Buffalo Unleashed

by Jason Christopher Hunt

The Universal Law of Heart

Well sports fans, it’s the fourth installment of Sneaky Pete Mafia Magazine and what a ride it’s been! Since the last issue, my brother Steve and I have moved to Reno, Nevada and with the help of my family we have purchased Diamond Billiards, which is the oldest and largest most respectful pool hall in all of Reno. I have since built it into a five star pool room with an adjoining Ultra Lounge and a high-end club atmosphere. We have actually lowered the prices since the previous owners and refinished the four tables to make them look brand new! With daily action and four tournaments a week it is a true players room with living legends sleeping in their assigned chairs! (Yes I am talking about Monk!)

I’m not trying to plug my poolroom (Buffalo’s Silver Cue Billiards and Ultra Lounge), it’s just a perfect lead into what I am writing this piece about in my fourth submission for “Buffalo Unleashed.” Which is? DUH DUNNAANAAA! Heart! Heart!

Heart is a word that is thrown around to describe many things from the will to win to the amount of gamble a player has. For a player to “Have Heart” is a compliment. You don’t have to be a “World Beater” to have Heart. It transcends all levels of players and brings us all together through a bond of warrior-ship (if that’s even a word).

I have not ever been the best of players, but I had a ton of heart in my life in pool. I have made comebacks against some very good players being down 9-0 in a race to 10 and coming back to win--from nowhere. Now that is Heart. Do you have the will to win? Is it something we can practice or are some people just born with it and others not? This is an age old debate. I tend to believe it’s both. Some people are born with a ton of it naturally. Some may have very little in the beginning of their journey in this game but can acquire Heart as their journey continues over time. It can also be deliberately grown from the will to become a warrior. Those people just may have more credit coming to them.

Winning doesn’t come so easy for some people. Many have to work a lot harder to get where they are than others that are naturally gifted or have the perfect conditions that some players seem to have.

In my humble uneducated opinion we are all born with some degree of Heart, whether it’s just a little or immense. But one thing is for sure, Heart can be grown. That which doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger and that is where we acquire our most Heart from--just being in the heart of battle all of the time!

Getting into strange tournaments, gambling with friends and strangers for amounts that won’t hurt your life and responsibilities, watching other players who are killers on the table and mimicking them and being around other warriors in battle. Immerse yourself in anything. If we want something bad enough and it is hard to attain, if we struggle day after day to achieve our goals and never give up we can finally achieve Heart.

And it’s a hell of a drug! Heart comes from the confidence that is obtained by being in battle, whether you win or lose.

Gain heart every time you match up with an opponent for whatever reason, as long as we play with the intention of winning. Playfully hitting balls with someone but not caring about the outcome will not develop your Heart. Generating Heart cannot be done by practicing alone. It may generate confidence, but not the confidence to win. That only comes from having an opponent and trying to crush him! This mentality is the mentality of a winner!

The “I will do anything to win” mentality is the cheater mentality. To get Heart, we need to be the honorable warrior in battle with another honorable warrior who understands that one of them has to win and the other has to admit defeat. Respect should always given and upheld. This is the mentality we need to grow Heart. For you may learn just as much if not more from your losses than you do from your wins. Losing teaches us what we did wrong and what we need to improve. I got my poolroom from my Heart. I had a dream, and nothing was going to stop me from achieving it. I didn’t know how I would get it, but the Universe works in mysterious ways. If you have enough Heart in everything you do, you will be successful. I believe it is an unwritten Universal Law the older I get.

I have been through a lot in this game--more than some could ever imagine and more than some like to admit, even though they witnessed it firsthand. But I never gave up. I found new ways to succeed. I found new ways to win. I just couldn’t let those people beat me. Somehow my success equaled their failure. For that’s how they made it for me--a war. If I would win tournaments, they’d jack up my spot and I still found ways to win. Then to stop me from winning they had to ban me and then tell lies as to why I was banned. Then I would have to work to find new tournaments in bars, clubhouses or wherever. I had to find undiscovered little action spots. I’d have to gamble and get into bad games with stronger players who thought they were stealing just to create an opportunity for me to win money--even if the odds were against me. I’d have to find a way to win. Now that’s where you need your Heart.

Tenacity--the killer instinct, the CHI that shines outward and allows you to perform better that you ever have before. It allows you to overcome all obstacles no matter how immense, to gain victory. No matter what happens, you are going to win. And that’s how I got my poolroom--with my Heart. And this translates to all of life--not just pool. From each step out of bed each morning to each task you do at work to each kiss you lay on your spouse, children, and pets--you should do it with Heart.

There is a magical energy in actions that are performed with Heart. I can’t explain it, but maybe the best way to encompass it would be to call them miracle opportunities. When you do things with Heart, miracles may happen. This is when great insurmountable comebacks are pulled off. This is where the buzzer beating goal is made. This is when lives are saved in extreme circumstances.This is when a guy kicks in a ball from Alcatraz and runs the set out on your ass to win the Finals of the tournament, or a gambling match when his goose was cooked. Those actions take Heart. Performing those actions is how you build it.

It’s that stuff that is so deep in your bones, that you have to will it to seep out. It just doesn’t happen on its own.

I could talk about how having Heart can be a detrimental thing in this weird, amazing, magical sport of Pocket Billiards we have here in the United States. Just ask Earl Strickland and his 11 rack run for one million dollars. I can’t speak for other countries because I’ve never been there, but in the United States it’s a trip. Being a winner isn’t always going to give you the best results through the hatred, jealousy and plain old lies that are so rampant in this game. But when the balls are rolling right and you have those Heart moments, you feel on top of the world. In life if you have Heart you have no choice to end up a winner at the end of the day. This I believe, is the Universal Law of Heart.