who did Earl beat in his gambling days?

jtaylor996

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I know nothing about money games. What's giving the 7? Offer out on the 6? Etc?

Is there an online dictionary somewhere for this stuff?
 

TATE

AzB Gold Mensch
Silver Member
I know nothing about money games. What's giving the 7? Offer out on the 6? Etc?

Is there an online dictionary somewhere for this stuff?

There's a course for this. It's available at your local pool room. Prerequisites are a cue and cash.


OK, that's a joke. Giving someone the 7 ball in 9 ball means that the 7 ball is them counted for that player as a money ball. Giving a shortstop the break and the 7 on a bar table is referred to as "unwise".
 
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jtaylor996

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Damnit. Never had cash. No wonder I'm clueless.

Can I get some at the pool room if all I have is the cue??
 

pt109

WO double hemlock
Silver Member
When Earl hits that gear, NOBODY can fade that.

This 'hitting a gear' is not a one-way street that only Earl can travel on.
You can say the same for quite a few players...Buddy Hall, Mike Sigel,
Billy Johnson....etc.

Earl is like anybody else...if he only gets to shoot at a snooker every few
racks, the man is goin' down.
 

seven_7days

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
This 'hitting a gear' is not a one-way street that only Earl can travel on.
You can say the same for quite a few players...Buddy Hall, Mike Sigel,
Billy Johnson....etc.
Of course they all have that gear,most top/pro players do.
But when talking about THAT gear, Earl's alone at the top.
Even his peers acknowledge this.

Billy Incardona - "I remember one tournament where Earl ran 6 & 7 racks on three different opponents. When Earl hits you, he hits you HARD!"
Grady Matthews - "Show Earl the slightest bit of weakness and he'll thrash you. He's like a runaway freight train."
Buddy Hall - "Earl is just so awesome."
Mike Sigel - "He's the most dangerous player I've ever played".


...and so on.
 
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Tommy-D

World's best B player...
Silver Member
The last actual gambling match I heard with Earl back in the day was him giving Morro the 8 in a 10-ahead for 20k in 1988. Earl won in under 3 hours.

He came thru Memphis before that and tried giving a pretty sporty player the 4,5,6,the break AND the first shot.

After Earl's opponent ran the first 12 racks with this spot,Earl held the game at a stalemate for 8 hours,and when it was over he was only stuck the original 12 games. Tommy D.
 

JAM

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Earl was definitely more of a tournament soldier than an action man, so his gambling days are somewhat limited to this extent.

Growing up in North Carolina, I'm sure he had his share of gambling matches, but during those days, he had not reached his full potential quite yet.

In tournaments, Keith always said he ended up the bride's maid to Earl Strickland. I think Earl has always shined brighter in tournament competitions than action sets. He was on the cover of every single pool magazine for about 10 years, replacing pool phenoms Rempe, Sigel, and Varner when Earl was at his prime.

When Keith wakes up, I will ask him about Earl gambling. One thing about Keith, he has always kept up with the gambling smut. Still does today via cell phone. :grin-square:
 

JAM

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
keith's input would be awesome

who are the top gambling guy's all time in keith's eyes?

Oh, there are plenty. That is because in Keith's prime, which would have been the '80s, action games were more rampant because of the road warriors. With the advent of the Internet, action dwindled. Today, the matching-up beforehand sometimes borders on the ridiculous, and, of course, most gambling is by appointment only. :cool:
 

voiceofreason

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
There's a course for this. It's available at your local pool room. Prerequisites are a cue and cash.


OK, that's a joke. Giving someone the 7 ball in 9 ball means that the 7 ball is them counted for that player as a money ball. Giving a shortstop the break and the 7 on a bar table is referred to as "unwise".

So what you are saying is they only have to run to the seven?
 

Ken_4fun

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I asked Buddy about when he lived in Shrieveport about giving out spots. Buddy routinely gave out the 8 or the 7.

He always spoke highly of Keith and said he was so confident and had so much heart even after he beat him, Keith still wanted to play. He said he didn't just play once, he kept coming back.

Louie Roberts, if I have it right, got the 7 and never won. He kept coming back to play too.

Compare that to the players today. I don't hear about anyone giving out monster spots to get action. And if they do play a set, they don't seem to have the heart that Keith and Louie had going after Buddy. That's why I get sick of hearing about there is no gambling today. I think everyone wants the "nutz" or they wont play. Look at the Scott Frost and SVB thread. If I was SVB and got challenged by Scott, I would be there to make him "cry like a baby", and have the heart like Keith and Louie.

IMO, even at Buddy's advanced age, his cueball control is jaw dropping. If I could ask some of the old players one question, I would ask if they agreed with me that the older generation of players all seemed to have 100X better cueball control than todays players. I think todays players are better shotmakers, with better equipment, etc. But those of Buddy's era took care of "Jeff" as the #1 priority.

I asked Buddy how he give out those spots to super strong players.

His response was, it didn't matter what the spot is if they never get to shoot. :cool:

YIKES! :eek:

Ken
 
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JAM

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
keith's input would be awesome

who are the top gambling guy's all time in keith's eyes?

Rather than logout and log back in as Keith, I am going to transcribe his words verbatim in this post. So this is Keith's words below:

There was a time in Earl's life that he just played in tournaments. A friend of mine staked him a couple times and was telling me how well he played. I can't remember who he staked him against, but Earl never really had the reputation of gambling.

I mean, he talks about it at a young age that that's what he did. He might have done it with some locals. Earl actually probably had more gamble on the golf course. I never really saw him gamble, but it's not that he was afraid to gamble or that he couldn't play for money, which he could. He was more programmed for the tournament. Somewhere along in his life, he just programmed himself for the tournaments, and he would get asked to gamble at tournaments. But some people would know not to even ask him to gamble because the persona he gave off was strictly tournaments.

I was playing pretty good in the '70s, when I was spotting Kim Davenport the 7-ball and Morro Paez the 7-ball. Earl came into the pool room, and I asked him to play. I think I even offered him the last two, and the next thing I saw was that Earl was gone. I think Earl was hustling then. I don't know if Earl decided if he played me, it would knock a lot of his action, whether he won or lost. Don't know that for sure, but it sounds reasonable, because if I was Earl, I would have done the same thing.

In the '80s, Earl was the toughest player that I ever faced in a tournament. Mike Sigel was good, but Mike Sigel wasn't no Earl Strickland. Every time you had to play Earl, you had to run five or six racks, and sometimes maybe that might not be good enough, but at least you would have a chance. A lot of times when I played Earl, I didn't make many balls on the break, and the matches were still close, so I was proud of that.

Me and Earl had a couple ball-banger sets over there in Richmond, Kentucky. Never forget them. I lose one 11 to 10, and I win one 11 to 10, back to back years. I think it was '85 or '86. Big crowds. Great shots. After every great shot, the crowd would become unglued. It was a real nice atmosphere for playing pool, and there were a lot of gamblers around there as well, which made it all more the merrier. Those were the good old days. Pool has never been the same since, sorry to say.

Earthquake out.

[The above-referenced words were transcribed verbatim by JAM.] :cool:
 
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JAM

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Cool story Jam tell Keith thanks.

I will for sure. Keith enjoys reading AzBilliards every single day. His writing style for longer posts is not as, well, easy to read as mine. He would much rather have him speak and me type when he has something to say that is lengthy.

Plus, I'm certified to transcribe the spoken word into print, so it comes easy for me. It's a win-win! :D
 

jalapus logan

be all. and supports it to
Silver Member
Me and Earl had a couple ball-banger sets over there in Richmond, Kentucky. Never forget them. I lose one 11 to 10, and I win one 11 to 10, back to back years. I think it was '85 or '86. Big crowds. Great shots. After every great shot, the crowd would become unglued. It was a real nice atmosphere for playing pool, and there were a lot of gamblers around there as well, which made it all more the merrier. Those were the good old days. Pool has never been the same since, sorry to say.

[The above-referenced words were transcribed verbatim by JAM.] :cool:

I wish I could have been there in Richmond then. I live in Lexington, just a short drive from there. Alas, I was too young and on the Little League field in those days. I don't think I had even heard of pool then. Sounds like a blast though. Thanks for sharing.
 

fasteddief

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Earl's gambling days

Before Weenie Beanie died, he took Timmy Scruggs,my son and me out to dinner at the US OPEN 9 BALL and told us a story about how he played Earl, Earl gave him the 4 ball for 500 a game after being down 8 games he warned Earl to stop crying about being out of line on almost every shot so after Earl ran out the next game Weening quit. The ending of the story he predicted Earl would win the US OPEN Tournament which he did. He crushed everybody and never lost a match. The year was 2000 Weenie's real name was Bill Staton. Also Weenie said it was in the 80's when he lost to Earl.
 

JAM

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Before Weenie Beanie died, he took Timmy Scruggs,my son and me out to dinner at the US OPEN 9 BALL and told us a story about how he played Earl, Earl gave him the 4 ball for 500 a game after being down 8 games he warned Earl to stop crying about being out of line on almost every shot so after Earl ran out the next game Weening quit. The ending of the story he predicted Earl would win the US OPEN Tournament which he did. He crushed everybody and never lost a match. The year was 2000 Weenie's real name was Bill Staton. Also Weenie said it was in the 80's when he lost to Earl.

Great story! :cool:

I know the thread is about Earl, but I have another Weenie Beenie story. :D

Though Bill Staton has always been considered a gentleman gambler, he may have had a short fuse for antics. It was also in the '80s that Weenie Beenie was supposed to play local one-pocket champion Freddie Boggs at the old Champion's on Glebe Road in Arlington, Virginia. Seattle Sam was working night shift.

Well, the pool grapevine back then was stronger than today's social media. We all showed up in convoys to watch the almighty Weenie Beenie play Freddie some one-hole for $500 a game. That was big action for us back then. :p

Everybody found a perch to sweat the match, and it was standing room only. After a few shots, Weenie Beenie complained that Freddie was taking too long between shots. Freddie was a slow player, but that was just his style. He would always study his shots before firing at the ball.

Freddie one the game, and Weenie Beenie unscrewed his stick immediately thereafter. He couldn't stand the stall and wait between shots. :eek:

My partner at that time, Geese, found some action playing Bobby Hawk. Geese got a spot from Bobby, with Geese shooting one-handed. Apparently, Bobby has no clue how strong Geese's one-handed game was. ;)

I remember the drive back home at daylight with our pockets stuffed with gambling winnings. It was one of those happy gambling memories for me, and it wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for Weenie Beenie making an appointment With Freddy Boggs. :cool:
 
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