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In 1969 when I was 19 I started to go to the Billiard Palace on the second floor in a building on Bellflower Boulevard every chance I could. At the time it had to be the best place for pool action in Southern California. The room was owned by Butch and his father, I do not think I ever heard...

I saw Nick Varner at DWF airport while changing planes for the last leg to Baton Rouge. Nick is easy to recognize and when I walked over to say hello I am sure Nick knew I played pool because I was carrying a Whitten cue case. I could see right away that Nick is a nice guy and before I left to...

I should have said, Lambert's RBD. The R stood for restaurant, the B stool for Billiards and the D was for Daiquiris. It is still called Lambert's RBD but Lambert, one of the nicest guys in the pool room passed away in the late 1990's. It is still located on 2323 N Flannery Road. I was there...

This is the Eddie Taylor story I heard at Lambert’s in Baton Rouge. At the pool room that Eddie liked to go to, one of the things the houseman did when he was getting the room ready to open was to set up the cross side bank shot that at the time only Eddie could make and leave a house cue on...

John Henderson was probably the nicest guy ever to go into a pool room. One of John's great lines was he would play anyone that could show him a pay check.

The Billiard Palace in Bellflower in the late 1960's was the best place to play pool in the country. The game that was almost always going was a ring 6-Ball game called "Payball" being played on a very tight pocketed 5 by 10 foot Snooker table. If the game was being played for $5 - $10, it...

Keith had the best backer ever named Charlie the Ape. Charlie was a decent player and recognized that Keith was good enough to out run the nuts when he was taking the worst of the game. I didn't see it but Keith gave Little Al the seven and beat him, then gave Al the six and beat him and while...

I saw Keith when he was playing his best at the original Hard Times in Costa Mesa. I saw Keith give Fat Tommy the five and the break on a 7 foot Valley bar table for $500. Let me put this into perspective, I would play anyone with the five and the break and Fat Tommy was a much better player...

I met Old Nat Cuspert in Los Angeles in the late 1970s when he was still one of the best One Pocket players in Los Angeles. Nat said Minnesota Fats was a good hustler and played great for the cash. One of the things Fats use to do when he was losing a One Pocket game was to ask if anyone wanted...