Joey always made a trip to Eau Claire Wisconsin about once a year. He would come with different people that I became friends with. One was Billy Gaines, another was Gordy Christopherson, and Ron Mayes. They made this a habit for many years.
His last trip to Wisconsin though didn't turn out the way they wanted. About 5 years before this I had busted Joey and his backer. Now he had a new one that I had never seen. I had just gotten all 4 wisdom teeth pulled about 4 days before they came so I wasn't really too excited about playing. But it was hard to turn down action especially when it came right to me.
I can't remember the amounts that were bet but I do remember this. Joey found out that I had a bottle with about 10 codine pills i got from the dentist. He asked me if he could have them and I said sure.
He ate all 10 with his drink that I think was straight booze. I just smiled to myself and thought this is going to be easier than I thought. Boy, was I wrong.
He started playing like a madman. I don't think it had anything to do with the pills. He was just down right got into another gear.
All i tried to do was weather the storm. And what a storm it was.
At this time in my life I was probably playing some of the best pool of my life and this guy was beating me senseless. Now i was seeing why Joey had such a rep.
He never did get back to even and evcentually I got all the cash I could. His backer pulled him up. It was Billy Gaines.
10 minutes later joey was playing 2 handed poker with some guy in the Happy hollow Tavern. I had won 2,000 playing pool. I think on one hand they played there was almost 1,000 on the table they had bet on one hand.
Joey beat this guy out of about 3,000 I think. He was the real road warrior.
You had to admire the guy. He was out there giving his all.
He also was a pretty nice guy.
It's too bad he didn't write a book. I'll bet you could have made 20 movies from the experiences that Joey had on the road. And they all would have been hits.........
Thanks Joey for just being......................