Louie Roberts Video....VINTAGE GAMBLING

[JoeyA]

Joey, i understood what he meant, i take exception to louie being catagorized as such a player. as i stated he was a world class player before he got, should we say , his problam. just venting.

Dennis, I'm sure Louie was an excellent player without drugs but it is commonly known that he used a combination of drugs and alcohol to play pool at one time or another. Candidly, I never saw him play pool without being "loaded". No matter how we all liked him and admired his talent and charisma, it is what it is and different people saw different sides of Louie. Nothing wrong with venting. I'm sure Buff wasn't making an effort to besmirch Louie or his talent. It's the Louie that we knew & liked and the one who we accepted with his not-so-good habits.

There are many champions of yesteryear who admit to using drugs to enhance and extend their natural talent. Having a distaste for the idea of such a thing doesn't make it not so. :shakehead:

 

["CaliRed".]

I've got Part 1 of this DVD up now.

dardusm came thru for all of you requesting this, when no one else would.

I simply helped him do it.

Here's the new thread

http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=244942

 

[Dan Harriman]

Howdy Rich

Danny, your playing Louie on the pool table would have been about the same time I played him snooker, would it not?

Yes it would have been within a year or so, and in Louie's defense - it was towards the end of his short-lived but memorable (look out) career as a world class 9 ball player.

 

[Jodacus]

Louie was my first introduction to big money play. He walked in and wanted to play. We closed the room to the public and my boss and Louie played for the next 12 hours. I was 18 years old and in charge of the money. At the end of the first day Louie had lost the roll and all of his girl's jewelry. Louie returned the next day and they played again. Louie won the jewelry back, the roll and a bit more after 14 hours of play. He left town that night, but those are two days I will never forget. Thanks to Louie.

 

[south51]

yeah that was me....

I hung out with Louie in New Orleans a bit. One very late night we were both "wired" up at the house and Louie took to the telephone and I swear I never laughed so hard over the people he called. I started to write them all down and later read them all back to him....He called Jim Rempe to arrange a 10,000 dollar set ...called a stakehorse "jake" to arrange the financing...called Bob Meucci--then Julie Meucci I think...called Kansas City Police department to get George Brett's phone number because he had staked him before... called Paramount pictures to get Tom Cruises number and/or Omar Sharif's number.... then when someone refused him for a $200 bite he decided not to call a leg breaker....I'll wait till he refuses me for a bigger amount" was his reasoning. ----I can also testify to Louie hocking his cue to quite a few people at a tournament in Birmingham Al and when it was over he pretended to be pissed off and broke it..... Pretty good move.

staked him some ... never profitably .....

 

[south51]

Gary Saville Match

Danny,

I'm getting ready to post that match up for everyone... can you tell me more about that match with Gary? I just scanned thru it watching bits and pieces and it appeared that they were playing a ahead match and Louie kept looking at his watch and seemed intent on putting together as many wins as he could in a certain time frame. I am looking forward to seeing the whole thing.

dardusm - the audio appears to be out of sync with the video, but makes me wonder if it was on your end or whoever burnt the videos. Because the Johnston city one was out of sync too. Damn... I'm going to have to try and sync it up now.. haven't ever tried that before:smile: Anyone else that has this DVD.. I'm thinking you don't have any issue with the audio, correct?

From the 5 mins I watched of it, it appears that Louie was a player that was very intent at the table, watched everything going on, a person would never get away with a bad hit with him around:smile: It was also a pleasure to see him stroke the balls. Back in the days when you had to stroke them to get around the table. That brought back memories of hitting the balls solid and seeing them die, hearing the balls hitting up against the good old wooden rack.

But I sure would love to hear the back story on how this match came about to be recorded and all and the purpose behind it. Always makes a match more interesting to know the story behind it.:smile:

So I'm going to try and fix this audio sync problem, this is a new challenge for me, as I've never had to deal with a audio sync issue before. It's not all that relative, since most of the talking is done from a distance. But I'll give it a shot.

So give me about 2 days to work on it and hopefully I can have something up for all of you Thursday latest.. you never know though, I'm weird sometimes and might stay up all night working on it:smile:

i was there...it was done for the video...there might have been a 10 or 20 a game 'stake' but it was not a big $ match .... i thought dean higgs came up with the equipment and Gary and Louie both had been hangin alot at cue and so they made the tape....

 

[CJ Wiley]

St. Louie Louie Video would be cool to see him in dead stroke again

I asked an old pool player about Louie Roberts. He said he wasnt very impressed with him, and I kept pressing him on how he played. (Most pool players and especially the older ones knock everyone, just amazes me) He finally told me I should see for myself, and he had a long gambling session of Louie giving up the nuts. I had never seen Louie play live, or on tape.

As JAM noted here several times, there are VERY few videos from the old days showing the older players. Today we have YOUTUBE, ACCUSTATS, and hell lots of others.

Well I got the video and it is several hours long, he is giving the guy several balls in the spot and pretty much killing him. The other neat thing about the video is how much Louie is like Keith McCready....talking the entire time. If I was playing him, there would have been a mum rule.

Not sure what I should do with the video, it is amazing. Louie plays absolutely perfect position on old gold crown table.

ANY LOUIE ROBERTS fans out there?

Ken

I played Louie a couple of times...he hit a really high gear once and beat me in St. Louis...I got my "revenge" in Dallas....he was an execptional shot maker and very creative when he got his "mixture right" I miss those "Louie like" personalities and characters these days ... RIP St. Louie Louie

 

[south51]

yep...it's true...

I wrote a kind of fun Louie story on this thread already but there were others that weren"t so great. While he was in New Orleans I tried to get him to stop drinking-- but shortly after he was detoxin' kind of bad so I took him to the VA hospital to get some help. I remember him layin on the floor kind of in the lobby but not and the automatic doors kept opening and closing...he was real thirsty and we got him some apple juice in the box out the vending machine which he needed so bad he squeezed out all over his face and shirt. He finally got to talk to a counselor but Louie had that down to a science. He knew exactly what to say depending if he thought he needed to be admitted or not. At this time he didn't stay but I remember them telling me he had 2 pieces of needles broke off in his arm....I liked Louie alot but he was a handful. We left there and went to the pool room. We had a weekly tournament later that night and somehow Louie talked me into paying him the first place money in advance.. " You know I'm gonna win It"....So he bought drinks for everyone with the money and then proceeded to get me off the hook by winning the tourney just like he said he would.....The fact that reports come in that one person saw Louie play real real good and another saw him play bad doesn't surprise me at all. With fromula players that's the way it went. When the mixture was bad they couldn't make a ball but when it was right especially in his case ...look out.

Louie was the most insane guy i have ever personally known...(unless i look in the mirror)....he was more than willing to go to the most extreme places possible for an addict...(i guess that is a light way to put it)...we went on the road to dallas i think in 91 and $15k later comin back through arkansas i saw things that really can't be said here...

i also spoke with louie the night he died...i personally don't believe the story about 'winning the 50k'...and i dont believe it was suicide...louie assumed that everyone had the same attitude about his in your face grift of your funds...but i strongly suspect that certain members of the older woman's family didn't accept it as well...

 

[south51]

mixture

I played Louie a couple of times...he hit a really high gear once and beat me in St. Louis...I got my "revenge" in Dallas....he was an execptional shot maker and very creative when he got his "mixture right" I miss those "Louie like" personalities and characters these days ... RIP St. Louie Louie

toward the end any 'mixture' and he was incapacitated, could not possibly play at all...

my experience is that The Great Spirit does not require that ppl should go through too much suffering.....also i have observed that in certain cases where it seems that the Great Spirit has allocated too much natural talent (Elvis, Hendrix, Whitney, Amy Winehouse, Louie) he has seen fit to cut short the exposure...just my observation...

 

[JAM]

toward the end any 'mixture' and he was incapacitated, could not possibly play at all...

my experience is that The Great Spirit does not require that ppl should go through too much suffering.....also i have observed that in certain cases where it seems that the Great Spirit has allocated too much natural talent (Elvis, Hendrix, Whitney, Amy Winehouse, Louie) he has seen fit to cut short the exposure...just my observation...

That is so true. Substance abuse and gambling addictions are not a good mixture. Either one can be hazardous to one's health.

I heard a similar story about how Louie passed, the same as you, that it was the relatives of his girlfriend who thought Louie's gambling posed problems. Who knows what the truth is at this juncture!

A funny story I heard from my BF is that Louie and some others were at this hotel in the Midwest, if memory serves me right. There was an Olympic-caliber swimmer poolside. The pool people that were with Louie began chatting with the swimmer.

As you might expect, somehow the conversation turned into a proposition, with Louie saying he could out-swim that Olympic-caliber swimmer. Everybody posted a bet and got ready for the big show: Louie versus the Olympic-caliber swimmer.

On your mark, get set, go! Louie dived into that pool and beat the other guy for the cheese. :grin-square:

Apparently, playing pool was not Louie's only talent.

 

[afftonbilliards]

I first met Louie when he was about 16 in the late '60's. It was at a place called ArWay Billiards on the Hill, the Italian neighborhood in St. Louis. He lived nearby where the family had a table in the basement. The cloth looked like a road map with penciled-in lines for various shots. He had natural talent but the great skill came from endless discipline. You would never guess this later on when he appeared so undisciplined. After he left the Air Force, Louie was a monster player. I suspect he had been exposed to the concepts of self hypnoses. I say this because I saw him many times turn to a wall and be motionless for a minute or two before a game. Of course, trips to the john for formula adjustments also happened. Louie was very likeable and had a great sense of humor. His rugged good look was of Hollywood caliber - he had more than one shot at the movies but his bad habits killed that. Mr. Roberts is greatly missed. He was what was right/wrong with pool. I don't think anybody that ever meet him could forget him. RIP Louie
Big Al

 

[MeucciMan79]

staked him some ... never profitably .....

Sounds like you got hustled

 

[3kushn]

Is that "Old Has Been" about 35:00 into the 3rd part. Somebody his size that had no problem making the camera man move. Gotta be him.

Edit: Well maybe not. Whoever it is isn't playing well but he may just be laying reallllllllllllyyyyyyyy low.

 

[One Pocket John]

I first met Louie when he was about 16 in the late '60's. It was at a place called ArWay Billiards on the Hill, the Italian neighborhood in St. Louis. He lived nearby where the family had a table in the basement. The cloth looked like a road map with penciled-in lines for various shots. He had natural talent but the great skill came from endless discipline. You would never guess this later on when he appeared so undisciplined. After he left the Air Force, Louie was a monster player. I suspect he had been exposed to the concepts of self hypnoses. I say this because I saw him many times turn to a wall and be motionless for a minute or two before a game. Of course, trips to the john for formula adjustments also happened. Louie was very likeable and had a great sense of humor. His rugged good look was of Hollywood caliber - he had more than one shot at the movies but his bad habits killed that. Mr. Roberts is greatly missed. He was what was right/wrong with pool. I don't think anybody that ever meet him could forget him. RIP Louie
Big Al

Well I'll be, Big Al.

Good to see your still kick'in. I have come by the place a couple of times. Found out you dont open til 5pm. Kinda killed it for me.

Maybe you will remember this "he's back, only this time he is back for revenge"

Heard anything on how Andy is doing or Bill.

Take care man.

John Cummings

 

[BryanB]

I grew up in E. St. Louis, Illinois and I remember my dad telling me about Louie. I was born in 68 so I wasn't old enough to hang out in most bars during Louie's time. I have no first hand experiences but it's good to finally put a person playing with some of the stories.

Thanks for the videos:thumbup:

 

[CJ Wiley]

Can you imagine how hard Barry Bonds could Break the Balls?

Dennis, I'm sure Louie was an excellent player without drugs but it is commonly known that he used a combination of drugs and alcohol to play pool at one time or another. Candidly, I never saw him play pool without being "loaded". No matter how we all liked him and admired his talent and charisma, it is what it is and different people saw different sides of Louie. Nothing wrong with venting. I'm sure Buff wasn't making an effort to besmirch Louie or his talent. It's the Louie that we knew & liked and the one who we accepted with his not-so-good habits.

There are many champions of yesteryear who admit to using drugs to enhance and extend their natural talent. Having a distaste for the idea of such a thing doesn't make it not so. :shakehead:

We can brag about one thing, unlike some of the "major sports" like baseball, football and Bicycle Racing pool DOES NOT have a steroid problem. Can you imagine how hard Barry Bonds could Break the Balls? :yikes::rotflmao: