One more on Cliff, who I happen to like very much but he has/had a major gambling problem. I stake him in the U.S. Bar Table Championships; travel money, free room, food allowance daily and paid entry fees. Probably cost me less than a thousand all told back then. He wins both divisions for 5K each plus the $1,000 bonus for winning both. 11K Total. I feel generous, take nothing off the top and split it 50-50 with him. We go down to the cage to get the money and maybe ten guys are following us. I ask Cliff "What's all this?" He says he owed all of them 100 each! He had been borrowing money to take a shot at the dice every night.
So we get the money and he pays all these guys but still has maybe $4,500 left. I go to my room and advise him to do the same. About 2 AM there's a knock on my door. It's Cliff, "Can I borrow some money?" WTF! He said he had some bad luck in the casino and just needed 300. Can I give it to him? I'm too sleepy to argue and hand him the money. An hour later, knock knock again. Guess who? Now he wants 300 more to buy a ticket to get back home to Atlanta. This time I tell him to let me hold your cue. It's a sweet hitting Meucci. He gives me the cue and I give him another 300. I find out later he lost that money too and ended up taking a bus home. He never bailed out the cue and I finally sold it for 300 a couple of years later.
I have some stories involving well known players who begged, borrowed and literally stole money from me. But these will go with me to my grave. In the end my conclusion was that I'd rather be on my end of it then theirs.
I cannot fault Cliff too much. We made money together when he was in his prime. He just couldn't hold onto his end.
