Great article about reasons for the continuing decline of road players

Sweet

If you figure 16 racks per hour, 24/7, you get 6.25 days.:eek:

At that pace with a table time of $3.75 per hour (Winner Pays Table Time) old Irving pocketed a hefty $15.00...more than enough to pay for Jethro and Elley May's book learning for the year! The burning question is: Did they put the quarters on the top ofthe light each rack!

Wedge
 
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At that pace with a table time of $3.75 per hour (Winner Pays Table Time) old Irving pocketed a hefty $15.00...more than enough to pay for Jethro and Elley May's book learning for the year! The burning question is: Did they put the quarters on the top ofthe light each rack!

Wedge

I know I once won about $350 off a guy at $5 a game. No way I would even want to try 600 at .25 a game. Took me all evening, all night, and half the next day.
 
That would be 2,400 racks.....how long was that session?

Wedge

If you figure 16 racks per hour, 24/7, you get 6.25 days.:eek:

That's if Player B didn't win any games at all. But if Player A ended up $600 ahead playing a quarter a game, the match might have been a LOT more than 2,400 games.

For example, if Player A wins twice as many games as Player B (getting 1 ahead for every 3 games played), it would take 7,200 games to get 2,400 games ahead.

Perhaps this match didn't go exactly as we are reading; maybe they upped the bet somewhere along the way.
 
If you think being a road player isn't work then it's clear you've never done it.

Sorry "get a job" is more specifically what I meant...

Of course playing on the road is. Most of the things people do to in their quest to do nothing usually ends up being more stressful with little to no money. Today the latest trend is to try to earn a living on youtube. Everyone wants to sit on their ass and not get a job, and make videos. Hope people get what they can while the iron is still "warm" as that ship's going to sail real soon, oops then it's job time again.
 
Not to bring my longevity into the picture again, but I lived through the entire cycle, of what was really the beginning of the end, for "hustling pool", and any chance of consistently making money at it. All the things mentioned previously, surely had an influence on its demise, but the die was cast long before Trudeau, or the internet, or cell phones came along. The single thing that contributed to the extinction of making a living playing pool, was the advent of the 'credit card' !

Granted, there were still pimps and bookies, with cash, and the means to gamble for high stakes. But, when the "Travelling Salesman" or the average small town "go off", no longer carried more than a few bucks in cash money, that's when the chance to make a decent score with any regularity, REALLY dried up.

There was also quite a gap, before every bank had an ATM, that readily dispensed cash to supply the 'would be' gambler with ammunition to fund his overly zealous ego. Too many times, the "go off" guy, would lose the $20 or $40 in cash he had on him, and even when ATM's became commonplace, he would have second thoughts about incurring the wrath of his wife, (or his business partner) by draining the bank account at the local 'cash dispenser'... He would be limited to all he could borrow from his friends, who also no longer carried much money.

I firmly believe the credit card, was the beginning of the end, of that way of life...I know, because, as a full time, road-running pool hustler, I lived through it, and watched it happen on an almost a daily basis. Money no longer 'grew on trees', you had to really get lucky, to take off a decent score. Those looking for another reason, as to why it dried up...are simply not old enough to remember when there were NO credit cards !

SJD

PS..Only the top players in the world, now get to play for the big bucks !...And that is usually financed by people who don't get their $$$$ from ATM's (????) :eek:
 
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Not to bring my longevity into the picture again, but I lived through the entire cycle, of what was really the beginning of the end, for "hustling pool", and any chance of consistently making money at it. All the things mentioned previously, surely had an influence on its demise, but the die was cast long before Trudeau, or the internet, or cell phones came along. The single thing that contributed to the extinction of making a living playing pool, was the advent of the 'credit card' !

Granted, there were still pimps and bookies, with cash, and the means to gamble for high stakes. But, when the "Travelling Salesman" or the average small town "go off", no longer carried more than a few bucks in cash money, that's when the chance to make a decent score with any regularity, REALLY dried up.

There was also quite a gap, before every bank had an ATM, that readily dispensed cash to supply the 'would be' gambler with ammunition to fund his overly zealous ego. Too many times, the "go off" guy, would lose the $20 or $40 in cash he had on him, and even when ATM's became commonplace, he would have second thoughts about incurring the wrath of his wife, (or his business partner) by draining the bank account at the local 'cash dispenser'... He would be limited to all he could borrow from his friends, who also no longer carried much money.

I firmly believe the credit card, was the beginning of the end, of that way of life...I know, because, as a full time, road-running pool hustler, I lived through it, and watched it happen on an almost a daily basis. Money no longer 'grew on trees', you had to really get lucky, to take off a decent score. Those looking for another reason, as to why it dried up...are simply not old enough to remember when there were NO credit cards !

SJD

PS..Only the top players in the world, now get to play for the big bucks !...And that is usually financed by people who don't get their $$$$ from ATM's (????) :eek:
You never had to drive a sucker to the ATM to payoff? I've had a couple take me shopping with store credit cards.

People don't shoot pool to see who's the best anymore. For most it's just something to do while having a beer. It's rare for me to match up with a civilian at a bar. Then they runoff once you draw the cueball more than 6 inches or runout.

Just an over all lack of heart. What's the point of a race to 7 for 20 bucks? After table time it barely buys dinner for 2 at McDonald's.
 
It lasted for days--what was even crazier about it--the gent had money,,and he gambled so bad,,his brother handled his money for him. Silas Carter would shake his head and mutter "Not worth killing your self like that ,,to make the score". Was a true story--make it fishy if ya want.
 
Partly overstated, partly understated and drowned in myth and urban legend - the "road gambler" went the way of Dick Turpin just like every charming gent, common thief, angle shooter, honourable competitor looking to make the game "worth playing", low down loser, loveable rogue, minted degenerate, parlour player, etc did. It's more "death of the road" never mind the gambler. Partly fact, partly fiction.

Tournament play is where it is, or at least should be, at. It works for snooker where more money is to made in sanctioned events (where those that "run" those events make a ton more money, hmmm what about that?) and related sponsorship than anyone makes on the side. Both games have a history in both the smoky back rooms and the big open spaces of the gentry's big home rooms. Maybe one of the great (as a movie, nothing to do with pool) movies had something to do with the way it has come to be perceived by Joe Public - maybe the dress code and the carpets too?

Maybe ask Earl?
 
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He was respected by a large, underground group of road players.

Didn't Bill Lawson teach "Billy Johnson" his technique for breaking?

I remember Bill's name coming up several times.....either from Wade, or "JR Weldon". He was definitely held in high regard by a large, underground group of road players.

Bill (Irving) Lawson,,once beat a gent , out california way , out of 600 bucks , playing a quarter a game. When they were through,,the gent Bill was playing told him, If ya ever back this way look me up again. Bill told him something to the effect,,he could keep his quarters he wouldn't be back...think he didn't work to make that little hall....He told me once--you gotta ask every human to play when ever ya can ,,and stay at it....
 
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