Gamesmanship
Some of these attempts at deception seem foolish and amateurish with likely poor results. People who are willing to gamble for significant sums of money will not be fooled so easily. If you succeed it will likely be a cheap score and pretty much done for the sake of entertainment of your friends at the expense of some poor fool. Do it to the wrong person and you may find yourself being the fool, which I have seen happen more than a few times.
Here is a true story:
There was a guy we called Mitchell Brown from Out of Town....I don't know if it was his real name. He would show up a few times back in the sixties and play for stupid serious money with a couple of good money players in the area. He was supposedly a rich guy traveling on business all the time and liked to gamble real big. Some said he was a stockbroker, he traveled alone so no one really know.
Here's the thing, Mitch was severely handicap with one short leg and two deformed arms...His head was cocked over like he was looking sideways all the time.....not to be offensive but a pretty sad sight watching him limp around a table hanging on to the rails. It was like seeing Steven Hawking hobbling around a pool table if he could walk.
Mitch was always neat and very well dressed in shirt, tie and suits and in spite of his physical disability, he was an very intelligent guy who spoke very well and negotiated some clever games that were extraordinary to say the least.
When word got around that Mitchell Brown from Out of Town was at the pool room, every degenerate gambler and wise guy showed up for a piece of the action. It was a circus because everyone who could hold a stick wanted to play him desperately and all the rail birds and backers were working it for the side action.....kind of like an auction to see who can get the most money together for the game. I tell you, I never saw such a sick frenzy of betting and gaming action. There were guys who hated each other parleying their money together to get in the action.
Some of the games played goes like this....Mitch wins if he can make any ball on the table before his opponent gets through a rack in rotation or he's getting spotted 97 in 100 points in straight pool. Sometimes he would get the ball in hand for all shots. He lost a game of straight pool, 100 to minus 11 for $2000, all he had to make was 3 points. How about one spot shot from the head spot, 50 tries for $1000. It was always some incredible proposition.
Mitch held the cue with his head and neck, holding down the cue with the right wrist hooking his deformed hand over the stick. He gripped the left with palm up stabbing grip. The stroke (more like a poke) was made by shoving his body forward while trying to keep his balance and he would trip along the carpet dragging his feet and holding the rail...saw him fall only once.
It was a sight to see late into the night, he was all mussed up, shirt half out, chalk all over on his clothes, hands and streaks of blue on his face, but there was no quit in him. It usually started out 2, 3, $400 a game and god knows what, on the side action. The betting would double up every few hours as the games get renegotiated. That was a lot of wood back then. I remember $500 bills being passed around after a game and the smell of cash was everywhere.
Don’t think his opponents were stupid. These guys played for money regularly….just not this high all the time. The trick was to get Mitch to scratch enough times to keep the game going. Back scratching and putting the ball in an unreachable spot was the order of the day. Mitch played better with the bridge….I don’t know why he didn’t use it more often…he’d slide the bridge and stick together on the table, poking at the cue ball. Miss cue was his middle name. A ball hanging in a pocket was not a sure thing for him.
Funny thing...it was always a somewhat fair and close game as wacky as the proposition was. He didn't win or lose all the time and he held his own in some sessions which went on all night....truly a die hard gambler. Those suspenders held up a big set of balls. I give him all the credit in the world but he had a way about him and late into the game he had these shifty eyes staring at the table like no one else was there. Back then, handicap people were not usually seen about in pool rooms or anywhere else for that matter, odd that he fitted right in.
Mitch was well liked even to the folks who lost money. Stories of the games and money were abound, for weeks after Mitch’s visits. Each time it was one day and he was gone....saw him about three times in two years and it was always big money flying.
Now the rumor was that Mitchell Brown from Out of Town may have been a travelling con and had arranged all his appearances with some wise guys beforehand to take down the side action.....I don't know. I sure fooled me if it was a con. There was quite a few disgruntle losers the last time I saw him play. I kind of think it scared him away because he never came back after that. Some said he was from Chicago and others said California.
Well, I like to think Mitch was just an old hustler stuck in a battered body. He liked the stage and attention and can afford it. Kind of like overcoming his handicap with shrew gamesmanship, taking advantage of his physical disability to make a game he could win once in awhile. Yeah....he was a hustler but a gambler first. Winning or losing was just part of the game just like real life.