People said to make my stories longer so ---
Years ago this young guy that simply enjoyed gambling started to hang out in the pool room. With his pool skills lacking, he made his mark and was 'accepted' into the pool room by challenging the owner and his friend to a game of spades. The owner thought there was no way this young kid and one of his friends could beat him and his friend, but after 3 games he was a believer. From then on, this new guy in the pool room with nothing of a bankroll had an open invitation to be staked at spades whenever anyone wanted to play.
This was a great pool room that always found ways to entertain it's customers. There would be bets on simple things such as flipping quarters, a guy that would bet you he could do a one armed push up with you standing on his back, foosball, there was a 24 hour bowling alley down the street and sometimes the action would carry over down there, there were other card games besides spades such as gin or a game that could be played multi handed called spots.
Spots was basically a 5 card draw poker game that involved two hands in one. You had the regular 5 card best poker hand and you had another hand called spots. Spots were how many spots were down the middle of a card -- a 3 being the highest with obviously 3 spots down the middle. Face cards have zero spots. An 8 has 2 spots....and so on. You total up how many spots your hand has and the person with the most spots wins. Now you could win both the high poker hand and the high spot hand for a swoop. You had to make an educated determination which way you wanted your hand to go when you drew your cards (again this was 5 card draw poker). This is a great game to play with 6 or even 8 people and you can play cheaply for each part of the hand that you win or play it that you have so many barrels to lose (say 3). If you don't win either part of the hand, you lose one of your barrels. When they are all gone, you are out of the game. The last man standing wins the initial buy in - it was usually cheap, like I said, $5 or $10 a person.
I know I probably carried on too much on this game but this is one of the things that made the pool room great years ago.
Anyways, this is what this new guy in the pool room liked to do - simply be entertained with a chance at some gamble. This was also the pool room that had most of the action and the good pool players hanging out in it. He learned how to play pool but was still merely now a C player (up from simply a recreational player). One late night, a well known road player from Indiana was in the pool room with his girlfriend. They talk the new guy into giving the girlfriend the 8 ball and a game going to 5 for cheap $25 sets of 9 ball. The new guy doesn't realize that the girl could give him the 8 ball and a game going to 5 and he couldn't win. The sets are closer than they should be only because the girl made them that way and the new guy loses his $50 to the roadplayer's girlfriend, giving them hotel money for the night. No real harm done and the new guy realizes that he isn't ready to just step up and play any game offered.
A few days later, one of the best local players in the area - Farmington Joe Woolford offers to play the new guy poker pool. This is the bucktooth game - some call it keno pool. The pool room had a board with different poker hands written by each of the holes on the board. For those that don't know how to play, you hit the cue ball into the object ball, bank it off the bottom rail and up onto the board with speed to have it land in one of the holes. This was also a great game to play with multiple players to get everyone involved. But here, Joe was offering to play the new guy, one on one. There would simply be two object balls in play. Winner breaks. You spot the two balls on the spot and break up at the head string, just below where the board sits.
Now the new guy thought to himself that he was just trapped a few nights ago playing pool but this wasn't really pool, this was luck on where the ball landed on the board. The new guy knew that Joe was a good player with much greater skill than he will ever achieve in his lifetime at pool. But the luck had to equal things out somewhat in the new guy's mind. To even sway it more in the new guy's view, Joe wanted to play his $25 versus these fake watches that the new guy was also selling in the pool room. He had fake Guccis, Movados, Rolex, all kinds. The new guy agrees to play cause the watches didn't cost him $25 a piece so he was getting great odds on the money.
But unknowningly, the new guy was trapped again. Joe, with his greater pool skills, first off could bank the object ball up onto the poker pool board with better speed control so it would rest in one of the holes and not simply roll off the board. Also, and this was the key to Joe's winning, with the two balls spotted on the break, Joe would bank the bottom ball up onto the board and the other object ball would go to one side rail and the cue ball to the other side rail. Now the new guy only had a shot to try to 3 rail or more the ball up onto the poker pool board. Most of the time, he failed to even get it up onto the board. And remember it was winner's break, so the new guy really had no chance.
After a short while, Joe was 5 games winner and the new guy had had enough. It was a friendly game but he realized he couldn't win. Joe had won 5 watches and proceeded to put them all on his arm for everyone to see. The entire pool room had a good laugh as Joe walked around with his hand help up high in victory with the watches. Everyone had their entertainment for the night - the new guy included.
The next night, the new guy walked into the pool room and the owner announced "WATCHEZ IS HERE!!!"
Yes a sucker had been born.
Years ago this young guy that simply enjoyed gambling started to hang out in the pool room. With his pool skills lacking, he made his mark and was 'accepted' into the pool room by challenging the owner and his friend to a game of spades. The owner thought there was no way this young kid and one of his friends could beat him and his friend, but after 3 games he was a believer. From then on, this new guy in the pool room with nothing of a bankroll had an open invitation to be staked at spades whenever anyone wanted to play.
This was a great pool room that always found ways to entertain it's customers. There would be bets on simple things such as flipping quarters, a guy that would bet you he could do a one armed push up with you standing on his back, foosball, there was a 24 hour bowling alley down the street and sometimes the action would carry over down there, there were other card games besides spades such as gin or a game that could be played multi handed called spots.
Spots was basically a 5 card draw poker game that involved two hands in one. You had the regular 5 card best poker hand and you had another hand called spots. Spots were how many spots were down the middle of a card -- a 3 being the highest with obviously 3 spots down the middle. Face cards have zero spots. An 8 has 2 spots....and so on. You total up how many spots your hand has and the person with the most spots wins. Now you could win both the high poker hand and the high spot hand for a swoop. You had to make an educated determination which way you wanted your hand to go when you drew your cards (again this was 5 card draw poker). This is a great game to play with 6 or even 8 people and you can play cheaply for each part of the hand that you win or play it that you have so many barrels to lose (say 3). If you don't win either part of the hand, you lose one of your barrels. When they are all gone, you are out of the game. The last man standing wins the initial buy in - it was usually cheap, like I said, $5 or $10 a person.
I know I probably carried on too much on this game but this is one of the things that made the pool room great years ago.
Anyways, this is what this new guy in the pool room liked to do - simply be entertained with a chance at some gamble. This was also the pool room that had most of the action and the good pool players hanging out in it. He learned how to play pool but was still merely now a C player (up from simply a recreational player). One late night, a well known road player from Indiana was in the pool room with his girlfriend. They talk the new guy into giving the girlfriend the 8 ball and a game going to 5 for cheap $25 sets of 9 ball. The new guy doesn't realize that the girl could give him the 8 ball and a game going to 5 and he couldn't win. The sets are closer than they should be only because the girl made them that way and the new guy loses his $50 to the roadplayer's girlfriend, giving them hotel money for the night. No real harm done and the new guy realizes that he isn't ready to just step up and play any game offered.
A few days later, one of the best local players in the area - Farmington Joe Woolford offers to play the new guy poker pool. This is the bucktooth game - some call it keno pool. The pool room had a board with different poker hands written by each of the holes on the board. For those that don't know how to play, you hit the cue ball into the object ball, bank it off the bottom rail and up onto the board with speed to have it land in one of the holes. This was also a great game to play with multiple players to get everyone involved. But here, Joe was offering to play the new guy, one on one. There would simply be two object balls in play. Winner breaks. You spot the two balls on the spot and break up at the head string, just below where the board sits.
Now the new guy thought to himself that he was just trapped a few nights ago playing pool but this wasn't really pool, this was luck on where the ball landed on the board. The new guy knew that Joe was a good player with much greater skill than he will ever achieve in his lifetime at pool. But the luck had to equal things out somewhat in the new guy's mind. To even sway it more in the new guy's view, Joe wanted to play his $25 versus these fake watches that the new guy was also selling in the pool room. He had fake Guccis, Movados, Rolex, all kinds. The new guy agrees to play cause the watches didn't cost him $25 a piece so he was getting great odds on the money.
But unknowningly, the new guy was trapped again. Joe, with his greater pool skills, first off could bank the object ball up onto the poker pool board with better speed control so it would rest in one of the holes and not simply roll off the board. Also, and this was the key to Joe's winning, with the two balls spotted on the break, Joe would bank the bottom ball up onto the board and the other object ball would go to one side rail and the cue ball to the other side rail. Now the new guy only had a shot to try to 3 rail or more the ball up onto the poker pool board. Most of the time, he failed to even get it up onto the board. And remember it was winner's break, so the new guy really had no chance.
After a short while, Joe was 5 games winner and the new guy had had enough. It was a friendly game but he realized he couldn't win. Joe had won 5 watches and proceeded to put them all on his arm for everyone to see. The entire pool room had a good laugh as Joe walked around with his hand help up high in victory with the watches. Everyone had their entertainment for the night - the new guy included.
The next night, the new guy walked into the pool room and the owner announced "WATCHEZ IS HERE!!!"
Yes a sucker had been born.
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