Tips on Learning to Play Pool -- Without a Pool Table!

I began playing pool in my mid-teen years, as best I can recall. There was a Community Gym in our town, and they had some pay-tables. Whenever I could scratch up a few quarters, I would grab one of my buddies or one of my brothers, and go there to play.

Then one of my older brothers got married and bought his own house. One of the first things he did was to get a pool table for his basement.
I recall that the basement was quite small (as was the whole house!), and the pool table was in an area that was sufficiently long, but not sufficiently wide. The walls were only about two feet from either side of the table, which often made it difficult to make shots from the sides.

We struggled the best we could...and eventually I crafted a special "shorty-stick" which we would use on shots made from the sides of the table. Not a very great way to learn the game, but we had fun anyway!

My older brother was quite "mathematically inclined", and he was always right on top of the geometry and physics of how pool works. I, on the other hand, was not all that fond of math, nor did I really understand the physics and technical forces at work...so I often 'bungled' my shots, but again, we had fun anyway!

Then, of course, I grew up and moved away to start a career and family; my brother's pool table became more of a joke than anything else; and my pool pastime was put 'on hold' for a number of years.

Once in a while I'd go to a Billiards Parlor with a friend or two, but those were more 'social' than competitive, and still I didn't really understand (or care, I guess!) the physics, or how to use English (spin) to control shots and/or position for upcoming shots.

Enter the computer and Internet age...
With the advent of computers and Internet, and the eventual flood of online game playing, I was told by my older brother (yeah, the one who had the funky pool room in his basement!) that Yahoo! had an online Pool Room where one could play pool with other players from around the world!

The Yahoo! Pool membership was free, so I joined. At first, it was quite "intimidating"...just trying to learn how the game worked was frustrating sometimes. And, try as I might, I seemed to flub many shots here, too!

After a while, I began to learn more and more about how English affects shots...how the cue ball will react with certain English applied; not only on the shot being made, but after the cue ball strikes the object ball, and where the cue ball will end up.
The more I played, the more confident I became with my skills as a pool shark! I learned how to play fairly accurate position; and how to "throw" object balls with English; and how to bank balls using English; and much more!

Now, after playing online at Yahoo! Pool for some time, I have become quite skilled at the game! I've learned what English does, and I've learned how to use it quite effectively.

I have not played on a real table in quite some time, and I have no idea if I could apply what I've learned at Yahoo! on a real table...Yahoo! does a great job at making their pool game work like the real thing, so I'm confident I could at least play the real thing with a lot more insight than I once had! Thanks, Yahoo!

I encourage anyone just beginning to learn the game of pool to sign up to Yahoo! Pool. The link is: http://games.yahoo.com/games/front.

Good luck...and remember to have fun!