So...We all know pool has a lot less variance than poker and backgammon, but everyone who has played for a decent while knows just how brutal luck can be in pool at those crucial moments, so lets get a thread going for our worst beats on the felt. I'll start.

Playing for most of what I own, middle of a very long bender. Opponent is OK, can pot well but overall a pretty easy mark.

We are playing nine ball, I'm giving him the eight and the break. He is good enough to run out from the break if the balls fall well, but is basically incapable of playing a safety shot.

I steadily win for the night, he starts doubling his bets. At £750 down he doubles or quits and sinks the nine on the break (I'm racking his breaks dodgy, but he hits it so bad he comes off the cushion, back into the pack and sinks it).

We play another, he breaks and sinks the nine off two balls, on an even worse rack (there were literally gaps between every ball on that one - this actually tilted me more than anything that night).

I rack the third for £1,500, he breaks, sinks nothing and leaves me in. I hook him well, he tilts and just smacks the cue ball as hard as he can.

It jumps off the first cushion, looks to be going off the table but hits the exact corner of the opposite cushion, flips up in the air, and lands squat on the one, smashing it over the table in a random direction. It goes off the opposite rail, and dead weight hits the nine in.

He says 'Did you see that - told you I would win' and I bite my tongue as I slowly unscrew the cue and get ready to beat him to death with it.

Had to go from a £1k roll to grinding £5 games for a month because of that one shot.

here is my pool BBV...

There were some Seminole sponsored bar-box tournaments down here and I went to one of them like 3-4 years back. They had a men's division and a women's, the women's were rumored to be pretty soft - I went there with 2 female friends of mine.
My bracket was 3 local short-stops (who all play a lot better than I do), a pro named Glen Olson and then Troy Frank. I won all of my matches without missing a ball (until I played Troy) - Troy won his losers side match and then asked to chop (we would only play one set for the win, not 2) he probably had no clue I was playing way over my head. I get $1.5k for the chop.

The girls I was with go to sign up for the women's event, they pay their entry ($20, iirc) and the director says "ok you're playing each other for first and second"... First was $2k, 2nd was $1k. They also got to play in a womens team event and made another $1k each doing that.
I get like the worlds worst bracket draw and have to play my best pool ever to chop with a pro while they just sign up and split their money up. I went home in the car kinda butthurt about them making more money than I did.

The next time I go I got an even worse bracket, ended up getting 3rd losing hill-hill to Corey Deuel, got $500. The same girls made ~$2k each that day as well.

pretty good argument for a sex change there^

You got to play with Corey Deuel? That is so sick.

Edit: You went to the hill with Corey Deuel. That is even sicker.

This

Just the other night I was at a local bar and there were a few guys playing pool. The only reason this friend and I go to this bar is because there are some great shots there, and the atmosphere is "people love pool".

I walk in and there are no quarters on one of the tables, so I throw some up. The guy who apparently won the last game was VERY drunk. He broke, and sank nothing. I ran out all the balls, but made a mistake on the last one giving me a bad leave for the 8. The only way to hit it was to go down the table and back, make contact, and do about a 45 degree cut to the corner pocket which was partially protected. To say the least it was a very difficult shot, with a low percentage chance of getting it just right.

Since I could not get the angle right, I had to go down straight and use English to get the desired angle to make the shot. I am actually more accurate with English to make contact than pure angle, so I felt reasonably comfortable. Shot goes down straight, angles back a bit, makes contact with the 8, and nails it in the pocket!!! F YEA! then the cue ball slowly rolls into the rail and into a side pocket weaving in between 3-4 other balls....I LOOSE. The guy smugly turns to me and says

Keep practicing....