to do with the war?
Speaker: 0
10:22
The first one happened before the war was 2000 and, ’18 or ’19, I think.
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10:26
All Russian athletes competing in America?
Speaker: 0
10:28
All Russian athletes competing everywhere. It was everywhere. Vatsal played World Cup of Pool, I meh, in, UK under no flag. But we were still able to compete. Like, when after the war, we were not allowed to compete anywhere.
Speaker: 1
10:40
Wow. Wow. You know what’s interesting? It never stopped the UFC. Like, not only do Russian fighters fight in the UFC, but they’re celebrated. No one cares.
Speaker: 0
10:51
Because they’re not under the Olympic Committee, I think.
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10:56
They’re definitely not. It’s a professional sport.
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10:58
Well, and that’s what happened with Metro too. You know, it’s a private company.
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11:02
Right.
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11:02
It’s not a federation or, association. They’re just a private company, and they basically make their own rules.
Speaker: 1
11:09
I was just glad that they didn’t make it political. I’m like, do you think fucking this guy is out there causing trouble? Like, he’s just a fighter. He’s just as a professional MMA fighter, you know? This is this is what he does. And let’s think about that. Let’s not think about what these other people are doing that are in the same country as him. It’s not him.
Speaker: 0
11:30
Yeah. Sai in South Africa
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11:31
USA didn’t they didn’t care. Like, they allowed a bunch of like, for the entire time of the war, Ukrainian guys and Russian guys are fighting on the same card sometimes.
Speaker: 0
11:38
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I’m glad that just, you know, Metro Metro went out of their own way to make an offer to me and say, you know, you can represent United States. And at the time, we were playing the US Open in Atlantic City two years ago. Or was it? Yeah. Two years ago. And the crowd is cheering for me.
Speaker: 0
11:55
You know, I’m living in The United States already. Everybody’s treating me like I’m one of their own. Now it’s obviously completely different. You know, if you watch the US Open from last week, everybody’s supporting me. Everybody’s cheering for me. Everybody’s being used to me living here.
Speaker: 1
12:10
Cool thing about America is that it’s a nation of immigrants.
Speaker: 0
12:13
Mhmm.
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12:14
It’s ai you can come over here and just sai, I’m American now. Everybody’s like, alright.
Speaker: 0
12:18
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: 1
12:19
Try that in Poland. They’re like, you’re not Polish.
Speaker: 0
12:21
Get the fuck out of here. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, there’s
Speaker: 1
12:23
a lot of countries like that that are like, no, you’re not one of us. But America is like, we don’t have, like, a nationality. We’re all ai of shit. So anybody can come over here is and if you do it the right way, we we get super happy.
Speaker: 0
12:37
Yeah. Yeah. I think I think it’s great. And I’m, I’m really really glad that people really welcomed you with the way the way they welcomed me.
Speaker: 1
12:44
Yeah. But it’s also the way you play, you know. There’s there’s a thing in pool. It gets when people play a lot and people really in the pool, it’s almost like that’s the only thing that matters. The only thing that matters is how good you play. You know, there was a do you ever read that book, McGurty?
Speaker: 1
13:01
It was a Robert Burns book on a ai who lived during the depression, who’s a billiards hustler, travel around the country? No. There’s a scene in that where they were looking at the television and Nixon was on TV. And he goes, look at that ai. President of The United States and he can’t make a ball. Isn’t that funny? Because you and I know what that means.
Speaker: 0
13:25
Yeah.
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13:25
Ai, that in the pool world, that really means something. Like, if you you can’t play at all, like, it’s a fucking president. You can’t even
Speaker: 0
13:33
play. Yeah.
Speaker: 1
13:34
It’s it’s real. It’s weird. So if you come to America, all that they care about is if you put since it’s a melting pot already. And then it’s ai, all they care about is how good you play. And you play pretty fucking good. So far. People just take in. So far, well, you’re playing better now than ever before and you’re only I think
Speaker: 0
13:55
I’m on top of my career right now.
Speaker: 1
13:56
What are you, 25?
Speaker: 0
13:57
25.
Speaker: 1
13:57
Yeah. Come on, man. You’re not even in your prime.
Speaker: 0
14:00
No. Yeah. I think I’m not in my prime. I think, you know, I’m getting better every year.
Speaker: 1
14:05
I think so. You were you the match that you had with that Filipino gentleman before the match in the ai, what what is that guy’s name? Michael Yep. Bo That
Speaker: 0
14:15
was, Michael Bono in quarter finals.
Speaker: 1
14:17
Quarter ai. Mhmm. Yeah. So in that match, I was watching some of those outs and I was like, Jesus, like, it doesn’t get better pool than that. Ai, four inch pockets, tight competition, a really good player, a lot of pressure, Everybody’s there, single elimination at that point.
Speaker: 0
14:36
Yep.
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14:36
And he’s just getting out, man.
Speaker: 0
14:38
Yeah. The pressure the pressure is really high. I’m not gonna lie that sometimes even, you can watch it on TV and you don’t see the emotions. Oh, I I get it. I’m sure. Your bridge is shaking ai. Your backhand is shaking ai, and you just gotta you just gotta manage it. You just gotta handle it.
Speaker: 1
14:54
Well, you have such a process when you play. Like, when I watch you set up for a ball, it’s always uniform. It’s it’s that’s what I really enjoy watching. When a guy is like every shot, it’s ai,
Speaker: 0
15:10
oh. Some people find it It’s
Speaker: 1
15:11
nice and smooth. Oh, those people are assholes. Assholes. Those people are assholes. If they think your style is boring
Speaker: 0
15:17
You say it’s, like, you know, robotic.
Speaker: 1
15:19
They’ll go they’re all pussies. They can eat shit. Those ai, all all they are is jealous. That’s all that is. Everybody wants to play like that. Everybody wants to play like that. If they say because you play too good, it’s not fun to watch. Shah up. Yeah. I know.
Speaker: 1
15:34
You that guy whoever that guy ai, I don’t wanna listen to his opinion on anything. I guarantee you, he like he ai shows that suck. He could meh in his car, listen to his music. It probably sucks.
Speaker: 0
15:45
Probably. How do you how do
Speaker: 1
15:47
you not want like watching someone play perfect? That’s crazy.
Speaker: 0
15:51
Well, I hell have to agree.
Speaker: 1
15:53
Doesn’t make any sense. But then there are guys who play wild that is fun to watch, like Mohammed Sufi. That ai, he gives me anxiety.
Speaker: 0
16:01
Yeah. Very unique. You know, sidearm.
Speaker: 1
16:03
Sidearm, barely holding on to the cue, and he just fires balls in. He runs around the table. He, like, one strokes everything, and he’s just getting out from everywhere. You’re ai, ah.
Speaker: 0
16:14
Yeah. He’s very, very talented. And he meh have a few few ai like that. You know Oliver Bryden? Yes.
Speaker: 1
16:19
I remember him.
Speaker: 0
16:20
Yeah. So he used to win, you know, world championships in multiple world time times. He was a Moscone Cup and won ai
Speaker: 1
16:27
Tony Drago?
Speaker: 0
16:28
Yeah. Tony Drago, same.
Speaker: 1
16:29
That guy was crazy. He was just running around the table, fireballs in and couldn’t miss. Yeah. Those those guys are fun to watch. But what are we here for? Right? You’re you’re here to win. You’re here to run out. You’re here to get perfect position. You’re here to dominate this very difficult table.
Speaker: 0
16:46
Yeah. Everybody’s different. Everybody ai their own style.
Speaker: 1
16:48
But under extreme pressure, it’s better to have your ai. Like, or coping Chung ai, coping Yi ai, methodical backstroke. It’s always looks the sai, smooth delivery. And, you know, I play half ass pool, but I understand what’s going on. It’s such a mind fuck.
Speaker: 0
17:08
Oh, yeah.
Speaker: 1
17:09
Every game is such a mind fuck. Every time you’re about to pull the trigger, ai, now, no. One more stroke. Now, no. One more backstroke. Now? No. Not yet. Not okay. We’re ready. I hope we’re ready. Go.
Speaker: 0
17:23
Well, you don’t really have that because we play when we play, we have shot clock. Yeah. Yeah. Shot clock is brutal. Shot clock shot clock is a game changer for sure.
Speaker: 1
17:31
It’s
Speaker: 0
17:31
hell. Because you gotta, you know, make the decision basically right right out of the gate, right out of the chair. When you’re in chair, you already know what you’re gonna do because you only have thirty seconds and one extension per meh, which gives you an extra thirty seconds.
Speaker: 0
17:44
And, sometimes the pressure is really ai. And when you get completely brain dead, you don’t wanna be in that position.
Speaker: 1
17:52
I think the Derby’s a little bit better. They give you a little ten more seconds.
Speaker: 0
17:55
I think that’s the best thing to do. Where you’re as long as you stay down on the shot, the shot clock doesn’t doesn’t
Speaker: 1
18:01
That’s good too. Yeah. The other thing that’s brutal is the beeps. Oh, yeah. When it gets down to five seconds before you gotta pull the trigger and you pull the trigger on a nine ball with one second to go.
Speaker: 0
18:12
Oh, yeah.
Speaker: 1
18:13
I was watching. I was like, oh meh god. I would I would be having a heart attack right now.
Speaker: 0
18:18
Ai almost had. Almost had. Ai Cup is definitely when it comes to pressure, it’s the highest pressure you can ever Well,
Speaker: 1
18:26
everyone’s screaming and cheering.
Speaker: 0
18:27
Everyone is screaming.
Speaker: 1
18:28
For people that haven’t seen it before, most pool tournaments are very very respectful. People will clap after you make an out or sometimes in the middle of a game, ai, if you make a really good shot, they’ll clap. If you get great position, they’ll clap. But as soon as you drop down to shoot the next ball, everybody gets quiet.
Speaker: 0
18:46
Oh, yeah.
Speaker: 1
18:46
Moscone Cup, those rules are those rules are off the table.
Speaker: 0
18:49
Off the table. Or sometimes they shark you.
Speaker: 1
18:51
You know? Yeah.
Speaker: 0
18:52
There would be a super loud, then you have a super tough nine ball and everybody would like for example, you play in UK. Mhmm. And, 95% of the crowd is European, so everybody’s cheering for Europe. Yeah. So let’s say I’m on the tough nine ball and everybody’s loud, and then everybody will go the and everybody will go quiet just in a second.
Speaker: 0
19:13
And, it’s really, really tough to pull the trigger in that situation. Yeah. So it’s a it’s a tough environment to play in, but, it what’s what makes this tournament speak?
Speaker: 1
19:22
Well, it’s fun to watch, though. Oh, yeah. Sure. I’m so glad that all tournaments aren’t like that, though, where you encourage people to be assholes.
Speaker: 0
19:28
Oh, yeah.
Speaker: 1
19:29
It’s kinda weird, though, that they’ve agreed to only be an asshole for one tournament. Because people yell out in the middle of, like, you stroking a ball.
Speaker: 0
19:39
You see the crowd getting more engaged and more now. Ai, you watch the US Open finals, it was loud. When I played Michael Bowen on the quarter ai Yeah. It was kinda like that because half of the crowd was Filipino. Well, not half, but there was a lot of a lot of guys that were loud.
Speaker: 1
19:53
This episode is brought to you by the farmer’s dog. I think we can all agree that eating highly processed food for every meal isn’t optimal. So why is processed food the status quo for dog food? Because that’s what kibble is, an ultra processed food. But a healthy alternative exists, the farmer’s dog.
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20:11
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20:29
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20:51
Head to the farmersdog.com/rogan to get 50% off your first box plus free shipping. This offer is for new customers only. Yeah. Let’s talk about that because one thing that happened is there’s a rule where you’re not allowed to soft speak. But soft breaking is basically very subjective.
Speaker: 1
21:09
Like, a referee can decide to call someone on it or not call someone on it, and you thought this guy was soft breaking. Yeah. So you said something, and the Filipinos went crazy.
Speaker: 0
21:18
Yeah. Everybody went crazy. I had to delete my Facebook for a couple days because it was just bothering me. I get I was getting notification every saloni. You know, crazy Filipino goes, yeah. You’re shah our player. You did that. But, yeah, I thought the guy was soft breaking, and the rules state that you gotta make your best effort to make a forceful break.
Speaker: 0
21:37
So that’s really subjective, and it’s up to the referee to make that call.
Speaker: 1
21:41
I have a solution to that. Yeah. And it makes it more interesting too. Radar.
Speaker: 0
21:45
Radar. Meh. Speed gun.
Speaker: 1
21:46
Yeah. It’s a easy solution.
Speaker: 0
21:49
I agree.
Speaker: 1
21:50
Easy solution and it makes it interesting. It’s a new element that you think about.
Speaker: 0
21:54
Then you also have, for example, juniors or girls. Do you make the roles the same for them?
Speaker: 1
21:59
Or No. It’s a good well, you don’t they’re not playing guys. Right? Well Girls are playing girls.
Speaker: 0
22:04
That would well, yeah. But on W and T tour, we it’s an open tournament, for example.
Speaker: 1
22:08
Oh, right. Right. Right.
Speaker: 0
22:09
Ladies and gentlemen, juniors can join. I see.
Speaker: 1
22:11
But I I thought you were talking about young kids. No. For young kids, you’d have to have an exception.
Speaker: 0
22:15
Exactly.
Speaker: 1
22:16
And for girls, you’d have to have an exception. But you would just change it just like, you know sai whatever the speed is, like, what is
Speaker: 0
22:25
What’s a ai or no?
Speaker: 1
22:26
What’s a good what’s a good break speed?
Speaker: 0
22:27
Like, do you
Speaker: 1
22:28
What
Speaker: 0
22:28
what do
Speaker: 1
22:28
you think you speak at? Like, Bustamante in his ai, what was he, like, 30 miles an hour?
Speaker: 0
22:33
Well, back in the day, it was different. Back in the day, everybody was breaking over twenty twenty three, 24, 25.
Speaker: 1
22:38
But Bustamante had the craziest break of
Speaker: 0
22:40
all time. Bustamante.
Speaker: 1
22:41
When he would let the cue go out of his fingers and then throw his whole body into it, his timing was crazy.
Speaker: 0
22:46
You ever watched the Russian player? His name was, Eugenie Stalif? No. Oh, you you gotta we gotta watch that stroke. It was it was even crazier. Really? Oh, yeah. It’s ai, Roberto Gomez.
Speaker: 1
22:58
Oh, yeah.
Speaker: 2
22:58
That’s crazy.
Speaker: 0
22:59
Same thing. He’s up.
Speaker: 1
23:00
Yeah.
Speaker: 0
23:01
Way up.
Speaker: 1
23:01
Way up. Yeah. That’s so hard to be accurate and do that.
Speaker: 0
23:06
Oh, yeah. I don’t know how they do it. I have no idea.
Speaker: 1
23:08
The most insane smooth delivery. And again, what a mind fuck because you’re about to you know, you’re trying to hit this one ball square on the face and you’re throwing all of your might into it.
Speaker: 0
23:21
Yeah. Yeah. So that’s how, Shane Shane’s breaking the same way, you know. His body moves first and then and then he delivers.
Speaker: 1
23:28
I’d like to know how fast he breaks when he breaks, like, 10 ball. Because when he 10 ball breaks, it’s pretty crazy.
Speaker: 0
23:33
He breaks pretty hard. You know? Yeah. I I like to break with, softer speed and with more control, but he he just whacks them.
Speaker: 1
23:39
So what do you think would be, like, a reasonable mile per hour that you would impose where you’d say anything slower than that is soft braking? Is it, like, 15 miles an hour or two?
Speaker: 0
23:50
Ai think it has to be ai. Maybe Higher. 18. And that will also push the players to practice. For example, you wouldn’t want to break borderline 18 because it meh be under. Right. Ai players will try to break harder. 19 closer to 19, maybe harder than 19.
Speaker: 1
24:05
Well, they used to do that three point rule where they would that was very annoying. Where You
Speaker: 0
24:10
think it was very annoying?
Speaker: 1
24:12
Yes. It was very annoying. Because sometimes guys would break hard, but the referee didn’t rack them that good.
Speaker: 0
24:18
Right.
Speaker: 1
24:18
And they made a ball, and then the the opponent gets to shoot. I’m like, that’s crazy.
Speaker: 0
24:23
That’s yeah. I mean, in that case, yes, I agree. But that’s another simple solution that’s better than what we have now, I think.
Speaker: 1
24:30
I think the radar is the way to go.
Speaker: 0
24:31
Yeah. The radar is definitely the way to go.
Speaker: 1
24:33
Sai ai, and also it’s kinda cool, you know, when you get to Yeah.
Speaker: 0
24:36
An extra stats you have. You know.
Speaker: 1
24:38
And some guys play like, Shane, even in nine ball when he does the cut break, he breaks really hard.
Speaker: 0
24:43
Kachi Kachi is the one that breaks the hardest.
Speaker: 1
24:45
Well, he’s a big fucking dude.
Speaker: 0
24:46
Oh, yeah. He breaks the hardest. I don’t know how he keeps the cue ball on the table, to be honest, for that speed.
Speaker: 1
24:51
And it doesn’t even look like he’s trying that hard, you know, because he’s a big dude. He just
Speaker: 0
24:54
Last time, he was breaking open bridge, which is even crazier.
Speaker: 1
24:57
Yeah. People that’s one thing about pool, though. If you wanna get spectators, you want hard breaks.
Speaker: 0
25:04
Yeah.
Speaker: 1
25:04
You know, like, people love it from ai the color of money. When Tom Cruise breaks and Paul Newman goes, who’s that kid with the sledgehammer speak? It’s a dumb American thing. But if you wanna get ai American people to tune in, you gotta break hard.
Speaker: 0
25:18
Yeah.
Speaker: 1
25:18
Like, well, that’s why Earl Strickland still gets meh, you know. He gets mad at everything. I heard Mike Siegel talk about it too. He was like, why don’t they just hit it straight on the one ball and hit it as hard as you can?
Speaker: 0
25:28
Because it’s no fun. You get zero control that way. It’s no skill, really.
Speaker: 1
25:33
I just think he’s doesn’t he’s hasn’t had someone lay it out to him, like like the way you just did with meh, where you explained it to me. This is the first time that I had anybody explain to me that particular break. I’m like, oh. And you you did it dead on. And you knew that the cloth was a little worn because it’s sai year old cloth.
Speaker: 1
25:50
Sai you’re like, okay, because of that, I’m gonna have to hit it here and it’ll go on the side. And you smashed it and it went right in the side. I was like, oh, shit. Like, it’s not it’s it’s very it’s not risking. You’re not, like, gambling.
Speaker: 1
26:03
The only thing you’re gambling with is that the ball’s going across the table. But it seems like you guys kinda have that mostly worked out too.
Speaker: 0
26:10
Well, that’s the thing. Everybody on the tour is figuring out the break really fast. Doesn’t really matter what you change in the format. The players will figure it out.
Speaker: 1
26:18
The fun thing to me, about your life is, that you’re traveling all over the world playing, and then occasionally, you have these marathon gambling sessions that they stream online. And, I’ve got a good buddy of mine, Tommy, from Connecticut. Shout out to my boy, Tommy. And, you know, he and I will be, like, be fucking texting to each other, you know, like, for three days in a row while these matches are going on.
Speaker: 1
26:43
And, I get so juiced up for him. I get so excited about him. But it’s, like, that’s the part of the game that has always been the most romantic, the gambling part of the game. And I’m glad that people aren’t shying away from that because it there was a long for a long time, gambling was thought to be negative for professional pool.
Speaker: 1
27:04
That’s not the case anymore.
Speaker: 0
27:06
Well, it could be. It could be.
Speaker: 1
27:08
It could be. Sure. Because you’re bringing in shady people.
Speaker: 0
27:11
For sure.
Speaker: 1
27:11
Well, you if you’re gambling a $100,000, where’d you get it?
Speaker: 0
27:14
Where’d you
Speaker: 1
27:15
get it? You know? Bob the drug dealer came over and, you know, he wants in. He’s staking me and I if I win, I get 40%.
Speaker: 0
27:21
But in our case, it’s different. Like, our matches that we make, you know, there’s only a couple of them that we did. We played twice with Shane, and, there’s also a few one pocket matches we did. But the biggest ones were with Shane, and, it’s only a small group of people.
Speaker: 0
27:36
It’s basically just, you know, few guys, my managers, me, and same same thing from Shane’s ai. So everybody knows each other.
Speaker: 1
27:43
Yeah. For sure in your case. But in the case of, like, high level gambling in pool
Speaker: 0
27:49
Oh, yeah. There’s
Speaker: 1
27:50
a lot of there’s a lot of shady characters. A lot of shady characters.
Speaker: 0
27:53
A lot.
Speaker: 1
27:54
How often do you gamble just in regular life playing pool? Do you because that does anybody ask for, like, giant spots or anything like that?
Speaker: 0
28:01
Well, everybody’s asking for ridiculous games all the ai. But, I think my gambling game my gambling days are over, and, now I’m a tournament player, really.
Speaker: 1
28:10
Well, you got too good. Yeah. Like, I played you when you were here, like, two years ago. And, I definitely play better now that I played two years ago, but you play way better. You play even better than you would were playing then, which is crazy. But you were banking out and making shah. I was like, this is so humiliating. It’s so humbling.
Speaker: 0
28:31
Yeah. Yeah. I do play a lot better than I did, two years ago, you know.
Speaker: 1
28:35
Which is hard to believe. Because you’re the best player in the world and you’re getting better. That’s that’s one of the coolest things to me about any game or any sport, anything, is that and especially today because there’s so much data that’s available. Ai, sai, if you’re a young player and you’re learning how to play, you can watch pool on your iPad
Speaker: 0
28:54
Oh, yeah.
Speaker: 1
28:55
Till 03:00 in the morning. You watch matches and you learn. You learn how to play things. You learn, like, what why did he do it that way? Ai, oh, then you rewind it. You go, oh, that none of that was available to, like, Mike Siegel back in the day or Nick Varner and those guys.
Speaker: 0
29:09
Yeah. There’s tons of videos on YouTube. There’s so much
Speaker: 1
29:12
sai much so much information.
Speaker: 0
29:14
Yeah. And you can also I mean, you can also watch it on TV. I think Meh Metro must show all those tournaments, all of the majors Mhmm. On TV everywhere except US, I think.
Speaker: 1
29:24
Yeah. Yeah. And so it’s just ai everything else with the new generation, the the level just gets higher and higher with everything, unless there’s physical limitations. And with pool, it doesn’t seem like it’s not like, you know, running a four minute mile or, you know, running the fastest 100 meter.
Speaker: 0
29:42
We’re all crooked. All of our backs are crooked.
Speaker: 1
29:45
Oh, yeah. For sure.
Speaker: 0
29:46
You know, we’re always bend over. It’s always one-sided sport. Every one-sided sport is kinda like that, I think.
Speaker: 1
29:51
Archery is like that.
Speaker: 0
29:52
Archery, golf Yeah. Shooting.
Speaker: 1
29:54
Yeah. Yeah. Your your back must be fucked up. I know you fuck your neck was fucked up. We brought you to waist well last time you were here.
Speaker: 0
30:00
Yeah. Yeah. It did help. It did help for, like, six to eight months, I think. And then And
Speaker: 1
30:05
now it’s fucking with you again?
Speaker: 0
30:06
No. Ai. I actually found the the way, you ai, I have my pre pre match routine. I stretch every single day. I do work a lot with, like, rubber bands, resistant bands.
Speaker: 1
30:15
What do you do with them?
Speaker: 0
30:17
Basically, you know, I work on my upper back.
Speaker: 1
30:20
Oh, the sai, like, certain workouts?
Speaker: 0
30:21
Certain workouts? That will take some pressure off my neck. But my neck is where I really feel it. Like, my upper back, shoulder blades
Speaker: 1
30:28
Probably have a heavy head. That’s what it is.
Speaker: 0
30:30
Yeah. Maybe. But I did all the MRIs, and I, did have, like, a bulging disc Mhmm. C four, c five. Yeah. That started to progress and was getting worse. I went to Russia for that. I think I was reaching out to you at the time. Mhmm. And, I found a guy that helped me a lot with the, like, routines that we built. And since then, knock on wood, everything was good.
Speaker: 1
30:54
Oh, nice. Did you ever get one of those, things that I was talking about? Those decompression things where you put your head in a harness and you, like, pull on the door and Yeah. Yeah. Set it on your door and you can, like, hang by it a little bit. Those
Speaker: 0
31:06
are nice. Yeah. And also, how do you call that, Inversion table? Yeah. Inversion table. I bought that as well.
Speaker: 1
31:13
Those are great too. Yeah. Everybody should be doing that. Everybody should be decompressing. Because you get to you get to a certain age and everybody’s back is just like you’re carrying all this weight your whole life and your back just gets smooshed. Yeah. And your posture starts to suck and then you start to get these weird pains and decompression.
Speaker: 1
31:31
And if you could do it and just be real vigilant with it, you can stop a lot of problems dead in their tracks.
Speaker: 0
31:37
For sure. And I felt it. You know, I haven’t really paid attention to, like, stretching as much as I did before this year. And I can, you know, I can play a lot longer even though I’m not younger. You know, I was practicing You’re
Speaker: 1
31:49
a little baby. Shut up.
Speaker: 0
31:50
I ai. I was I was, for example, 16, 18. I was practicing a lot more a lot more than I did now. Yeah. And, I never really had any issues. Then 2022, I’m practicing the same, but I always leave the pool hall with some type of pain, and I don’t sana to go practice the next day because of that.
Speaker: 1
32:09
Right. Do you, the problem is it’s hard to get access to a cold plunge when you’re on the road.
Speaker: 0
32:15
Yeah. It’s really difficult. I do have the cold plunge at home. Yeah. Sana and all the good stuff.
Speaker: 1
32:20
Cold plunge is the thing, man. It just alleviates so much inflammation, especially if you can do it first thing in the morning. If you could force yourself to do it first thing in the morning, it is the way to go, man. It sucks every day. But if you just do it, you get out of there. You’re just ai, Ai just feel loose and free.
Speaker: 0
32:40
Yeah.
Speaker: 1
32:40
Because and as long as you don’t do it within ai two hours of you playing, you have to wait ai probably two hours for your body to like fully warm back up again. Because if you are cold, it will kinda mess with your
Speaker: 0
32:51
Right. With the muscles going too tight. Too tight.
Speaker: 1
32:54
Yeah. I was telling you the worst thing ever for pool is lifting weights. There’s nothing worse.
Speaker: 0
32:59
I found it myself.
Speaker: 1
33:00
It’s terrible.
Speaker: 0
33:01
For sure.
Speaker: 1
33:02
You know you know Willie Hoppy, the old school billiard player? Never heard of him?
Speaker: 0
33:06
Willie Hoppy, no.
Speaker: 1
33:07
Never heard of him? Uh-uh. You know what a a Hoppy cue is?
Speaker: 0
33:10
Hoppy Speak, no.
Speaker: 1
33:11
No. Okay. A Hoppy butt is ai a type of butt that doesn’t have a rubber bumper on the bottom of it. It’s just flat. What? And for whatever reason, Willie Hoppy used to prefer that ai of I think. It’s named after him for some reason. Anyway, he was a famous billiards player, ai, the turn of the century and, the turn of the other one, like, the early nineteen hundreds.
Speaker: 1
33:32
And he wouldn’t even drive a car. He refused to do anything with his arms. He wouldn’t drive a car because it would mess up his pool game.
Speaker: 0
33:40
Mhmm. Yeah. I mean, some some players are super superstitious about the stuff, you know.
Speaker: 1
33:44
Cars back then, though, didn’t have, power steering. So you have to think it’s probably really difficult to steer them. See if you can find a photo of Willie Hoppy. He had the weirdest sidearm too. Yeah. He totally sidearm.
Speaker: 0
33:57
Keith Keith McCready?
Speaker: 1
33:58
Exactly. It’s like these guys start playing when they’re five years old, and they can’t really reach the table correctly.
Speaker: 0
34:03
That’s that’s exactly the reason why, for example, when I started, I I played Russian pyramid in the beginning, and I was always sai because, you know, I wasn’t tall enough. They sent me to the pool table. Yeah.
Speaker: 1
34:13
Look at him. Ain’t that crazy sidearm?
Speaker: 0
34:17
Like, that’s nuts. Just like Mohammed Sufi.
Speaker: 1
34:20
Yeah. That’s him when he was an old man. Yeah. Just like Sufi. Ai.
Speaker: 0
34:25
Right? Yeah. It’s crazy that
Speaker: 1
34:27
Like, if you ever saw someone play a tie, ai be like, look at this lemon.
Speaker: 0
34:31
Yeah. You would wanna play that guy if
Speaker: 1
34:32
you want
Speaker: 0
34:32
to see him over the ball.
Speaker: 1
34:34
But meanwhile, if as long as you figured out how to do it consistently.
Speaker: 0
34:38
That’s the thing in pool. You know, there’s so many different variations of the stance, stroke that you can overcome everything if you practice just, you know, hundreds of hours. Mhmm. So it wouldn’t really matter. You know, you can play by the book, but in the end, all that matters is how much to shah time do you spend at the table?
Speaker: 1
34:57
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Speaker: 1
36:24
Ai Shane.
Speaker: 0
36:25
Yeah. Exactly.
Speaker: 1
36:25
Like, when Shane he’s arguably the greatest of all time. One of the is in the conversation for the greatest of all time. Five time US Open player. Hits the ball in a way that everybody tells you don’t ever do it that way.
Speaker: 0
36:35
Yeah. Exactly.
Speaker: 1
36:36
He stops at the cue ball. Instead of following through, like, and letting the cue ball, like, slide through, he stops at the cue ball.
Speaker: 0
36:43
He’s very unique. Same as Filipinos. You know, Filipino players, they have the unique style of play. They’re super fluent. They’re like dancing around the table. Mhmm. But nobody plays like that. Nobody else plays like that.
Speaker: 1
36:54
Yeah. It’s it’s interesting. It’s, again, as long as it’s repeatable. Yeah. It’s ai, there’s a lot of things like that. If you you’re if it’s repeatable, if you could do it over and over and over again, it does there are no rules.
Speaker: 0
37:08
No. I mean, they are written in the book.
Speaker: 1
37:10
But how could you say that, like, Shah Van Boating is doing it wrong? Exactly. Doesn’t make any sense.
Speaker: 0
37:14
Exactly. He doesn’t.
Speaker: 1
37:16
I mean, he’s probably won more tournaments than anybody ever. Right? Who who’s won the most tournaments of all time?
Speaker: 0
37:21
I mean, that’s a good question. We were just talking about it this morning, I think. Shane is definitely one of It
Speaker: 1
37:26
might be Shane.
Speaker: 0
37:27
It might be Shane. Shane might be the greatest of all time right now.
Speaker: 1
37:30
Yeah. I mean, that’s what Jeremy Jones says, the greatest of all time. Yeah. That’s his pick. It’s, what’s crazy with him too is the the deaf aspect that he shuts his hearing aids off when he plays. That must be amazing.
Speaker: 0
37:44
That should be illegal, by the way. I mean, it should be.
Speaker: 1
37:51
Really? I mean, that’s listen, man. Life gives you lemons to make lemonade. I know. The dude was born deaf. That’s fucked up.
Speaker: 0
37:58
It is. It is. But it’s,
Speaker: 1
38:01
That’s the advantage he gets. You could shut them bitches off.
Speaker: 0
38:04
I mean, yeah. I guess.
Speaker: 1
38:06
Come on, man. You can’t check to see if he has it on. Ai, Shane. Shane.
Speaker: 0
38:09
I mean, do you think we’re not checking? We are checking.
Speaker: 1
38:12
Are you checking?
Speaker: 0
38:12
Oh, of course.
Speaker: 1
38:13
Do you say things
Speaker: 0
38:14
like that? Has it off all the time.
Speaker: 1
38:15
How do you know when he has it off?
Speaker: 0
38:17
Well, because just before he’s meh, he goes to his phone and puts it all the way down.
Speaker: 1
38:21
Oh, so his phone, it’s Bluetooth.
Speaker: 0
38:24
He can So
Speaker: 1
38:25
his hearing aid is Bluetooth?
Speaker: 0
38:26
Oh, yeah. He can control it by his phone.
Speaker: 1
38:28
Oh, that seems dirty. Because you’re not allowed to wear, ai, noise cancelling earbuds.
Speaker: 0
38:34
No. You’re not. Earl Earl always wants that, but,
Speaker: 1
38:37
Yeah.
Speaker: 0
38:38
They’re not allowing him.
Speaker: 1
38:39
Yeah. I remember when Earl used to wear, like, ai glasses. He used to wear glasses, like, the kind you wear at the range.
Speaker: 0
38:46
Yeah.
Speaker: 1
38:47
And then he, he was wearing headphones for a ai, so they told him not to. Like a pilot. Yeah. Ai, complete noise cancelling headphones. Ones that look like they weigh five pounds. Yeah. And then he had he’s got weights that he wears around his waist sometimes. He puts
Speaker: 0
39:02
That’s definitely a character.
Speaker: 1
39:04
He puts weights on his elbow. He puts tape around his fingertips. And then he makes his cue as fat as my forearm with, like, whatever kind of tape he’s using on it.
Speaker: 0
39:15
Yeah. He runs five miles every day. He does Does he? Hundreds of squats. Oh, yeah. He’s fit. Wow. Well, I mean, he’s not he doesn’t look very fit, but he works out every day or does something.
Speaker: 1
39:27
He’s is he the oldest guy that’s still super competitive? Like, how old Ralph Souk? Ralph Souk is still pretty competitive.
Speaker: 0
39:34
No. Earl is older than
Speaker: 1
39:36
Is he? Yeah. Right. So I think Ralph Souk is actually, like, my age. Yeah. And Earl is, like, in the sixties. So he’s probably the oldest guy that’s, like, playing competitively and winning.
Speaker: 0
39:47
Yeah. For sure.
Speaker: 1
39:48
Yeah. It’s a fucking game for young people, son. You gotta have them young eyes cut that ball in.
Speaker: 0
39:55
For sure. The eyes is everything.
Speaker: 1
39:57
Yeah. How many guys do you know that got LASIK surgery?
Speaker: 0
40:03
A few. A few. A lot of players wear contacts when they play, but Lasik Lasik has been the game changer for them for sure.
Speaker: 1
40:11
Now are these young players that are coming up, are these guys embracing, like, a healthier lifestyle? Because one of the things about pool is, like, it’s always been connected, at least when I was young, it was always connected to especially the gambling, connected to a lot of partying, a lot of, amphetamines Mhmm.
Speaker: 1
40:30
Cocaine, and then, you know, just
Speaker: 0
40:33
Well, it’s just changing. It used to be just a game played at the bar. Now it’s a sport. You know? I think, now in The US, everybody’s taking the European approach, more methodical, more disciplined, and they treat it as a sport. Right. Especially the younger generation. You know, they see who is more successful on the tour.
Speaker: 0
40:55
And if you look at top 10 right now, every one of us, we try our best at everything, you know, when it comes to food, pre match routines, how we practice, how we treat, pool as a sport. So, I think, yes, definitely, it’s changing. And that’s that’s why the pool is in a different place where it was.
Speaker: 1
41:14
Well, it’s it’s only because of the promotions, and they they deserve everything. And then, of course, the players. But without the promotions, ai, putting these events on and making them a big deal.
Speaker: 0
41:25
Oh, for sure.
Speaker: 1
41:25
They wouldn’t get all over YouTube. They wouldn’t get all over these social media sites. But what pool really needs is something, like, you know, like they had the hustler in the nineteen sixties made pool explode, and then they had the color of money in the nineteen eighties made pool explode.
Speaker: 1
41:39
They need something like that. Like, some
Speaker: 0
41:42
Two days ago, tyler on Netflix. You haven’t seen it? No. Yeah. Netflix made a documentary about, Eddie and Barry Hearn. I think it’s about their family and their their business. And Yeah. I think two or three episodes are about pool. Oh,
Speaker: 1
41:57
well, that’s good. That’ll help.
Speaker: 0
41:58
Yeah. That’s really good.
Speaker: 1
41:59
That’ll help.
Speaker: 0
42:00
Most of it are is about box, I think. Boxing, darts, and how they started the company, but pool is a big part of
Speaker: 1
42:05
the Oh, they do darts too?
Speaker: 0
42:06
Darts, snooker, fishing, I think. And, Fishing?
Speaker: 1
42:13
Yeah. Really?
Speaker: 0
42:14
Yeah.
Speaker: 1
42:14
Like fishing tournaments?
Speaker: 0
42:16
Like, that
Speaker: 1
42:16
kind of shit?
Speaker: 0
42:16
Fisher mania. I think that’s what it’s called.
Speaker: 1
42:18
Fisher mania? It’s ai bass tournaments or something like that? I I don’t know.
Speaker: 0
42:21
Ai have no idea how that works.
Speaker: 1
42:23
Ai know Shane’s a big fisherman. Right?
Speaker: 0
42:25
Oh, yeah. He goes
Speaker: 1
42:26
lake trout fishing.
Speaker: 0
42:27
Ice fishing is his thing.
Speaker: 1
42:29
Yeah. That’s that’s South Dakota mentality.
Speaker: 0
42:32
It’s the most boring thing I think you can do.
Speaker: 1
42:34
It’s not that bad.
Speaker: 0
42:35
Ice all the day long.
Speaker: 1
42:37
It’s actually ai of fun.
Speaker: 0
42:38
Freeze your ass off.
Speaker: 1
42:38
I did it a couple years ago. I caught a trout. I was pretty jazzed up.
Speaker: 0
42:42
Yeah. If you catch if you catch something, then, yeah, for sure.
Speaker: 1
42:44
It’s pretty cool. You know, ai, you’re standing on ai, so you’re kind of freaked out that you’re standing on ai, and they use a drill to drill through the ai. And then you know exactly how much is separating you from drowning.
Speaker: 0
42:55
Mhmm.
Speaker: 1
42:56
So you only need a few inches, but when I was doing it, it was about seven, eight inches of ice.
Speaker: 0
43:01
So what do you do? Ai, I put you put a tent tent around you? Mhmm. Yeah. Most of
Speaker: 1
43:06
the ai, that’s what guys do. They put some kind of a tent around them, and then they get a like an a drill, and they pull it out. They go right into the ground, right through the ice rather, and then you, have, like, a little net where you scoop out new ice that forms, and you just drop your line right down there in the hole.
Speaker: 1
43:24
That sounds real fun. It’s exciting. It’s exciting when you catch one.
Speaker: 0
43:29
Yeah. I did I did fish a couple of times in my life, but nothing nothing really exciting for me.
Speaker: 1
43:36
The problem when you can play really good pool is really good pool is about as fun as anything. Like, really good which is I’ve always said that pool is like an art form that only the people that practice it can appreciate. When you watch someone who plays really good, ai, wow, that is beautiful. Like, that is beautiful.
Speaker: 1
43:53
But to an average person, like, oh, he just made a bunch of easy shots.
Speaker: 0
43:56
Exactly. Exactly. You can’t really see, you know, the beauty of meh. Exactly. Yeah. Positional play, you know.
Speaker: 1
44:03
At least with if you’re explaining jiu jitsu to someone, at least people kinda get it. Oh, he’s gonna break his arm. Like, oh, he’s he’s he’s choking him. Oh, he’s got his neck.
Speaker: 0
44:15
Yeah.
Speaker: 1
44:15
But when you when you watch someone play pool and you don’t understand how difficult that three rail position was to get perfect on the four ball, you’re like, ai watch oh, my god. That
Speaker: 0
44:24
was amazing. Or when they say, you know, he’s in jail. Mhmm. He’s hooked. Meh just had doesn’t have a shah. You know, just people regular people that probably don’t
Speaker: 1
44:32
They don’t get it. They don’t get it. And they never will. It’s just ai you you’re gonna have to play it to understand how hard it is what that person did. Yep. The casual person doesn’t understand, unfortunately. So what we need is more people playing. If more people play, then more people would watch people playing.
Speaker: 0
44:48
I think more people start playing.
Speaker: 1
44:49
Ai think I
Speaker: 0
44:50
think Ai think the game grew up quite a bunch the last couple years.
Speaker: 1
44:54
Well, I know that the top golf people are gonna do something like that for pool. That might be the thing. You know those Topgolf guys? Do you know what Topgolf is? Yeah. Yeah. So Topgolf, you know, where they have this thing where you just whack the balls out into the well, they’re gonna set something like that up for pool where they have, you know, some sort of a business where you go in and play pool and it’s more attractive to young people.
Speaker: 1
45:21
Really? I don’t know exactly what their model is because it’s still going to be pool. I ai, I don’t think you’re is sana be a bunch of people just breaking the balls. Right. You know, like a like, because that’s what they’re doing when they’re doing Topgolf. They’re just driving the ball. Right?
Speaker: 1
45:33
I don’t know exactly what their ai, but the same guys who they ai, like, a lot of people play pool, a lot of people play pool in bars. If we had a really attractive place for people to play and they’re it’s probably correct. It’s probably an untapped business because people are always looking for something fun to do on date ai.
Speaker: 0
45:51
You know? So what they do in China, for example, or somewhere Ai seen it in Asia. They put, like, a projector above the table, and it it gives you, like, all kinds of different games and interactions while you’re playing.
Speaker: 1
46:02
What’s it sai, Ann? The venue is being backed by investors, including US based venture capital firm Shah Alpha Advisors and the Daily Mail investment arm. DMG Ventures uses pool tables, balls, and queues from the traditional game, but adds tracking technology and video projections to add bonus targets and obstacles in an attempt to appeal to larger groups.
Speaker: 1
46:22
Bonus targets and obstacles. Alongside its own venues and those operated by franchise partners, pool it’s called Pool House. Pool House plans to sell its equipment to pubs, bars, and other venues that sana update their existing pool tables.
Speaker: 0
46:37
Hopefully, they can create a speed gun too.
Speaker: 1
46:39
Yeah. So it says, Steve I don’t know how to say his name. Jalief Jaliefy Jaliefy sai, more people play at Topgolf than our traditional golf courses in ai even greater impact on the world world of pool. We have a strong track record. This project has been our most challenging endeavor yet. Well, that’s exciting. Maybe that’ll do it.
Speaker: 0
47:02
Ai never even heard of it.
Speaker: 1
47:03
Well, if you get a bunch of guys that are already really successful at doing that with the thing about golf though is, like, whacking a golf ball is really fun. Yeah. You know, it’s and then if you have, like, a big open pit where you could just whack a golf ball, you got, like, a 100 yards, you could see how far people can whack a golf ball,
Speaker: 0
47:21
and then
Speaker: 1
47:21
you sana net at the end of it.
Speaker: 0
47:22
Yeah. Especially if you hit it straight. Yeah. It’s the most exciting thing. A lot
Speaker: 1
47:25
of people are gonna do that. Pool is, like, you don’t know how to make a bridge. You’re holding your hand funny and it’s ai Alright. Moving weird your arm and I wonder how many people are gonna get frustrated. I wonder if it’s the same actually
Speaker: 0
47:39
It it it’s kinda
Speaker: 1
47:40
Probably yeah. Because I suck at driving a golf ball, you know. I don’t I’m not good at it. I’ve done it. I’ve played Topgolf a couple of times. I’ve gone to a driving range once. It was fun. I’m not good at it.
Speaker: 0
47:53
Meh. Same as
Speaker: 1
47:53
Ai, like, fucking Jamie over here. That dude’s out in the garage every day whacking balls. Every time I come here, he’s out there whacking balls.
Speaker: 0
48:00
Yeah.
Speaker: 1
48:01
And so you realize, like, there really is, like, there’s a lot of technique just to the drive. There’s it’s very similar probably to a bryden shot in that regard.
Speaker: 0
48:12
Yeah. For sure. Same. Absolutely the same.
Speaker: 1
48:15
Ai, I wonder if they can make something like that really marketable for pool. That might be it.
Speaker: 0
48:22
It has to be some some ai of interaction, because I think it’s I think it would be kinda boring Yeah. To just, you know, whack balls pool balls.
Speaker: 1
48:31
The other thing that might make pool really big is big money. Like, if the Saudis get involved and they get crazy, and they start saying, okay. This this tournament’s for $3,000,000.
Speaker: 0
48:41
Well, we have we have now the world championships is the biggest tournament we have on tours in Saudi.
Speaker: 1
48:46
Right. What’s the what’s the first place?
Speaker: 0
48:48
250,000.
Speaker: 1
48:50
Pretty good. 25,000,000 would be better.
Speaker: 0
48:52
Yeah. For sure. Imagine imagine that? For sure.
Speaker: 1
48:54
So those guys have so much money. They could spend $25,000,000, it’d be like nothing. They probably spent more than that on production.
Speaker: 0
49:02
I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know if they speak more on production.
Speaker: 1
49:05
They throw so much money around in boxing. It’s ai
Speaker: 0
49:07
of bananas. Boxing for sure. For sure. And that’s where Matchroom is really helping, because they have those deals for multi sports. Mhmm. They make a deal for boxing, and then it involves snooker and pool. Right. So they have the snooker tournament in Saudi. They have the boxing event going
Speaker: 1
49:23
on and forth. You gotta get that oil money involved, son. Those those dudes throw some money around. Because it’s ai, when people talk about the richest people in the world, they’re like, really? Because their money isn’t public. Like, they don’t have to disclose how much money they make. Yep. They’re kings. Okay?
Speaker: 1
49:40
Like, they probably laugh ai, oh, silly Elon thinks he’s number one,
Speaker: 0
49:46
you know. Yeah.
Speaker: 1
49:48
With his paltry $400,000,000,000, you know. He’s basically a pauper Yeah. To those people. So, like, they’ve they’ve thrown insane amount of money into boxing. I think, it it hasn’t been confirmed, so I need to know whether this is true or not. But I think Usyk made a 100 more than a $100,000,000 in his last defense against, Daniel Dubois. And I think Dubois made in the seventies.
Speaker: 1
50:14
He made somewhere around 70. I think they said said Usyk made, like, $1.30 something, which is crazy. A $130,000,000 for a fight. That’s crazy. Bananas.
Speaker: 0
50:24
What do you think if Poole goes that route? Just one on one matches.
Speaker: 1
50:28
That would be ai. If it’s for big, big, big, big, big money like that. I mean, if you ever saw a pool meh you you imagine shooting a nine ball hill hill for a 100,000,000?
Speaker: 0
50:38
No. I can’t.
Speaker: 1
50:39
Could you imagine?
Speaker: 0
50:40
I was shooting the nine ball for 250,000.
Speaker: 1
50:43
Yeah. That’s right. Yeah.
Speaker: 0
50:46
Yeah. Meh Ai was straight in.
Speaker: 1
50:47
Yeah. That was crazy. What was that like?
Speaker: 0
50:51
I mean, it was a crazy match against Kachi. We played the world championships finals. He went on the hill first.
Speaker: 1
50:57
Yeah. It was hill hill.
Speaker: 0
50:58
Hill hill. He scratches. I get ball in hand. Shaking like a leaf. Were you? Oh, yeah. Well, incredible. I mean, that’s the biggest tournament we’ve ever had. Right. Biggest tournament I’ve ever had in my career. You know, we only have so many tournaments that pay those kind of money, and it’s really difficult not to think about it when you’re playing. Yeah.
Speaker: 0
51:18
And, yeah, that’s definitely the highlight of my career, you know, making that tough eight ball. I mean, it wasn’t tough, but the positional positional play was tough because I had to go up and down with the cue ball, and I landed right where I wanted to be. So I was straight in the nine ball. No pressure at all.
Speaker: 1
51:34
That’s a good one for people to watch it. They’re like, what is this all about? Watch that one. Watch that one and know that they’re playing for $250,000.
Speaker: 0
51:42
Yep. Ai the second place paid 100, so it was a 150,000 difference.
Speaker: 1
51:48
That’s a lot.
Speaker: 0
51:49
It is a lot for one rack.
Speaker: 1
51:50
A full. And for one nine ball.
Speaker: 0
51:53
Yeah. That’s
Speaker: 1
51:53
the beautiful thing about nine ball. You could run everything and then chunk that nine.
Speaker: 0
51:57
Yeah. Game over.
Speaker: 1
52:01
It’s a it’s such a mental game.
Speaker: 0
52:03
It’s a game of millimeters, really. You know, single roll this way, that way, and you’re hooked. Yeah. Or you’re on the right side of the ball, wrong side of the ball.
Speaker: 1
52:13
I was listening to John Schmidt do commentary once, and he was saying how crazy it is. If you really think about it, every other sport that involves a ball, it’s like something is hitting the ball. It’s like you have a bat hitting the ball or it’s it’s like no other sport has a ball hitting a ball.
Speaker: 1
52:28
And then ai to be, like, really accurate over distance. And then making that ball move around and get perfect for the next ball. Like, even golf, you’re hitting a ball. It’s very difficult, but you’re hitting a ball. Mhmm. You’re not hitting a ball with a ball. That’s it’s a whole another element.
Speaker: 0
52:47
So you think pool is the most difficult sport in that regard?
Speaker: 1
52:52
It might be snooker. Excuse me. Snooker.
Speaker: 0
52:55
Snooker is boring.
Speaker: 1
52:57
Oh, I don’t think it’s boring. I think when you get a guy who’s really good, who plays, you know
Speaker: 0
53:04
I think it’s really difficult when it comes to, like, how difficult is it to execute the shot because the the balls are smaller. Mhmm. The cues are thinner. The ball, the pockets are ai. You know? Yeah. The table is bigger too.
Speaker: 1
53:16
If you watch Ronnie Sullivan play, you can’t think that that’s boring.
Speaker: 0
53:19
Of course. I mean, if of course, you have players Yeah. Like Saloni. I mean, you can never you can never say that it’s boring. Yeah. But I think the game itself, it’s just too much safeties, nothing shots here and there.
Speaker: 1
53:32
Yeah. But but it’s because it’s so hard and because it’s so big. It’s a 12 foot fucking table, which is crazy. Yeah. And the pockets are tiny and the balls are ai. It’s a really hard game. But when you got watch a guy like Ronnie and he doesn’t miss, feel ai thirty, forty shots in a row, you’re like, this is crazy.
Speaker: 0
53:49
What’s really crazy about snooker is there’s only, you know, four or five countries that really play that game, but it’s a lot bigger than pool. Really? Pool is pool is a lot more international. If you look at the majors that Meh have, look at the last 64, last last 32, you will have, you know, 20 different countries represented.
Speaker: 1
54:08
So that’s interesting that snooker is bigger. Like, how much do they make? What’s ai a I know they were making, like, gigantic money in in The UK. Is that still happening, or has it died down a little?
Speaker: 0
54:19
Well, the most of the majority of tournaments are in The UK, I think. There’s a lot of them happening now in China as well. But I think, really, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, UK, China, That’s about it, and few European players. And they make, I would say, you know, the top top guys.
Speaker: 0
54:39
They make over $23,000,000 a year.
Speaker: 1
54:41
Do you remember the scandal? There was a scandal with one of the players a few years back where they got him on hidden camera saying that he’d be willing to dump a match.
Speaker: 0
54:50
Oh, yeah. There was a lot of Chinese guys that got banned for it too. Oh, really? For, dumping a match.
Speaker: 1
54:55
That’s the problem with gambling.
Speaker: 0
54:57
Yeah.
Speaker: 1
54:58
Right? When gambling gets involved and you realize, like, if you get your friends to bet on the other guy
Speaker: 0
55:04
That’s the problem with, I guess, getting the bookies to be involved in tournaments as well. Because when the prize money are not big, you will have players Yeah. Thinking, you know, winning the tournament is nice, but Sai don’t have to win that. I ai just lose my round one, go through the loser ai, and take a free shot at those Yeah. Thousand real fast.
Speaker: 1
55:27
Yeah. That’s unfortunate. But is that part of the thing of not having the kind of money that golf has? Because I doubt that people that play golf are dumping on purpose. Because there’s so much money on the line.
Speaker: 0
55:41
Yeah. They don’t have to.
Speaker: 1
55:43
Yeah. They don’t have to. But when you the difference between, like, winning and losing is so huge, and then you can gamble on it. And then you have friends, and you tell your friends, like, listen, bet on him.
Speaker: 0
55:55
Yeah.
Speaker: 1
55:56
And I’m gonna make sure I lose.
Speaker: 0
55:58
It’s, like, it’s too
Speaker: 1
55:59
easy to make money that way.
Speaker: 0
56:00
Yeah. But also, I’m pretty sure they’re always investigating. Every every big bet is investigated. I’m pretty sure. I’m sure.
Speaker: 1
56:09
But you don’t have to do big bets?
Speaker: 0
56:11
No. You don’t have to. Could be multiple
Speaker: 1
56:12
And you can have Could be multiple some offshore accounts.
Speaker: 0
56:15
Yeah. It could be. You can also find a problem.
Speaker: 1
56:16
Ai. You use a VPN. I’m I’m gambling from Vietnam, you know?
Speaker: 0
56:20
Yeah. Yeah. You can find ways. I’m sure. But yeah. I mean, it’s, it’s the problem.
Speaker: 1
56:25
Yeah. Shady businesses, man. Yeah. But that’s also kind of the fun part of pool too. Sai these places are kinda shady. Like, they’re they’re ai the the outcasts of society. You know, if you go and you watch ai the finals of the Florida Open and look in the crowd, there’s a lot of outcasts in there, a lot of Android phones.
Speaker: 1
56:48
Yeah. Yeah. It’s a lot of outcasts. There’s a lot of people that have spent a a giant chunk of their life in pool rooms. And the thing about pool is if you really get into it, you’re playing it eight hours a day.
Speaker: 0
57:02
Yeah. You have to.
Speaker: 1
57:03
Yeah. If you
Speaker: 0
57:04
wanna get good at it, you have to.
Speaker: 1
57:06
It’s the only way. Yeah. And it makes a giant difference.
Speaker: 0
57:11
And a lot of people fall in love with the game really fast. And if you do, then you don’t wanna quit it. Yeah. And then you just you just hit balls for hours and hours and hours.
Speaker: 1
57:19
I was playing meh friend Jake the other day and I sai, to get really good at pool, you kinda have to be a piece of shah. Because this is why this is ai. You don’t have to. I mean, obviously, you’re not and, you know, and you’re lucky that your wife plays pool, which is huge as well.
Speaker: 0
57:35
Oh, yeah.
Speaker: 1
57:35
Because if she didn’t, like, you know where to find me because I’m gonna be playing. Sorry.
Speaker: 0
57:42
Right.
Speaker: 1
57:42
Like, you you’re gonna ignore most of your responsibilities if you’re really good at pool.
Speaker: 0
57:47
It’s really tough.
Speaker: 1
57:48
Oh, yeah.
Speaker: 0
57:48
Personal life, especially with the schedule that we have now, like, first half of the year was okay. But now it’s just back to back. Like, even after this tournament, I have Texas Open starting on Wednesday. From there, I go to China. Then I go to Vietnam for three weeks. From there, I go to Philippines for two weeks.
Speaker: 0
58:04
Do you think the people
Speaker: 1
58:05
in The Philippines are gonna be mad at you still when you get there?
Speaker: 0
58:07
For sure. For sure. Ai Cup, that’s gonna be another one.
Speaker: 1
58:09
Oh, no. Reyes Cup is
Speaker: 0
58:11
now is the rest of the world against team Asia. That’s happening in Manila. Mhmm. So they’re already all the comments all the meh, if you see, like, yeah. Wait until you come to Manila. We’re gonna welcome you with open arms.
Speaker: 1
58:23
Oh, no.
Speaker: 0
58:24
Yeah. I’m gonna get it, but, that’s gonna be fun. I’m sure.
Speaker: 1
58:31
Yeah. Hopefully, it doesn’t sai it doesn’t get crazy. But, yeah, that that schedule’s nuts.
Speaker: 0
58:37
Yeah. So it’s really tough to balance, you know, pool, personal life, family.
Speaker: 1
58:42
Family, it’s almost impossible. If you have kids, you have to take them to softball games and stuff, like that’s ai I said, if you wanna be really good at pool, you have to be a piece of shit.
Speaker: 0
58:52
Well, hopefully, I don’t have to.
Speaker: 1
58:54
You don’t. I mean, listen. Obviously, there’s examples of people that keep it together that are really good, that still have a family and but and, you know, spend time with their family, spend time with their kids. But you’re gonna have to manage your time because you’re gonna have to you have to get those hours in.
Speaker: 1
59:11
If you’re not playing, like, legitimately, realistically, if you wanna be a top flight world class player, what is the minimum amount of hours you think you have to play every day?
Speaker: 0
59:20
I think somebody said that you have to spend ten thousand hours to get good at anything. But I think in pull it probably is more.
Speaker: 1
59:28
Yeah. I think it’s probably a little more because it’s it’s really complex.
Speaker: 0
59:36
Yeah. Because if you’re talking about, like, top top professional player, it’s not just practicing. You know? You and you will have to start traveling and playing tournaments. You will have to start playing and sparring with somebody. Sparring. Sparring. Yeah. And then, you you have to gain experience from those tournaments.
Speaker: 0
59:56
It’s gonna it’s gonna take a lot of time.
Speaker: 1
59:59
Yeah. And but Ai guess it’s like anything that’s worth doing, you know, if you wanna get good. That’s one of the reasons why it’s so fun, is because you know how hard it is to do. Yeah. If it was easy to master, I think people would probably pick it up and then they’d eventually quit.
Speaker: 1
01:00:16
But the problem the thing about pool is take a week off and then play again, and your arms are like, what do we do here? Like Mhmm. It Seems all screwy. Doesn’t wanna listen for, like, first hour or sai, and then you finally get back in the groove again. It’s because it’s so difficult that makes it so attractive. That’s why people get stuck playing it eight, ten hours a day.
Speaker: 1
01:00:35
If it was easier to play, you wouldn’t play it as much.
Speaker: 0
01:00:39
Right. Right. And, I mean, the for me, the big thing is I just always have to do something. I have to always hit balls because there arya so many good players now, so many good players. And if I just stop for a moment or if I focus on something else for, I don’t know, short period of time, tyler would they’ll just catch me.
Speaker: 1
01:00:58
Ain’t that nuts?
Speaker: 0
01:00:59
It is. It’s it’s driving me crazy, but I just can’t stop. I just can’t stop.
Speaker: 1
01:01:04
How does it drive you crazy? Do you wake up in the morning and feel ai people nipping at your heels?
Speaker: 0
01:01:09
Well, like, for example, now Sai know that Yap, for example, Los Joes Yap, he won the UK Open.
Speaker: 1
01:01:14
Florida Open. Florida Open. And the US Open.
Speaker: 0
01:01:16
Won the US Open. He won the three out of the last four big tournaments we’ve had.
Speaker: 1
01:01:20
Which is crazy.
Speaker: 0
01:01:21
Yeah. Which is it’s really, really tough to be dominant in our sport. Almost impossible. But he’s just he’s just proving that it is possible. You know?
Speaker: 1
01:01:32
And he was on the losing end of the match that I think I’ve probably watched the most over the last year. And if you Google it, you can find it on YouTube. Just Google ai ball perfection. And it’s Ko Ping Chung, who’s one of my favorite players, outside of you, of course, to watch. He that guy is so smooth.
Speaker: 1
01:01:53
There’s something about those guys from Taiwan. I don’t know what their methodology is in their training, but they they have this, like, smooth ai of effortless stroke. It’s like hypnotizing to watch. And that dude never missed a single ball in the 11 match defeat. He he beat him by 11 to nothing, never missed a ball, pocketed every shot he aimed at, and never gave him a shot other than the opening shot. Yep.
Speaker: 1
01:02:24
He had one shot at the beginning of the match, a long ass two ball. He didn’t make it, and then he was fucked. Yeah. Which is crazy. And that’s Yap. That’s the guy who just won the last three tournaments, which is so nuts about this speak.
Speaker: 1
01:02:39
Is that if the guy’s winning and the it’s win or break, you might not ever play.
Speaker: 0
01:02:44
For sure. You never know.
Speaker: 1
01:02:45
Like, look at today, you and me. There’s ai five or six games where I’m just ai standing there. I’m just waiting for you to miss. You’re not missing and so I don’t play. You’re not missing and I don’t play. You know, ai, but at a world class level when you’re doing that in the US Open and it’s on TV and people are cheering every time you pocket a nine ball, that’s bananas.
Speaker: 0
01:03:04
Yeah. That’s that’s, rarely happens.
Speaker: 1
01:03:07
Yeah.
Speaker: 0
01:03:08
But it was it was a very, very special moment, I think, because the video went viral everywhere.
Speaker: 1
01:03:13
That dude got in the zone. If you can appreciate the zone, you gotta watch that video. Even if you only played pool casually Yeah. Is that the
Speaker: 0
01:03:21
only shot the other guy missed?
Speaker: 1
01:03:22
Yeah. This is it. This is Yap. And he boy, he chunked it
Speaker: 0
01:03:25
too. Yeah. He did.
Speaker: 1
01:03:25
He fucked it up. But when you watch this guy, this guy Ko Ping Chung who weighs a hundred pounds
Speaker: 0
01:03:32
This is not an easy opening shot either.
Speaker: 1
01:03:33
No. Just play rail first. Combination rail first. It’s crazy. But then ram this out, he just never misses. And you watch this ai, like, watch how fucking smooth this character is. And again, the dude weighs a hundred pounds soaking wet. Yeah. The cue is half his body weight. And he just kinda ai gently hits everything just so smooth and effortless.
Speaker: 0
01:04:02
I remember this match because I was waiting for for this match in the finals. Yeah. I was watching it in the in the steakhouse, and, it was it was pretty painful for me to watch
Speaker: 1
01:04:13
it. Was it?
Speaker: 0
01:04:14
Well, I mean, you don’t you don’t wanna have somebody just not make a single mistake and play you in the ai. You know? It’s just hurting your confidence a little bit.
Speaker: 1
01:04:23
And the reality is you would think, well, this ai gonna win everything from here on out. But no. No. That’s what’s so crazy about this speak. As good as this guy is and as competitive as he look how he hit that with follow
Speaker: 0
01:04:35
Yeah. That’s crazy.
Speaker: 1
01:04:36
To get out for the two in the corner. That’s masterful shit.
Speaker: 0
01:04:40
That was really dangerous to play the shot. I have no idea why would he even play it.
Speaker: 1
01:04:43
Well, he’s got ice water in his veins, man. I’m telling you the we were talking about this before, but there’s a match from 2018 where he plays Shane Van Booning at the Derby. And it’s Shane’s on the hill. It’s 10 to 10 to six, and you think, oh, Shane’s gonna win this. And he runs five games and out on them, and they’re crazy outs. Like, he starts with this bananas cut shot on the four ball to get three rail position.
Speaker: 1
01:05:10
You’re ai, what is he doing here? Like, no the commentators don’t even know what he’s doing. Is he ducking? Yeah. And he fires it in. You’re like, no way.
Speaker: 1
01:05:17
Like, that was not that was John Schmidt was doing commentary for
Speaker: 0
01:05:20
it. I’m a big fan of Coe brothers. You know, they’re genuine good people and, they’re putting a lot of work and, it’s just, amazing to
Speaker: 1
01:05:28
watch them play as well. They play so good. They play so good. And it’s also interesting to me that these guys still play with those solid wood shafts. Like, we were talking about that earlier. It’s ai new technology has gotten into the game and a lot of players ai yourself play with carbon fiber.
Speaker: 1
01:05:45
But it’s interesting that a lot of these guys from Taiwan in particular, they still go with those wooden shafts.
Speaker: 0
01:05:53
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I don’t know. I know that the industry went to carbon fibers maybe four or five years ago, and maybe some companies were kinda, like, pushing the players. You know? You kinda have to make a switch.
Speaker: 1
01:06:07
Right. Right. Right. Right. But
Speaker: 0
01:06:09
I don’t I don’t think that’s the case now because now for example, I find it maybe advantageous to play with a wooden shaft when you’re playing in, like, a sticky sticky pool ram in Asia where the humidity level is super high.
Speaker: 1
01:06:26
Why not?
Speaker: 0
01:06:28
Just because, I don’t know, you can move the cue ball around easier, or at least I found it easier.
Speaker: 1
01:06:33
Easier. Interesting. Why easier? Because I’ve heard the opposite. I’ve heard it’s arya moves the ball easier.
Speaker: 0
01:06:38
Not in the really sticky condition. I think when we play, for example, Meh tournaments, everything is brand new cloth, brand new rails, brand new, balls. Everything’s slick, perfect conditions. Then I think, carbon fiber is perfect. But I think that’s the reason why, the agents prefer wood as well because the humidity level is just over over top.
Speaker: 0
01:07:00
It’s really, really bouncy, and that’s that’s what they they used to play back in the day, I guess, and that’s what meh referred to this day.
Speaker: 1
01:07:08
It’s such a mind fuck though, isn’t it? Because it’s ai, it’s all really what you have confidence with. Obviously, anybody could play really good with carbon fiber or anybody rather who can play really good with carbon fiber could play really good with wood. It’s just get it into your head what this this cue does, the way it feels, the kind of deflection it has.
Speaker: 0
01:07:25
Yeah. It’s a lot of things.
Speaker: 1
01:07:26
You put it in the brain computer after x amount of months of playing with that cue, and you know what it does.
Speaker: 0
01:07:31
Yeah. I’ve been, you know, I’ve been experimenting with cues. Maybe not as much as you did, but, I’ve started testing queues for the company that I was working I’m working with, right now, Triple Sixty. We’ve we’ve been doing testing for three years. So Ai know everything about, like, the foams, the wall thickness, what the material of the ferrule, the hardness of your tip, the weight, the balance.
Speaker: 0
01:07:56
So there’s so many different things that will change the way the shaft plays, and then there’s also butt. There’s so many different things. It’s like a magic wand. You know? Yeah. You have to try you have to try so many things before you actually understand what you like and what you’re looking for.
Speaker: 0
01:08:12
And, it’s, it’s not a not a easy process, I would say.
Speaker: 1
01:08:17
I remember I was, going on one of my rocking hikes where I put a weighted vest on, and I I go for a walk with the dog, and you and I were on the phone. And, because this is how I remember this. Because, I was walking through this this wooded area, and you were telling me that the difference between your old queue and your new queue, you sai, there’s a difference of about 5%.
Speaker: 1
01:08:42
And I was like, 5%? Like, how do you know it’s 5%? You’re like, all the ball balls that I’ve pocketed when I when ai I when I think about what it does and what it doesn’t do, I think my game is about 5% off. I’m like that.
Speaker: 0
01:08:54
Ai think I think it actually well, with the new queue, I was winning a lot more. So I used to I used to put This
Speaker: 1
01:08:59
is ai right when you first changed. Yeah.
Speaker: 0
01:09:01
Yeah. Yeah. Well, since then since then, I was winning. Yeah. So Ai guess I guess it was the true.
Speaker: 1
01:09:08
Well, it’s you made it to your specifications.
Speaker: 0
01:09:10
Yeah. Yeah. I think I would have a longer longer shot because I have longer arya. Yeah. Long fingers. I do prefer a longer taper, which doesn’t really exist on the arya, so I created the shaft with a longer taper, especially for shots ai off the rail. Let’s say one the the the cue ball is one diamond distance off the rail. That’s where you feel that change in, the taper thickness.
Speaker: 0
01:09:34
We have the straight taper in our shaft.
Speaker: 1
01:09:36
What is the difference in the feel? What do you feel differently?
Speaker: 0
01:09:39
For example, the pro taper or the conical tyler, you can feel the change of the thickness Right. The closer you go to the pin. Right. We don’t have that. Our our shaft is straight.
Speaker: 1
01:09:49
And so that way, it doesn’t give additional resistance as the the shot gets further, like, as your bridge gets longer?
Speaker: 0
01:09:55
Right. You just don’t feel the change in thickness.
Speaker: 1
01:09:58
It’s ai fucking game.
Speaker: 0
01:10:01
Yeah. It is. It is. And then, if you can go to deflection, the deflection is another thing. It’s, there’s so much science behind it that I don’t I don’t even know where to start.
Speaker: 1
01:10:13
Well, deflection is interesting too because some people use it to their advantage, certain deflection, like like Ko, because his cue has a lot of deflection. Didn’t you say you hit some balls with it?
Speaker: 0
01:10:22
Yeah. Yeah. Basically, you have to aim to miss the ball to make the ball. Doesn’t make any sense. I don’t know I don’t know why would players prefer that, but a lot of players do.
Speaker: 1
01:10:34
I think it just gets it in their head how to play, and then they’ve been playing that way for so long that there is just automatic. Like, if they hit a ball with heavy left hand English, they know it’s gonna go off to the right. Right. So they hit it more full with heavy left hand English because they know by the time the cue ball gets there, it’s so they they have it in their head.
Speaker: 1
01:10:56
Right. You know, it’s just like a little computer in your brain. It’s like, okay. This distance, I gotta aim here. This distance is I’m gonna aim here.
Speaker: 0
01:11:04
Well, ai in my case, I also have that. Ai we also have little little little deflection. Yeah. But when it’s just too much, it gets really, really difficult, especially, like I said, when we play on shot clock Yeah. Pressure out there, and you have to pull one crazy shot, and that’s hill hill.
Speaker: 1
01:11:24
So the argument with that against that would be the difference with wood is, though, you get a superior feel. You do get a weird difference in the feedback of the cue, And some people get very accustomed to that wood feedback, and they describe a carbon feedback as more dull.
Speaker: 1
01:11:43
Yeah. But you don’t get the same sensations.
Speaker: 0
01:11:45
You almost don’t get no feedback.
Speaker: 1
01:11:47
So I think those guys, the feedback in their hand is a part of the equation in their mind of where that ball’s gonna go.
Speaker: 0
01:11:56
So when you say feedback, is it like a vibration that you get in your hand Mhmm. By the time you hit the ball?
Speaker: 1
01:12:01
It’s just a different feel. Like, they all have a different feel. Right? Like, we were talking about Southwest, which are some of my favorite cues of all time. They have a solid butt. They’re not cored. Right? And so there’s they’re usually general generally a little heavier unless they’re, maple.
Speaker: 1
01:12:17
Sometimes they’ll they’ll get lower, but you very rarely sai, like, an 18 ounce southwest. You see a lot of 20 ounce southwest because, you know, they’re ebony or cocobolo or something like that, really heavy. But they have a very specific tonk to them.
Speaker: 0
01:12:30
Yeah. Sound.
Speaker: 1
01:12:31
This is like a a feel, and you don’t get that feel with carbon. You get a different feel. So if you can get used to that different feel, it is it is ai there’s something to it. You you definitely the ball moves less off the line.
Speaker: 0
01:12:46
Also, I mean, like I said, there’s so many different environments we play in. For example, we play in China in a pool hall with, dirty cloth, and it’s super muggy, and the rails are playing super spongy and bouncy. You would prefer one queue compared to the other one. Yeah. And you go to, I don’t know, Saudi Arabia where it’s super dry and it’s perfect conditions.
Speaker: 0
01:13:12
Everything’s slick and brand new. I prefer carbon fiber in that case. So maybe, I don’t know, five years, ten years from now, we will have different cues for different shots. Right. Like a golf Yeah. Plus ai a golf player.
Speaker: 0
01:13:27
Could be the case. And some players already do that. They use some cues, for example, when they stay close to the vertical, center of the cue ball, they use one cue. And when they use side spins, they use the other cue. Really? Yeah.
Speaker: 0
01:13:40
Some players do
Speaker: 1
01:13:40
that. Who’s doing that?
Speaker: 0
01:13:42
Mario, he was doing that. Really?
Speaker: 1
01:13:44
Yeah. He brought two different queues?
Speaker: 0
01:13:46
Yeah. To Saudi Arabia last year. I think some other players did that. For example, what I do, I put the extension on the back of my queue for some shots.
Speaker: 1
01:13:54
Mhmm. I
Speaker: 0
01:13:55
play without the extensions for certain other shots.
Speaker: 1
01:13:57
How much does your extension weigh?
Speaker: 0
01:14:00
It’s super ai, like, 1.5. So that
Speaker: 1
01:14:02
gets you up to, like, what? Nineteen five as opposed to 18? Is that what you play with?
Speaker: 0
01:14:06
I play with 19.
Speaker: 1
01:14:07
You play with 19 ounce?
Speaker: 0
01:14:08
19. Yeah.
Speaker: 1
01:14:09
Oh, so it gets you, like, to 20 and a half?
Speaker: 0
01:14:11
20 and a half.
Speaker: 1
01:14:12
So do you like the additional weight for, like, a shot where you have to really stay down?
Speaker: 0
01:14:17
I just use it for, like, balance purposes for longer shots. For example, when, like I said, I’m one diamond off the rail and I have a long shot where I want to have, like, a long follow through, I just simply don’t have enough enough of my cue on the back. Got it. So I add an extra length.
Speaker: 1
01:14:36
But, you know, it’s, lonely at the top, buddy.
Speaker: 0
01:14:42
It is.
Speaker: 1
01:14:43
There’s only a few guys that you could have those ai of matches with now.
Speaker: 0
01:14:46
Yeah. Well, next one will be probably Josh Tyler.
Speaker: 1
01:14:48
You think so?
Speaker: 0
01:14:49
We’re we’re ai we’re trying to make it happen.
Speaker: 1
01:14:51
Is he interested?
Speaker: 0
01:14:53
I think he was, but he’s, not really responding to messages really well lately. I think he was interested, so he had a guy who was willing to back him for a lot of money. And, they they said, well, we have to do it in this place with these rules. This is how it needs to be done.
Speaker: 1
01:15:12
Where was that where they wanna do it?
Speaker: 0
01:15:13
They wanted to do it in Germany. No. They wanted to play it in Vegas. Oh. Ai to say, it’s a neutral territory.
Speaker: 1
01:15:18
Vegas is good. Where would you go? To Griffs?
Speaker: 0
01:15:22
Yeah. I think they wanted to do it in Griffs.
Speaker: 1
01:15:24
Great place.
Speaker: 0
01:15:25
Good place. Yeah.
Speaker: 1
01:15:26
Oh, you don’t like it?
Speaker: 0
01:15:27
I mean, they wanted to, like, high roll me. Oh. They said you we’ll we’ll play in Vegas. You gotta bet bet, like, a half a million or something like that. But what I really wanted to do is basically what we did with Shah, you know, ai, a $50,000 meh. Play race to one twenty.
Speaker: 1
01:15:51
Half a million’s a lot.
Speaker: 0
01:15:52
And what I really offered him was to play multiple disciplines. We play, like, an all around. We play eight ball, nine ball, 10 ball, or was it nine ball, 10 ball, one pocket, and banks? That’s what I offered him.
Speaker: 1
01:16:03
Oh. What if you a draw?
Speaker: 0
01:16:04
Yeah. In case of a draw, we play, another set.
Speaker: 1
01:16:07
But you know what I’m saying? If you have four games, you have to play three games.
Speaker: 0
01:16:11
Oh, yeah. I mean, I’m not playing to lose. So the more, the better.
Speaker: 1
01:16:18
What would you race to at each game?
Speaker: 0
01:16:20
I mean, it would have to be something we can fit in within eight to ten hours. So maybe race to 30 in 10 ball, race to 30 in nine ball, race to 10 in one pocket, and race to 10 in banks. I think it’s a good format. People will like to watch that, I’m sure. Yeah. And it’s good for the game. It’s good for our sport.
Speaker: 1
01:16:38
It’s tough to get people casuals to watch regular pool. Getting them to watch one pocket, they’d rather jump in front of a bus.
Speaker: 0
01:16:46
I agree. Well, you don’t like One Pocket. You don’t like it.
Speaker: 1
01:16:49
I, I watch it. Every on the
Speaker: 0
01:16:51
fans like it for sure.
Speaker: 1
01:16:53
Yeah. When’s the last one I watched? Justin Bergman played someone for a lot of money.
Speaker: 0
01:16:59
Yeah. He played the guy, what’s his name? Littlejohn.
Speaker: 1
01:17:03
And he was giving him a crazy spot. Right?
Speaker: 0
01:17:05
Yeah. And he was ai, no. He won. Justin won. Justin won.
Speaker: 1
01:17:08
Yeah. But it was close.
Speaker: 0
01:17:10
It was really close. Yeah. I think Everybody liked the other guy.
Speaker: 1
01:17:13
It was a nutty spot. I forget what the spot was.
Speaker: 0
01:17:16
Eleven sai, because I give that guy twelve six. Oh, did you? Yeah. We actually played not too long ago in New Orleans.
Speaker: 1
01:17:23
How’d that go? I won. Nice. Congratulations. Do you like one pocket? Would you prefer, or do you just play it because people wanna gamble it?
Speaker: 0
01:17:31
Ai think I like it because it’s a good gambling game. I don’t like the game itself. I think, the new modifications they make in the game where you have to respot the balls, for example, if you get, more than four balls past the kitchen, the fifth ball gets respotted back to the speak.
Speaker: 0
01:17:48
So it makes the game more, alive, more dynamic.
Speaker: 1
01:17:52
Mhmm.
Speaker: 0
01:17:53
So you don’t get those wedges where 50 balls go up table and people just play nothing shots for hours.
Speaker: 1
01:17:59
Right.
Speaker: 0
01:17:59
So it’s more dynamic. And, also, Derby, for example, has shah clock. I think one pocket has to be played with shot clock.
Speaker: 1
01:18:05
How much time they give you?
Speaker: 0
01:18:07
At Derby, it’s one minute.
Speaker: 1
01:18:10
If you could make the perfect nine ball shot clock, what would it be?
Speaker: 0
01:18:14
I think it’s good to where it’s at right now.
Speaker: 1
01:18:16
Thirty seconds.
Speaker: 0
01:18:16
Thirty seconds.
Speaker: 1
01:18:17
Thirty seconds with a thirty second extension?
Speaker: 0
01:18:19
Yeah. Man. Because if you make it if you make it any any shorter, it’s gonna be really difficult.
Speaker: 1
01:18:25
Shorter’s too difficult. But, I mean, the forty saloni, like, it’s just a touch touch, just a touch more to think about it.
Speaker: 0
01:18:32
I think I think it’s good where it’s at. Yeah. It’s difficult when you have to, like, switch cues. You have no extension. For example, you jumped. So so that’s why you see us grabbing both of our queues and Running out there. Throwing your Yeah. Throwing your cue on the side and Yeah. Switching.
Speaker: 0
01:18:46
It’s really difficult sometimes.
Speaker: 1
01:18:49
That’s another shot that people hate that you gotta leave in is the jump queue. When you you jumped out
Speaker: 0
01:18:55
I love it.
Speaker: 1
01:18:56
You jumped out so many times during this US Open. There were so many times you got hooked where you pop that ball in and and to if you can’t appreciate that on tight pockets, a beautiful shot where it goes airborne and fires right into the hole, and then you get position on the next ball.
Speaker: 0
01:19:14
Yeah. I think it’s great. I think those that are are voting against it are those that can’t do it.
Speaker: 1
01:19:20
Yeah. There’s a lot of old school guys who just they get set in their ways, and they think that’s sai stupid cue. It’s a little tiny cue. Fuck that thing. But why are there different golf clubs? Because there’s different shots. Right. Why do you break with a different cue? Because it’s a different shot.
Speaker: 0
01:19:36
Of course.
Speaker: 1
01:19:36
Ai, come on.
Speaker: 0
01:19:38
Of course. I think I think it’s, what gets actually new people to watch it because it’s exciting. Oh, look. This guy jumped over this ball. He was this close to the ball. It’s amazing. It’s like a trick shot.
Speaker: 1
01:19:48
And then, also, it’s ai the cues that people are jumping with today, they’re designed so well for that. Yeah. Like, I really like that Qtech one. That’s, I think, my favorite one. That one is and you helped design that. Right?
Speaker: 0
01:20:04
Yeah. I wasn’t waft. I wasn’t waft. Yes.
Speaker: 1
01:20:07
But not anymore?
Speaker: 0
01:20:08
Not anymore. I’m with a they’re with a different company, and now we’re starting a new brand. I will be starting my own brand really soon.
Speaker: 1
01:20:14
When do you think that’s gonna be available?
Speaker: 0
01:20:17
My personal job queue?
Speaker: 1
01:20:18
Yeah.
Speaker: 0
01:20:20
Probably, I would say if everything goes by the plan, maybe first quarter of next year.
Speaker: 1
01:20:27
So that’s the thing with pool too. It’s ai when you see a guy who plays really good, everybody wants to play with whatever the fuck he’s playing with. Right. So it’s one of and and for a speak, in a game, it’s ai one of the most marketable in that regard. Because almost everybody, when they find someone who’s like whether it’s Efren or like, that’s why so many companies, like, Moochie was sponsoring everybody back in the day because when these guys were playing and they were winning, everybody just wanted to go out and buy a Moochie.
Speaker: 1
01:20:57
Because you you think because it’s ai there’s a mind
Speaker: 0
01:21:00
It’s like any sport Game
Speaker: 1
01:21:01
aspect of
Speaker: 0
01:21:02
Tennis tennis the same with golf. Mhmm. You just wanna have the same tennis racket as Roger Federer.
Speaker: 1
01:21:07
But don’t you think there’s a giant variety in the way those things hit as opposed to a tennis racket hit? I don’t know because I don’t play tennis, but it looks the same. Whereas, like, the way pool cues are manufactured, the differences in the weight, the differences in the taper, the differences in the the shaft composition, whether it’s wood or carbon fiber or For sure.
Speaker: 0
01:21:30
And I think when it come when it comes down to, like, a playing cue, then it’s really, really personal. You know, some players like softer hits. Some players like hotter hits. But when it comes to the jump cue, it just comes down to how effortless the jump cue does the job. Right.
Speaker: 1
01:21:45
And how much how accurate
Speaker: 0
01:21:47
How accurate he can yeah.
Speaker: 1
01:21:49
Yeah. Do you have, like, a mental checklist that you go through before you execute a shot? Do you have, like, a pre shot mental preparation?
Speaker: 0
01:22:00
I do a lot of breathing breathing technique. So for example, I would breathe in on four counts, then I hold it for, like, four or five, and then Ai breathe out for, like, seven, eight seconds to calm myself down.
Speaker: 1
01:22:14
Do you do that when you’re sitting in the chair?
Speaker: 0
01:22:16
Or I do that all the time when I’m sitting in the chair. Usually, I would do, like, a loud breathe out when I’m at the table sometimes to just let it out.
Speaker: 1
01:22:25
Mhmm. And
Speaker: 0
01:22:25
I kinda started to show emotions too because I just feel that’s okay. You know, before Ai used to be like, you know, I don’t I can’t show any emotions because it’s weakness. But now I just
Speaker: 1
01:22:36
The Russian way.
Speaker: 0
01:22:37
I just don’t care now.
Speaker: 1
01:22:38
You’re American now.
Speaker: 0
01:22:39
Yeah. I’m fully Americanized now.
Speaker: 1
01:22:43
That’s interesting. It’s showing emotions. Well, I I definitely think that’s the case when someone misses. Because when someone misses and then they whack the table with their stick, boy, that that empowers the other player. Yeah. Of course. It definitely does.
Speaker: 0
01:22:56
Of course. And that’s what some of the coaches that Ai worked with, in my childhood, they were all telling me, you know, don’t show any emotion. You don’t wanna show any weakness to your opponent. They’re gonna be feeding off of it. And that’s what kinda got stuck with. But I’m just glad that I’m out of it right now.
Speaker: 1
01:23:14
Well, it’s the most, I think and Jeremy Jones and I were talking about this. I think it’s the most mental game because there’s this moment of pulling the trigger. This moment where you’re making sure that everything aligns and you just kinda keep your mind on on task and keep focused on the object ball.
Speaker: 1
01:23:34
Do you look at the cue ball before you strike or the object ball?
Speaker: 0
01:23:37
So it really depends on the distance between the object and cue ball. For example, if it’s when it’s close to each other, object ball and the cue ball, Ai look at the cue ball list. When it’s long distance, I’ll look at the object ball list.
Speaker: 1
01:23:49
Why is
Speaker: 0
01:23:49
that? That’s just, how I find it, working for me. You know, it’s it’s another thing that’s very personal for other players. You know, I think most of the people look at the cue ball list, but I just I just prefer shah object ball works better for me.
Speaker: 1
01:24:06
It’s interesting because it is a preference thing.
Speaker: 0
01:24:08
Yeah. So definitely a personal preference. I feel like if you have the straight stroke, if your ai stroke is straight, you will always hit the cue ball where you’re intending to hit it. Mhmm. So it’s more about where you’re gonna hit it on the object ball.
Speaker: 1
01:24:21
There’s a guy named Joel Turner, who is, I don’t know if I talked to you about this guy. He used to, be, well, he was a sniper, for, like, for rescue missions with the police, where, like, someone had a hostage, and he would have to execute shots under extreme pressure. And, he was also a bowhunter, and he realized that there were certain mistakes that he was making, and a lot of people are making bow hunting that had to do with anticipating the shot and anxiety before you pull the trigger.
Speaker: 1
01:24:59
And that the way to work around that is to have a pre shot routine in your mind where you’re talking to yourself loudly in your head. And you develop this pre shot routine with very specific things that you say to yourself. You sai, like, here I go. Like, you know, whatever whatever different things.
Speaker: 1
01:25:18
He’s got a bunch of different steps that he said where he’s talking to himself, like, center your peep ai. There’s, like, a bunch of things in
Speaker: 0
01:25:25
ai direction. I have almost the same.
Speaker: 1
01:25:26
That’s what I wanted to ask you.
Speaker: 0
01:25:27
Visualization and meditation is really big.
Speaker: 1
01:25:30
So what do you say to yourself, like, when you’re about
Speaker: 0
01:25:33
My biggest demon in my head is I’m just scared to miss the ball. I’m just you know, when I’m down on the shah, sometimes meh brain goes, well, you’re gonna you’re gonna miss the shot. What are you doing? You’re gonna miss it for sure. Like, the way you’re aiming the shot, you’re gonna miss it for sure.
Speaker: 0
01:25:46
So if my thing is just telling to my brain that I have to stay positive, no. I’m sana fucking make this ball. I’m making this ball, bitch. And I, it works for me.
Speaker: 1
01:26:00
Yeah. Ai, if you think you’re gonna miss, you will miss.
Speaker: 0
01:26:03
Yeah. And it And it 100% works like that.
Speaker: 1
01:26:05
What I was getting at is it, I found a giant crossover between that and archery in that it’s the same thing. Like, if you think you’re gonna miss in archery, you’re gonna miss. And if you think you’re gonna miss in pool, you’re gonna miss.
Speaker: 0
01:26:16
Right. Yeah. It just works like that.
Speaker: 1
01:26:19
It is. It’s it’s crazy. It’s like your subconscious, like, tells you to miss. And it’s almost like the pressure is too much, so you alleviate some of the pressure by anticipating the the miss in advance. Right. It’s weird. So that’s ai question to you is, like, what is the process that you go through to fight that off? It’s just saying Ai gonna make that fucking ball?
Speaker: 0
01:26:43
Well, yeah. It’s an experience already. You have to you have to miss a few shots to understand why why that happened. Right. And I did I did lose a few big ones like that. For example, I played Josh Filler in Germany, and the European Open was a really, really big match. You know, the whole crowd is cheering for him, ai of the European Open.
Speaker: 0
01:27:03
Ai I landed on the nine ball really weird, but I’m still a big favorite to make the shot. It was ai a off angle. I was shooting from the rail. Quarterfinals of, the European Open, and I was up nine eight, race to 10. And I missed the nine ball just because I was I knew that I was gonna miss the ball.
Speaker: 0
01:27:21
Same things happened in Sai, and, I was I was up 10 to three. I think it was last sixteenth. I’m almost straight on the nine ball, but I I just know that I’m gonna miss the ball. Oh, no. I just know that.
Speaker: 0
01:27:34
And I’m down on the shot, and I know that shot clock is running on me. I’m like, no way. I just can’t get up. I just can’t get up. I don’t have enough I don’t know. I don’t have enough time. So I missed the ball.
Speaker: 0
01:27:43
I’m glad that I won the match, and I won Sai won I I ran the next rack, but it’s just weird how that works.
Speaker: 1
01:27:50
So now you have those experiences, and then what do you do when that’s over? Where you go, okay. That can’t happen again. I gotta make sure that does that that mindset never creeps into my head again.
Speaker: 0
01:28:02
So you just have to switch your focus to your fundamentals. That’s what helps me. For example, Nick Vandenberg, he used to be a big player back in the day Yeah. In Netherlands. He would practice sitting on his, couch for hours, just practice visualization, just practice on the table. He would imagine himself practicing in the pool hall, like straight in shots.
Speaker: 0
01:28:26
He wouldn’t even go and practice.
Speaker: 1
01:28:28
Woah. That’s weird. Oh, that’s a weird dude. Yeah.
Speaker: 0
01:28:31
But it worked for him.
Speaker: 1
01:28:33
Well, there’s a lot of science to that in in terms of, like, studies that have been done about visualization and the improvement. And they found that pew actual real visualization, when you’re really sitting down there and visualizing, counts almost as much as practice. And in some cases, more.
Speaker: 1
01:28:53
And no one knows why.
Speaker: 0
01:28:55
Well, visualization is really big for us. For example, you’re never gonna win the tournament without believing that you can actually win it. Right. And you can only believe that you can win if you can only visualize, like, visualize that you won that tournament.
Speaker: 1
01:29:08
Right. Which is why I say that this is, like, the most mental of games.
Speaker: 0
01:29:12
Yeah.
Speaker: 1
01:29:13
You know, it is it’s such a weird dance that goes in your head. Like, sometimes with and again, I’m not a good player. I’m half assed. But sometimes I play really good. Like, if I get, like, six hours, two or three days in a row, I can get in stroke and I start running racks.
Speaker: 1
01:29:30
But when I’m not and then I go to execute, there’s, like, this thing in my head that, like, right when I’m about to aim at this like, right when I’m about to pull the trigger, my head goes, don’t hit it there. Hit it here. And you’re like, okay.
Speaker: 0
01:29:45
Vatsal touch of outside.
Speaker: 1
01:29:46
And I do it and I miss. I’m like, why did you change where you were gonna hit it? Ai, last minute. What the fuck is that? Ai I’ve been playing poo for thirty something years.
Speaker: 0
01:29:54
But sometimes that works and you’re like, I’m glad I did that.
Speaker: 1
01:29:58
Yeah. Rarely. Most of the times Sai miss. Yeah. Most of the times when I change where I’m gonna hit last second, I miss.
Speaker: 0
01:30:05
But we all do that.
Speaker: 1
01:30:06
Yeah. Or when I think I’m not gonna be this accurate, let me aim to over cut it. And then I’m like, oh, my God. You over cut it all the length of the table, you fucking idiot. Yeah. If you just accurately, like, hit where you thought you were gonna hit, you would have made that ball. It’s this weird thing, but that’s why I love the game.
Speaker: 1
01:30:24
Because when you’re really playing pool, the world goes away. It goes away. You’re not thinking about anything. You’re not thinking about global warming. You’re not thinking about shit.
Speaker: 1
01:30:37
You’re not thinking about inflation, how much eggs cost. You’re not thinking about shit. The world goes away when you’re on that table. When you’re playing, the world goes away. That’s what I like about archery, and that’s what I like about pool. They have the same quality to them.
Speaker: 1
01:30:53
And then to do it correctly is so difficult that it requires all of your mind.
Speaker: 0
01:31:00
I agree. I totally agree with you.
Speaker: 1
01:31:02
And unlike chess, which also requires all of your mind, pool has the added element that you have to execute. You have to pull it off under pressure with shah hands.
Speaker: 0
01:31:11
Ai like a mix of chess with, Ai don’t know, golf, I would say.
Speaker: 1
01:31:17
Yeah. It’s well, I think it’s just its own thing.
Speaker: 0
01:31:20
Well, it’s an old thing for sure.
Speaker: 1
01:31:21
It’s it’s its own thing. It’s very different than any of those other things, even though I don’t play either one of them. It’s it’s very different than any of those other things. And when people get into it, man, it takes their whole fucking life over. I remember my manager had to have a conversation with me months when I lived in New York.
Speaker: 1
01:31:37
He was ai, I think you’re spending more time playing pool than you are in your career. I’m like, fuck, he’s right. He’s right. I took a whole year off. I didn’t play for a whole year. And then Ai came to LA and I arya playing a little bit again. I was like, god, he got me again.
Speaker: 1
01:31:53
Just sunk its teeth right back in me.
Speaker: 0
01:31:57
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The amount of queues you have is crazy.
Speaker: 1
01:32:00
And now when I’m like, if I’m talking to someone and they’re boring, I just think about playing pool. I think about getting out. I think about here and here and here. It’s like my default brain. It falls into these path. But it’s not really about the it is about the game, for sure. But what it’s really about is syncing your mind to something.
Speaker: 1
01:32:23
That’s where the true joy comes in. Syncing your mind to something and then executing it to perfection. I think it’s, it’s some kind of a mental exercise, like, akin to cardio, akin to lifting weights. There’s a there’s a mental sai to it.
Speaker: 0
01:32:40
Also, the enjoyment from developing a skill, and you just know how hard it is. Mhmm. I think the enjoyment is even bigger in that regard.
Speaker: 1
01:32:49
Yeah. Yeah. It’s, it’s a game that I really wish more people would appreciate. I wonder how many people are still listening to this podcast that are just regular people. They’re like, what the is he gonna fucking talk about pool with this guy for three hours? Yep. This one’s not for you.
Speaker: 1
01:33:04
But that’s the beauty of having four podcasts a week. You can throw one of them entirely at pool. But for pool players, there’s a lot of people that get it. It’s, not like anything else. Sai and, in this real weird world of non physical things, in this weird world of, virtual things, of playing video games, and of, being connected with computers, and which is all very, very fun.
Speaker: 1
01:33:30
Those are all really fun to do. There’s a kinetic aspect to playing pool that I think a lot of people forgot how satisfying and rewarding it is, and how how intriguing the game is, you know. And that’s why I always chime on about it. I think I think it’s good for you, you know?
Speaker: 0
01:33:55
For sure. And, actually, the way, for example, Vietnam marketed pool is they arya opening pool ram with computer clubs in the same building. Oh. So that’s why
Speaker: 1
01:34:07
like a computer cafe type deal?
Speaker: 0
01:34:09
Type of thing. Yeah. But the huge ones. Huge ones. They have pool ram with hundreds of tables.
Speaker: 1
01:34:15
Oh, wow.
Speaker: 0
01:34:15
Yeah. Vietnam Vietnam right now is probably the most pool playing country in the world.
Speaker: 1
01:34:21
Wow. And how long ago did this start?
Speaker: 0
01:34:23
Maybe three, four years ago, really.
Speaker: 1
01:34:25
That’s crazy. What made it explode in Vietnam like that?
Speaker: 0
01:34:29
I had no idea. For example, Hanoi Open, the first major we had in Vietnam three three years ago. I had no idea or any expectations going to the event. But I always knew that I had some fans because on Facebook, like, 40% of my followers are from Vietnam, which always which always seemed weird.
Speaker: 1
01:34:47
40%?
Speaker: 0
01:34:48
Yeah. Now it’s now it’s more. Now it’s more. Woah. So I went over there, and I was amazed amazed. Like, in Hanoi alone, there’s 2,000 poolrooms in Hanoi, just one city.
Speaker: 1
01:35:02
2,000? Yeah. That’s crazy. What is this? The most luxurious pool hall in Vietnam?
Speaker: 0
01:35:09
That’s in that’s in Da Nang. I have I’ve actually been to
Speaker: 1
01:35:12
this pool ram before. Damn.
Speaker: 0
01:35:15
But, yeah, they have pool rooms with, like, hundreds of tables. This is Chinese eight ball, by the way.
Speaker: 1
01:35:21
Yeah. That’s a weird game. Right?
Speaker: 0
01:35:23
It’s become really, really popular.
Speaker: 1
01:35:24
Hugely popular. Right? Really popular. It’s, very lucrative. Right?
Speaker: 0
01:35:32
Yeah. Yeah. Those guys are making big money now in, either called hayball now.
Speaker: 1
01:35:38
It’s called hayball. Right? It used to be called Chinese eight ball? Chinese eight ball. So what what made that game explode in China?
Speaker: 0
01:35:45
They were just throwing big, big money in the game, and, it really exploded everywhere because now all the English and snooker players English eight ball players and snooker players are traveling, playing all those tournaments there. And, maybe top 30 guys now on their tour making good money.
Speaker: 0
01:36:02
And they are, I think they are trying to get the pool players to join them them as well.
Speaker: 1
01:36:08
A lot of guys will probably do it just for the cheese. Yeah.
Speaker: 0
01:36:11
Well, that’s that’s the problem.
Speaker: 1
01:36:13
And what does a big tournament in Hay Ball pay?
Speaker: 0
01:36:15
The biggest one pays 750,000 for first. Mhmm. But they have almost big tournaments every month that pay 200, 300,000 for first.
Speaker: 1
01:36:27
Wow.
Speaker: 0
01:36:28
And small tournaments, you know, they pay 50. They’re happening every two weeks.
Speaker: 1
01:36:33
But you were saying you when you went over there, like regular dudes that you were playing or, like, robbing you?
Speaker: 0
01:36:39
Yeah. The competition is really high. The game is a little a little bit different. So they use pool balls, snooker type of rail. So the pop the the pocket is round. And they use, like, a snooker cloth, so it’s really thick
Speaker: 1
01:36:53
Mhmm.
Speaker: 0
01:36:53
And, like hairy.
Speaker: 1
01:36:55
So it’s, a lot got a lot of nap to the claw, so the ball moves slower. Right. The hit ball is really hard. Is that because of the rounded edges? Like, you gotta fire them through there?
Speaker: 0
01:37:04
For example, if the ball is close to the rail, that’s probably the best way to make the ball because you can push through the rubber. Oh. Kinda like a Russian pyramid type of thing.
Speaker: 1
01:37:14
Well, there’s that one shot where, in the side pockets, we can push through the nipple of the side pocket if it’s yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: 0
01:37:22
Kind of the same thing. Kind of.
Speaker: 1
01:37:24
Because I watch a lot of those guys online, and they fire balls in. I’m like, this is crazy.
Speaker: 0
01:37:28
Ai Yeah. The competition is really, really high there because there’s so many players and so many pool ram in China that just have table tables. And it’s it’s becoming popular everywhere.
Speaker: 1
01:37:39
And when did that start in China?
Speaker: 0
01:37:42
I would say it started, like, ten years ago, maybe even before that.
Speaker: 1
01:37:44
That’s so think about that. That that emerges ten years ago. So this is only we’re talking about 02/2015, something long ago. So that emerges ten years ago, and then Vietnam emerges three years ago.
Speaker: 0
01:37:55
Vietnam Vietnam was booming. But maybe I just found it out three years ago. Maybe it started
Speaker: 1
01:37:59
before So let’s imagine that’s that’s ten years as well. That’s still nothing. That’s not that long
Speaker: 0
01:38:03
ago. Yeah.
Speaker: 1
01:38:05
Ai, so it gives me hope that something similar can happen in America.
Speaker: 0
01:38:11
I don’t think sai? I think I think the audience is different.
Speaker: 1
01:38:14
How so?
Speaker: 0
01:38:15
Because, something has to happen in order to draw the younger audience here. Sai don’t know if the social media is the answer, but in Vietnam, it’s just they don’t have any bars and pool rooms. They don’t drink in pool rooms. They just play the game. Everybody’s following professional pool. Everybody know who Shane Van Boing is.
Speaker: 1
01:38:36
That’s gonna be tough to get people with no bars.
Speaker: 0
01:38:38
Exactly.
Speaker: 1
01:38:38
People who hear a bunch of drunks.
Speaker: 0
01:38:40
Well, APA has 270,000 members. 270,000 US alone.
Speaker: 1
01:38:46
And those are mostly bar players?
Speaker: 0
01:38:48
Those are mostly bar players that play on Ai, and they probably don’t know who Shane Van Boonie
Speaker: 1
01:38:52
is. What? That’s not possible. It is possible. Come on. Really?
Speaker: 0
01:38:56
Yeah. Really? I’m telling you.
Speaker: 1
01:38:57
They play pool in a league, and they don’t know who Shane Van Boonie is?
Speaker: 0
01:39:00
I’m telling you.
Speaker: 1
01:39:00
That seems insane. He plays in those bar table tournaments sometimes.
Speaker: 0
01:39:05
Sai watched There’s a lot more of them. Yeah.
Speaker: 1
01:39:07
I watched some recent one from Bryden. They they had some big Right.
Speaker: 0
01:39:11
Yeah. That’s Ultimate Pool. They arya. It’s a company from UK.
Speaker: 1
01:39:14
Oh, is it?
Speaker: 0
01:39:15
They’re starting to yeah. They’re starting to break through in The US as well.
Speaker: 1
01:39:18
Kinda crazy because it’s a really quick shot clock. Right. Big ass pockets, little ass table, and you if you miss, you’re fucked.
Speaker: 0
01:39:26
Right.
Speaker: 1
01:39:26
Because these guys are all they’re all running out. Justin Bergman is a wizard at that too.
Speaker: 0
01:39:31
Yeah. Bar table table is a different game.
Speaker: 1
01:39:34
It it looks easy. You look at it, you’re like, oh, small table, big pockets, this is easy. But no. This if you miss, like, if you get out of line and you miss, the game’s over Yeah. You guys are gonna run out. And that’s additional pressure. Yeah.
Speaker: 0
01:39:49
More strategy in eight ball.
Speaker: 1
01:39:50
All the clusters and everything’s all cluttered up together.
Speaker: 0
01:39:53
Right. Right. Right. Right.
Speaker: 1
01:39:54
And you can’t shoot your opponent’s ball, so you gotta figure out a way to bump them and move them and get a shot on the eight.
Speaker: 0
01:40:00
Do you think the eight ball is still the most played game because of leaks and
Speaker: 1
01:40:03
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Most people don’t eat like, I had a friend here and he’s like, I play really good pool. I go, what do you play? You play nine ai? Like, no. I play regular pool. I’m like Yeah. What is regular pool?
Speaker: 1
01:40:13
Like, you don’t play
Speaker: 0
01:40:14
Right.
Speaker: 1
01:40:15
In a conversation, I was like, okay. Okay. Okay. Let me explain nine ball to you. Like, you play eight ball. It’s not regular pool.
Speaker: 0
01:40:22
But it may change. With Meh being involved, it may change because they push nine ball only.
Speaker: 1
01:40:27
Yeah. Well, the thing about nine ball that’s very exciting is the luck factor.
Speaker: 0
01:40:31
Right.
Speaker: 1
01:40:32
Luck factor is huge. You know, when you watch a guy shoot a ball into the corner and he hits the rail and it bounces three rails and goes to the side, It’s fucked if if you’re sitting there, if you’re in the chair and you were hoping, oh, he missed, it’s my chance. No. He got lucky.
Speaker: 0
01:40:49
Right.
Speaker: 1
01:40:50
And that’s luck is part of it. Sometimes people shit in the nine ball and that’s the whole they win. And people are like, how could that be a win? It’s an accident. Like, that’s part of the game.
Speaker: 0
01:40:59
Yeah. It’s part of
Speaker: 1
01:41:00
the fun of the game. And then also, you could win off the break. That’s also part of the game.
Speaker: 0
01:41:04
Mhmm.
Speaker: 1
01:41:04
And that drives people crazy. No. Spot that. Like, no. I think
Speaker: 0
01:41:08
I think it’s it’s great. I mean, luck luck is part of any sport, I think.
Speaker: 1
01:41:12
I also like when when someone misses an easy shah, and then the opponent runs out and it makes a nine on the break. So it’s ai, fuck. Thanks for punishing. You fucked up. And the pool gods do that to you all the time. Meh. They do.
Speaker: 1
01:41:25
If you miss a ball, it’s kinda weird how ai, like, you have to sit in the chair for a few racks because the guy just gets a bunch of, like, really awesome lucky breaks. You’re like, this is terrible.
Speaker: 0
01:41:36
For sure. And, you know, what I also found when I’m winning more, I’m also getting more lucky.
Speaker: 1
01:41:41
Yeah.
Speaker: 0
01:41:42
I just get the love. I miss the ball, and then Mhmm. The guy is absolutely hooked.
Speaker: 1
01:41:46
I wonder what that is. Why is that so reliable? Because it’s really reliable.
Speaker: 0
01:41:51
I wish I knew the answer. I would be I’d be doing something for sure.
Speaker: 1
01:41:55
If some, like, super egghead who studies pool, like doctor Dave
Speaker: 0
01:41:59
Yeah.
Speaker: 1
01:41:59
Like, if that guy could explain this, I would like to know.
Speaker: 0
01:42:02
Yeah. Because I think
Speaker: 1
01:42:03
I think there’s a kind of science to it. And I Sai think it has to do I I don’t know what it is, but I think there’s a positive you’re when you’re in gear, when you you can’t miss, and you’re in stroke, and you’re firing balls, and you’re playing really well, you get these lucky breaks.
Speaker: 1
01:42:24
It’s weird. It’s like you’re putting out positive energy. But when you’re down and you feel like shit and you’re like, goddamn it, I can’t catch a speak, and then the guy misses and you’re stuck behind two balls, you’re like, goddamn it. This always happens. I wonder I often wonder, did you make that? Did you manifest this? Are you manifesting good luck with positive energy?
Speaker: 0
01:42:46
That’s what I do. Yeah. I wonder. That’s what I do. I mean, I’m always trying to be positive because I think there is a benefit to it.
Speaker: 1
01:42:53
I think there’s a real benefit, like a real world unmeasurable benefit that would probably show up in statistics.
Speaker: 0
01:42:59
But not not not even in pool. I think in real life, it’s the same. Yes.
Speaker: 1
01:43:03
I think so too. Yeah. That’s why I think pool mirrors life in a lot of ways. Right. I think that’s the case. I also think, like, being really generous in real life is, like, really good for you. It’s really good for everybody. It’s not good for just for the people that you’re being generous to, but it’s good for you too. It’s good for everybody.
Speaker: 0
01:43:22
Right.
Speaker: 1
01:43:22
It’s like it it is ai more good things happen for you when you do that. It’s it’s the same sort of principle.
Speaker: 0
01:43:28
There’s a Karma is real.
Speaker: 1
01:43:30
It is real. It just doesn’t seem like it should be. It seems like you should be able to figure out life on, you know, a yellow legal pad with a pen and some really good calculus. But no. There’s some things going on that nobody has figured out how to put a measuring tape to. No one’s figured out how to put it on a scale.
Speaker: 1
01:43:48
There’s some things going on.
Speaker: 0
01:43:51
Yeah. That’s a difficult one.
Speaker: 1
01:43:52
Yeah. And there’s things going on with your mind that, no one is ever gonna be able to figure out. Like, no one’s ever gonna be able to figure out why some people get lucky all the time. But there’s I think there’s probably something to it. Like Efren, for example. That guy used to always sai, I got lucky. He was always saying, I got lucky. Meanwhile, who’s more positive than that guy?
Speaker: 1
01:44:17
When he would he would miss, he would laugh. He would laugh and scratch his head.
Speaker: 0
01:44:21
Oh, yeah.
Speaker: 1
01:44:21
Never looked like he was mad. I would want her to break my fucking stick, but he would he would just like, oh, no. I missed. He’d scratch his head and go, oh, no. And sit down and be all super positive.
Speaker: 0
01:44:34
Right.
Speaker: 1
01:44:35
And but he got lucky a lot.
Speaker: 0
01:44:37
I agree. Maybe that’s that’s the case.
Speaker: 1
01:44:40
Yeah. Well, that’s why I wonder that’s why I wanted to ask you about your pre shot routine. Like, what is what are the things you’re saying to yourself in your mind? Or is it just a lot of experience and a lot of, I’m gonna make that shot?
Speaker: 0
01:44:55
Well, it’s, basically shutting down the negative thoughts. You know, being positive is really difficult at times, especially when things are not going your way, when opponent is, I don’t know, missing and shit saves on you or flicking a few balls or just doesn’t miss any balls, it’s it’s really difficult to stay positive in your chair.
Speaker: 0
01:45:15
Yeah. So, you just gotta focus on what you can control and, hope for the best. That’s all I do.
Speaker: 1
01:45:24
Have you ever thought about doing what Nick Vandenberg does when he sits on a couch? Just ai visualizing running out while you’re watching your opponent play?
Speaker: 0
01:45:34
I think I have that going through my brain when I’m, like, listening to, like, a hype up music. For example, when I’m walking to the mansion, I’m, like, how hyped up
Speaker: 1
01:45:43
What is hype up music for you? What are you listening to?
Speaker: 0
01:45:45
Different. Different. Depends on the mood. Sometimes it’s like gangster rap. Sometimes it’s, like
Speaker: 1
01:45:51
What kind of gangster rap? What do you like?
Speaker: 0
01:45:52
Russian Russian stuff.
Speaker: 1
01:45:54
Russian. Oh, you gotta send me some. Okay. Yeah. Tell me what’s good Russian gangster rap.
Speaker: 0
01:45:59
It’s good for the gym. Perfect for the gym.
Speaker: 1
01:46:00
Yeah? Yeah. Perfect. Oh, nice.
Speaker: 0
01:46:03
Funk funk music. I like funk. Like Brazilian funk.
Speaker: 1
01:46:07
I like music like that that I don’t know what they’re saying. Right. Well, I
Speaker: 0
01:46:11
I do understand what they’re saying, but sometimes it just doesn’t make all all that sense. So
Speaker: 1
01:46:19
Russian gangsta rap. Like, can you give me example, like, that we could play right now? Like, what is a good Russian gangsta rap that Jamie could pull up?
Speaker: 0
01:46:27
Well, his name is Skriptonit.
Speaker: 1
01:46:30
Skriptonite? Yeah. Ai, Skriptonite? Like Kryptonite?
Speaker: 0
01:46:33
Yeah. Well, his name is Skriptonite. He’s really popular in Russia.
Speaker: 1
01:46:36
Sai if you can find that guy. What’s a good song?
Speaker: 0
01:46:38
Usually usually, it’s a few remixes. Well, let me let me see.
Speaker: 1
01:46:40
What’s ai a
Speaker: 0
01:46:41
They put me on the spot.
Speaker: 1
01:46:45
I didn’t even know that they had a lot of Russian gangster rap.
Speaker: 0
01:46:49
Yeah. For sure. I mean, it’s not not great music, but it hypes me up.
Speaker: 1
01:46:58
Well, a lot of hype up music is not necessarily great music.
Speaker: 0
01:47:01
Called Ai Gergeert. I don’t even know if he’s popular or not. I just like his stuff.
Speaker: 1
01:47:05
Give me one script ai, though. One one good song that you like. Let me see. Ai, one like, you and Josh Phil are about to play for half a million. You’re on your way.
Speaker: 0
01:47:17
So this song is, is not good. It has, cursing all over it.
Speaker: 1
01:47:22
Oh, perfect. But just tell me what it is. We’ll have Jamie pull it up.
Speaker: 0
01:47:27
Moscow loves ecstasy.
Speaker: 1
01:47:29
Oh. Ai bet a lot of people in Moscow do love ecstasy. Ai pretty accurate song. You got it, Jamie?
Speaker: 0
01:47:43
Yeah. Well, I mean, hold on.
Speaker: 1
01:47:46
It’s not written in English.
Speaker: 0
01:47:48
Yeah. It’s not written in English.
Speaker: 1
01:47:49
I just sana hear you.
Speaker: 0
01:47:49
I’m just trying to
Speaker: 1
01:47:50
I’m Meh. So even the actual ai, I gotta, like, get the right version of it because it didn’t It’s
Speaker: 0
01:47:55
called Maskwa. Maskwa.
Speaker: 1
01:47:57
Let me do copy paste here. Hold on. If you want, I can have them send it to me, and I’ll send it to you.
Speaker: 0
01:48:03
No. That’s not that’s not the issue.
Speaker: 1
01:48:05
Oh, okay. Literally, it’s written and
Speaker: 0
01:48:09
I don’t even know how to type that one.
Speaker: 1
01:48:11
Here it is. Ai can’t type that something that’s saying, like, it wasn’t Oh, right. Right. Right. It was on a lyric site. This also is gonna get us in troubles. Yep. This is gonna get us in trouble? We can’t play any music anymore. Oh, yeah. Ai.
Speaker: 1
01:48:23
Well, we’ll just we’ll cut it out.
Speaker: 0
01:48:28
You’ve gotta go forward a little bit.
Speaker: 1
01:48:35
I like
Speaker: 0
01:48:35
it. Yeah. So it’s something like that. It
Speaker: 1
01:48:38
sounds like he’s on ecstasy, though.
Speaker: 0
01:48:40
Maybe.
Speaker: 1
01:48:40
I bet he is. Maybe.
Speaker: 0
01:48:42
I mean, most of the stuff he says, you can’t even understand what he’s saying because he’s so fast and he’s actually from Kazakhstan.
Speaker: 1
01:48:48
Oh, here it is. Wet asphalt, gray face, you’ll find everything you need. Love or treasure in the depths of the woods. Only the lipstick was worn off. Ceiling, starfall, fingers on the temple. The eyes are this is all nonsense words.
Speaker: 0
01:49:02
Yeah. The
Speaker: 1
01:49:03
eyes are gathered together. Tomorrow, again, west wet asphalt, gray face, there are only clouds above you. Okay. That sounds like Chat GPT wrote it. Like Chat GPT two.
Speaker: 0
01:49:14
The straight translation from Russian never makes any sense.
Speaker: 1
01:49:17
No. Right? Mm-mm. Is that what is that ai? Like, learn well, first of all, you know how to read it. Right? So you read shah is it? Cyrillic? Is that what it’s called? So, you read it and write it. Like, what is it like when you have to learn English? Like, how much of a weird juxtaposition when you see the two languages together?
Speaker: 0
01:49:36
Well, it’s I don’t know. It was kinda easy. I think English is the easiest language to learn. Really? Because I was I was studying French in school. I was in the French school, and, for me, it was a lot tougher to learn French. I used to speak fluent French before. Now I just don’t don’t remember anything. Really? Yeah. I actually start forgetting Russian a little bit because I start thinking in English because I speak so much time here.
Speaker: 0
01:50:00
Oh. So I didn’t learn English proper enough, but to where I can speak and understand and, you know, at least have a conversation. And then I don’t really speak with anybody in Russian, so I start forgetting it.
Speaker: 1
01:50:14
Oh, no. You’re a man of no country.
Speaker: 0
01:50:16
Exactly.
Speaker: 1
01:50:17
That’s terrible. That would be terrible. And if you go back to Russia, they get mad at you? They can’t talk good?
Speaker: 0
01:50:22
No. I mean, I still I still talk good. I actually go to Russia at least once a year.
Speaker: 1
01:50:27
Just to stay tight? Sai close to the game?
Speaker: 0
01:50:29
Still sai close to my family.
Speaker: 1
01:50:33
But I would imagine, like, if you fell out of Russian, like, if it became uncomfortable for you and you went over there, that that would be so weird for them.
Speaker: 0
01:50:43
No. No. I mean, they’re fine with it. There’s a
Speaker: 1
01:50:46
lot of But it would listen. If sai, like, if my daughter moved overseas and, went to Spain and started speaking Spanish and then came over to America and had a hard time talking to me, I’d be like, what happened?
Speaker: 0
01:50:57
I’m not gonna Go
Speaker: 1
01:50:58
ahead and drink.
Speaker: 0
01:50:59
Completely forget the language.
Speaker: 1
01:51:01
Right.
Speaker: 0
01:51:01
But it would be just that I would be using, like, a lot simpler words. My vocabulary is gonna be tinier.
Speaker: 1
01:51:07
Right. But then what if you’re away for ten years?
Speaker: 0
01:51:10
Yeah. Well, then you gain an accent and
Speaker: 1
01:51:13
And then people ai, look at you. You win America on us.
Speaker: 0
01:51:18
Yeah.
Speaker: 1
01:51:18
You son of a bitch. Do you get any heat for coming to America?
Speaker: 0
01:51:23
At first, of course, I did. Yeah. I meh all my friends. My friends, actually, they supported me all the ai. So I’m just, glad that I had good friends and have good friends. But, of course, the casual fans and, you know, the keyboard keyboard warriors Yeah. They’re always on me. I get the heat from that.
Speaker: 1
01:51:42
Because you left Russia.
Speaker: 0
01:51:44
Yeah. Sell out, you know, not born in The Sai. And that’s the music they always play in my stomach. Not born in The USA.
Speaker: 1
01:51:54
Is there a song like that?
Speaker: 0
01:51:56
Well, they play the song
Speaker: 1
01:51:57
Born in The USA? No.
Speaker: 0
01:51:59
Not yet.
Speaker: 1
01:52:00
Oh, not. That song is very depressing anyway. If you wanna get patriotic, that’s not like, Born in The USA is a terrible song. It’s, like, so sad. It’s not ai, like, ai is awesome. Yeah. Ai, that that song is, like, depressing. It’s, you know, it’s about living in a terrible part of The USA.
Speaker: 1
01:52:20
Like, you’re it’s not like the American dream.
Speaker: 0
01:52:24
But not really. I mean, I don’t have the heat from the Russians. Not really. I don’t have that. That’s good. There’s a lot of Russian people living in The United States.
Speaker: 1
01:52:33
So you get more heat from Americans that are upset that you came over from Russia?
Speaker: 0
01:52:36
Ai really the Europeans, I think. The Europeans that are the most upset ones, I think.
Speaker: 1
01:52:41
Probably because you’re now playing for the Meh, and they know that you could fuck up their whole Moscone Cup thing.
Speaker: 0
01:52:46
Maybe. Maybe. Yeah. I do have a lot of, I would say Polish haters just because I’m Polish? Yeah. Polish. I have a lot of Polish haters. Oh. Just because I was born in Russia.
Speaker: 1
01:52:58
Oh. But they just automatically don’t like Russians?
Speaker: 0
01:53:01
Yeah. Yeah. That’s that always happens.
Speaker: 1
01:53:03
Yeah. If you don’t have haters, you’re not doing anything right. Right. You know, if you’re I’m
Speaker: 0
01:53:08
sure you have a lot of them too.
Speaker: 1
01:53:09
I’m sure I do.
Speaker: 0
01:53:10
Yeah. What was that crazy guy that was, he was trying to fight you or something?
Speaker: 1
01:53:15
Oh, the Liver King.
Speaker: 0
01:53:16
Yeah.
Speaker: 1
01:53:16
Yeah. That poor unfortunate guy. I don’t know, man. He just got it in his head some somehow or another that I was responsible for what was wrong with him, that I was a bully to him, which is crazy because, all I did was point out what was, like, super obvious. Like, you’re lying about being on steroids. Like, hey. Don’t lie about being on steroids. Don’t be a public person, and no one will say that. It’s that simple.
Speaker: 1
01:53:40
You have to take personal accountability for errors that you made. I think there’s some substances involved, if I had to guess, that led down him down a bad road, unfortunately. But it’s also fame, man. It’s not, you know, I’m sure you experienced it because you experienced a lot of haters from in the pool world, but fame is not what people think it’s going to be.
Speaker: 1
01:54:03
You know, you think Ai gonna be famous and life will be easier because people know who I am. No. Life is gonna be way harder because now you’re under the microscope Oh,
Speaker: 0
01:54:12
for sure. You can go ahead.
Speaker: 1
01:54:13
Twenty four hours a day. And this is a guy in the Brian, he calls himself the liver king, who was not famous most of his life, and then decided I want to be sai. And I have this great body, so what I’m gonna do is just, like, tell everybody they have to eat liver and, sell a bunch of supplements.
Speaker: 1
01:54:29
And he made a lot of money selling a bunch of supplements. And then he’s cannot tell the truth. We’re out to steroids. The problem with that is that physique is not achievable in your forties without some help. It’s just not. Mhmm. It’s just not. It’s just not.
Speaker: 1
01:54:46
Like, you could be a freak athlete and have that physique at 23. It’s possible. There’s a few guys that can but you have to have superior genetics and and insane work ethic, and you have to be, like, really intelligent about how you approach your training. But once you get into your forties, and if you didn’t look like that when you were younger, oh, yeah. You’re on something. Everybody knows it.
Speaker: 1
01:55:11
There’s nothing wrong with being on something. Like, there’s here’s the thing. It’s ai, if you wanna be an influencer online, it’s it doesn’t exclude you from taking if you’re a person who takes testosterone or any even there’s ai who have huge followings who are clearly on anabolic steroids.
Speaker: 1
01:55:30
They just don’t lie about it. That’s all it is. Mhmm. Like, it doesn’t make you less famous or make your your physique less valid. No one no one really I mean, there’s gonna be a few people, oh, he’s a juice head.
Speaker: 1
01:55:42
But the reality is most people are just ai, wow, that’s really impressive. But what people hate is when you mislead them, when you pretend you’re doing something that you’re not, especially if you’re you’re also selling supplements or selling a lifestyle and telling them, you know, about your ancestral tenants.
Speaker: 1
01:56:02
It’s just gotta take accountability. That’s you you made mistakes. If you didn’t make mistakes, I’d be celebrating you. If you were ai this guy who’s like, there’s a bunch of people that we talk about on the podcast all the time that I know are on juice. But they they don’t lie about it, and no one gets upset at them. It’s real simple.
Speaker: 0
01:56:20
Ai.
Speaker: 1
01:56:21
It’s just it is what it is. But that, you know, the ai just take take a lot of heat, and they just he also funded I think he had at least had a part in funding this Netflix documentary about him, which, I didn’t watch it, but I heard it was not flattering vatsal, and it made him seem kind of insane.
Speaker: 1
01:56:39
And that probably sucked. And then after that, he, you know, was mad at me. But I again, fame is not a normal thing. It’s not normal. And if you don’t have personal sovereignty, if you don’t understand yourself, truly understand yourself, not just trying to project an image of what you like people to think of you, but who you actually are.
Speaker: 1
01:57:06
Right. That’s that’s where you get in trouble with fame. And then, also reading haters and reading the comments and, you know, and and wanting people to love you, which is probably why a lot of people get famous in the first place. It’s also ai the the thing of getting famous as a goal versus becoming famous because of a thing you do. You know what I mean?
Speaker: 1
01:57:30
Like, becoming famous because people like your comedy or your podcast or they like the way you play pool or they like your way you play basketball, like, that’s a different thing. When you specifically go out of your way, because you want to become famous. And that’s a lot of people.
Speaker: 0
01:57:48
It’s a lot
Speaker: 1
01:57:49
of it’s really weird. There’s a lot of, like, very wealthy people. I know some people that are really wealthy, and the thing that they really want is to be famous. It’s
Speaker: 0
01:57:57
weird. Just an ego. Egomaniac.
Speaker: 1
01:58:00
Well, it’s sai thing they can’t buy. It’s like they can they have private jets. They got a house here and a house there, and they got a company here and a company there, but they really wanna be famous. Mhmm. You know? So they they won’t that’s a lot of those guys wanna go on podcasts, and they wanna, like, sort of, like, let the world know how cool they are.
Speaker: 1
01:58:16
It’s weird.
Speaker: 0
01:58:18
It is.
Speaker: 1
01:58:18
You know, it’s like and then a lot of those guys, they take the heat off the comments and the the haters, and they don’t like it. I’m like, Jesus Christ. I didn’t know it’s sana be this. Like, yeah. That’s that’s what you signed up for. You signed up
Speaker: 0
01:58:30
the game.
Speaker: 1
01:58:31
Yeah. You’re on the the World Theater.
Speaker: 0
01:58:33
Mhmm.
Speaker: 1
01:58:34
And that’s, it’s a lot of eyeballs. It’s a lot of lot of lot of fucking venom tongue people out there.
Speaker: 0
01:58:43
I’m sure
Speaker: 1
01:58:43
you just terrible things about you.
Speaker: 0
01:58:45
Yeah. I can’t wait till something will happen.
Speaker: 1
01:58:47
And you have you have to have the same way you have that discipline to not allow those negative thoughts in your head before you make a shah. You also have to not allow other people’s negative thoughts in your head either. Right. Because they’re as valid, if not more valid than your own negative thoughts.
Speaker: 0
01:59:01
Oh, there’s so many different opinions. Uh-huh. This is for example, every time I make a, I don’t know, bad decision to their opinion, You know, they will always voice it to me and say, well, you know, and you just gotta you gotta deal with it.
Speaker: 1
01:59:16
Yeah. Or not pay attention to them, which is, I think, the best way to do it. You you must be aware Everyone’s aware if they fuck up, and you’re always aware if people are upset at you about things, but don’t fucking focus on it. Don’t pay attention. And that’s where comedians make a giant mistake. Podcasters make a giant mistake. I’m sure pool players do it. Fighters do it in a big way.
Speaker: 1
01:59:39
Like, a lot of fighters get real mad when they read comments. Yeah. You know, and they invite trolls to come to their gym and some of them even beat the trolls up, which is ai crazy. You know, some guys will talk shit and they’ll be so dumb that they’ll actually think that they can go to the gym and, you know, spar with Sean Strickland or something.
Speaker: 0
01:59:56
That’s the worst thing you can do because that’s what troll is wanting. That’s what his goal is. He’s trying to get to your head.
Speaker: 1
02:00:03
Yeah. But if you could get him in the gym, it’s worth it. Yeah. Ai, Shah Strickland has a bunch of videos of guys who talk shit online. He just beats the fucking piss out of them. Which is ai, then he wins, you know. Then it comes all full circle. Like, pay attention to the haters actually paid off because for him, it’s easy work. He’s just Right.
Speaker: 1
02:00:24
He just tunes these guys up like it’s nothing and talks shit to them while he’s kicking the fuck out of them.
Speaker: 0
02:00:30
Yeah. Well, I guess in that case, it it
Speaker: 1
02:00:32
Yeah. But with pool, it’s like you don’t wanna have to play some idiot who says you suck. Ai, okay, put up money. Let’s play. Like, they probably won’t. They won’t. Then you’ll be talking with them back and forth. What is, the most amount of money that you’ve ever gambled for?
Speaker: 0
02:00:48
Against Shah.
Speaker: 1
02:00:49
That was it? Yeah. So you don’t wanna say the full amount, but that was the most amount. But this Joshua Tyler thing, if what they offered, if that ever happened, that would be the biggest one.
Speaker: 0
02:00:58
It could be it could be the biggest one. It could be the biggest one, but also on my end, I just don’t want it to be a one match and done. Right. I wanna play you know, if I lose, I wanna play again. If I win, I wanna play again.
Speaker: 1
02:01:12
What what was he proposing in terms of a race?
Speaker: 0
02:01:16
He wanted to do the same thing.
Speaker: 1
02:01:18
20 Hundred
Speaker: 0
02:01:19
and twenty ten ball over three days. Just the same thing.
Speaker: 1
02:01:23
And what would you think about that?
Speaker: 0
02:01:24
I think I think, yeah, we should we should we can do that for sure. But my my my take on this was I wanted to play in Railyard in Louisville where we play all of our merchandise.
Speaker: 1
02:01:36
Yeah. Well,
Speaker: 0
02:01:37
it’s not really my spot. It’s considered
Speaker: 1
02:01:38
That’s a spot you go to a lot. Right?
Speaker: 0
02:01:40
Not really. I go there, you know. Oh, I think you’re lying. Couple thousand a year. Ai live thirty minutes from there.
Speaker: 1
02:01:47
Oh, sai. That’s your spot.
Speaker: 0
02:01:49
But Ai don’t I don’t go there.
Speaker: 1
02:01:50
Son. Shut up. That’s your homeroom.
Speaker: 0
02:01:52
It’s not my homeroom. I have a table at home. I practice at home.
Speaker: 1
02:01:55
Right. But your homeroom where you go to is ai the place where you go that’s near your house that’s an actual establishment, not your home table.
Speaker: 0
02:02:03
I mean, you can you can yes. I mean, you can say it like this, but I don’t I don’t go there. I don’t practice. I never I’m never there.
Speaker: 1
02:02:10
Right. I bet everybody knows your name.
Speaker: 0
02:02:13
Oh, yeah.
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02:02:14
You walk in the door. Well, that everybody knows your name everywhere. It doesn’t count. But
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02:02:20
But, yeah, I think
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02:02:20
I could see why you wouldn’t wanna play there.
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02:02:22
Yeah. Of course.
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02:02:22
That’s your home
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02:02:23
room. We can find a neutral spot. We can ai vatsal spot.
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02:02:26
Maybe we’re setting it up right here on this podcast.
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02:02:28
Ai the
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02:02:28
What’s the most amount you think you could get staked for?
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02:02:34
I will have to Consult? Yeah. I will have to consult.
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02:02:37
Yeah. Consult with those gentlemen.
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02:02:39
100,000 maybe? Could be 4.
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02:02:43
It’s a lot of money. It’s a
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02:02:44
lot of money. Let’s do it right here.
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02:02:46
I’d be in. I’d be in to doing that. Ai have to tighten that table up. Right? Yeah. I will Would you want four and a quarter?
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02:02:54
Or would you want four? Oh, that’s another thing he wanted to do. He wanted to only play in a four inch table. Mhmm. So he wants to make it tighter. Mhmm.
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02:03:03
Because me
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02:03:03
and Shane, we put in four and a quarter. Oh, I see. And he thinks if he makes it tighter, I’m not gonna be making sai much balls on the break, and I can’t control the break. You know, it’s always when you negotiate a match like this, you always want to have an edge. Right. And little change here and there may make the outcome different, but, I mean
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02:03:23
I see. I feel like you should do it in a place where you can get an audience, though.
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02:03:27
We can. Yeah. But It’s gonna be the biggest the biggest draw of the audience we can possibly have.
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02:03:34
Ai, for sure. It’s gonna be the biggest draw. What I ai is in person as well, like a place where there’s a lot of people that can watch in person.
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02:03:40
I think me and Shane would draw a bigger crowd, but maybe.
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02:03:43
Really? Yeah. Yeah. Probably. Shane is a huge American hero when it comes to pool. Right. But it just seems like he doesn’t like it anymore.
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02:03:52
With tyler, it’s different. You know, he’s like Jake Paul. A lot of people watch him, but they watch him because they want him to lose.
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02:03:59
Really?
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02:04:00
Well, I just found it like this.
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02:04:02
I didn’t know that. I did I’m just hearing that for the first time now. I thought he was beloved.
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02:04:07
Well, it’s kinda changing, I think, lately.
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02:04:11
Why?
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02:04:13
Just, the way he responded to a few different things, and social media makes it, worse.
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02:04:19
Oh, no. Social media stuff?
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02:04:21
Yeah. There was a few a few, I don’t know if you’re involved with, like, WPA and Meh and conflicts and stuff like this.
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02:04:29
Oh, yeah. That’s right. So there was a a lot of weirdness where he was playing for like, was the WPA sai you couldn’t play in a Metro event or is that what it was? What happened?
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02:04:43
What happened was,
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02:04:44
So we should explain to people that don’t know. There’s two different competing sort of organizations.
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02:04:49
Yeah.
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02:04:49
And at one point in time, if you played for one, they were telling you can’t play for the other. And everybody’s like, that’s kinda crazy, guys. Right. Like, pool is just starting to take off, and don’t schedule shit at the same time as this other one that you know is gonna be there. Work together.
Speaker: 0
02:05:02
So what happened was, WPA is implementing all those bands, and they say if you play in, Hanoi Open, you will be banned for a certain period of time from WPA tournaments. And all the top players at the time, we wanted to change that by just stopping playing WPA tournaments. So we just all of us, top 16 players or top 10 players, we just don’t go to WPA tournaments.
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02:05:26
And by that move, we wanted them to change that rule. We wanted them to lift the band.
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02:05:31
Right.
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02:05:32
So the very next event, after we spoke with all the players, we were in the meeting room. We fly to New Zealand. And I was flying with, Christina, with my girlfriend at the time. She was playing the world championships, and there was a world championships for men’s, which was a WPA tournament.
Speaker: 0
02:05:49
And, we all agreed that we’re not playing there, but Josh was there, and he was playing. So he basically decided and went against what he was saying in that maroon. He turned up and, signed up to play. It wasn’t just him. It wasn’t other players.
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02:06:06
But then it just led to more like, he went on social media and tried to sai, you know, he was trying to defend himself and say, you know, it wasn’t it was my dream to win that championships. It was my,
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02:06:23
What better way to tell those other 10 guys they’re the best in the world than you’re not going. Alright. We’re all not going, and then you sign up. That means you just killed off nine or 10 of the best players in the world, and you have a much better chance of winning.
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02:06:37
He did get a a lot of backlash from that, and I think to this day, that kinda stuck with him.
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02:06:44
I see. That makes sense. That makes sense. He’s a hell of a player, though.
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02:06:47
Oh, he’s an unbelievable player.
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02:06:49
Yeah. And he’s really young too. Right? How old is he?
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02:06:51
He’s a little bit older than meh. Maybe 26, 27. But Yeah. He’s the most fearless, the most talented player. He’s kinda like ai out in a pool.
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02:06:59
Yeah. He’s, well, sometimes when he gets hot, it’s crazy to watch. Or he’s spiking balls in.
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02:07:06
Oh, the high gear is unbelievable. Yeah. Unbelievable. He would go for a long period of time without meh missing any ball.
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02:07:12
And the other thing about him is he never looks like he’s freaking out. Like, it never seems to be affecting him. Like, he’s never taking additional time in between shots.
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02:07:23
No. He’s a very fast fast player.
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02:07:26
Even under extreme pressure.
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02:07:28
Yeah. He doesn’t really fall under pressure. And,
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02:07:32
it just seems like he doesn’t feel it.
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02:07:34
Ai he’s so good. Sometimes it does feel like this. And he was feeding off the actual, like, hate of the crowd in Moscone. Like, Moscone came up to watch Las Vegas. I wasn’t playing on those years, but everybody’s kinda rooting against him, and he’s just feeding off the crowd, kinda like Jason showed us.
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02:07:52
Wow.
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02:07:54
Yeah. If you can turn that into a fuel and just run wrecks, that’s, amazing, in my opinion.
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02:08:02
Yeah. If you can do that, if you have that ai of temperament. But it’s always interesting to me when a guy like that just seems to be so calm under pressure and just fires balls in. Like, it’s almost like ai like shocking. Like, he’s got a intimidating game. Right. Not that I don’t think he could beat him. It’s a really good game though.
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02:08:21
It it is. It ai a really good game.
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02:08:23
It’s top one and two in the world. Or, you know, I think at the very top as you see with, you know, with Aloysius Yap, he won three tournaments in a row, which is crazy. It’s crazy to win, like, three majors in a row. But, like, you know, Francisco Sanchez Ruiz went on a a a tear where he was doing that for a while.
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02:08:41
You can you you if you look back at, like, the years, even, like, ten years from where we’re at right now, it is always one player winning tournaments for, like, a year or two and then switches to another player.
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02:08:52
Like Shah won back to back US opens.
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02:08:54
Or Mika. Mika won back to back. Darren won. Yeah. Aaron Appleton won back to back. Yeah. It’s always
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02:09:00
They get hot. Yeah. Yeah. But it’s just maintaining that. It’s just so weird. Like, we’re talking about Ko Ping Chung who had that insane match in 2023, but this year didn’t play nearly as well.
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02:09:12
It’s really tough. I mean, life gets in the way Mhmm. Something, I don’t know, family, business.
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02:09:18
Or you might have a neck injury like you had. Right.
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02:09:21
Right. Right.
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02:09:21
Back might start bothering you. You get sciatica. There’s a
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02:09:24
lot of stuff that can happen.
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02:09:25
Yeah. But it’s just that’s why a high level pool, when you watch it, you know, on a world stage like that, when it’s executed so perfectly, so fun to watch. Because you know how hard it is to get there.
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02:09:38
Yeah. It’s harder to even stay there.
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02:09:41
So, what do you do differently now that you’re world number one? Do you do anything differently to try to maintain your position, or is it just keep going?
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02:09:50
No. Just keep going. Ai know what I’ve put I know what I did to get me where I’m at right now. Why would I change it?
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02:09:58
Yeah. I mean, I guess,
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02:10:00
unless Because a lot of people, they stop because, for example, they had a goal. Their motivation is gone. Right. You know, my motivation is has always been money, really. Most of the time, it was just the money. I wanted to win as much as I can. I was kinda from the poorish family growing up, and I always my biggest motivation was financial.
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02:10:23
But, obviously, I wanted to be a world champion, and I had the dream to be a world champion. Ai I won the first world championships, you know, that that dream was kinda gone. Now it’s just another major, major, major. So they always ask me those questions where, what would it feel to you if you win another US Open or World Pool Masters?
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02:10:43
Like, it would be great, but I think it would mean a lot more when I stop playing. Like, when I’d be sitting with my grandkids and, like, oh, well, your grandpa was a two time world nine ball champion back in the day. It was four railing that nine ball right there.
Speaker: 1
02:10:57
Why do you sai it with a southern accent?
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02:10:59
Well, Sai live in Indiana here. I live in Southern Indiana.
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02:11:03
Is that a day of a southern accent in Indiana? Yeah. Oh, that’s interesting. I never thought of that. Yeah. Who would you assume their accent in Indiana would be?
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02:11:13
Depends where you are.
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02:11:14
Well, you’re an Ohio boy. So you’re close to Kentucky.
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02:11:17
Depends where you are there.
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02:11:18
Right. Ai you have a accent? Cleveland’s got an accent? That’s true. That’s true. Rural people have accents, sort of. That’s true. But it’s just when you when you think about just in general, like pool’s growth, I think you’re in a perfect position right now in life. It’s ai, if you had been this good twenty years ago, you would be in the same sort of trap that a lot of those, the older players were, where there’s no real incentive to be playing professionally.
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02:11:53
The only money that anybody was making in pool twenty, thirty years ago, real money, was in gambling.
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02:11:58
Right.
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02:11:58
And there was a lot of guys that were making money gambling that weren’t placing well in tournaments. They just and they didn’t want to. They didn’t wanna play in tournaments. They didn’t wanna knock their action. But I think you’re in really the perfect ai. Whereas, as you’re getting better and as pools getting more and more popular, the money’s getting bigger and bigger.
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02:12:17
And I think I think it’s a really awesome time for the game.
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02:12:22
I agree. Definitely. I definitely feel fortunate to be in the right tyler, in the right era with, the way my career was going to. Because ai you said, twenty years ago, I would have been nowhere.
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02:12:34
And it’s also the guys the players of today, it seems to me, correct me if I’m wrong, but they’re much more systematic with their training than they ever were before.
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02:12:42
Absolutely. Absolutely. 100%, everybody’s more disciplined. Everybody is treating as a sport ai I said. They’re not treating it as a game.
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02:12:50
They’re treating it like a sport, but they’re also examining all the aspects of the game and constantly honing them. It’s it’s different. Like, when I watch guys practice online, like, you have a channel where you put a lot of your practice sessions online and, you know, you get to see, like, there’s no there’s no messing about.
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02:13:10
It’s ai there’s there’s some serious training involved. Like serious position play, serious, like, getting that muscle memory over and over again, different ways to stroke a shot.
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02:13:19
For example, my idol growing up was always Niels Niels Ai, and he has his own channel on YouTube.
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02:13:25
Yeah. He’s great. The Terminator.
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02:13:26
He has the best to follow. The best. The guy is doing, visualization every day. He’s, he’s practicing every single day, I think. You know, he’s doing his ninety minutes of hardcore practice on the pool table. He’s live streaming. He’s explaining why why would you have to practice.
Speaker: 0
02:13:43
And if you follow just everything he does, you will get to a different level. 100%. Yeah. 100%. World class player too.
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02:13:51
He’s fun to watch.
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02:13:52
Yeah. Super disciplined. Super like Rafa Rafa Nadal. Is Rafa Nadal in pool.
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02:14:00
It’s sai fun ai. Fun time to, be a pool player. And, like I said, I think the sky’s the limit. I think I I think the game is gonna explode over the next few years, because we’ve watched it get a lot bigger over the last four or five.
Speaker: 0
02:14:14
Yeah. For sure. Let’s set up that filler match.
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02:14:17
Yeah, man. I’ll do commentary. How about that?
Speaker: 0
02:14:20
Let’s do it.
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02:14:20
Get Matchroom involved. Let’s do it. Just set it up somewhere in Austin.
Speaker: 0
02:14:24
Ai. Let’s do it.
Speaker: 1
02:14:25
Do it somewhere where we can have a crowd in person though. That’s what I was getting at. Like, you’re gonna have a crowd ai, but it’d be cool if you had a lot of people there in person.
Speaker: 0
02:14:33
Alright. You got it. We’ll we’ll set it up. Okay.
Speaker: 1
02:14:37
Well, I wanna see it. So listen, congratulations on everything. It’s been, cool following you and, seeing what happened over the last time you were here and, watching you just get better and better.
Speaker: 0
02:14:48
Yeah. Thank you so much for having me, Joe.
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02:14:49
My pleasure, my brother. Tell everybody if they sana follow you. What’s your Instagram?
Speaker: 0
02:14:55
My Instagram has a weird name, called Stanich. Yeah. But I have Facebook mostly. I speak a lot of my time on Facebook, TikTok. Oh, this
Speaker: 1
02:15:02
is a question I wanted to ask you. Your name, you some people say Fedor, some people say Fedor, but in Russian, is it Fyodor?
Speaker: 0
02:15:11
Fyodor.
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02:15:12
Okay.
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02:15:13
That’s what I thought. Yeah.
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02:15:14
Because people were correcting me. I’m like, I don’t I think you’re both wrong. I think it’s Fyodor. Yeah. A lot of ai. I’ve heard Fedor. I’ve heard and when I was calling you Fedor, people go, oh, he’s saying that because Fedor Melianenko. I’m like, yeah. Well, that’s kind of the accepted American pronunciation of Fyodor though. Right. So I I wanted to ask you if it’s Fyodor. Yeah.
Speaker: 0
02:15:34
Yeah. It is. Ai I
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02:15:34
knew I was right.
Speaker: 0
02:15:35
Right. But nobody called me like that. Okay. Fyodor.
Speaker: 1
02:15:37
Let’s see here from now on, bro. Alright. Let’s play some pool, then we’ll get something to eat. Alright. Alright. Bye, everybody. Bye bye ai.