Of the posters I recognize on the thread most made a lot more than they lost or spent playing pool. Smart players and investors in this thread. I don't have a clue why pool would be an endless money pit.
Hu
An Old Road Story! "1979" Longview,Texas
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Of the posters I recognize on the thread most made a lot more than they lost or spent playing pool. Smart players and investors in this thread. I don't have a clue why pool would be an endless money pit.
Hu
investing in pool sounds like a great idea
too bad the old time players and posters are gone from the site for whatever reasons,
with the original post story by david and about good time charlie who played great says it all.
they made money every place until they found someone they couldn't beat and then lost it all even after finding out who they were playing.. shows being good isn't the end, being smart is. pool hustlers, road players, lacked the smarts. and almost all just ended up broke.
generally the so called nits, smart players that knew when to play and when to quit, maybe even after just one game made money at pool. many made lots of money and kept it.
bill stroud, bill staton , artie b, billy incardona, all became multi millionaires because of their pool winnings and on to investments
and quite a few, who few will know of that won under cover and invested money and advanced in life.
with the original post story by david and about good time charlie who played great says it all.
they made money every place until they found someone they couldn't beat and then lost it all even after finding out who they were playing.. shows being good isn't the end, being smart is. pool hustlers, road players, lacked the smarts. and almost all just ended up broke.
generally the so called nits, smart players that knew when to play and when to quit, maybe even after just one game made money at pool. many made lots of money and kept it.
bill stroud, bill staton , artie b, billy incardona, all became multi millionaires because of their pool winnings and on to investments
and quite a few, who few will know of that won under cover and invested money and advanced in life.
An old gambler said the horses were bad action but if nothing else was going on, even bad action was better than no action, money had to be in play all the time. Another gambler who had a family fortune to call on said gambling and winning was the best thing in the world. He said the second best thing was gambling and losing!
The odds of the action junkies coming out ahead long term are almost zero. Money management is a huge part of being successful wagering on pool. Nothing delighted me more than a guy stalling and working on the slow hustle. Often I played everything but the first bet on their money! Then when they came off the stall they discovered I had been on the stall too. Not much funnier than somebody giving me a hundred or two to play on in the seventies and eighties. Then they usually found they had a tiger by the tail. I could usually get them chasing their losses and life was good!
Unfortunately gambling can be a genuine addiction with the chemicals released in your body as addictive as other drugs. Not a vice of mine fortunately. With offtrack betting in my back yard I have never bet a dime there. With every cafe and truck stop, and the pool halls, having video poker machines, never stuck a coin or dollar in one. Quite simply, if I can't control the outcome I am not interested. If I can control the outcome it isn't gambling.
Hu
Phillip was a strong player in the 70's. He went to prison in California I think, When I saw him again, although he still played good, he wasn't anywhere near his top game. I think you are referring to Ralph Braswell, and yes I knew him. He had a poolroom in Beaumont called The Corner Pocket, it was a few doors down from The Boulevard, a bar that had live music sometimes and local legend Scott McGill played with his band. Also saw Carolyn Wonderland there. Anyway, Ralph loved pool, knew all the players, backed Tommy Sanders some. He also had pro players do exhibitions in his poolroom, I remember Buddy Hall, Grady Matthews, and Jersey Red were there. One big game I remember had Ralph and Larry Tillery aka Action Jackson backing Tommy Sanders against Mark Tadd in Ralph's poolroom. Tadd got the best of him, but it was hard fought. Ralph also bought a quarter horse named Johnny Vittoro who was very successful, heard he sold him for a million.
Probably not the first time I replied to that comment either
You sound so much like me 'til is scary. I bet on pool, but I never considered myself a gambler. Never visit the casino's and never buy the lottery tickets. But I do agree with Fast Eddie in The Color of Money..."Money won is twice as sweet as money earned".
Yes, that's the Ralph I'm talking about, I just had the last name wrong. What ever happened to him? He'd come to the tournaments in Lake Charles and we'd always hang out and shoot the bull. He knew all the pool players and always had interesting stories. Did he ever tell you about the eyeball spot? When Earl Strickland came to one of our tournaments, I believe he was with Ralph. Ralph knew all the players and what they were capable of. I can't remember any time that the guy he said was going to win didn't. And I always knew if he said something I could take it to the bank. Never saw him try to set anybody up or stear them wrong. In my experience he was always straight as an arrow. Most people thought he was just a backer, but he could handle himself pretty well on a pool table too. He had me laughing one time when we were in a club where a guy was talking loud about making a bet for $200 or $400 like somebody was supposed to be impressed, when Ralph and Action and a few other heavy hitters were in the room. They weren't impressed at all. We were at a tournament in Texas one time and Ralph was telling me about the Swede and how strong he was. Later on the Swede matched up with a young guy to play some $100 one pocket. Well, the Swede was about $400 up when he ran a rack from the break. Game, set, match! It's the only time I ever saw that in one pocket.
I first met Phillip in the late 70's and he was at his peak. I saw him play quite a bit. There was something unreal about the way he moved the cue ball around the table. They said if you picked a spot anywhere on the table, he would bet he could make a spot shot and stop the cue ball within five or six inches of the spot you picked. I never saw him do that, but I did see him hold the challenge table at Goofy's Game Room for a long time one night, shooting with a house stick. Last time I saw him was after he got out of jail and not too long before he died. He showed up at one of the tournaments here in Lake Charles. He tried to get me to play some. He says, "Come on, you ought to be able to beat a guy who did herion for 25 years." But I knew better. I was glad to see he still had his sense of humor though.
He has passed away.
Played a lot in Kilgore on HWY 31. A place called Danceland. Bar tables. Never made it to Longview.Well this "Old Road Story" takes place back in 1979, ....................
When I had been running around with my brother Country Calvin Harcrow,.. back when Ermand Bullard, Gary Seay,Doug Wells,Jimmy Sanders,Scotty Townsend,Hawaiian Brian,Charlie "Good Times" Owens, Steve Gumphrey, Joey Barns"the black guy from DFW",Jerald "Top Water" Jackson from Houston, Billy Weir,Johnny Frankland & Jim Murrel from Odessa,Ted Copeland,Rod Surfer,John McCarthey,Danny Jones,"Topsy" from Shreveport, Little Wayne,Randy Dorsey, Billy Newton,Gene Greathouse,Tom Green,Mike Watson,Mike Bosswell,Rick Thompson from Kansas,Earl Kellum,Walter Glass,Curtis Payne,Fat Paul,David Matlock,Mark Wilson, and numerous other backers & players ...Converged on Longview,Texas at the Motel/Bar "Talley Ho" and the pool room "The Last Stop"......
It didn't matter if it was a Tuesday/Wednesday ...3:00 in the evening or midnite you could get $5.00, $50.00 or $500.00 ACTION!, at either place.
Wherever Country Calvin went the Action was soon to follow!
I guess it was because he was 1/2 ball under a World Champion,everyone liked Calvin, crowds of people would gather to watch him play and he could stir-up action faster than anyone I ever saw, just a "Good Ole Country Boy!", he was/is.
Me,Calvin,Charlie,Scotty,Top Water, and Steve Gumphrey shared a room/appt. at the "Motel Talley Ho" for about six months , it had a Fredg., Stove, 3 beds, and TV..we took shifts sleeping so it worked out very well.
There's many stories I could tell about being in Longview at this time, but this is the one I'm going to tell........
I had been playing John McCarthey some 9-ball sets, I was getting the wild 7 and had gotten beat outta $1,400.....( Steve Gumphrey had even been in with me on some of it)..it was kinda weird cause John beats me giving the 7, Joel Barns beats John getting the 8, Jerald beats John even, and I beat Jerald even and I can give Joel the 8 and win at the time.....WEIRD!......anyways!
Well at that time when playing pool it was customary to give back the losser 10% of the loosing...so John gave me a $140.00 "Walking Stick" something you never here of now, but then it was so your opponent could "Pump Up"
"Good Time" Charlie ask me after the match with John McCarthey if I wanted to take a road trip to Dallas,Texas and I said yes .....we took off in his old Volks Wagon car, I slept all the way about 150 miles from Longview to Dallas, when we got there, we arrived at some old dinky bar outside of town about midnite, I got down with this guy immediately for $20.00 playing 9-Ball and then it went to $50.00 agame, well I soon busted him for $540.00
Charlie says lets go to New Orleans, I said OK!.....we took off ..I slept all the way to Baton Rouge, La. and woke up in the parking lot at Greenway Billiards, well Charlie got down with this guy called "Shorty" giving Shorty the 8 playing 9-ball for 50.00 agame, it then soon went to $100.00...well Charlie soon busted him for $1,800.00......Charlie sure was playing some awesome pool!
Well Charlie had a brother that lived in Houma, La (not far from New Orleans) and we crashed there for the night.
The next day/night we went to "Roaches Roman Room" in New Orleans, well I didn't play any and Charlie got up there and won about $300.00 off the locals, and the owner befriended us (some friend)(Doubled stirred us into Kim Davenport).....well we left that bar and went to a place the owner sent us, .....wasn't long and we got a phone call from the owner at Roaches Roman Room to come back to his place , said that a cowboy was there and he wanted to bet high, so we took off that way.
We got there and sure enough this guy in a cowboy hat and boots wanted to play some 9-ball race sets for $200.00.
Me and Charlie had been in halfvers all this time but it seemed kinda strange to me about this cowboy, but I went in on the bet anyway. Well the cowboy played like a monster, running out from everywhere, but Charlie at that time was playing the best pool in his life, and we was already on a roll of sort, so as it come out Charlie bested him that night out of $1,400.00
We gave the owner a $140.00 jelly roll, ( he couldn't lose he was getting a jelly roll no matter who won) so after the game we went back to Charlie's brothers house in Houma to sleep for the night.
The next day I wanted to go back to Arkansas, but for some reason Charlie wanted to go back to New Orleans and play the cowboy some more, cause he offered to play again.
Well, it was mostly Charlies dough that we had won , but I did do all the leg work with side bets and getting Charlie whatever he needed during the game, he talked me into going back to New Orleans with him, I didn't want too, but...
we got there and went to playing $500.00 a race this time, well today the cowboy had on lax pants,loose shirt and tennis shoes, more comfortable for playing, I was kinda nervous, and walked outside and saw this "Gold Cadillac" License plates from California!!!.....
"then it hit me!"...I heard one the guy's refer to this "Cowboy" as Kim...
I came in and told Charlie he was playing "Kim Davenport" from California....
hehe....I shouldn't have said that to him,Charlie fell apart after that.....needless to say we lost almost all our cash!.........and it WAS him!..shoulda went on to Arkansas....but that's pool and gambling!
Charlie and I went to Monroe,La, we spent the night at his mothers' house, Then the next morning I got into my truck which was there, and drove to Arkansas, I had $200.00 left......stopped by this bar/nighclub in Camden,Arkansas and started playing this guy 9-Ball for $20.00 and won $2,000!
All this happen in less than a week!
That's pool at it's finest!
David Harcrow
Anybody have an update on David Harcrow? Catpool9?
My state made the distinction between gambling and wagering after the judges and politicians got busted one time too many betting on golf games with each other. When it came to betting I was a one trick pony, had to involve a cue stick. I knew most of the fringe people around Baton Rouge and knew too much to play cards or craps with them. One little fat guy didn't look like much of nothing but he could knock the corners off of dice in a heartbeat just rolling them around in his hand. I had a drinking issue at the time but the fringe people learned that even using a house cue as a walking stick to help me get around the table still wasn't enough edge to beat me at pool. A friend kept a jug of 'shine behind the counter. Already drunk, a few slugs of that stuff would have me howling at the moon!
Horse racing was and is pretty big in South Louisiana. One of Tester's sons was a successful on track trainer. A side gig, if somebody was ready to bet ten thousand or more in the late seventies or early eighties, he would bring a horse down from Chicago, New York, wherever he had his string at. Of course he was training for owners and the owners never knew that their horse made a flying trip down to Louisiana and back! I knew about that deal because they wanted me to steer.
Hu
My state made the distinction between gambling and wagering after the judges and politicians got busted one time too many betting on golf games with each other. When it came to betting I was a one trick pony, had to involve a cue stick. I knew most of the fringe people around Baton Rouge and knew too much to play cards or craps with them. One little fat guy didn't look like much of nothing but he could knock the corners off of dice in a heartbeat just rolling them around in his hand. I had a drinking issue at the time but the fringe people learned that even using a house cue as a walking stick to help me get around the table still wasn't enough edge to beat me at pool. A friend kept a jug of 'shine behind the counter. Already drunk, a few slugs of that stuff would have me howling at the moon!
Horse racing was and is pretty big in South Louisiana. One of Tester's sons was a successful on track trainer. A side gig, if somebody was ready to bet ten thousand or more in the late seventies or early eighties, he would bring a horse down from Chicago, New York, wherever he had his string at. Of course he was training for owners and the owners never knew that their horse made a flying trip down to Louisiana and back! I knew about that deal because they wanted me to steer.
Hu
Sorry to hear that.