Vintage Bar Table Tutorial

[ShootingArts]

Oh my I am triggered.
Alaska and the pipeline project provided a huge opportunity for a person with on the pool table skills and oh don't forget the gold being mined up there.
I had the pleasure of aquintance with a few that had success up there. One was a Gal that could jump a full ball with her shooter using the pumpkin ball. AT 12 INCHES!

I was tempted by the pipeline but it was cold outside! I knew a handful of people who went up there. Most made some money. One man went up there for two years and didn't bring home a penny! He had a thing for the ponies and company checks in his pocket. He would start cashing company checks for five hundred or a thousand at a time thinking he would catch up on the later races. He managed to make a deal with the company to work the pipeline. The other choice was to break rock for free! Actually farming for free, Angola State Farm. Fifteen cents an hour, last I heard they had cut it to twelve cents an hour.

Hu

 

[jay helfert]

Again, such a similar history.
To avoid the wait the 9 ball ring game was the logical and profit able solution.
In the Northwest it was an honest effort with up to 5 players. Shooting from kitchen on scratch. Fouled shot generated option for next shooter. Sometimes the rotation was shuffled to make it more fair. Of course there were times I played in a 3 handed game knowing they played from the same pocket. On one such occasion the weaker player was setting up the stronger. The shooter played Almost as good as me. So at 1 and 2 the stuck 20 was approaching, I approached the shooter and said, "I can't beat both of you. How 'bout you and me for 10. I had employed a Cole Stance with Budweiser bottle in hand and quietly making the offer. The set man had rabbit ears and jumped into our conversation with , I Wanna Play TOO!
Sooo, my suck sinked and direct reply was, "you don't understand. I said I can't play both of you but will play him for 10. (As I could be better than even in 2 games). YOU! I will play for 20. Do you wanna play?"
He sat down.

Almost all my bar pool was heads up Eight Ball. Ring 9-Ball was on 9' tables. I did play some bar table doubles a few times when asked.

I actually loved it when two guys tried to put me in the middle. I was getting 2-1 on the money!

 

[ShootingArts]

Almost all my bar pool was heads up Eight Ball. Ring 9-Ball was on 9' tables. I did play some bar table doubles a few times when asked.

I actually loved it when two guys tried to put me in the middle. I was getting 2-1 on the money!

Yeah, I always knew I would get ganged up on. Didn't matter. Like you say, more money so the more the merrier. I thought it was funny.

You may remember this, new to some others I am sure. I had destroyed my left shoulder. Took a major rebuild and the doctor told me strictly in a sling for seven weeks. Wasn't but a night or two later I stopped in a strange place and found a five dollar ring game.

Seven weeks and one night past surgery and I busted that ring game all to hell! I had played a little one handed but I had too big an itch to stall a little and milk the game for weeks or months.

Hu

 

[jay helfert]

Yeah, I always knew I would get ganged up on. Didn't matter. Like you say, more money so the more the merrier. I thought it was funny.

You may remember this, new to some others I am sure. I had destroyed my left shoulder. Took a major rebuild and the doctor told me strictly in a sling for seven weeks. Wasn't but a night or two later I stopped in a strange place and found a five dollar ring game.

Seven weeks and one night past surgery and I busted that ring game all to hell! I had played a little one handed but I had too big an itch to stall a little and milk the game for weeks or months.

Hu

You're luckier than me. Seems like if I beat a ring game a couple of times I got barred from the game.

 

[ShootingArts]

You're luckier than me. Seems like if I beat a ring game a couple of times I got barred from the game.

I was one and done with that one. As soon as I came through the door it broke up! That was a very rough joint on Airline Hwy. Same place my friends got in a brawl them against the rest of the bar. Two smallish guys and Louis. Louis was about six and a half feet tall and his arms looked fairly smooth. That was a trick, he could pick up the back of a car!

Three against twenty or thirty was fairly even until somebody threw a chair at Louis. Louis started throwing chairs, forty or fifty feet if they didn't connect solidly on the way to the far wall.

When Louis ran out of chairs he started throwing the tables with the heavy pedestal bases. Humming them one handed side arm, still bouncing them off the wall forty or fifty feet away. Everybody hit the doors including the employees and owner!

I knew about three guys Louis's size and when I went to a strange race track I would be sure I loaded up one or two of them. The dirt tracks especially could get interesting. One north of New Orleans just ran the races as intermissions between the fights!

Hu

 

[Cornerman]

Let's hear from some of the old bar box bangers from back then. Did you ever play with a mud ball or one of those big ol valley balls that subbed on weds night's bowling league??

I became an APA 7 in 8-ball with both of those balls in the early 90’s. My local bar still uses the mud ball. On free pool Tuesdays, I’ll bring out the Meucci to the bar and wow the regulars. And recently I was at a bar that had the oversized ball. I still have one somewhere in my collection.

 

[jay helfert]

I was one and done with that one. As soon as I came through the door it broke up! That was a very rough joint on Airline Hwy. Same place my friends got in a brawl them against the rest of the bar. Two smallish guys and Louis. Louis was about six and a half feet tall and his arms looked fairly smooth. That was a trick, he could pick up the back of a car!

Three against twenty or thirty was fairly even until somebody threw a chair at Louis. Louis started throwing chairs, forty or fifty feet if they didn't connect solidly on the way to the far wall.

When Louis ran out of chairs he started throwing the tables with the heavy pedestal bases. Humming them one handed side arm, still bouncing them off the wall forty or fifty feet away. Everybody hit the doors including the employees and owner!

I knew about three guys Louis's size and when I went to a strange race track I would be sure I loaded up one or two of them. The dirt tracks especially could get interesting. One north of New Orleans just ran the races as intermissions between the fights!

Hu

Nobody wins in a real fight. Plus it could be dangerous afterward with someone seeking revenge. I saw the aftermath of some vicious battles and I knew I wanted no part of that. I got my ass handed to me a couple of times. That was enough. When fists started flying I looked for the exit.

In my own poolrooms I often had to keep the peace. The best time to stop a fight is before it starts. I used to get between the two guys arguing and calm them down best I could. Most of the time they respected me as the owner. But I also got cold cocked a couple of times. Lights out!

Like you I liked having protection with me in sketchy places. Either a big tush hog or a small pistola. The best defense is having the right words for the situation. That comes with experience.

The absolute toughest guys I ever knew were not nessarily the biggest. Danny D. was by far the toughest pool player and he weighed about 160 dripping wet. My buddy Don Jeffries got roughed up outside a club and he whacked the bully right on the nose. Killed him with one punch! Several witnesses said he was only defending himself. Donnie wasn't much bigger then me

Bakersfield Bobby was strong as an ox and i watched him pick up a 200 pounder and throw him about 10 feet. Bobby was maybe 5'8 and 170. Watch out for us little guys.

 

[Mensabum]

I became an APA 7 in 8-ball with both of those balls in the early 90’s. My local bar still uses the mud ball. On free pool Tuesdays, I’ll bring out the Meucci to the bar and wow the regulars. And recently I was at a bar that had the oversized ball. I still have one somewhere in my collection.

Nice to know there's still a few places around that still have them!!
Meucci and mud balls. Wow!!!

 

[Mensabum]

I hated the tables where they could bet a drink or $1. If you lost you might as well go home. But sometimes i might win 15 or 20 games in a row. I was playing for free and would walk out with pockets stuffed with ones.

My rent was 25 a week so you figure it out. It was a living and I didn't need a real job. I could sleep till noon and get up and go have my .99 cent breakfast. I was basically a poolroom bum and I was happy!

Clueless in those days, I started pretty young.
Felt like I could rule the world!!
Little king turd on crap mountain.

 

[Mensabum]

Fortunately I only encountered that a couple of places. Small taverns with only one table were as Forest Gump would say, "like a box of chocolates". The chalk board adjacent the table with 8 names up made it critical to hold the table for the one dollar games. That was the late 70s and Straight 8 was the game. Straight 8 no bullshit would be the clarification if I asked what their version of Straight 8 was.

I'd run across places where the clientele wanted to make those quarters go as far as possible and 'last pocket' or 'bank 8' was favored fare.
I wouldn't lose a minute of sleep if I never had to play last pocket again.

 

[Mensabum]

I was tempted by the pipeline but it was cold outside! I knew a handful of people who went up there. Most made some money. One man went up there for two years and didn't bring home a penny! He had a thing for the ponies and company checks in his pocket. He would start cashing company checks for five hundred or a thousand at a time thinking he would catch up on the later races. He managed to make a deal with the company to work the pipeline. The other choice was to break rock for free! Actually farming for free, Angola State Farm. Fifteen cents an hour, last I heard they had cut it to twelve cents an hour.

Hu

 

[Mensabum]

I

Sometimes after the bars closed at 2AM I would go to an all night poolroom. I might end up driving home at 6 or 7 AM. I was driving the opposite way as the heavy traffic of people heading for work, so very little traffic for me. Clear sailing on my side of the freeway.

I remember thinking what suckers they are. I could sleep all day while they were working at some boring job. I had no alarm clock and got up whenever I wanted. I liked my life! As long as I had a few hundred in my bankroll I was fine. Just get up and hit the poolrooms in the day time and the bars at night. Grind out 25, 30 or 40 bucks and have a late night snack on the way home. I preferred the giant turkey leg fresh at the Hollywood Ranch Market, which was open 24 hours.

No ambition, not a care in the world. Living the lazy man's life in my 20's. All thnx to pool!

I could eat good for $5 a day. .99 cent breakfast, $1.75 lunch of a burger and fries and a $1.50 turkey leg for dinner. So if I made 20 bucks that day I was doing fine. I kept bologna and bread in my fridge and some soft drinks. I had all I wanted.

it was a good time to be alive and able to live how we did. Basically not a care in the world. Most men dream of shit like that but will never experience it. We overdosed on it!!
I think that's what's wrong w me today.

 

[Mensabum]

I was tempted by the pipeline but it was cold outside! I knew a handful of people who went up there. Most made some money. One man went up there for two years and didn't bring home a penny! He had a thing for the ponies and company checks in his pocket. He would start cashing company checks for five hundred or a thousand at a time thinking he would catch up on the later races. He managed to make a deal with the company to work the pipeline. The other choice was to break rock for free! Actually farming for free, Angola State Farm. Fifteen cents an hour, last I heard they had cut it to twelve cents an hour.

Hu

Funny you mention Alaska. PM time!!

 

[gregcantrall]

When things were getting tense I would attempt to de escalate by saying, "The last fight I was in I won by 10 yards."
The H bar B in Oakdale CA which was the cowboy capital of the world provided the sport of going out back. The first one to hit the ground buys the beer. Only once was I given the offer. My poker faced bluffing was, "how hard do you want me to hit him?" Followed by " Well for a beer I will." The fight promoter took the offer to the proposed opponent and returned with a beer and just said, "he doesn't want to do it." Whew, my bluffing went uncalled, (wipe brow).

 

[ShootingArts]

When things were getting tense I would attempt to de escalate by saying, "The last fight I was in I won by 10 yards."
The H bar B in Oakdale CA which was the cowboy capital of the world provided the sport of going out back. The first one to hit the ground buys the beer. Only once was I given the offer. My poker faced bluffing was, "how hard do you want me to hit him?" Followed by " Well for a beer I will." The fight promoter took the offer to the proposed opponent and returned with a beer and just said, "he doesn't want to do it." Whew, my bluffing went uncalled, (wipe brow).

I met an old man when I was a young one. He was bigger than jockey sized but could certainly ride exercise without the beer gut. I was warned not to get in a fight with this man not much over half my size and obviously a hardcore alcoholic.

The man had figured out a simple technique. He would go to ground with somebody and bite their ear off! Not a little bit like Tyson, he would get the whole ear in his mouth then he said it was just a little skin holding it on, it would pop right off! The other person would freak and it was easy to kick their ass then. If it was still rough going, well most men still had another ear.

Picture trying to fight while protecting an ear or two. I never was anything but polite to the old man!

Hu

 

[gregcantrall]

and bite their ear

I did on one occasion go hands on. Well the guy raised his hand to my wife when arguing. I immediately put him in a loose rear naked. Just controlling and not trying to choke him out. He then tried to thumb my eye. So I put a bite on the thumb and speaking around the thumb told him to knock it off or loose the thumb at the knuckle.

 

[gregcantrall]

man had figured out a simple technique. He would go to ground with somebody and bite their ear

Well it took a while to jangle my deepest memories. This one is on such a parallel track I shall tell it again.
My earliest years were spent living Ina in a 5 house sawmill site resident adjacent the mill pond. Our next door neighbor was the family of my Dad's boss. My Dad was sawyer. That and saw filer were most critical jobs. Saw filer family lived in uphill house.
So two sons from the uphill and the bosses son with one more on the end provided our gang. Just like the little rascals TV
Well I was 2 years younger than the rest. So the son of A boss ( does rhym). Was 2 years older and a head taller. He was A Bully. I only had to employ my technique once.
Well the origin started at 5 OR 6 for me. He was drawn back to hit my little sister. I stepped in and said, "You Can't Hiii...." and caught his fist with my mouth. Ouch. So after work my father said, "son, You need to learn to fight." "First, DON'T LEAD WITH YOUR MOUTH."
MY SELF DEFENSE technique was when he drew back to strike, I moved into a hug like position with each hand grabbing an ear. With my face (his target) tucked tightly to his chest. I then lifted my feet from the floor with my full 40 lbs Hangin from his ears. They did bleed. He quickly lost desire to strike me. He didn't scream quite as loud as when I shot him with my 1 day old bb gun. Lost that suckered for a solid year. The older boys didn't agree with the sentence so the jury of my peers saw to it that I carried a gun on the Frog shooting tours around the 2 holding ponds that supplied water to the mill pond.
He had tried to disarm me with intentions of throwing it in the pond. When he gave up and ran.... He told me his intentions while I was pinned to the ground. I told him mine and he didn't get off of me in time. Got him on the 3rd shot. He was 2 steps from Home Free.

 

[ShootingArts]

I did on one occasion go hands on. Well the guy raised his hand to my wife when arguing. I immediately put him in a loose rear naked. Just controlling and not trying to choke him out. He then tried to thumb my eye. So I put a bite on the thumb and speaking around the thumb told him to knock it off or loose the thumb at the knuckle.

We moved to Baton Rouge two weeks after school started when I was in the third grade. Put a bullseye on me and I started getting in fights, backing down never crossed my mind. When we were playing the concrete steps we played king of the hill on were seven steps and a landing. This year kinda set the pace and I fought most of the way through school. Didn't seem like a big deal to fight in bars.

I had one particular running buddy, 6'-5" oilfield roughneck. Took him with me to a place in the piney woods near Port Vincent LA. Cajun French was the first language, English the second language. I had been waiting to not be alone and I ran over the locals on the bar table, playing for five a game.

Not too uncommon, we led a parade of about a dozen locals when we left. They were hanging back about twenty feet, Mike was B-I-G ! Got in my truck and chilled. 454 under the hood and the 7/8 ton truck handled well on the river road that was more tight turns than straight road. Nobody was getting alongside to stop my truck. A few cars thought about it but I was a dirt track demon and nobody was passing me on the asphalt.

Mike was freaked by a situation I viewed as pretty normal. I knew Mike wasn't above a little knuckle and skull in the normal way of things so him being rattled by the situation made me think about it. That was when I decided it was time to change my behavior and try to leave people at least not angry with me although I never came close to Scotty Townsend. He could empty a place out and have them begging him to come back soon!

I was breaking over a dozen house cues a year just to get to the door. I would put a twenty in my shirt pocket and throw it on the bar on the way out. I usually came back in a few weeks or months and was welcome. New house cues were only $12 so twenty for an old cue made them happy!

I don't think I got in a half-dozen fights that were pool table related after that. I hadn't started fights before but I was willing to meet people halfway as long as weapons weren't involved. First time I broke a cue somebody was trying to strongarm rob me at a pool table and I jabbed it in his face. Opened him up from the corner of his mouth almost to his ear. Only time I ever used a broken cue for anything but shock value. Snapping a cue was an attention getter!

Hu