I was thinking about posting before I noticed this thread was twenty years old! A shame, AZB was much more entertaining twenty years ago. Some of the people gone now provided a lot of value to the board one way or another. One thing obvious though, the ban hammer was much too heavy then. A lot of posters that provided either great information or great entertainment have "Banned" under their name.
It was only after I came to AZB in 2005 that I found I would be considered a hustler. I never hustled pilgrims. I laid many a spread to attract hustlers though. If somebody came to me wanting to make easy money it wasn't my fault, at least not in my mind. I played whatever speed I needed to but basically three speeds, friends/dates, local small time gamblers and hustlers, and road players. It was funny, the local guys knew I had another gear but as long as I gave them one or two chances to win each game they were generally happy. In the last few years before I moved on from pool for a decade or two the road players had found me and there was some pretty sporty bar table action at the corner bar near my home. There was every night three and five dollar action too. We were just killing time hoping a stranger with deep pockets came along.
One night a road player had happened in and as was the norm if I was there, I got first crack at them. After they had all the fun they could stand I was back playing a local guy for small stakes. Without thinking about it I was still in road player mode. The local guy said, "Hey, this is me you are playing now!" I mostly avoided playing anyone else when I had a date but sometimes they had to remind me to back off the gas too.
I would have side projects to keep me entertained. A few were too brutal and I had to stop early but often I had a six month project going. One was testing how much I could win without losing customers for the most part. Seems odd but if you let people win early and late and slide the money out of the middle and mostly playing by the game, back in the seventies and eighties you could win seventy percent net! Consider that is winning 85% of the time because you had to make up that 15% you lost to net 70% and it was pretty surprising to be able to net 70%. There were a couple dozen gamblers around town that sincerely thought that we played about the same or I played slightly better but they would happily play me most nights.
Sometimes 70% was my real win rate especially in the earlier years, most of the time I was on the stall to hold it down to seventy percent. I also played a lot of lucky shots to keep other people interested. Barely hooked myself a lot of times in those days before jump cues although there were a few jump rods around. Rules gambling were pretty fluid but a man generally asked before breaking out a jump rod!
Going back twenty years to the start of the thread, most of us recognize the "hustler" was merely a gambler. His approach was open, and winning seven to one was something a hustler would never do unless he had one foot out the door. A hustler would have let the other player win five or six games. That was another source of entertainment, a hustler giving me most of a set then I only had to bear down a little for a few games. Can look lucky and the hustler be ready to go again! Often possible to win three sets race to seven before the hustler starts wondering who is hustling who.(grin)
The Hustler was before my serious gambling days but the four or five years after the Color of Money were great! Everybody that thought they could run three balls was ready to hustle. Aliases were the norm so I never paid any attention to names. I often harassed strangers with no idea if it was true or not, "that wasn't the name I heard you using two weeks ago" in a loud voice. They didn't know if it was true or not so they would squirm!
Hard to find a place it is fun to play and I can't run three balls anymore anyway. This old thread brings back lots of memories though.
Funny! Twenty years ago you didn't know what a hustler was according to your post. Twenty years later you still don't if your posts are to be believed.(grin)
Hu
www.biggelbachs.com
