Unknown "monster" players
- Thread starter DoubleA
- Start date
keith we have both seen brian play after 10 to 24 beers and play JAM up and hugh huggins(blast from the past) saw hughey take down some big scores around greenville s.c. in the 80s running with the notorious "fountain inn red" who also played real good and matched up even better. saw pete horne in a truck stop outside chicago in 2001 or 02 and he drives a truck for a living as i do also.crawfish said:
Bar Box or Big table
I believe I am a fair to middlin pool handcapper. If I ever bet with my head and not my heart. I have never lost money betting on pool. Well, hardley ever.
Jim Lebold
Tommy Rossi - (saw him play when he was 15 - he entertained me)
Buddy from sacremento then Bakersfield--then LA
Tony Banks
King David Rhodes - I am taking up a fund to put on his books. He is right where he needs to be right now if he is to live. He is in Multnomah county awaiting trial and sentencing.
At first I told people it was for bail....but the tickets a little high. We probably won't see him for a whil.
The other day there was a 14 year old with his Dad. They said they were from Seattle and his name was Chuckie. Well, who knows if that is true but he beat Carlos Santibanez. Bad action when you beat the best in town.
Don Percy
Billy Vernon
Charlie "the ape" Romanis
Oops I forgot Pug Wilson on the Bar Box. Look out.
David dunham on the big Table
I believe I am a fair to middlin pool handcapper. If I ever bet with my head and not my heart. I have never lost money betting on pool. Well, hardley ever.
Jim Lebold
Tommy Rossi - (saw him play when he was 15 - he entertained me)
Buddy from sacremento then Bakersfield--then LA
Tony Banks
King David Rhodes - I am taking up a fund to put on his books. He is right where he needs to be right now if he is to live. He is in Multnomah county awaiting trial and sentencing.
At first I told people it was for bail....but the tickets a little high. We probably won't see him for a whil.
The other day there was a 14 year old with his Dad. They said they were from Seattle and his name was Chuckie. Well, who knows if that is true but he beat Carlos Santibanez. Bad action when you beat the best in town.
Don Percy
Billy Vernon
Charlie "the ape" Romanis
Oops I forgot Pug Wilson on the Bar Box. Look out.
David dunham on the big Table
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TWOFORPOOL said:
No disrespect to Rich Geiler, but here is a funny story, and how I heard it.
Everyone knows Rich the Hat has a strong game, and that he also has a stutter. (no disrespect Rich)
Dave played him and beat him in a tournament. After a few words back and forth, Rich said something along the lines of..
"You ccccomme up to PPpportland, and I'll play you for Fi-Ffi-Fi-Fi-Five thousand!!"
Without missing a beat, David said "Rich, I'm not going to play you for 25,000... I don't have that kind of money!" I'm sure he had that signature giggle right behind it!
Anyhow, that's the story told to me, and I don't even care if it's accurate... Too funny!
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Ltldebbie said:
Bah. Just no excuse for this, if they are actually on the road and trying to stay unknown. The NW is an area of the country where you can clock almost everyone's speed by just going to www.onthebreaknews.com .
If they're not in one of the last year's worth of online magazines, they either can't play much, or are probably out of stroke. If they were trying to lay low, they should have seen that Carlos has probably the highest handicap of anyone in the Portland area, minus Atwell.
Russ
Josh Palmer said:
Man o man.. Rich had one of the smoothest strokes ever, and just LOOKED the part of a player...
He came down to a weekend tournament in Tacoma at City Lights one time, after having missed most of the regional events for the past year. Mike Zimmerman, J.D. and I were sitting around waiting for the draw, and overheard Rich saying "Man, I haven't played in so long, I am so out of stroke!"
Mike says to J.D. "Believe that crap if you want to. If Rich is here, he's been hitting a million balls. You can guarantee that!"
I think Rich got in the top 4 in that tournament. I believe 1rst was John kenyon, 2nd John Horsfall, 3rd was either Mike Z. or J.D.. Yah, Rich G. could dab it just a little bit.
Also at this tournament: J.D. was demonstrating for some of us lesser mortals a technique for a smooth, inside follow shot on a really off angle shot into the side. He said he learned it from Tang Hoa. He mentioned that he could make the shot, and follow over to a certain diamond on the opposite rail..
A decent Portland area shortstop piped in with "You can't get enough inside on the ball to reverse back off the rail that far."
J.D. responds.. "I'll bet $500 right NOW I can get at LEAST that far..."
Portland shortstop won't take the bet.
J.D. then procedes to execute the shot anyways, just to rub it in the dude's face, and GETS a DIAMOND AND A HALF further up the rail than he said he would.
I mean, you looked at the shot, and you would SWEAR that unless Efren was shooting it, you just couldn't do what he made the ball do. Mind you, I was a good player at the time, and the Potland player was MUCH better than me, and I watched a LOT of pro matches, and I jsut never saw any mojo on a CB that approched anything like what he put on the ball.
I always wondered why J.D. wasn't a more dominant player in the NW. I always though he was a better shotmaker than Mike Z. and a few others....
Russ
> Pete Horne came thru my area about 6 months to a year after Smokey Bartlett (another relatively unknown killer),and I only got to see his true speed in one short spurt,because he beat everyone while on cruise control.
In that spurt,he ran,with no exaggeration,14 full racks playing in a 4 handed,2 dollar a man ring game on a loose but idiosyncratic 8 footer
.
In 6-8 months of watching him play every chance I got,he scratched on the break less than 20 times out of probably 1500 breaks.
His break looked a lot like Sigel's did back in the day,with the dramatic shaft bend,but much harder,and with GPS navigation on the rock.
Unless it got kicked by something else,it was always 1/2 way between the spot he broke from and where it hit the one,in a dead straight line.
Smokey Bartlett was also downright awesome at times.
Dave Favor is also worth mentioning.
Up around Bowling Green,Ky,there is a superior tournament-only player named Eddie Adams. I've seen him at various sized tournaments maybe 30 times,and the ONLY,yes ONLY tournament I've EVER seen him at that he didn't win was the 2000 U.S. Open,but still finished 7-8th out of 302,beating Luat among others. He absolutely will not gamble,participate in calcuttas,or even take jelly if you cashed in off his calcutta. I'm sure he has his reasons,and respect him for them.
There is a better known,but hardly well-known,yet equally strong player from Owensboro named Ray Schultz that is something of Nick Varner's protege,and even owned Nick's former room Rack and Cue at one time. When he was on,you knew it. His stroke rhythm was rather flamboyant and complex,and the closer he got to catching a gear,even more so. At his best,he was sheer perpetual motion. He won a Memphis tournament where he had a run of 3 full racks or more in 6 consecutive matches over 2 days,and ran a 6 from the lag before scratching to defeat Archer in a race to 7 at the World 8-ball one year.
There was a guy in Florida named Sam Blumenthal that was said to only play in this one place and only on a particular table,but anyone he didn't recognize by sight alone had the 5 and the break. Tommy D.
In that spurt,he ran,with no exaggeration,14 full racks playing in a 4 handed,2 dollar a man ring game on a loose but idiosyncratic 8 footer
. In 6-8 months of watching him play every chance I got,he scratched on the break less than 20 times out of probably 1500 breaks
. His break looked a lot like Sigel's did back in the day,with the dramatic shaft bend,but much harder,and with GPS navigation on the rock.
Unless it got kicked by something else,it was always 1/2 way between the spot he broke from and where it hit the one,in a dead straight line.
Smokey Bartlett was also downright awesome at times.
Dave Favor is also worth mentioning.
Up around Bowling Green,Ky,there is a superior tournament-only player named Eddie Adams. I've seen him at various sized tournaments maybe 30 times,and the ONLY,yes ONLY tournament I've EVER seen him at that he didn't win was the 2000 U.S. Open,but still finished 7-8th out of 302,beating Luat among others. He absolutely will not gamble,participate in calcuttas,or even take jelly if you cashed in off his calcutta. I'm sure he has his reasons,and respect him for them.
There is a better known,but hardly well-known,yet equally strong player from Owensboro named Ray Schultz that is something of Nick Varner's protege,and even owned Nick's former room Rack and Cue at one time. When he was on,you knew it. His stroke rhythm was rather flamboyant and complex,and the closer he got to catching a gear,even more so. At his best,he was sheer perpetual motion. He won a Memphis tournament where he had a run of 3 full racks or more in 6 consecutive matches over 2 days,and ran a 6 from the lag before scratching to defeat Archer in a race to 7 at the World 8-ball one year.
There was a guy in Florida named Sam Blumenthal that was said to only play in this one place and only on a particular table,but anyone he didn't recognize by sight alone had the 5 and the break
. Tommy D.
Anybody from the east coast rate Tom Golley up there? How about Gary Nolan?
Black-Balled
Anybody from the east coast rate Tom Golley up there? How about Gary Nolan?
yes, Gary played/plays very well. i have it on good authority that his break and run high is in the double digits, that's awfully good
Bucky Bell too. is JR Gay unknown? he played pretty good too. Had our share in north East ohio
Anybody from the east coast rate Tom Golley up there? How about Gary Nolan?
yes, Gary played/plays very well. i have it on good authority that his break and run high is in the double digits, that's awfully good
Bucky Bell too. is JR Gay unknown? he played pretty good too. Had our share in north East ohio
jjollie
Well-known member
Has anyone ever heard of Bill Lawson? He was an older gentleman that traveled some with Wade Crane (Billy Johnson) around the 80s. Humor had it that he played better than Wade.
I grew up around Joe Root. He was not a world beater (even though he was the best in our town) but more of a gambler. He once had a cue that I wanted to buy, but he was going to a tournament in Sanford NC at the time. He took about two grand with him and drove to Sanford in his Honda.
A couple of days went by and he called me from Sanford asking did I still want the cue. Of course I did and he wanted me to wire him the money for the cue so he could get a bus ticket back home. Go figure...lost it all !!! But Joe was a hell'va basketball player !!!
"Fat" Harold Dollar was a hellva player back then. Oh, and he lived in Sanford...lol.
I grew up around Joe Root. He was not a world beater (even though he was the best in our town) but more of a gambler. He once had a cue that I wanted to buy, but he was going to a tournament in Sanford NC at the time. He took about two grand with him and drove to Sanford in his Honda.
A couple of days went by and he called me from Sanford asking did I still want the cue. Of course I did and he wanted me to wire him the money for the cue so he could get a bus ticket back home. Go figure...lost it all !!! But Joe was a hell'va basketball player !!!
"Fat" Harold Dollar was a hellva player back then. Oh, and he lived in Sanford...lol.
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Russ Chewning said:
humongous moose brownies. there's players everywhere that choose to stay in their area for whatever reason that would crack a dawn in most tournaments they never went to. i could easily pick 3 guys from this unknown county who would piss 8-balls on 9 out of 10 bca bar box masters. make that grand masters.
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unknown monster players
Hear are some players from the 70's and 80's
Ohio - Kenny McCoy, Charlie Schram, Jack Wilson, Dave Heil, Ival Mitchell
Kentucky - Marlboro, Bobby Johnson, Rodney Keown, WC Richardson
Indiana - Fred Perry, Peru Paul
W.Va. - Jack Hatfield, Brier Spivey
This is just a few; if I thought about it I could name many more.
Hear are some players from the 70's and 80's
Ohio - Kenny McCoy, Charlie Schram, Jack Wilson, Dave Heil, Ival Mitchell
Kentucky - Marlboro, Bobby Johnson, Rodney Keown, WC Richardson
Indiana - Fred Perry, Peru Paul
W.Va. - Jack Hatfield, Brier Spivey
This is just a few; if I thought about it I could name many more.
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jjollie said:
Our own Hemicudes ($Bill) traveled with Bill Lawson, Although he played very good Wade Crane was still a threat to win anything at anytime in the early 80's
Richard Peck (Pechacharo ((sp?)) is a very solid unknown as already mentioned.
My favorite unknown that does not look like a player at all is Bill Peyton (AKA Will Pay, Billy Peay, Cecil) One look at this guy and they line up he plays 9ball around Troy Frank's speed bank pool he is definetly top twenty in the US, and Bar Box he plays around T-Rex speed.
Jack Hynes but he has been discussed to death.
Gary Abood road runner that not many people knew who he was until the IPT
The best unknown monster I have seen was an Asian player who attended the local Division 3 liberal arts college. He was a prodigy and a junior champion in Taiwan I seen him play at the local pool room and he did not miss. I tried to take him on the road but I never got to he returned to Asia after one year. He did not gamble until after I seen him play a few times and got him to play a very well known Spainish roadie/champion. He strung a couple 5's and an 8 pack on him playing races to 15. We won three races and lost one that went hill hill where the Spanish champion got all the rolls. I have not seen his picture in anything but I never look unless he won the WPC I would not take notice nor do remember how his name was spelled. I would put his play around a notch above Henesee or the Freezer and he looked like he was 12 years old. He was 19 when he was over here. He would be 26 or 27 now.
After reading this whole thread, I am surprised that no one from the Northeast has mentioned Nick "the Indian" Vlahos. Nick was always a gentleman and played definatly jam up. Nick was on the road for 4 years or so straight before finally making it to California. Where he unfortunately found out from his brother when they talked on the phone that his dad was very sick. Nick sold his car and flew home right away. So whether or not he got to play anybody out there i don't know. The story was he would play anybody in the world if they gave up the breaks to him. He was also, in my opinion, 1 of the smartest gamblers i had ever heard of. According to Nick and his brother, when Nick was on the road, whenever he won the winnings came home and into the bank. Later in years Nick was using the money he had saved and bought some buildings at auctions or something like that and rehabbed them and rented them out. that is why i say he was so smart....With his brother and himself doing alot of the work. he had some property and a plan.. When Nick came back to playing he played on the new England all about pool tour and the Joss tour. And he was still a player to be reckoned with. I wish i could find the article 1 of the national pool magazines did on him about how he robbed Texas without a gun. Does anybody remember that article by any chance. In closing let me say "rest in peace" my friend. He passed a few years ago from cancer.....way to young an age....The good Lord took you way to soon.....a friend always...........................................mike